Since starting the 'long-term' part of my life in Thailand (i.e. 8 months in Thailand, 4 months 'back there') I've had ample opportunity to be able to come up with some very general expense amounts (in baht) which may (or may not) be relevent or interesting to folks who are contemplating making this step from holiday to day-to-day living.
The time line for me has not changed. I still venture back to Canada for 3 or 4 months a year. My parents, although in a very good care home, are going downhill at a rather fast clip (with much flat-lining between dips). Although I can not do much any more to alter their general 'happiness' quotients, I can at least make certain that all they need, they get.
Naturally, these amounts will be different to everyone according to their circumstances: incomes are different, areas within Thailand will vary in expense, spending habits are wildly different (e.g. if you think you would be inclined to go out to boy bars and off guys 4 or 5 times a week, then all bets are off regarding the 'entertainment' category).
It's turned out that we usually go out to one or two of the 5 gay bars in Hua Hin on average only about once a week. Pot is not a big drinker at all ~ he'll nurse a beer forever, then go on to orange juice ~ and I'll down hardly ever more than 4 in an evening. Mostly we go to shoot pool ~ which we are both reasonably good at ~ and to talk to the folks there.
Beer in Hua Hin bars is on average priced at 80 baht a bottle, and as there are no regular 'shows' in Hua Hin bars the price stays the same all night.
Beer can be had for as little as 60 baht if one searches hard enough, and in fact I've found a little bar in the back of the biggest and best night market in town priced at 50 baht ... a perfect people-watching joint.
Hard liquour is not on my radar at any time, but can be Pot's on an irregular basis ... usually with his Thai friends. We always have a bottle or two of reasonably good wine in the home: good choices in the 500 baht range at numerous outlets in town.
We go fairly regularly (i.e. about once a month) to our favourite Thai Music and Dance Bar named 'Look Nam' which is our main squeeze for letting hair down. It's not gay at all, but everyone dances with everyone anyway so no diff there. Lots of bar boys can be seen here after hours.
We hardly ever are able to get out of this place earlier that 2AM and never for under 1500 baht ....but for that, well-lubricated and well-fed.
So in the figures below I have left 'entertainment' completely out. I've just added to the list those things which might well be fairly common amongst us all on a monthly basis. Even adding 'food' is difficult (though I've made a stab at it) as I think most farang who end up living long term in Thailand will eventually fall into the
'eat-out' habit more the than
'cook-in-at-home' choice ... and deciding to do so usually means a very wide mix of eating very cheaply on the street, in small Thai restaurants, at night markets ~ or at more expensive, more farang-oriented restaurants. This kind of normal mixing makes it very difficult to generalize about monthly food expense.
I shall just describe our 'lifestyle' a bit ... your's of course will inevitably be different to some degree, or a large degree. All of the below description is included because it is relevent to spending and budgeting:
- I am on a reasonably decent pension ... but certainly not a rich man.
I made a personal promise to myself that I would retire on only my pension(s). Any investment income I have is ploughed back into an investment account, which resides in Canada.
So far this promise has been kept (although when we decide to buy our own place that will certainly have to be re-visited ... but that particular re-visitation was already planned anyway) and the income and regular expenses are almost are comfortably in balance for the most part. Sometimes the unforeseen pops up, and is handled by a simple one-shot parsimony.
[/*:m:3if3z132] - We have chosen (for the near future at least) to rent rather than buy.[/*:m:3if3z132]
- We are a monogamous couple (8 years and counting, with all intention of staying that way), thus spending no money at all (hardly :blackeye: ) on GoGo bars and off fees. [/*:m:3if3z132]
- Our home is a two-story attached townhouse ... 2 bdrms, 2 bath, quite large. [/*:m:3if3z132]
- We are easy walking distance to town, thus no transportation issues. We own a vehicle, but rarely use it 'in town'. [/*:m:3if3z132]
- Our home is in Hua Hin ... which would make it reasonably comparable to costs to, say, Pattaya or Chiang Mai. If you choose to live in ~ for instance ~ Phuket or Bangkok your monthly costs may well be somewhat higher.[/*:m:3if3z132]
- We would normally do some travel further afield within Thailand on average once a month[/*:m:3if3z132]
- My partner has a tour guide/taxi business which brings him his own personal income ... especially in High Season.
Suphot's business has now, after 4 years, become a quite lucrative enterprise. He is very busy in the high season (approx November thru middle March) and surprisingly, this September has been very profitable as well: he is in fact away as I write this post ... to Udon for a week. He is of course (as I am) very proud of his accomplishments in this: he is a truly excellent example of the Thai Networking Facility travelling in high gear at all times. He networks everyone who appears even half alive and his rolodex is a heavy pinwheel indeed .... no sitting on street corners in small dark cubby holes waiting for customers for him.
[/*:m:3if3z132] - There were significant expenses in December 2007 when we spent quite a lot on 'things' to make our home better furnished and more comfortable. There are still things we want to have sooner or later, but the largest purchases have already been made. None of this one-time outlay is taken into consideration in the list below, even though much of the stuff we bought will probably be on the list that most long-term stayers will be considering once they become that.[/*:m:3if3z132]
Regarding the last item: there have of course been items added to our life style over the years, but the initial, and majority of our spending orgy happened in the first year.
I've splurged on a new fridge recently, as well as a new camera I've been salivating over for some time: but Big Ticket items are not really needed any more (we've bought 'em all!) and will not be until we end up buying our own place here, which is in the cards for the near future.
Last year we spent somewhat significantly on items for the car: new tires, new shocks, new sound system ... of which I paid part, and he the other part. (More on this 'sharing' thing in the next post on 'The Relationship')
(All figures are average monthly costs)
Rent: 8000 baht (This amount is a good deal for the quite large place we have. We pay by the year which brings the monthly cost down to 8000. Paying by-the-month the place we have would rent in the 10,000 range. Similar townhomes on our Soi (in varying degrees of renovation) are For Rent now at 15,000, but they've been vacant for long stretches at a time)
4 years later our rent (at 8000 baht a month, paid annually) and landlord are the same.
She's a terrific Thai lady who just loves to have her town house paid up all year long and as well have us in there who take care of it in the best way we know how. Very 'basic' it was going in, but now feels like a real home with mood lighting, plants all over the patio, a new cover over the garage, our 'good' furniture everywhere, and her 'crap' furniture hidden away. The included sheets and pillow cases were long ago discarded for 500 Egyptian cotton beauties (" ... 4000 fucking baht for fucking sheets ... " was his cry ... and now can't live without 'em ~ I told him so!)
Water & Garbage(same bill): 45 baht
Still the same amount!! I don't get it ... but I don't complain either.
Electricity: 300 baht (Amount here is an average. All through September and October the heat and humidity in Hua Hin was very high, so we used aircon in the bedroom all the time at night (on 'low) ... the cost went up as high as 600 baht. The temperature and stickiness disappeared in mid November, and we haven't used the aircon at all since: cost dove to 200 baht)
If you have read the replies to the original post you would have noticed that of all the listed expenses, our 'electricity' costs generated the most controversy and unbelief: I was fudging the numbers ('why' I can't imagine); I was mistaken (more likely); our meter was wonky (definitely more likely).
Well, to those who were apoplectic then, may well be happier now: our electric bill has sky-rocketed over these 4 years and is now 3.5 times higher at an average of 1000 baht a month.
But our 'useage' remains much the same: the big 'draw' is the airconditioning, and that we use in almost exact similarity to before ... i.e lots of usage in this hot and sticky Sept-November weather and not much use at all from late November thru middle February, when it starts to ratchet up again.
1000 baht a month may seem like a hefty increase considering the 300 a month we were averaging back then, but it's still far less than the denizens of Pattaya and Bangkok were whining about even 4 years ago. God knows hat they pay now ... but I'm quite content with our relatively inexpensive Hua Hin version of the electric bill.
Television: 1560 (This is for True/UBC satellite reception with a dish. One can get regular cable from the local cable company for 2500 baht
a year (i.e.
208 baht a month) (!!), but the choices are pretty horrendous for an english-only speaker)
This expense has in fact gone down. After realizing that I was only watching perhaps 20% of the Gold channel offerings, I switched to Silver and am now paying 750 baht a month ... and am quite happy. Pot still gets all his Thai music channels on the mega-cheap Hua Hin Cable (still only 2500 baht a year) and I still get my news, documentary, Bloomberg, some movie channels on the True Silver package.
Laundry: 1000 baht
Still the same. But it would have been more if we ~ as we did in the beginning ~ had kept taking our underwear there as well. We now hand-wash them (thousands of them) at home and save 10 baht a piece. Because the laundry's piece-price has gone up our monthly expenditure would easily be 1300 baht or more now if we didn't scrub our own underwear: we take turns ... this week mine, next week his.
Internet: 500 baht (I purposely did not choose to lug my laptop between Canada & Thailand. This is a decision that may change, but right now I use an internet cafe. Not looked into home internet connection as yet, but if I do bring (or buy) the laptop the cost above will change ... maybe more, maybe less)
Still using my favourite M&K Internet Shop. 1000 baht lasts me almost 3 months: the connection is very fast, the owner very agreeable, the flat screens excellent, the cappucino's delish and I'm happy.
I did end up bringing my old laptop over mainly because I store all my photos on it. Once in awhile ~ for certain needs ~ I haul it over to M&K where the owner lets me plug in for free. Those times are few and far between . . . and in fact, except for long posts like this one has turned out to be, my time (and desire) spent online is much less than it was 4 years ago. And happy I am that it has turned out that way.
Telephone: 500 baht (I buy 100 baht top ups at 7-11 about once every 2 weeks. That's 200 baht in-Thailand calls, but if I overuse the long distance then that pops it up 100 baht easily. Suphot gets one or two 100 top ups as gifts fairly often, so that makes it about to the 500 range)
Very little difference with phone costs. Negligible really.
Travel: 10,000 baht (This is comprised of monthly trips which usually last 3-5 days. We stay in Thai hotels at about 600-800 baht a night .... gasoline costs .... entertainment, and eating. Sometimes we will not go away at all, so this figure is a bit fluid and difficult to generalize. But over all, I think if I average out the trip costs over one year it would be close to the figure)
Transportation: 1000 baht (I give Suphot about 1000 a month for gas for the car ... the rest he pays himself. We spend next to nothing on taxis, tuk tuks, songtaoews etc)
I don't give him 1000 baht a month for gas anymore. :rolling:
The hell with that, considering his recent emergence into Thai middle class-ism. Now I only pay for gas if we're on a trip together.
Other means of transportation within Hua Hin are still negligible. I walk a lot, and am quite happy to do so.
Food & (home) booze: 17,150 baht (This is a tough one as it is rather a moveable feast. I'll try to show you how I arrived at this figure by adding up the following ... and it is very much a 'best-guess' average):
- Four times a week we eat "on the street" (i.e. night market, small Thai restaurants etc) at an average 'check bin' of 250 baht for 2: that's 4000 baht a month[/*:m:3if3z132]
- Three times a week we eat at higher end place at an average 'check bin' of 700 baht for 2: that's 8,400 baht for the month.
This has come down quite a bit. Frankly, Pot would rather eat at small Thai restaurants any old day, and I for the most part completely agree. I love Thai food and rarely crave western food of any kind, with the exception of pizza perhaps twice a month: thankfully Pot also loves pizza and will never say no.
Average dinner out 'gep tung' at any Thai hole-in-the-wall would be 200 baht without beer (add 100 baht for that). Average pizza meal at Corner (the best place in town by far) including wine and/or beer would be around 600 baht for two.
I go ~ alone, with newspaper or Kindle ~ to the Sofitel Hotel coffee shop amongst the Frangipani (sp) for cappuccino and tiramasu twice a month (average): 250 baht for the delicious British Raj ambience.
[/*:m:3if3z132] - We shop at a supermarket twice a month with an average bill of 1500 each: that's 3000 baht.
The twice-monthly supermarket (in general, at Lotus Tesco ... the main one in Hua Hin) shopping excursion still carries on has certainly gone up in average cost. I haven't really taken a good look at this but I do know this much: we fill our buggy up with generally the same types of food which we always have and usually arrive at very much the same number of filled bags after we get through the till ... but it's now closer to 2000-2200 baht a trip, rather than the 1500 baht we seemed to average some years ago.
I don't whine at this ~ it's fairly common and not unexpected COL increase ~ but it is noticeable.
[/*:m:3if3z132] - Miscellaneous: daily shopping for small items (bread, milk, eggs, fruit): about 1000 baht a month.[/*:m:3if3z132]
- Booze is essentially one 24 pack of Chang beer a month in the fridge at 750 baht.
In general, close to same same for these last two. I definitely don't buy 24 beers a month any more ... but not because of price. Now it's closer to 12 a month.[/*:m:3if3z132]
I hope this post will give anyone who has vague (or specific) intentions of living longer-term in Thailand in the near future a reasonable idea of monthly costs which will not change that much.
If I have missed some things which I think I should be included, I will edit the post. But right now I think it is a reasonble collection of costs which anyone should take into consideration.
Originally Posted by Smiles
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They definitely know though, because here at least, a person manually walks around each month to check the meters and print off the bills. In typical Thai fashion though, he probably just shrugs and says to himself, "not my problem or responsibility if it's not working". I'm just worried once they figure it out, they'll average out our usage over the prior 12 months, and hand me a bill for five months of electric.
