Budget to live in Bangkok

[lemon]

Where in Canada do you live because there is no way you're renting a house and surviving on 2k a month in any major city.

no not a major city, but i'm pretty confident that I could do it just fine.

the only thing unique about my circumstance is that my house is very cheap. 550 a month plus utilities. I got the place by doing some work for the landlord for reduced rent, and the house is not the nicest. I don't have any trades experience but I ripped out the old flooring and installed laminate by following youtube videos and asking advice from the guy at the hardware store. It's a small 450 square foot place with no closets and it was built in the 30s. however its inexpensive to heat due to its size, and I have a large shed in the yard to store my stuff. I also have newer appliances that come with the house so while it's aged i'm hardly in squalor. For a single guy its all I need.

my budget:
550 rent
150 utils / internet / phone 700
150 car insurance 850
100 gas 950
400 food 1350
200 entertainment 1550

and that leaves me 450 to throw around on whatever I want.

you can find a place to live for 600 in any major city. Fine, you might need a roommate and fine you might be a basement suite or studio or something. But like I said that is just my guaranteed income. Money I make from side projects goes straight towards my student loan or is reinvested into new business ideas.

anybody on this forum who makes money online does so by being creative, adaptable and seeking out opportunity. If you can apply that same concept to your daily life then yeah you can survive in any major canadian city for 2k a month.

 

[adionline]

no not a major city, but i'm pretty confident that I could do it just fine.

the only thing unique about my circumstance is that my house is very cheap. 550 a month plus utilities. I got the place by doing some work for the landlord for reduced rent, and the house is not the nicest. I don't have any trades experience but I ripped out the old flooring and installed laminate by following youtube videos and asking advice from the guy at the hardware store. It's a small 450 square foot place with no closets and it was built in the 30s. however its inexpensive to heat due to its size, and I have a large shed in the yard to store my stuff. I also have newer appliances that come with the house so while it's aged i'm hardly in squalor. For a single guy its all I need.

my budget:
550 rent
150 utils / internet / phone 700
150 car insurance 850
100 gas 950
400 food 1350
200 entertainment 1550

and that leaves me 450 to throw around on whatever I want.

you can find a place to live for 600 in any major city. Fine, you might need a roommate and fine you might be a basement suite or studio or something. But like I said that is just my guaranteed income. Money I make from side projects goes straight towards my student loan or is reinvested into new business ideas.

anybody on this forum who makes money online does so by being creative, adaptable and seeking out opportunity. If you can apply that same concept to your daily life then yeah you can survive in any major canadian city for 2k a month.

Good stuff. Rent is always the big one. Unfortunately I am not willing to live with room mates but I managed to find a place in North Vancouver for $975 with parking, about 700 square feet on the top floor which is nothing special but it's comfortable and in a great location. All my other bills look similar to yours.

 

[onkelmicha]

Do you have a problem with my Iphone Engrish motherfucker

 

[MeteorLinks10]

How much for the hoes? wheres the best at? how to get a bunch of them to start a crazy house ogiemogie party>?

 

[Kryt3n]

Can't comment on Thailand, but I've been to Vietnam and Laos and you can live comfortably here on $1k/month.

 

[Kiopa_Matt]

I did say survive and even underlined it to make a point. You are not going to live like a king, or live better than you lived from where you are from.

My point was that this is the minimum ($200) to stay alive (roof + food). Everything beyond that is simply limited by imagination. If you give me a million dollar budget, I'll figure out how to burn thru that in a month

But that's not really even surviving. That's struggling. That's why so many head to BKK or Pattaya, and decide to spread their legs for old, fat, ugly white guys with shriveled penises who need viagra just to get a hardon. And like everywhere else in the world, wages haven't kept up with inflation and other price increases, so people are continuously being squeezed more and more.

Or you said 2000/month for a room, right? Yeah, I'll give you that. I know of rooms for 1500/month around here, so 2000/month in Chiang Mai is about right. Tiny room, lots of ants & cockroaches, no air, fridge, TV, or internet though.

100/day for food? Yeah, I guess you could. Half a watermelon is 20 baht, chicken fried rice is 30 baht, guay-tiao (Thai soup) is 30 baht, etc. So I guess you could, but I wouldn't recommend it. Expect to lose weight, and be sick quite often. For example, every 2nd or 3rd day I'll grab dinner for my dogs from the market. Just their dinner costs me about 300 baht, and they devour everything within 30 seconds, and are still hungry.

Or say I want to cook up a chicken stir fry, everything needed from the street market (chicken, veggies, rice, etc.) will cost me about 250 baht, and that's assuming I have the sauce and spices at home already. If not, add on 200 baht. I guess I could make it cheaper by leaving out the broccoli, baby corns, etc... but I don't want to.

1000/month for misc? Phone, gas, bottled water, etc... right there would be about 1000/month. You're definitely not going out to any bars, clubs, movie theater, gym, internet cafe, or anywhere else with that though.

I don't know, I guess you could do $200/month, but it'd be a life where you wish you were sitting in a jail cell in your home country, because your standard of living would be higher. 6000/month? I couldn't imagine. Just our internet and cable TV bill is 3500/month. I don't know, kudos to anyone who can live like a poverty stricken peasant permanently, but I know I can't do it.

 

[mr doodles70]

He's been here for 10 year and have 2 business, they money I "earn" I just hur hin each month to pay to my account. And everything I negotiable he deliver the electronic units to BMW and Mercedes for all dealers in Bangkok so he's got some friend here and there as well. Surpringsly alot of police chief have merc's or beamers in Bangkok.

police/politicians in BKK are often insanely rich compared to what you would expect. so hilarious. that said, the ones i've seen were all nice.

where do you go near burma, onkelmicha? if you're there 40% of the time, do you take a bus from Bangkok and just stay in a hotel?

if you want a decent place in bangkok you're going to need to spend at least $1,000US in rent. that's pretty much the major expense. though, everybody has different standards. if you don't care about location/quality you could probably spend half that and get something about the same size...but all your furniture will be from ikea and you'll hate working there. but, you'll probably be seriously underwhelmed with what $1,000 will get you in bangkok. if you have $1500 to spend you can find a much nicer place.

if you're going to live in bangkok, i'd look at A TON of apartments (20+). some places are charging $1k a month just based on the size/location, when the quality really isn't there. others are charging the same amount based on size/location and the quality is SO much better than other places nearby.

some people here dissed bangkok, but i think it's the best place to live in thailand...maybe tied with chiang mai. if you live in bangkok, it really helps to know thai people (because they can show you where all the interesting stuff is). for example, if i lived in bangkok without my girlfriend for a year, i would think the food here was pretty decent to delicious. now i know it's mind numbingly delicious all the time if you just know where to go.

chiang mai is more obvious/laid back and the food there is great too. also, i like the long-term tourists a lot more in chiang mai. much more chill and not old, fanny-pack wearing sexpats. that said, that's only maybe 5% of the tourist population. bangkok is one of the top five most visited cities in the world so there are all kinds of people coming here. there's a lot of people making a lot of money here, so it's a more inspiring place to be than say....oklahoma. you don't hear about how bad the economy is all the time, you hear about how good it's doing.

 

[onkelmicha]

police/politicians in BKK are often insanely rich compared to what you would expect. so hilarious. that said, the ones i've seen were all nice.

Yes thats true I like them, but how does a Police Chief head of Narcotics with 40 000 baht monthly salary end up in one of the Ferrari magazines talking about his love for the car and shows his garage of

Was in Kanchanburi yesterday and blew a redlight just outside the police box. Got pulled over by the cop and he tried to get some money from me, my girl go annoyed. Told him her uncle is the police chief in town (true story) the cop told her to prove it so she called him on speaker and as soon as the cop heard her uncles voice so did he just walk of without a word.

where do you go near burma, onkelmicha? if you're there 40% of the time, do you take a bus from Bangkok and just stay in a hotel?

Sai Yok Yai just north of Kanchanburi pretty amazing there, I stay with my friend who owns property there got 2 motocross tracks some bungalows and resturant. Pretty much amazing life. 5 minutes away from the river kwai and raft rides. Hot springs in the evening where the Japanese officers chilled during WWII, usually hit up ether Erawan Waterfalls or Pathad Waterfall during the days.

if you want a decent place in bangkok you're going to need to spend at least $1,000US in rent. that's pretty much the major expense. though, everybody has different standards. if you don't care about location/quality you could probably spend half that and get something about the same size...but all your furniture will be from ikea and you'll hate working there. but, you'll probably be seriously underwhelmed with what $1,000 will get you in bangkok. if you have $1500 to spend you can find a much nicer place.

if you're going to live in bangkok, i'd look at A TON of apartments (20+). some places are charging $1k a month just based on the size/location, when the quality really isn't there. others are charging the same amount based on size/location and the quality is SO much better than other places nearby.

True, I live for free thoughg In Patuwman Resorts

it is an okey condo 20 years old. My friends used to stay next door in Villa Ratchetewi and is fresh to death in there and about 2 years old. So might move in there but you are paying about 30 000 per month for 1 bedroom.

some people here dissed bangkok, but i think it's the best place to live in thailand...maybe tied with chiang mai. if you live in bangkok, it really helps to know thai people (because they can show you where all the interesting stuff is). for example, if i lived in bangkok without my girlfriend for a year, i would think the food here was pretty decent to delicious. now i know it's mind numbingly delicious all the time if you just know where to go.

chiang mai is more obvious/laid back and the food there is great too. also, i like the long-term tourists a lot more in chiang mai. much more chill and not old, fanny-pack wearing sexpats. that said, that's only maybe 5% of the tourist population. bangkok is one of the top five most visited cities in the world so there are all kinds of people coming here. there's a lot of people making a lot of money here, so it's a more inspiring place to be than say....oklahoma. you don't hear about how bad the economy is all the time, you hear about how good it's doing.

 

[moltar]

I don't know, I guess you could do $200/month, but it'd be a life where you wish you were sitting in a jail cell in your home country, because your standard of living would be higher. 6000/month? I couldn't imagine. Just our internet and cable TV bill is 3500/month. I don't know, kudos to anyone who can live like a poverty stricken peasant permanently, but I know I can't do it.

I don't know, we just might have different outlooks on life. I was born and raised in Soviet Russia, where most people struggled. Now I live in Canada, and for me, lots of stuff people have here, and take for granted, are considered a luxury back then and there.

What you have described in the quote above, is my definition of survival.

Google's definition of "survive" is "Continue to live or exist, esp. in spite of danger or hardship." So I think Google and I are on the same page.

However, I can see how many Westerners might consider survival as "having a car, phone, high speed internet, television, excess of food, etc..." (I am not trying to be demeaning when I say this. It's just a difference in culture and expectations. I have lived in Canada for 12 years now, and I am part of this myself )

And here is a simple google search for "average thai salary", here is the link:

Thailand Average Salary Income - Job Comparison

 

[geomark]

Yep, about US$4,000 per year is the average wages nationwide in Thailand. However, it's about double that in Bangkok - the average Bangkokian makes about US$700 per month. That's reported income plus, I believe, an estimate of what goes unreported, which is substantial.

These guys talking about surviving on US$200 per month are truly peasants, living below even the average for Thai locals.

 

[rusvik]

I need a legit number for how much health insurance with dental will cost me. Can anyone recommend an agent or website (no googlehammer, no cpa site).

 

[moltar]

I need a legit number for how much health insurance with dental will cost me. Can anyone recommend an agent or website (no googlehammer, no cpa site).

Call any 3 major travel agencies in your area, then take the lowest bid.