Lived in a simple house in the rural American and can't imagine many places being more affordable. Also lived in beautiful beach towns that are nearly as expensive as London and Paris. My time in NE Thailand was comparable to country living in the USA. The list could go on …

My point being, there are so many factors that determine individual living expenses. Probably better to take a non-individualistic approach, using purchasing power parity (PPP) pertaining to a basket of goods. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund both calculate Thailand's per capita income doubles using this approach. As you would expect, most countries in Europe per capita GDP drops substantially.

One caveat - because of Thailand's large income disparity service related costs are much lower here than developed countries. Tourist benefit the most from this but even X-pats benefit more than the average Thai.

This post has been edited by siamamerican: 2009-11-07 10:45:24

When were you last in Australia? None of the prices you mention have anything to do with reality, Australia is horrifically expensive after you are used to Thai prices, and as an aside to that food in Australia is more expensive now than the UK.

I would say that Thailand is about 50% cheaper overall than Australia, this is based omn a recent visit and prices.

what about....

hotel with room service and breakfast for 400 bht a night ?

Taxi rides ?

1600cc Jet ski for 600 bht for a half hour ?

bike for 150 bht a day ?

room rent for 100 bht a month ?

Cell phones service is waaaay cheaper in thailand.

Sloppy pale women
expensive beaches
not compared to Thailand..
rat race debt riddled western lifestyle

I feel that most comparisons here are dirt wrong and as some others mentioned already many here don't compare apples to apples. If you look at the cheapest prices and the low-end lifestyle in the West then you need to compare to the lower end in Thailand. Now tell me: can a family survive in middle Europe, in UK, in OZ or in the US and live a decent lifestyle on let's say US$ 300 a month? OK, those who live on US$ 300 a month are not the poor minority in Thailand - these are the lower-middle class majority. How much does a lower middle class family has to spend in the West to survive without debts? OK...now tell me how this all should be possible if living in Thailand was not many times cheaper than living in the West or in OZ.
I personally like to live a better lifestyle, I eat at least 2-3 warm meals a day with healthy ingredients with plently of fresh vegetables and fresh fruit. Luckily my wife is an excellent (formerly also professional) cook and it's one of her daily hobbies to go to the markets and buy the best (but still dirt cheap) food and ingredients she can get and produce the best meals in the world. Doing the same in Europe was at least 2-5 more times expensive. One key to this: i don't feel that I depend on imported stuff - there is so much good local food available especially if you know where. I always preferred chicken and fish to beef - that's why I actually didn't know that beef seems to be so expensive here. The only exception for me is that for breakfast I love a good Swiss (maybe a bit locally adapted) Birchermuesli with Yoghurt and fresh pineapple. Interestingly enough you can get top quality original Swiss Birchermuesli ("familia" brand) in Central department store for only about 20% more than what you would pay in Switzerland. For example when I lived in Korea I had to pay about 5 times the price - and I didn't mind. The fresh pineapple is just about 10-15 Baht that's up to 1/10 of what I would have to pay for a good "fresh" imported pineapple in Europe.
So, my expenses for the best food I personally can wish for are about 1/5 or less than compared to in Europe.
Sometimes my wife and I love to go out and eat in top restaurants. Even the top end restaurants here are much cheaper than Europe. For example prices in top Italian restaurants (like for example Giusto) are at least 30% to 50% lower than in comparable top end restaurants in Europe.
What keeps my costs down a bit is the fact that both me and my wife don't like any form of alcohol at all and we don't drink any.

I live in the heart of Bangkok just at a skytrain station. Even though I could easily afford a wonderfully expensive car I don't feel that I need one and therefore I don't have one. My office is in the same building complex as my apartment, I have the skytrain nearly in front of my door, taxis are plenty available, I can rent car and driver very cheaply when I need to - so I decided I don't need to add to the congestion and pollution of Bangkok and buy another car. That reduces my costs quite a bit...

At the end of the day I actually don't compare individual prices one by one. I look at the more global picture. My wife does the shopping and takes care of the details and I can just compare the costs at the bottomline for a wonderful lifestyle here and the cost for a good lifestyle in Europe. Living as an expatriate in Thailand who loves Thai food and who has the luck of still getting a higher end Western salary is Paradise on Earth for me.

Here in Thailand I work as hard as I did in Europe, I live in a luxury apartment and apart from that I live a lifestyle that doesn't leave any wish open - and at the end of the day my expenses are still only a fraction of what they used to be when I was living a comparable lifestyle in Europe and the UK - (and yes, I happened to live also in the UK for 2 years, but I'm happy that that period in my life is over for good...). Now how could I live a better lifestyle here and at a fraction of the cost than in Europe if Thailand wasn't overall considerably cheaper??

This post has been edited by TallForeigner: 2009-11-07 12:29:14

Thanks for that, because hordes of Europeans were already packing for Australia after reading the OP.

In the UK (monthly)
My house rental 50,000bht, Council tax on house 7500bht, water 2500bht, elect 1250bht
Total 61,250bht (I didn't include the 50,000bht a year to fill the heating oil tank in the UK)

In Thailand (monthly and a nicer house)
Mortgage on gfs house 7000bht, water 40bht, elect 450bht
Total 7,490bht

Food
UK meal out for 2 steaks in pub with a beer 1500bht, Thailand steak or big fish in Riverside 700bht
(meal in Thai restaurant pat prik geng gai for 2 with a banana shake each, 70bht)

Booze
UK Night in the pub to get plastered (3 rattlers) 250bht, Thai night in the bar to get plastered (3 large Changs) 150bht

I can see a little bit of difference there!
My total monthly spending in Thailand is less than my basic house rental in the UK, and out here I am including a live-in girlfriend 20 years younger than me!
(Not to mention the fact that I haven't been cold since I came out here)

This post has been edited by pjclark1: 2009-11-07 12:54:53

I think you must be in La-La land or on some drugs to quote of the prices you have quoted...........Cars in Australia are the dearest in the western world and your Rego and compulsory third party car insurance that would be like a Thai paying between 80-90.000 THB to keep there car on the road, I lived in Sydney for 22 years so I think i have some idear , I left 10 years ago because of House prices car prices and running cost were over the top and through in your capital gains tax I'm glad I have left.

Even New Zealand is a lot cheaper than Australia to I have been checking Thailand over the past six months with the idear of retiring there and found that even compared to New Zealand thailand is still 25-40% cheaper to live and housing is about 40-60% cheaper cars about the same price, But we are still 40% cheaper than Australia for cars

A big day for corrections nd.

It is many years since there have been death taxes in any state of Oz.

When people ask me I say if you want to live Thai-style its much cheaper but if you want to live a Western lifestyle, shopping at Marks & Spencer, Waitrose etc and drink Stella then you gonna get raped.

Doesn't matter which country you're in, you're a cheap drunk!

Obviously both sides can pick their examples. An alternative here would be: three pints of the 'on-offer' bitter in a JD Wetherspoons pub 165 baht; three large Changs in most of the more lively bars in my Isaan city 270baht (plus ice). Thailand can still be very cheap but the UK provinces are cheaper for many things than some are saying.

The Wetherspoons' offer is 99P on some drinks.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/marketf...hellsandbutlers

In other news Mexico is not cheap when you only eat food and wine flown in from France

I think the OP should have changed the title to "Thailand USED to be cheap".

Back in 1993 you could bag a decent room for 40 baht !!

On the other hand nowadays, a lovely companion for the night will set you back 1000 baht in Pattaya, whereas in London you would pay 50,000+baht. No competition.

Its swings and roundabouts, but LOS wins everytime

Well listening to you all has helped me a bit. I live in Singapore, married with two kids. Now thats expensive!! Its the same as living in Hawaii. Rent for a single room in a flat will run you about S$500 Sing(12000baht) or more. Renting an entire 3 room flat will run over S$1000 Sing. Don't get me started on landed property(detached houses) we're talking S$4000 sing and up if you can find one. I pay S$400 a month on groceries(Local stuff) Cherries go for about S$4(95baht) and up. Movies for two people S$50 and up (1190baht) including popcorn and drink for two. My car cost me S$110,000(over 2mil baht). Now I'm sure Thailand can't be that expensive. I really want to move to phuket. Its a beautiful place with allot of things to do, like water sports and martial arts. In Singapore to sign my son up for basketball camp costs S$400. and thats for a 3 month season. The bottom line for me is, I want a place that has a good quality of life, without killing your wallet. I want a garden where my kids can play, not a concrete void deck. From what I see Thailand has the most to offer among the rest of Southeast Asia for the best price even though its not always the cheapest. If I'm wrong please enlighten me.

To live the life style I had in the US, I would probably need to earn 100K USD in Thailand, and I earned 120-160K while I lived in the US.

Now I earn around 35K-50K USD in Thailand, and my life style is pure crap compared to how things were in the states. Long hours, to earn a pittance, 2 junky cars that would not even inspire a giggle. A house with a crappy floor plan and tiny bathrooms.

A house worth living in, in Thailand will run around 6-8million baht, (and who wants to buy something that they will never really own) In the US 250-350K would be adequate to purchase a decent home.

I really think in order to live it up and have a growing savings account you have to be earning near 100K in Thailand.

I have just returned to the UK after 16 months in Thailand and believe me Thailand IS cheap.

When in Thailand I also used to think you could get things cheaper in your home country but now I am back I was very surprised how prices have increased in such a short time.

The way inflation is measured in the UK is a political magic trick taking into account purchases like flat screen tv's etc and is not reality.
Go home for two weeks and you will see for yourselves (no thanks I can hear) the west is not cheap.

The only benefit of UK prices is UK wages.

Well, luckily there is a broad spectrum of choices, if one needs a life satisfied with costly "luxuries" well, work for it, if one has won the lottery and is happy with that - so be it!

To be content and happy, no money in the world can buy that!


Is like "the blackberry jam they've sen me from france tasted very fishy,
couldn't fancy the name "caviar" either, so was the the cider, awfully dry!"


Fresh fruit, fresh seafood, reasonable suds in the watering holes all year round, most of the time sunshine,
temperatures one never needs a heater, reasonable cheap prices in general and on top of
it all, reasonable people around, unless one gets tempted to reason with them, easy going,
all smiles, most of the time, easy to please..... 20 years, happy and still going strong!


It's not always the "price tag"...!

Anything that is imported in to Thailand is not going to cheap we all know that ,rebuilding my mother in laws house just now cost of labour for the work 60000baht that is way cheaper back home I would dread to think how much this would cost me back home

When you look at the relative cost, housing is the by far the largest component...

I live in Sydney... you can not buy a house to live in if your work in the city for under 25 Million Baht... that is with a 45min-1hr commute each way... I understand it is almost impossible to buy a house and commute to work in BKK, but I might be wrong... Appartments in the city are between 35KTHB and 50KTHB/month... for a reasonable two bedroom... nice ones near my office are 185KTHB/month... I understand about 30KTHB/month is the Suk expat standard...

Utilities are about 9KTHB/month...

I think a big difference is that in Australia, most people eat at home 6 days a week, and spend 1000THB/head only once a week to eat out because of the price... In Th, you can eat out every meal if you like simple Thai food...

Drinks are about the same price in a bar in either, but in Australia you are only paying for your own

Our company has a good rate at a Star City Casino for staff in town, 5,600THB/night... we pay 4,000THB/night at Amari Boulevarde...

A Toyota Corolla costs about 650KTHB... about 30KTHB/year for registration...

From what I can see, Thailand is a bit cheaper but there is more temptation to spend more...

One last thing - speed 30Km/h>45km/h 20,000THB - I repeat 20,000THB... plus 1 month license disqualification... there are 172 Fixed Speed Cameras, and 900 Highway Patrol police for the state of New South Wales, an 801,600 square kilometre area comparable in size to Texas in the USA and double the combined geographic areas of England, Scotland and Wales

The last one alone is reason enough for me to want to move to Thailand ...

Cheers,
Daewoo

Clearly you've never been to Australia then! After two years working here I'm still shocked at the things grown offshore men will complain and whinge about like little girls. The whole "whinging POM" statement is a total hypocrasy.

And Australia is by far the most expensive country I've ever been to. Supermarkets, Restaurants, Bars, Housing, everything all way above the prices of the UK, UAE, US, Singapore and every other expensive developed country I've lived in (Aussies also get paid better than anywhere I've been too). Sure you can find things cheaper in Australia than the most expensive find in Thailand but that doesn't make Australia cheaper than Thailand.

You are generally comparing the most expensive find in Thailand to the cheapest finds in Australia, so your analysis is totally slanted. If you compare apples to apples then you would have a point (or whores to whores like you did, no shame for you is there?! ). For example, take 5,000 Baht of local Thai produced shopping from a supermarket in Thailand, and see how much local Australian produce you would get for the same money in a supermarket in Australia, I bet you would get tonnes more for your money in Thailand.

Ironically enough, the "whinging POM" backstory (of Brits being lured to move to Australia on the promise of a much better life which was vastly overexagerrated to them and then bitching about their situation when they got to Oz) is very similar to all the expats who move to Thailand thinking that they will live like a King in a perfect paradise for no amount of money, just because they come from a developed country, and then when the Thai bubble bursts and they face reality they have to whinge about something to make themselves feel better.

Exactly, I probably spend the same amount of money when I'm in Thailand as when I'm in the UK, but I do and get so much more in Thailand.

If I want to live the same lifestyle in UK (if it was even possible) I would end up spending 5 times as much money.

Female entertainment 1000-2000 for 2 hours, Asiam entertainment.

Why pay when you can get it for free

Of course it is known that if you are going to drink, bang whores and eat bread and cheese every night it is not cheep.

And who says culture is dead.

One thousand pounds. !!