Expenses June 2013

[christianpfc]

Expenses June 2013

Some people might wonder why I am sharing this. IтАЩm not doing this for you, IтАЩm doing this for me to know where my money goes. Then I just add some explanations so this might be of use to others (occasionally, people ask how much money you need to live in Thailand), and previous reports about my expenses have shown that this is fantastic material to bitch about.

There seems to be a misunderstanding of my relationship to money, which is aggravated by taking everything I write serious or not getting my jokes. I donтАЩt throw money around like others do, but I happily pay a fair price for goods or services (the contentious point is what I and others think is a fair price). My reluctance to tip is because I think tipping is wrong. Taking bus instead of taxi is a lifestyle choice, I can afford taxi, but I donтАЩt want to. Often there is no other characteristics than price to decide, e.g. my new laptop: I wanted a 15.6тАЭ with Windows 7, all other specifications are of low significance (HDD, memory, processor, graphic car, manufacturer) as it doesnтАЩt make much difference to me. So itтАЩs the price that decides which one I buy.

New structure: grouped together by categories (instead of listing single expenses in chronological order). In order of decreasing amount, with comments, in bracket the single expenses.

Pattaya weekend 6685 (all included)
Rent for room 3000
(If tips for boys were separate, they would be about 3000 Baht, i.e. I pay as much for prostitutes as for my room!)
Chantaburi weekend 2694 (all included)

Foodland and 7/11 (mainly food shopping) 1978.50 (5+20+27+396.25+42+657.50+13+16+801.75)
Taxi 1939 (140+160+235+41+150+153+140+125+150+150+125+60+160 +150)

Splurge out on food (farang food or expensive thai restaurant) 972.75 (360 248 160 204.75)
Lunch 972 (60 30 30 35 80 30 30 90 35 30 30 30 30 70 40 35 35 30 30 85 75 32)

Electricity 949.25
Fruit 783 (20 20 20 20 35 20 20 50 20 20 20 20 60 20 50 8 20 15 20 40 100 25 25 20 95)
(fruits I bought: banana, mango, mangosteen, sala, durian, watermelon, lychee, noina, pomelo)

Hotel room (full night, but use only short time with friend) 650
Sweets (cookies, cake, ice-cream, fried insects, durian chips) 640 (30 28 25 25 50 40 52 120 36 80 70 30 34 20)

Internet in my room 631.25
Drinks in bars 599 (199 300)
Clothes 499 (Sandals 199 T-shirt 170 Underwear 100 Clothes repair 30)

Sauna 320 (160 160)
Friends 180 (40 100 20 20) (tips for friends when they asked me for money)
Cinema 180

Disco (DJ station) 150
Bus 142.50 (6.50 16 13 14 8 8 12 12 12 12 12 17)
Haircut 140 (for me and a friend)

Dinner 110 (40 35 35)
Food (street stall, eat while walking or standing) 100 (20 20 20 10 10 10 10)
Mobile phone 100

Motorcycle 80 (40+40)
Water 61 (running water in my room for toilet, showering)
Laundry 60 (20 20 20)

BTS 42
Tips 40 (20 20) (tips in bars or restaurants)
Van 25
Feed fish 10 (buy fish food for a friend in a wat)

Total 21851.25 Baht
(I was sick one weekend, if I had not been sick the expenses would be about 1000 Baht more.)

The crucial point is working Mon-Fri 9-5. That keeps me occupied during day and provides an income. Without working, I would spend about 40k per month because I would have time to fill. My limiting factor is not money, but time. I don't have time to spend more money because I work.

I could open an additional point in the list, occasional purchase of drinks at 7/11 or at street stalls, this is included in 7/11. One day I found a 100 Baht not, not included. In some cases the numbers include paying for my Thai friends, that amounts to about 5% of the total.

Food is split in тАЬsplurgeтАЭ (farang food or expensive Thai restaurants), тАЬlunchтАЭ and тАЬdinnerтАЭ (midday and evening, in my area, in a place that provides seating and service and cutlery and crookery), and тАЬfoodтАЭ (usually street stall, place without seating, I eat while walking or standing or take back home). тАЬFoodland+7/11тАЭ is mainly food shopping for eating at home. The difference between тАЬlunchтАЭ and тАЬdinnerтАЭ is that I eat lunch every day in the canteen at work or in the foodcourt of a shopping center, whereas dinner is usually fruit and sweets and foodshopping from foodland+7/11 at home. All food combined is 5556.25 Baht.

Transportation is split into taxi, bus, motorcycle, van, BTS (no use of MRT in June).

Electricity, internet, water are for the previous month, rent is for the following month, but the numbers donтАЩt vary much from month to month.

In England and France, my expenses were about 60% rent, 35% food, 5% others.
Now they are 15% rent, 30% food, 55% others (mainly entertainment).

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[MiniMee]

I was sick one weekend, if I had not been sick the expenses would be about 1000 Baht more.

Perhaps you should consider getting sick more often. Think how much more you would save.

[gra46]

When i went to school 100+399 = 499
so where did that other 100 go ,so that another 100 you saved ,i hope it dont take you long to find it

[adman5000]

Thanks for the information Christian. Although I watched my baht closely when I first started visiting Thailand, I now just pace myself according to how frequently I go to the ATM to replenish.
I hope that in the future as you stay in Thailand longer, you will be able to relax your budgetary oversight as well. Maybe you can divert your focus to survey of Thai underwear? (joking, but just a bit)
Take care and enjoy your life there. arty

[frequentflier]

last of the big spenders..

[scottish-guy]

[youtube:1gz3wmpl]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8gJHFPyWxI[/youtube:1gz3wmpl]

[Surfcrest]

I'm sure there's as many on the other end of the spectrum, who come to Thailand to live as big as they can for a few weeks...and then go home and spend all that time between trips paying down their debt, paying off their cards. People who, while in Thailand, get up each morning in a hung over fog with no idea how many baht they still have in their wallet. It makes tremendous sense to have at least a rough budget......no matter how much money you have. Certainly, a big factor why we come here is because it's cheap.

Surfcrest

[bucknaway]

I don't know if it is cheap. I know it is affordable and there is something about being in a place far away from home, but still being able to communicate and get around with little difficulty.

Cheap? Ummmmm :dontknow:

But I do relate to what you are saying :salute:

[Nirish guy]

It makes tremendous sense to have at least a rough budget......no matter how much money you have. Certainly, a big factor why we come here is because it's cheap. Surfcrest

Why does it necessarily make sense to have even a rough budget ( assuming you know you've enough to do you and you don't HAVE to budget ) - what's wrong with just going hell for leather and having a damn good time and worrying about it later ( or not worrying about it later if you're lucky enough to be able to do that) Short of people genuinely having to budget to ensure they don't physically run out of money I don't get peoples need to think about money all the time and ensure they're not spending to much ( again assuming they are in that fortunate position) - if you dont have to budget then why do it - just live for the moment and party and do whatever makes you feel happy and have a damn good time as there's plenty of time to think / worry about what it cost you some other time when you're back home - that to me is half the pleasure of being on holiday.

And as for Thailand being "cheap" I'm not sure I would necessarily concur with that statement automatically - some things maybe yes but more and more there's very little difference with European prices for things such as beer etc. I think "cheap" is a thing we've all heard about re Thailand ( and yes maybe experienced in the past) but short of the usual regurgitated stories about how you can sleep in a beech hut for ┬г7 a day and eat for ┬г2 a day ( which Christian has certainly showed you can if you wish) speaking personally I don't know ANY of my friends who have come home after having a fairly normal holiday who have said it was a "cheap" holiday and some quite the opposite - myself included there by the way, personally I don't think Thailand is that cheap anymore if you're living it up a bit while you're there and not watching the pennies.

[joe552]

There's a big difference between normal living expenses - which is what christian detailed - and holiday spending. I've no idea if his spending is high or low for someone living in Bangkok, so won't comment.

I have a fixed amount I can spend on my holidays, so it makes sense to me to keep a loose track of my spending (without getting too anal or detailed about it). I may have to cut back a bit towards the end of my stay, but I have enough to enjoy myself for the 2 weeks or so that I'm there, and that's what matters. To me, it's not necessary to spend huge amounts of money to have a good time in Thailand.