Cost of living in Bangkok
The affordable cost of living in Bangkok is one of the primary reasons foreigners choose to relocate here and the city is certainly very affordable especially when it comes to housing and food. However, the scale of salaries here is enormous and some studies have cited Bangkok as being among the top 20 most expensive cities in the world.
Cost of living in Bangkok ultimately depends on how you choose to live. There are multinational corporate executive who are on 200,000 baht a month and there are English teachers on 40,000 baht a month. Both manage to live quite comfortably compared to your average working class Thai Bangkok resident who might get by on well under 20,000 baht a month. This means that there are plenty of cheap eateries and markets and facilities to suit all budgets
It all means that while you will no doubt be drawing a lower salary than you would in the West, the cost of living is such that you will be able to enjoy a vastly superior quality of life to what such a salary would afford you back home.
Keep in mind though that while you are living in Thailand you will be earning a salary that, while high for Thailand, is nowhere near the holiday budget of vacationers in Bangkok. Regularly visiting areas that are targeted specifically to Western tourists, such as parts of Sukhumvit and Silom and even some of the bars and restaurants near Khao San, will make your salary disappear very fast!
Household expenses in Bangkok
Accommodation
Bangkok has a wide variety of accommodation suitable to every taste and budget range. Studio apartments are the easiest type of accommodation to find in Bangkok and the cost of these can be relatively low. Studio apartments with phone, hot water, air, furniture, and cable can be had for between 5,000 to 10,000 baht if they are located about 15 minutes from the city centre by skytrain. The MRT subway and planned expansions on the BTS Skytrain line have opened up the market even further and prices have yet to catch up, making it possible to find quite a livable place for 2,500 much further out of town, though this might be quite inconvenient and result in lots of commuting in traffic.
Simple two floor townhouses are also available to rent for between 5,000-10,000, with prices lower and higher than this depending on the size of the house, amenities and its proximity to the Silom/Sukhumvit districts. The closer you are to these two popular ex-pat areas the more you will pay and for a reasonably comfortable apartment on say, soi 10, with a separate bedroom will cost in excess of 15,000 baht.
If your budget allows it, the sky is the limit in terms of condominium and serviced apartment accommodation with some truly luxurious digs on offer that include daily maid service, gymnasiums, pools, stunning views of the city, etc. These can go for anywhere from 25,000 to 120,000 baht and beyond.
Food
The cost of living in Bangkok is most affordable when one considers the widespread availability of delicious and cheap local dishes. By eating as the locals do, you can get by on about 200 baht or less a day. A full meal including drink when purchased either at a local restaurant (the open-air kind with plastic chairs) or a street vendor should cost you no more than 45 baht including drink.
A proper restaurant might set you back 100 baht for a simple dish and drink but when you start eating in the popular tourist areas or on the trendy upper Sukhumwit road area expect to pay 200 baht or more for a basic lunch.
Then of course there are some very trendy and fancy restaurants in hotels and up-market areas which still present great value relative to Europe or the US but will set you back well over 1000 baht for a dinner for two.
There is a lot of money in Bangkok and plenty of venues to cater for it, so some places – by the location alone – can seem a complete ripoff by Thai standards. Obviously Western food is always going to be more expensive than local dishes.
Cost of living, miscellaneous items
- Can of coke 13 Baht
- Iced coffee/iced tea: 10 baht (off the street); 70 baht (Starbucks!)
- Bottle water: 6-10 baht
- Bottle of milk: 10 baht
- Movie ticket: 80-140 baht
- Beer: 35-65 baht big bottle (in supermarkets) bars: 85-130, average, 120 and up in pricier places.
- Whisky: 60-80 baht for a small bottle of local drinkable whiskey
- Haircut: 60-120 baht and up depending on how posh the establishment is.
Many Western products that weren’t originally part of a Thai diet are available in big supermarket at local prices, such as cornflake (80 baht), though some luxury items such as pasta, jams, etc. are imported and cost much the same as in your home country, possibly a little more. Tescos, for example, has a full bakery section and carries other items such as bacon, some cheeses etc.
Shopping for these items at the specialist ex-pat supermarkets on or near Sukhumwit road will invariably cost more, but with a little patience and shopping around you can find reasonable local substitutes to your favourite foods. Those with special needs might have difficulty finding what they want, organic sections in supermarkets are still limited as are the range of health food products. Thais have a sweet tooth and although many of them diet, the range of fat free or sugar free products isn’t too broad. For example, the only sugar free refreshment is Pepsi Max (available only in litre bottles) or Diet Coke cans – which aren’t widely sold.
The cheapest and most practical solution, ultimately, is to adapt to a Thai diet.
Common living expenses in Bangkok
Utilities: the water bill is almost always a nominal charge and in some places even with your own washing machine will only run to about 200 baht. Electricity is a different matter and can be more expensive; from 1000-3,000 baht a month depending on how often you turn on your air-conditioner. Older air-conditioners are not energy efficient, and having one of these old energy guzzlers going all night can run up the electric bill. It’s common for apartment blocks to load a levy onto the utilities charge and phone bill.
Phone: if you have your own dedicated phone line from TOT, your phone charges will be 3 baht per call for any length of time to another Bangkok land line. With a special code you can call mobile phones for a rate of 1 baht per minute. You will have to make special arrangements for your own phone line in Bangkok and it is essential that you learn your landlord’s policy for charges made through apartment phones. The typical cost is 5 baht for 10-15 minutes to a Bangkok land line (02 number) and to call a mobile phone from these is prohibitively expensive and sometimes restricted. Mobile phone rates are very reasonable, provided you sign up for a contract (a non-imm visa is required for this). However, pay-as-you-go sim cards a rewidely available, cheap and offer reasonable rates of about 10 baht a minute).
Internet: if you’re going to be using the Internet at home it is worth seeking out an apartment block that will allow you to get your own dedicated phone line, which costs a little over 2,000 baht to have installed. To save the hassle choose a condo that has broadband on offer, which will be most in the popular expat locations and within a week the local ISP will have you connected. It’s not terribly good value (though better in Bangkok where rollout and takeup have been thorough), costing 1000 baht for an oversubscribed 1mg line. Kids coming home from school after 3.30pm and jumping online to play games is chronic problem that slows it down, so ask for an upgraded package if you discover your area is ‘crowded’. Ask other tenants in the building, but ultimately the reliability comes and goes and is steadily improving. Many coffeeshops now provide wireless access, some even free. At the very least you can pick up a dial-up access card from a 7-Eleven and get online immediately via a regular phone line, though you can expect about 33k. GPRS is another mobile option, either via bluetooth with your mobile phone or a plug in usb device, but it’s also relatively slow.
Cable TV: is offered by UBC at a cost of approximately 1500 baht a month and includes about 25 channels including BBC news, CNN, ESPN, Star sports, several football feeds, the History Channel, Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel and at least four movie channels, among others.
Transportation: is best served by the BTS skytrain and Bangkok Metro with single journeys costing between 10 and 40 baht. Monthly tickets aren’t offered for unlimited travel instead you can either purchase 10, 15 or 30 trip passes (valid for a month), or top up a magnetic card that gets debited every time you pass through the barriers. A 30 minute taxi ride across town (typical in off-peak hours) will cost about 120 baht.
