Since we decided to embark on this journey, we’ve been asked the same question many times over: How significant is the difference in cost of living in Thailand? So to answer this question, I started keeping an excel spreadsheet tracking all of our expenses – rent, utilities, food, transportation, entertainment – everything. I should have started this on day 1, but better late than never right? Anyhow, I will continue to track our expenses over the coming months and will do an updated post to provide you with a detailed budget so you can see exactly what we are spending per month and what we are spending on.
In the meantime, I thought I would give you some specific examples so that you can get an idea for yourself:
The Lowdown on Thailand Prices
Thai Food Prices
The price of food varies pretty significantly in Thailand – depending on whether you are eating street food or in a restaurant with air con or whether its Thai food vs Western food. Some examples…
THAI: Our go-to Thai meals are most often chicken and rice (khao man gai) for breakfast and pork noodle soup (kway teow) for dinner. Each of these meals typically run about 30 THB, or roughly $1 USD.
WESTERN: Sometimes a girl just has to have herself a thick and hearty cheeseburger or thin and crispy pizza. While western food is limited in Khon Kaen, you can still get a delicious bacon cheeseburger with fries at Didines for 230 THB ($7 USD) or a specialty pizza at Pomodoro for about 270 THB ($8.50 USD).
COFFEE: One thing I love about Thailand is that you can always find a coffee shop or stand on every corner. Most days we hit up the coffee stand on the street right outside of our apartment. For 2 coffee yen (iced coffee) it runs us about 40 THB, just over $1 USD. Sometimes we prefer to hit up a coffee shop with our laptops to get some work done. In this case, coffee usually runs about 80 THB ($2.50 USD) per cup. However, if you are a sucker for Starbucks, you are looking at a minimum of 110 THB ($3.50 USD) for one small cup of black coffee – nearly 5x the amount of a cup off the street.
As you can see, you can definitely eat for under $5 a day if you stick to the street food.
Rent Costs
For our 1 bedroom, fully furnished apartment we are paying 7300 THB ($235 USD)/month.
We also looked at several 2 and 3 bedroom houses to rent. For a newer, western style house in a nice neighborhood, you can easily find a rental anywhere between 10-13,000 THB ($320-430 USD)/month. A comparable house would probably go for about $800-1000 USD/month back in the States, or at least where I am from in Florida.
Utilities
Electric: Our first month of electric in our condo rang in at 536 THB/$17USD.
Cable/Internet: We signed up with True for their 699 THB/month promotion. This includes wifi and a cable box with approx 78 channels, unfortunately only about 3 of these are in English. Even still, that comes out to about $22 USD/month.
Water: Keeping in mind we do not have a washing machine or dishwasher, our water bill is 100 THB/month, just over $3 USD.
Cell Phone Plans in Thailand
Much different than in the US, you do not need a 2-year contract for an affordable cell phone and service plan in Thailand. We brought our iPhones over and purchased a SIM card from AIS for 100 THB, just over $3 USD. We then purchased a 1 GB plan of 3G per month for 699 THB ($22 USD). While there are minute plans available as well, we stick to a pay-as-you-go plan. Since we use FaceTime, Skype, and Viber for most of our calls we rarely use any minutes. I would say on average our minutes per month run us about 300 THB/under $10 USD and this includes making international calls. Side note, international calls run about 3 THB/minute where as local calls are 1 THB/minute. No need to sign up for an “international plan” like Verizon requires you to do. In addition, our data plan includes free and unlimited access to wifi hotspots that are available all over Thailand so that you don’t have to dip into your 1 GB allowance (or whatever plan it is you sign up for).
All in all, I am paying roughly $30/month for local and international minutes, as well as 3G data on my iPhone. No contract. No cancellation fees.
Night out at the Movies: SF Cinema
As most of you know, I spend quite a bit of time at the movie theater. Fortunately, that is one thing I did not have to give up upon moving to Thailand. Yes – Thailand has movie theaters. Yes – they have movies in English. More good news…they are not only super nice theaters, but it also doesn’t cost you half a weeks salary to purchase a ticket! Every day, except Wednesday, you can purchase a deluxe seat for 140 THB/$4.50 USD. There are also options to purchase a premium seat or sofa for a little bit more, but I’ve yet to try either. I am happy with my deluxe seating. However, even better news, on Wednesdays ticket prices are reduced to 80 THB/$2.50 USD!! It has now become a weekly ritual to head to the movies on Wednesday nights. Something I definitely look forward to! Not only are the tickets cheap, but you can get an extra large popcorn and coke for 140 THB/ $4.50 USD. Did I mention they have an assortment of popcorn flavors to choose from? And you can mix? For those of you who love to mix your sweet and salty, try the salted and caramel popcorn mixture!
Ok moving on…
Pharmaceuticals in Thailand
The one thing I was worried about – the one thing that made me doubt embarking on this journey in the first place – was that I would no longer have access to my migraine medication, and even if I did, it would be unaffordable without health insurance. Unfortunately, I get migraine headaches frequently, on average about 5-7 per month. Sumatriptan (Imigran) is like GOLD to me. It will snip a headache within 30 minutes, but without it, they will progress to the point that I am vomiting uncontrollably and, ultimately, end up in a hospital bed. Yeah – no fun at all. So you can imagine my concern. However, Charlie reassured me that this will definitely not be an issue in Thailand. Fortunately, he was right! The very first day we were in Bangkok, I insisted on checking out the first pharmacy we came across to put an end to my worrying and, sure enough, they had it! They were asking for 400 THB for (2) 50 mg tablets. I am used to taking 100 mg tablets, so this is close to $13/pill. While I was paying nearly $17 USD/pill in the US, this still seemed pretty high for Thailand and Charlie insisted we keep looking. And, of course, he was right again. We walked up to the pharmacy at the Tops supermarket in Khon Kaen and they were selling them for 285 THB/$9 USD each. While I would still not consider this “cheap” by any means, it is significantly less than what it costs in the US, especially considering I do not need to see a doctor for a prescription and I do not need to carry health insurance. I would say its a great deal to have piece of mind and be migraine-free.
Hopefully, these few examples give you an idea on the cost of living in Thailand. Are you considering moving to Thailand yet?
