Chiang Mai Price Comparison

[BritManToo]

Because the total cost of bread is only the cost of the flour in it..

Bread is essentially flour and water.

Personally, I can't see much more to the cost than the flour.

[TheSiemReaper]

Yeah, anybody who buys their food at Makro isn't going to convince me of anything regarding how much a breakfast costs. Nasty imported cheap Chinese junk does not a decent meal make.

Because the total cost of bread is only the cost of the flour in it..

If you keep chickens eggs are free.. If you have some pigs the sausage and bacon is cheap..

Some people really do seem to lose the budget plot here.. That 10b really becomes important in their lives.

As evidenced by the reuse of teabags to try and get a second mug (not cup, mug) out of them...

[TheSiemReaper]

Because the total cost of bread is only the cost of the flour in it..

Bread is essentially flour and water.

Personally, I can't see much more to the cost than the flour.

Does it cook itself while laying on the side of the kitchen? Last time I checked labor, electricity (or gas), oven, utensils, etc. all cost money. But maybe not. Maybe they're free here in the Land of Smiles and I've been cheated by all the shops and the electricity board?

[BritManToo]

As evidenced by the reuse of teabags to try and get a second mug (not cup, mug) out of them...

Some of us don't like waste.

As a retired person, I have plenty of time, and like to eat a better quality of food.

When I say better quality, I mean less additives and preservatives.

Something hard to avoid with fast food in Thailand.

For me today,

Breakfast, bacon and pineapple pizza, lunch roast chicken in bread rolls, dinner (nearly ready) roast chicken, roast potatoes and gravy.

How were your meals?

Edited April 14, 2016 by BritManToo

[TheSiemReaper]

As evidenced by the reuse of teabags to try and get a second mug (not cup, mug) out of them...

Some of us don't like waste.

As a retired person, I have plenty of time, and like to eat a better quality of food.

When I say better quality, I mean less additives and preservatives.

Something hard to avoid with fast food in Thailand.

It would be pretty hard to define a second mug of tea forced from a tea bag designed to produce a single cup as "better quality of food". Retired or not.

[LivinLOS]

Because the total cost of bread is only the cost of the flour in it..

Bread is essentially flour and water.

Personally, I can't see much more to the cost than the flour.

It bakes itself in the sun does it ??

[elgordo38]

Please don't get me wrong, I can imagine CM is a wonderful place to live with a buzzing nightlife, markets etc and with the airport links well easy to get anywhere. Motorbike 1,500...that is cheap, I have my own but yes Ao Nang will be double that. CM was on my list but one thing that put me off was the immigration stories I read about, also I do like the sea. I believe Krabi flys to CM so an odd weekend wll be on the books anyway

Immigration is a one day ordeal in the trenches for sure unless you hire an agent. Do your 90 days through the post. You might even be one of the lucky few that can do it online.

[TheSiemReaper]

As evidenced by the reuse of teabags to try and get a second mug (not cup, mug) out of them...

Some of us don't like waste.

As a retired person, I have plenty of time, and like to eat a better quality of food.

When I say better quality, I mean less additives and preservatives.

Something hard to avoid with fast food in Thailand.

For me today,

Breakfast, bacon and pineapple pizza, lunch roast chicken in bread rolls, dinner (nearly ready) roast chicken, roast potatoes and gravy.

How were your meals?

Pizza for breakfast? Yuck.

My meals have been excellent. I had coffee (espresso to be precise) and grapefruit juice for breakfast, pork jiaoze for lunch and have yet to embark on dinner but suspect that it won't involve roast potatoes and gravy because... it's 41 degrees in the shade at the moment.

[BritManToo]

have yet to embark on dinner but suspect that it won't involve roast potatoes and gravy because... it's 41 degrees in the shade at the moment.

You were right about that, 41c + hot roast dinner + hot mug of tea = profuse sweating.

[baansgr]

Thanks for all the input guys. So even cooking at home it could still be cheaper in CM due to the vast amount of places offering various foods at good prices. Lets see how Krabi goes. I now understand why people were saying it was cheaper in CM. As said and these points have been mentioned, immigration and no beach plus the haze were a few factors that dissuaded me but of course they are not major issues when you weigh up the numerous benefits CM has to offer Expats

[Blue Muton]

Where do you do your shopping ??

Makro and Tesco usually,

JPM Quality sausages from Makro 750gm (10) for 109bht (as recommended by meatboy)

BMP Bacon from Tesco, 20 rashers for 165bht (but BOGOF at least 2x a month)

eggs 3bht each from local shops

Bread around 30bht for 5 loaves (bread flour is cheap)

Tea from Makro Aro Breakfast 125bht for 100 bags (each bag makes 2 mugs)

So lets price a 'big boy', 2 large sausages 20bht, 4 bacon 6bht, 2 eggs 6bht, tea 1bht, as much bread as I can eat 2bht.

Total 35bht!

Did I miss anything out?

Bread flour is about 30 Baht a kilo. A large loaf is about 600g, plus yeast, butter, salt. I'm with you on the cooking it yourself thing but you're cooking the books too if you think you can bake five loaves for 30 Baht. Five rolls, certainly.

[eng911]

I don't know how accurate it will be comparing two cities within Thailand but Numbeo is a great site for comparing cities around the world.

Here's Pattaya vs Chiang Mai

Just close the popup box saying you have to sign in .... you don't.

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=Thailand&country2=Thailand&city1=Pattaya&city2=Chiang+Mai

Edited April 14, 2016 by eng911

[1FinickyOne]

Hi Baan - I did not read all the posts... I live in N/central Thailand, so, not quite in CM - I had a friend living in Phuket and we used to talk often. He just seemed to spend more money than I did, more often. But it was not just spending habits. Where the totals really ran up were in the extra necessities. It always seemed to cost him much more for things like car repairs and having work done around the house.

CM is more of a city where Phuket was a tourist area and everything seemed more expensive - my 20 baht noodle soup in the village was 40 baht for him... CM will likely be 35 or so now.

But buying things like "clean fill" for a project at home, he was paying at least 2x what it cost me...

there is a different culture in CM than Krabi - I like the CM/northern/Lanna people and culture better than the pure touristy Krabi but would love the ocean too... wait for bargain fares and take vacations in Krabi... maybe I will go back there end of the month...

good luck

[Khunangkaro]

Because the total cost of bread is only the cost of the flour in it..

Bread is essentially flour and water.

Personally, I can't see much more to the cost than the flour.

.

Yes, if you bake it in the sun on the bonnet of your truck.

.

[Robm579]

I live in Chaing mai... And I have lived in Krabi too...

Pretty much cost wise exactly the same... You soon learn to shop around... (3 tomatoes from Rimping 30b... Bag of 10 at local market 29b.. Both bought on the same day and both other me quality... My wife "chided" me!...)

However a visit to the beach I have found to be much more.... Expensive and time consuming...

And ... At night I still want the aircon on...so what's the difference... Hot is hot...38 or 40 what's the difference to. Me?

Betty swallocks either way!

[Paul944]

What a strange approach to decide where live. The cost difference between Krabi and Chiang Mai is so minimal that if you have to think about it, it means in reality you can only affort a 20 square meter condo in Pattaya or a shed in Isan.

If you like the sea and sea food, you go to Krabi and not 2000 km north to Chiang Mai so you may pay 5000 baht less rent a month.

[baansgr]

What a strange approach to decide where live. The cost difference between Krabi and Chiang Mai is so minimal that if you have to think about it, it means in reality you can only affort a 20 square meter condo in Pattaya or a shed in Isan.

If you like the sea and sea food, you go to Krabi and not 2000 km north to Chiang Mai so you may pay 5000 baht less rent a month.

Im not exactly flush but neither skint and choosing a new location cost didn't really factor into it. It was simply so many people I know kept saying how cheap CM is and I posted as I didn't know why. Thanks to replies I now have a better understanding

[anto]

If possible i would do a half year in each .(probably not Krabi though as i prefer the rather quiet island of Ko Chang in Trat .)

[Konini]

We are very lucky here in CM to have so many niche bakeries, sausages of all nationalities both breakfast bangers and salami and the like.

I cook every day, I enjoy it, it's my hobby. I don't eat Thai food, but I don't have sausage and mash every day. One day Indian, one day Turkish, one day Italian. Just like I used to back home. I haven't found any bread that I like, although there are so many that people rave about so I make my own and I find the 10 minutes of kneading therapeutic. Or If I'm feeling lazy, mix it up just before I go to bed, leave it on the benchtop and you've got no knead bread ready to be cooked at any time the next day.

I buy 5 kilo bags of tomatoes to make 'sun' dried tomatoes (dehydrator dried really), a lot of work but totally worth it when you put those some semi dried little babies in good quality Spanish ;olive oil with some fresh basil and oregano. Also good to chop up and put into just about anything you're making, even salads. or on top of hommus. Last week I paid 40 baht for 5 kg bag of very good tomatoes; there were less ripe ones for 30 baht and very average looking ones for 20 baht. For 5 kilo's. I find the tomatoes not quite as tasty as I like so I buy catering size tins of imported Italian tomatoes when I'm making a batch of bolognese or chilli or many other things for the freezer, any I don't use just gets bagged and put in the freezer. Much cheaper than buying quality canned tomatoes from the supermarkets, but you have to have a big freezer. Buying veggies from the markets (and giving them a good wash) is very cheap but I buy imported apples (try Jazz from NZ, they are amazing), kiwi fruit and peaches at the supermarkets. Expensive compared to markets but much better and you know that the imported ones haven't been fertilized with DDT. To be honest, cooking at home is no cheaper than eating out at the lower cost 100-150 baht a meal places if you buy quality ingredients. But you know what's gone into it and what hasn't and what kind of fat it was cooked in. By coincidence, I also made fudge last week - but if you're baking cakes, cheesecakes or biscuits it's many times cheaper. Same for most deserts.

The price of breakfast at Sausage King or any other place for that matter reflects the quality of the ingredients. Big difference between Heinz beans and what you get in the supermarkets. Well cured back bacon is expensive but worth it, sausages are a matter of personal taste and there is a big range of prices for them - I have no connection but highly recommend the pork and leek ones from SK. Perfect in toad in the hole. But for a lot of the year it's salads because it's so hot. The salad itself costs pennies from the markets, you decide if you're going to have a tin of tuna with it or an imported eye fillet or piece of cod - Big C Extra has some lovely big cod steaks, often marked down to half price but even then 150 baht each.

Pauper or king. Up to you as they say in Thailand.

[KhonKaenKowboy]

If you want to eat out cheaply try the the food courts in Topps supermarkets. [ A meal for as little as 40 Baht ].

But, if you can afford the "enduro" tires on your wheelchair; you can visit the 9000 food-stalls in the Province, that they poorly imitate.

[LivinLOS]

Where I find CNX has big savings, is in the kind of unexpected or unusual services.. Or the amount of choice in the marketplace.

My espresso machine broke.. Fixing that on Phuket would have cost a fortune, in Krabi maybe not possible.. Here I had a choice of multiple skilled repair places.

I sometimes am building / making things.. Theres superb engineering or bike services, who can handle my weak Thai, yet charge me like a rural cost service, and can still supply real stainless or weld aluminum..

You want a mountain bike part.. Choose from 10 or more shops, with skilled bike technician, who cater mostly to Thai market and price accordingly..

Its the spread and depth of services.. I can go to rimping and buy really high quality olives, at a price, or go to Makro and buy crespo cheapies, at a different price. Really the only places with the same 'depth' to the market are Bangkok, Patts, and Phuket. With the latter being FAR more expensive (and far less friendly) in 90% of dealings... Living in bangkok or Patts not an option for me..

Edited April 16, 2016 by LivinLOS

[kaptainrob]

400 baht for 3 man x 90 minute aircon service ... 200 baht for 5kgs of super fresh greens, tomatoes and fruit from Royal Project ... Makro up to 25% cheaper than BigC/Tesco and Rimping beat all on certain items.

[Diplomatico]

As many previous posters have noted, where you will find the savings in CM is in rent and services. Larger condos/houses are less expensive than the beach areas and the services bit is (and this is admittedly a personal estimate with no data to support it other than my own experience) about 33-50% less expensive. YMMV, of course.

[MadMac]

Rip offs are significantly lower than in alien populated beach locations. But that's a question of taste