How much is a big bag of rice?

[cheapskatesam]

I'm about to attempt to live in Thailand for a few months to see how i get on.. i only have a few hundred quid a month as an income so i'll be cheap skating it.

I have figured the cheapest way for me to eat will be cooking rice myself in a rice cooker in whatever apartment room i rent.. and supplement it with some meat or a tin of tuna.

 

How much is a large sack of rice in Thailand these days?

[SgtRock]

11 minutes ago, cheapskatesam said:

I'm about to attempt to live in Thailand for a few months to see how i get on.. i only have a few hundred quid a month as an income so i'll be cheap skating it.

I have figured the cheapest way for me to eat will be cooking rice myself in a rice cooker in whatever apartment room i rent.. and supplement it with some meat or a tin of tuna.

 

How much is a large sack of rice in Thailand these days?

 

It would depend on what type and what quality of rice you intend buying.

 

If you are worried about the price of rice in Thailand, I respectfully suggest that you rethink your plans.

[Peterw42]

You will ultimately pay more for a room with cooking and washup facilities. Probably offseting any savings cooking yourself. You can buy cheap thai street food for around what it would cost you to make it.

 

A big sack of rice, the size of a pillow, 300-500 baht

[KhunBENQ]

Troll?

[cheapskatesam]

58 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

You will ultimately pay more for a room with cooking and washup facilities. Probably offseting any savings cooking yourself. You can buy cheap thai street food for around what it would cost you to make it.

 

A big sack of rice, the size of a pillow, 300-500 baht

i have my own little rice cooker already ill just take that with me..

[lopburi3]

Current price 10kg bag is 184 baht from Tesco

[55Jay]

Curious.  What prompted you to want to come here and live on the cheap?  Adventure?  A personal test to see if you can? 

[lopburi3]

I suspect the prospect of another UK winter might be an incentive.  

 

But if it was honey, and he has no money, it may not be all that long a stay.

[rijb]

Bringing a rice cooker to Thailand is like bringing a coffee pot to a coffee shop.

[Peterw42]

Seriously, you will be hard pressed to make food cheaper than you can buy it. And the street food will probably be better, meat vegetables rice. Cooking food cheaper than you can buy it would involve transport, buy rice at a rice shop, vegetables at the market etc. 

[lopburi3]

Actually vegetables and meat/fish is available from trucks on just about any residential street every day of the week within a few meters.  Although cooked food is often inexpensive cooking yourself will be less - most Thai can not afford to pay for all there meals.

[cheapskatesam]

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm doing this for a few months just as a bit of life experience adventure.. im not completely broke and i will have emergency budget to fly home if i need to.. ill also have health insurance. 

 

What is the best way to buy beer cheaply? I know 7/11 is pretty good but are there further savings to be had buying from places like makro or big c?

 

I've been to Thailand many times but on a 2 week millionaire spending spree so i've never bothered looking 

[naboo]

Cheapest way to drink beer is to buy a case of Cheers, about 500B for a case of 12x640ml bottles.

 

20kg sack of rice will cost you about 400B. Supplement with bags of cooked food from the market, 15-20B. Breakfast of Bplaa Dtu or omlette (eggs average 3.5B each). You can eat on 100B a day easy, cooking your own rice is a saver as the markets charge 5B for a small portion.

 

Living on 250B a day, including a couple of Cheers beers, is easy, plus rent and bills makes a monthly cost of 10,000B. If I was looking to live a really simple life, I'd herad out to the villages and maybe knock 1500B off that thanks to lower rents.

 

Note. I've managed to live on under 20,000B a month, once. It was really boring.

[cheapskatesam]

40 minutes ago, naboo said:

Cheapest way to drink beer is to buy a case of Cheers, about 500B for a case of 12x640ml bottles.

 

20kg sack of rice will cost you about 400B. Supplement with bags of cooked food from the market, 15-20B. Breakfast of Bplaa Dtu or omlette (eggs average 3.5B each). You can eat on 100B a day easy, cooking your own rice is a saver as the markets charge 5B for a small portion.

 

Living on 250B a day, including a couple of Cheers beers, is easy, plus rent and bills makes a monthly cost of 10,000B. If I was looking to live a really simple life, I'd herad out to the villages and maybe knock 1500B off that thanks to lower rents.

 

Note. I've managed to live on under 20,000B a month, once. It was really boring.

 

Where is the cheapest town/small city for renting apartment rooms? khon kaen maybe?

 

 

 

[naboo]

I know of a room 10km south of Chiang Mai for 900B/month. I'm guessing the same can be had in most places.

 

Do you like mosquitos?

[cheapskatesam]

22 minutes ago, naboo said:

I know of a room 10km south of Chiang Mai for 900B/month. I'm guessing the same can be had in most places.

 

Do you like mosquitos?

 

I'm not that much of a cheap skate.. I'd like to pay 5000baht a month 

[naboo]

Will get you an air con room in any city in the country.

[cheapskatesam]

7 minutes ago, naboo said:

Will get you an air con room in any city in the country.

 

I need to keep my tummy filled with rice and beer and i'll be a very happy man 

[silverado]

1 big sack (enough for 2 adults and 2 children for 1 month) : third quality 500 baths , first quality 1.000 baths.

1 big bottle of beer will always cost 55 minimum...  Leo is the cheapest 

for a nice studio (bedroom , small living room and kitchen ) near hospital, market, and shops,  province Surin : 2.800 baths/month .

in the same region , a small house with garden around in the village 2.500 b.

[cheapskatesam]

I made a simple spreadsheet to try and predict my costs

 

[naboo]

Take 3000B off that by switching from beer to Siam Sato. My hint, add a dash of lemonade to take away the fumes.

 

Slightly worried though. Sleeping 10hrs, drinking 3hrs, eating and food hunting 2hrs, how are you going to fill the other 9hrs each day?

 

I suggest English teaching.

[chiang mai]

Looks like TAT's drive to identify more quality tourists is paying dividends.

[Don Mega]

6 hours ago, cheapskatesam said:

I made a simple spreadsheet to try and predict my costs

 

 

so no internet, no transport, no clothes washing ?

[cheapskatesam]

 

 

 

How does this look? i've guessed for a few things.. i've never had to pay for internet fees in Thailand before.. i reduced the beer amount because i will have some days off from the beer 

[Don Mega]

so only 2 beers per day, why bother ?

 

And how do I get free internet ?

[Deepinthailand]

Why eat rice you can live of Cockroaches from the room you rent on your meger budget.  You could always if in Pattaya go down beach road sea side and eat a few rats to supplement your diet. Is this forum being taken over by aliens (pun intended) or are all these new bizarre threads the work of one person with multiple accounts and user names. 

[Craig krup]

20 hours ago, naboo said:

20kg sack of rice will cost you about 400B. Supplement with bags of cooked food from the market, 15-20B.

 

 

A market where Thai housewives shop - rather than young folk promenading - is the way forward. In Udon if you stretch to 30 baht you get way more than that 20 baht price point. That plus 250g of rice, cooked, and five baht's worth of steamed supplemental greens from the steam function at the top of the cooker is an awful lot of food for 40 baht. 

 

Buy the basic green bag soap powder for (IIRC) 25 baht from Tesco - over twice that in 7-11 - and use the 20 baht washing machine in the street. Bring so many skiddies and shorts that you're actually doing the full 10kg at a time. Save a fortune. 

[cheapskatesam]

3 hours ago, Craig krup said:

 

 

A market where Thai housewives shop - rather than young folk promenading - is the way forward. In Udon if you stretch to 30 baht you get way more than that 20 baht price point. That plus 250g of rice, cooked, and five baht's worth of steamed supplemental greens from the steam function at the top of the cooker is an awful lot of food for 40 baht. 

 

Buy the basic green bag soap powder for (IIRC) 25 baht from Tesco - over twice that in 7-11 - and use the 20 baht washing machine in the street. Bring so many skiddies and shorts that you're actually doing the full 10kg at a time. Save a fortune. 

 

Thanks.. invaluable advice that is worthy of my notebook. Quite a contrast to the freak who posted before you

[Craig krup]

When you think you've found something cheap it's important to give yourself ten seconds to think it through. I was getting hacked off at not being able to get reliable 20-25 bunches of bananas - two rows. So when I was in the market and I saw the wholesaler I though, "I'll buy the whole bit of the tree and I'm sorted for the next three weeks". She said, 325 baht and I went "Yes!" I then had to carry the b******d home. There is no comfortable hand-hold when you've got the whole thing. You're holding 10kg on a vertical sweat-covered wooden pole, and you have to hold it away from your body to avoid bashing the fruit. 

 

It was an okay deal - barely cheaper than buying them a bunch at a time - and my hand was like a claw by the time I got them back. It seemed that every single tuk tuk driver in Udon pished himself laughing as I lurched along, determined not to pay the 50 baht that would have ended the pain. 

[cheapskatesam]

1 hour ago, Craig krup said:

When you think you've found something cheap it's important to give yourself ten seconds to think it through. I was getting hacked off at not being able to get reliable 20-25 bunches of bananas - two rows. So when I was in the market and I saw the wholesaler I though, "I'll buy the whole bit of the tree and I'm sorted for the next three weeks". She said, 325 baht and I went "Yes!" I then had to carry the b******d home. There is no comfortable hand-hold when you've got the whole thing. You're holding 10kg on a vertical sweat-covered wooden pole, and you have to hold it away from your body to avoid bashing the fruit. 

 

It was an okay deal - barely cheaper than buying them a bunch at a time - and my hand was like a claw by the time I got them back. It seemed that every single tuk tuk driver in Udon pished himself laughing as I lurched along, determined not to pay the 50 baht that would have ended the pain. 

 

Any more thifty tips for a cheapskate farang such as myself? I'm 70% sure i'll be going to khon kaen.. is there anywhere cheaper than there that might sway my mind?

Whats the cheapest way to get safe water to drink?