How Much To Live In Isaan Really Cheap?

[puchooay]

No rent or car payments. The only household bill is electric; no western stuff, as previously stated, so electric bill well under 1000baht. Daughter at Government school. She gets 25 baht a day. That leaves about 18500 baht a month. Couple of beers a day for me. Some petrol in the car and the motorbikes, don't use the car much. Food in the house. All bought from the local markets. Car, motorbike and health insurance averages in total about 1200 a month.

Done, and please don't call me a liar.

so you pay per year around 15,000 baht for car , motor bike and health insurance ? can you break that down a bit, what health cover for a family can u possibly have on that amount of money ... and what about car service , tires , rego for car, bike ....and house insurance and contents ....household repairs ...visas ..... i still think you are not revealing all ......if you were single and rode a bicycle , owned your own house and did sweet FA all day without any insurance cover i might start to believe you ....remember hundreds of TV members try to live here on a budget so we are all aware of what it takes ...

As I am in a similar position, I will attempt a reply.

My car insurance is 900bht/year, car tax 900bht/year

M/c insurance 300bht/year, tax 100bht/year

Thais get free health care, so my family don't need insurance, I don't bother with health ins for me.

Hardly anyone bothers with house or contents insurance over here.

House repairs almost nothing, in the last two years I paid for two new shower hoses.

Tyres and servicing aren't done all that much, so minimal expense.

If people would bother to read previous posts, things would be alot easier. I am a member to the Thai Social Security Scheme. I have free medical cover. No exceptions. My wife has a 30 baht card. My daughter has a gold card. My social security payments are 425 baht a month.

All of this talk about Government hospitals and" make sure they take out the right thing". Does make me laugh. A very large majority of the private hospitals here are staffed by nurses and doctors from the Government hospitals moonlighting. Pretty much the same service. Also I had a procedure done here in two days. In the UK I would have been on the waiting list for at least a month.

My pick up is now 9 years old. Insurance is not that much. I also have a 5000 baht excess. YOu should try it. It saves alot of money. Im not sure of the figures, but a very high percentage of insurance claims here in Thailand are for under 5000baht. Motorcycle insurance is so cheap it is not even worth talking about.

I am not looking for any accolades for liing cheaply, because I dont think that I am. I am just enjoying myself for what it costs.

[nev]

All those on here telling others who are living here on less than they are that they are living to cheaply, why bother it is there life, i would rather be living in issan than living in my home country where my money goes further and my life is stress free, i agree about the west being obsessed with insurance and when you try to claim the company will look for a loop hole to get out of paying.

I live on 35,000 baht a month, and that is plenty, i do not soke only a social drinker, happy spending time in the garden on the farm, only go out one or two nights a week,i am lucky in a way i am in a relationship with a girl who earns a good living and does not need me to support her and her family, and money i give her she gives back as much as i give her.

[Surin steve]

We all have our ups and downs liveing in the LOS I've moaned in the past about Thailand getting expensive and it's no way as cheap or as much fun as in the past BUT !!! I'm writing this post from the U.K I'm here on a 2 month holiday and it's taken this stint in the U K to make me realise just how lucky I am liveing in Thailand

We all moan about farangs getting ripped off time to time but the U.K ripps off everyone all the time !!!!!

I spent a week on the coast with my daughter

Insurance to drive my mams car for 2 weeks £124 (I have Thai licence)

Petrol more than double Thai price

Pitch for a small tent £23 per night

Price for small B&B when we got washed out with the crappy British weather £80 per night

Double yellow lines every where exept car parks of course so they can ripp you off £3-£5 every time you go shopping or just for a few hours on the beach

A pint of beer nearly 4 quid small glass of coke £2 what a ripp off Britain has become and on top of all this rules and regulations all over the place no dogs , no camp fires , no entry, no swimming , no music after 10 o'clock NO FUN !!!!!!!! and on top of all this it rained every day every thing was so gray so yes I've moaned about thailand but now I'm coming back with my

eyes opened and a new happiness in my heart because how ever bad Thailand gets it beats the hell out of blighty hands down

[xybadog]

Funny, isn't it, how a simple opening question always ends up in a d1ck measuring contest.

OP - One thing I don't understand. Are you already in a more expensive part of LOS? I'm guessing you must be because otherwise your air fare would cancel out any benefit of spending up to only six weeks here to try and save 3K.

If you are already in LOS then I think you could benefit from going to Isaan to accomplish your goal. I go to the GF's house in rural Isaan on HOLIDAY and I only spend around 500-600thb per day, including beer and cigarettes. Okay, I don't have to pay for accom but we eat good food with fresh meat bought from Tesco or local markets. If you replace my costs for the cigarettes and beer for your accom costs you could easily live on the same 500-600thb per day.

Having said that, if you prefer a more lively atmosphere, I know places in Koh Samui that have rooms for 60thb per day. They're clean and totally above board, and you'll even find similar one's in BKK, Udon, Pattaya etc, etc. And before all the trolls start saying that the rooms are in someone's garage or shed, or they're hovels, they're not. These hotels cater usually for Thais but if you say you want it for 6 weeks then they will rent at the Thai price. I have friends who've backpacked and stayed in these before and they loved them (just keep your valuables on you even though I've never had any report of any incidents). They don't have all the farang "luxuries" but they're clean and have a bed and shower (what else do you want from a room?).

I know one very nice farang hotel in Koh Samui that has cheap rooms that would cost you only 12000thb for a month. Might sound expensive for what you want but if you factor in food and water at 6000thb per month that's nearly 20000thb for one month. That's about $650. Surely this would be doable?

Anyway, whatever you choose to do, I hope it works out.

[xybadog]

We all have our ups and downs liveing in the LOS I've moaned in the past about Thailand getting expensive and it's no way as cheap or as much fun as in the past BUT !!! I'm writing this post from the U.K I'm here on a 2 month holiday and it's taken this stint in the U K to make me realise just how lucky I am liveing in Thailand

We all moan about farangs getting ripped off time to time but the U.K ripps off everyone all the time !!!!!

I spent a week on the coast with my daughter

Insurance to drive my mams car for 2 weeks £124 (I have Thai licence)

Petrol more than double Thai price

Pitch for a small tent £23 per night

Price for small B&B when we got washed out with the crappy British weather £80 per night

Double yellow lines every where exept car parks of course so they can ripp you off £3-£5 every time you go shopping or just for a few hours on the beach

A pint of beer nearly 4 quid small glass of coke £2 what a ripp off Britain has become and on top of all this rules and regulations all over the place no dogs , no camp fires , no entry, no swimming , no music after 10 o'clock NO FUN !!!!!!!! and on top of all this it rained every day every thing was so gray so yes I've moaned about thailand but now I'm coming back with my

eyes opened and a new happiness in my heart because how ever bad Thailand gets it beats the hell out of blighty hands down

I've come to the point now where I hate the UK. Every time I pass a park local to my family there's Polish wino's there, and what do they bring to the country? Just sponging benefits from the system. But if you want to take your Thai wife or gf to live in the UK you have to jump through hoops just to get her there, and pay a hefty visa fee. (sorry, bit off topic )

[Surin steve]

 too true mate you hit the nail on the head there

[rsokolowski]

And what about dental care?

I'm English, this question doesn't even register.

Thadeous, A great sense of humor is priceless.