Well, I promised a post on this a while back (in one of the tipping threads). To recap, I am now a month into my first long (5 month) stay in Thailand. I am living in Chiang Mai and I promised a post on how it affected my attitude to spending in general while I am here. I'm afraid you may find it a little dull, but you did ask for it.
My first reaction is that it is a totally different experience. My main focus on an expensive holiday is to get as many bangs for the buck as possible (if you'll pardon the expression). I have always put myself under pressure to be doing something, morning, noon and night. Now, I'm just living here for a while, mostly doing the ordinary daily things I'd do anywhere.
Yes, it has affected my attitude to money. For example, I always got my laundry done at the hotel or guest house when I was on holiday, for the convenience. OK, a few kilos of laundry might cost 400 baht on an "item" basis, but that was only, say, 1600 over a 2 week holiday, insignificant compared to the overall cost and I had better things to do with my time than run round town with bags of dirty tee shirts. Now, that same bag at a local laundry might cost me 150 baht - twice a week is 500 baht less - times 20 weeks is 10,000 baht. Suddenly that seems like a lot of money.
Food. I don't eat much, usually twice a day. So, on holiday, it would be maybe 150-200 baht for breakfast somewhere and "somewhere nice" to eat in the evening - say another 350-500. Call it 500 a day, at the low end. Now, my usual breakfast is fruit, cold cuts, bread and yoghurt which I make up myself and, usually a Thai meal at a local Thai restaurant (The Lemon Tree has become my regular "canteen" as far as dinner goes.) Call it 200 baht a day.
Bars. I don't feel I've lost an evening if I don't visit a bar or two! Most nights I will have one or two beers in Soho, but compared to visiting a couple of bars each night in Pattaya or Bangkok, that again is a saving of 700 or 800 baht a night.
Offs. Well, I haven't even been to any of the Chiang Mai gogos yet. There's plenty of time for that. It's probably the biggest difference financially.
Tipping. I still tip the maid who cleans my room the same amount as I would have before. In restaurants and bars I will generally tip about 10%, also as before, but the amounts involved are less. I've been watching: it is true that Thais often do not leave tips. I have also has the experience, in a restaurant near one of the markets, having a tip returned because the waiter was not expecting a tip and simply thought I had paid too much.
All in all, I am spending about baht 1200 a day. That includes accommodation in a suite with separate living room, food, laundry, one-offs like language lessons, clothes and a kettle and a reasonable social life. It's set to come to about 180,000 for the 5 months. I have spent more on a 3-week holiday on occasions. I'm not scrimping - I could knock 10,000 to 15,000 a month off it if I had to, and still live comfortably (but rather more sparsely).
Admittedly, I started off with it in mind to be reasonably frugal from the beginning. That was to make sure that the costs weren't going to run away with me. You can't save money after you've spent it. Maybe I'll let my hair down a bit later on.
A final comment on this. Every now and then you'll see a thread on one of the message boards about farang who live here on very limited means. You see the question "How can anyone live on 30,000 baht a month? The answer is quite easily, and quite comfortably. You'd have a better standard of living than you would in Europe or the US on the same money although there are, of course, the twin elephants of health insurance and visa renewal in the room.
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