Monthly living costs

[Dodger]

One of the advantages of owning versus renting is that you don't pay inflated fees for electricity. The current rate in Chonburi is B4.41 per KWH (Kilo Watt Hour)and I have friends who are renters who pay double and sometimes triple this rate to the their building owners who of course pocket the profits.

I plan to install a water purification system in my unit in September to eliminate the task of buying water every day and also reduce the cost. This may sound ridiculous but at B14 per liter X 3 liters per day comes to B23,000/year which almost covers the cost of my health insurance policy.

Investing in a washing machine saves me another B15,000/year (B300/week).

It all adds up.

Matt, if you're paying B6,000/month for electric somethings wrong.

[justaguy]

That depends, not sure how big his place is, and how many airco units it has. But having a couple of airco's blasting at full speed for the whole month, could easily cost about 6000 baht. And you are not paying inflated rates per KWH. In Bangkok the average is about 5 baht per KWH, but with two airco's running almost all the time, I am certain that amount is achieved easily, especially if the airco units are a bit older.

[cdnmatt]

Yeah, Leo and myself have separate bedrooms, and both like our A/C. Mine is on about 24x7, while sleeping I crank it down to 18C, and while awake put it up to about 27C. Then Leo is the same as me, although uses the A/C a little more sparingly. However, he likes me, and enjoys it cold when he sleeps, so cranks it down then as well. That, and Smiles lives in Hua Hin so has the advantage of the cool breeze from the ocean.

Anyway, Smiles, want to maybe share what Pot and yourself spend a month in Hua Hin? I'm curious, and considering the replies, so are others who are looking towards Thailand as a retirement location.

[justaguy]

Yeah, Leo and myself have separate bedrooms, and both like our A/C. Mine is on about 24x7, while sleeping I crank it down to 18C, and while awake put it up to about 27C. Then Leo is the same as me, although uses the A/C a little more sparingly. However, he likes me, and enjoys it cold when he sleeps, so cranks it down then as well. That, and Smiles lives in Hua Hin so has the advantage of the cool breeze from the ocean.

Anyway, Smiles, want to maybe share what Pot and yourself spend a month in Hua Hin? I'm curious, and considering the replies, so are others who are looking towards Thailand as a retirement location.

Hmm, yes then I can understand your utility bill. However, isn't Leo your boyfriend, why on earth are you sleeping in separate bedrooms ?

Something doesn't add up.

[Smiles]

" ... Anyway, Smiles, want to maybe share what Pot and yourself spend a month in Hua Hin? I'm curious, and considering the replies, so are others who are looking towards Thailand as a retirement location ... "

I've done that calculation at least three times on this board since living in HH. But not for some time I admit ... probably those long-ago posts have gone the way of the Dodo bird.
I don't budget anything here, we just live the life. So some thought would have to be put into that, and frankly it's a Dismal Science.
Maybe.

Meanwhile, as far as aircon is concerned ~ and it is certainly is a large part of anyone's set expenses ~ we do it differently ... it's on timer.
We sleep together, so only one room to cool down. One of us turns it on about half an hour before hitting the sack (20C), then put it on the timer for another hour (sometimes 2, but never more). Then it goes off for the rest of the night. (This routine can differ from winter to summer ... right now it's hot and humid here and we do that every night. From November through February we may not even turn the aircon on at all).
Both of us are quick to fall asleep, and normally we sleep through the night without waking up, even though the aircon has stopped.

The second bedroom has aircon but we never use it unless we have guests-staying-over.
Downstairs (i.e. kitchen, living/dining room, bathroom) is not aircon-ed, just fans. No complaints.

[cdnmatt]

Because, a) I snore, and am assuming he doesn't want to listen to that all night, and b) I don't want him cuddling with me all night. I learned that little lesson from Kim. We've tried to sleep together a few times, but sure enough, he just keeps moving closer to cuddle with me in the middle of the night. Then I move away to have my own room on the matress, he moves closer to cuddle again, until I'm nearly falling off the bed. Then I have to wake up, move to the other side of the bed, but that doesn't work, because within 30 mins, he's back to cuddling with me, pushing me off the other side of the bed.

So fuck it, we sleep alone. That, and we're both similar in that way. We both genuinely love each other withough question, but at the same time, both like our own little private sanctuaries where we can hang out in our own little world, and be ourselves. Separate bedrooms provide for that.

That, and I never really wanted him as a BF. He's only 22, so too young for me I thought. Then again, I didn't want to go blind either, so fuck it, just what happened. Now it looks like we're stuck with each other in this life life, which life, which is fine with me. At the beginning though, he pursued me far more than I did him though.

[Dodger]

You may want to consider buying a couple new AC units which now come equiped with invertor compressors which is a fairly new technology. These units cost a bit more up front but are extremely efficient and cut the rates down by as much as 60%. I purchased two last year for my 80 M2 condo and the monthly costs are less than I have paying for one older model AC in my 24 M2 rental unit in PTY.

Most Thais feed their dogs market leftovers including leftover rice, pork rinds, chicken, fish, etc. which doesn't cost them a penny. If it did, they would let someone else feed them. You may want to consider doing some research on healthy dog food alternatives to reduce the costs.

[francois]

TOTAL: 86,000/month

Any other expats willing to share their monthly living expenses?

Same-same, about 90,000/month. Too lazy to itemize.

[cdnmatt]

Thanks Dodger, and great to see you around these parts. I miss those threads starting with "hey you maniacs"

Yeahm I would think about getting new A/C units, but it's not my house, and I don't think the owners like us much, so get fucked if I'm investing more into this house than I already have. If things work out as planned, we'll be in Chiang Mai shortly anyway.

On the topic of electric though, has anyone played around with the idea of Tesla Poweralls that came out a few years ago? They should be in full production mode by now. It's about $6000 USD for one wall mounted battery, but that battery can retain enough energy to power your average home for about 3 days. Then there's the additional initial investment of solar panels, which I'm sure isn't cheap. However, after that initial investment, your electric bill drops to 0 baht/month.

Anyone seriously look into that yet? Think I'll do so once we manage to get ourselves to Chiang Mai.

[Mickp]

Why dont you just use fans? Would be a lot lot cheaper !