Francis

Francis:

Okay, Stefan. Could you tell me how much money in dollars and then in Thai money you roughly have to use each month to live?

Stefan:

Okay. First of all for basic conversion in head, I use the 40:1 conversion like 40 Baht is 1 Euro or $1. Okay, so it’s very easy to convert it in your head if you see something for 20 Baht, it’s half a dollar or half a euro.

Okay, in your head, it’s not exactly the right price. For euro, it’s right but for dollar it’s a little bit less.

Francis:

Okay.

Stefan:

I have a house with 2 bedrooms and a scooter.

Francis:

And a pool. 

Stefan:

Yeah, the house has a pool. And we pay 15,000 a month which is around $375 rounded up $400/400 Euro.

For a 2 bedroom house with a scooter so you can drive around town and whatever you want to do. Plus, on top of that comes all the expenses that you have for food, drinks and whatever you need; all the stuff that you normally buy on a day to day basis.

So I would say, we spend around 30,000-35,000 Baht a month which translates to around 700-900 Euro/Dollar.

Francis:

With 2 persons?

Stefan:

2 people, yeah.

Francis:

Food and everything included?

Stefan:

Yeah, everything included. I think if we rounded really nicely up to 1000 when it’s with no strings attached like you have no worries.

You can eat whatever you want every day and you can go there and then you’ll come. So if we rounded it generously up to $1,000 that would the monthly expenses you have for 2 people.

Francis:

How luxurious is your lifestyle there? You have a pool. You can eat out every day?

Stefan:

Normally in Thailand, it’s like a cultural thing again because it seems to me that everyone is out even the Thai’s. I don’t know exactly how this works but it seems to me like people don’t cook at home.

They always instead of cooking every day two hours at home for breakfast, lunch and dinner; they just have jobs, small jobs than cook.

So the normal people just go out to eat by the food stand. You know, they have instead of restaurants; you have so many food stands everywhere. Every 10 meters you food stands. There’s someone that cooks something and we can take it away or eat it there. 

Normally, it seems like everyone eats out here. You don’t have to cook if you don’t want to but you can, of course. So when you are living here as a foreigner, you can eat every day out which costs you the same. It costs you like around $1 or 1 Euro per meal, in average.

Francis:

When you pay $1 per meal, is the drink included?

Stefan:

Oh, that’s often even included because water is often free when you eat something somewhere.  

But things are very inexpensive there like 25 cents for a bottle of water. And something that’s for us Europeans, you don’t have a fee on bottles – a bottle deposit fee.

Because in Germany, we have this bottle deposit fee which makes it when you buy a drink for 1 Euro and it costs more than 1 Euro or, you know?

Francis:

Because 25 cents and you have to give the bottle back to get the fee back. 

Stefan:

Exactly. So since you don’t have it here when a bottle only costs about 20 cents, it’s 20 cents period.

So it’s not doubled like in Germany.

Francis:

Yes. Let’s say, I come visit you in Thailand and I book a hotel or something similar your living standards.

I don’t rent a house. I book a hotel with your standards – with a pool for 2 people and 2 bedrooms. How much would I have to pay?

Stefan:

You mean a house? You rent a house?

Francis:

Yes. The similar living standards but not on long term basis. But just like a vacation of 2 weeks.

Stefan:

That wouldn’t be possible, most likely. Because, at least where I live, you can’t rent houses for shorter than at least a year.

Francis:

That’s sad. Why?

Stefan:

You can rent and go to hotels, basically which is not a house. It’s only a room with bathroom and everything.

Francis:

Yes. How expensive are hotels?

Stefan:

They’re not really expensive. I mean before we settle down when we found a house, we were living in a hotel for a month and we paid like 15 Euros or $15 a day. So for 30 days for a 2-bed hotel room would come up also around $450 a month.

Francis:

Yes, seems affordable.

Stefan:

It’s very affordable. It’s comparative to what we are paying right now for a house.