Our Monthly Budget - Genie

Hello all! 

Recently I’ve received several questions about what our monthly budget looks like while living in Thailand. So I’m here with two different budgets: rural and urban Thailand. 

Everything listed will be in Thai Baht and by the month unless specified. 

I will not be getting into the debts we have that we're paying back home. This is specifically related to the money we make and spend in Thailand. I'll call the rest "savings" when really that means: "student loan debt, medical debt, mortgage, computer loan, etc... AND also savings/travel money".

Rural Thailand: 

English Teacher Salary: 35,000B each (70,000B total) 

Necessary Spending: 

Rent: 3,500. We lived in a very small apartment on the outskirts of town. It did not have many amenities, but it served its function. 

Utilities: 2,500. This includes water (about 100), electric (about 650), and air conditioning (the rest). We only air conditioned one room and only when we were home. This is definitely the one that would fluctuate the most. 

Internet: Included in rent. 

Laundry: 30/load. 150 total. We generally did about 4-5 loads per week. The washing machines were very small. 

School Lunch: daily: 25 each. Monthly about 550 for one person. 1,100 total. This assumes 22 school days per month which was our average. 

School Breakfast: same. 1,100. 

Moped: 3,000. We share one moped. 

Gas: Variable, but about 150-200/week. Monthly about 800. 

Total: 12,150. 

Note that this does not take into account any dinner or fun spending or food on the weekends. It also does not include bills from home or my coffee addiction. This is merely the bare minimum. 

Let’s assume that we are like queens and actually got dinner like responsible adults every night. And we actually do eat on the weekend. Let’s also assume I fed my coffee addiction and Amanda got her boba fix. 

Dinner: 200-300/night. 9000 total. 

Weekend lunch: 8 days, 150/day. 1200 total. 

Coffee: 60/cup. Let’s safely assume I averaged 1.5/day. 2,700 total. 

Boba or Tea: 50/cup. 1.5/day. 2,250 total. 

Basic Spending: 12,150

Extra Food Spending: 15,150

Total Spending: 27,300

Salary: 70,000 (2,300$ USD)

Total Spending: 27,300

"Savings": 42,700 (1,400$ USD)

Once again. I will clarify that if we spent no money on anything fun outside work, bought nothing new, and had no other bills, this would be our savings. Unfortunately (or I guess fortunately), we do all of those things. 

When we lived in Nong Khai, we both usually took between 10,000-12,000 for fun money each month and we both kept an emergency reserve for if we got pulled over. The fine for driving without a license is 3,000+ and driving without a helmet is 500+/person. However, I won’t add this in because I still have my first reserve because we wear helmets and I drive responsibly. 

Using this math, this brings our savings for the month to 18,700. This is a little over 600$ (USD) per month combined between the two of us. 

***

Urban Thailand: 

English Teacher Salary 1 (private school, US teaching degree and US teaching license): 50,000. 

English Teacher Salary 2 (private school, masters degree, no teaching experience): 38,000. 

Total: 88,000. (2,900$ USD)

Necessary Spending: 

Rent: 8,000. We live in a suburb of Bangkok in a quite nice apartment building. Our apartment is about 24 square meters. It’s 8km from Amanda’s school and 2km from mine. This price also includes parking, gym access, and pool access. 

Utilities: 2,500. This includes water (about 100), electric (about 650), and air conditioning (the rest). Now we air condition our whole apartment when we’re home during the day and just our bedroom at night. We also have a unit the faces south and west. It’s incredibly sunny in the afternoon. I guarantee it would be cheaper if we had a different apartment. (My coworker who lives in the same complex and faces northeast has confirmed this.)

Internet: We share with our neighbors and give them 500. 

Laundry: In-Unit. Included in rent and utilities. 

School Lunch: Free!

School Breakfast: Free!

Moped: 3,500. We share one moped. 

Gas: Variable, but about 300/week plus any adventures we go on. Monthly about 1,500)

Total: 16,000. 

This is where I blatantly admit we spend more outside work here. Going out for dinner is much more expensive. For instance, if we want to go out for dinner at a restaurant, in rural Thailand, this would cost us about 300. Here, that easily runs us up to 1,000 without tip. There’s also more opportunities to go on adventures that add up quite quickly. However, we both try to stick to 15,000/month each for all outside food, coffee, and adventure money. 

Essential Total: 16,000

Fun Total: 30,000

Salary: 88,000

Spending: 46,000

"Savings": 42,000 (1,380$ USD)

That savings goes toward important things like payments back in the US, but it’s also where we get the money to go on adventures in Thailand. Fortunately, it’s very cheap to travel inside the country so even though we do have to allow for about 25,000-30,000 per month in “back home bills”, there’s still enough to travel when we get school breaks. 

And there it is! It’s definitely cheaper to live in rural Thailand, but it’s worth spending a little more if you can get jobs where you make more. Also living a 30 minute cab ride from the main airport makes it so much easier to travel now!