I first went to Thailand in 1997 and immediately fell in love with the country. Thailand at that time to me was mysterious and exotic, full of potentials and pitfalls.
Fast forward to 2010 and here I am after 13 years and many trips to the LOS sharing, with the help of my 
Living in Thailand on $20 a Day
You can find several guides and websites online claiming that it’s possible to be living in Thailand on just $20 a day. Is this really possible or are these just the dreams of deluded individuals? Can you live in Thailand on $600 (currently 20,000 baht) a month? Or has the past few years inflation made Thailand too expensive for such a frugal lifestyle?
I suppose anything is possible and if you live in northeast Thailand or some remote area of the north or deep south of Thailand then it’s quite possible you can do this. It depends too on what type of lifestyle you expect to have. On $600 a month I can’t imagine there will be much cash available for travel or entertainment. And there is no way I can imagine living in Bangkok on that paltry amount, although I have read accounts of those who know someone that is doing just that.
I’m honestly not completely sure if it’s possible or not, but I am hoping to get a discussion going here to find out what others think, especially those that currently are living in Thailand. Let’s make this clear once and for all.
So, with that in mind if you have experience currently living in Thailand we would all be greatly appreciative if you could chime in below in the comments. Let us know what YOU think about the possibilities of living in Thailand on just 20,000 baht per month.
If possible, please include the town or province in Thailand where you live, current rental rates for apartments/condos, food costs (both Thai and Western would be great), prices for services such as electric, cable and internet, entertainment costs and anything else you think is relevant.
Personally I don’t think I could live in Thailand on anything less than 50,000 baht a month and I feel I would be depriving myself of opportunities at that. I’m really hoping to get some good comments though so we all know what the current cost of living is like in various parts of Thailand and whether or not it’s possible to get by on just $20 a day in Thailand.
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Hi Steve – great topic. It is very possible to live in Thailand for one person on just 8000b per month and two people for 12,000b. We did it for about a year to save money.
The major issue is… can you live on 30-35 baht meals each time you eat? Another issue – can you go without drowning yourself in alcohol day after day? Do you need to be driving a Range Rover or other gas guzzler or does a 110cc motorbike work for you?
and of course another…. can you live in a 3,000b per month flat or do you need something that resembles the house you had back in your country?
I’ve lived like a Thai here for over 2 yrs and saved some cash doing so. We no longer live on 12,000b per month but we’re not much above that (18k now).
I think it’s funny that you chose this topic… because when you were here you were blowing BIG money! I’m going to guess you and your lovely wife can’t stay in Thailand on less than 100g’s/month. 50? no way. lol…
Hey Vern,
Good to hear from you man. Yeah I know it’s all about your expectations and lifestyle. Thai food is so great that I’m sure I could make do with those 35 baht meals, but there are other things I’m sure I’d miss on a 20k budget. Beer and travel come immediately to mind.
Yes, we were spending BIG, however that was on holiday. And that would have put us around the 100k/month mark, but let’s be realistic, we certainly don’t expect to live like that if Thailand is home. While I’m sure we could easily go through 100k a month (especially in Bkk), I’m also sure we could be quite comfortable on 50k. Heck, if we moved to Krabi I doubt we could spend 100k per month consistently even if we tried
Thanks for being the first to respond and getting the ball rolling here, hopefully I’ll get lots more great responses!
–Steve
I think that 20,000 would be an amazing hardship, but for some, where there is a will, there may be a way. I live in Bangkok and I can live just fine on 50,000, but I own my condo and live in Pattanakarn on the way to the airport. Now that the BTS will open the new airport run in August, I will have access to the BTS and will not have to use a cab all the time. I am also fortunate that I have a Thai partner who works and makes a good income. So for all of my expenses it may come to 20,000, but if I had to pay rent, a room in Pattanakarn goes for 5,500 per month, plus electric, telephone, cable, and internet. That alone would be about 12,000 bht and add food and transport you would already be at around 20,000. No money for anything, but the basic existence. 40,000 bht would work fairly well in my neighborhood. Lot’s of cheap food at the food stalls, and very few westerners, which always makes it cheaper.
All of that being said, if you live in Chiang Rai, or in Issan region you can live much more cheaply. That is provided you don’t have an adopted family and have to buy a water buffalo!!! I think a person can do well in the north for around 35,000-40,000. This is all relative and depends on your expectation of what a life should be. In Chiang Rai you can rent a place for 5000-8000 bht per month for a room. Add all of the lliving stuff and you could make it on probably 25,000 with a little to spare for the occassional cheap beer and maybe a cheap date will add another 5,000 bht.
Get a girlfriend or boyfriend that works and you will do a whole lot better, unless mom and dad, and brothers and sisters move in. If the water buffalo dies you are then going to be asked for help.
aloha, my stepson lives in chiang mai, he makes 18,000 baht a month. He just moved into a brand new 3 bedroom house, has a 2 yr. old Toyota truck, but does not have much money left a the end of the month. His girlfriend lives with him and she makes about 8000 baht a month.
i think it is possible because i do know of people who stay at the north of BKK ie at Pan Mi who only spend $300/mth.
I didn’t ever add up exactly add up what I was spending during my recent two months in Bangkok, but a figure of about 30,000 – 40,000 feels about right.
My rent was 12,000bh per month. I know people who were renting for as little as 3,000.
Someone recently asked my about food costs and I gave this as a reply:
Street Stalls -> 20 – 50 baht per dish
Food Courts -> 40 – 60 baht per dish
Cheap Restaurants -> pretty similar to food courts, maybe a touch higher 45 – 70 baht per dish
Smarter restaurants (e.g. the chains you see in the shopping centres) -> I normally spend 150 – 200 baht per meal.
Really smart places can obviously go as high as Western prices
I paid 6,700bh for my month long language course.
I reckon I was only spending about 250bh per day on incidental expenses (including food). Some days it was more, and others less, but I reckon that was about the average.
I lived in Patong Phuket for 7 months and budgeted about $40,000 baht a month. However I had a view villa with daily maid service, internet, cable and all utilities incld. Phuket is the richest and most expensive area in Thailand save some high end parts of Bangkok. I recommend Phuket because there is so much extra to do if you don’t want to spend money. There are 17 beaches you can spend the day at and I frequently loved my motorbike rides around the rolling hills. You could easily live comfortable on $20,000, but I would make sure I had health insurance. Accidents happen ALL the time not to mention mosquitos and other vector and invisible hazards and even though hospitals are good and also cheap that could cost you $20,000 alone depending.
I got up in the morning took the motorbike to a different beach every day slept had an afternoon drink and swim and then continued drinking into the night. Some days I’d take off and stay home and watch movies on the internet (for me this is essential, I theathered my cell phone with a $1000 a month unlimited, but you can get it wired to your place for a hookup fee and maybe only $500 a month).
Some things to cut your expenses when you get there is to buy a motorbike the first week. You should be able to get a second hand one for 15,000-20 easy. It will have to be in a Thai friends name or you will have to do some extra embassy legwork, paperwork and have a longer visa to own it straight away. That saved me a lot of money on cabs and also no rental for the entire time was there… loved it.
I paid $8,000 a month for my villa but If you get a cheap room in the 3,000-5,000 range you can figure it will not have anything in it. Some are furnished, some are not. At the very least you’ll have to spend 1,500 on a fan which is necessary.. I never needed more than that while I was there.
If you buy some electric cookers (ie. a hot plate with saute pan, rice cooker and water boiler) your thai girlfriend will often cook for you costing you next to nothing. I don’t like adopted families and the suddeness of needing to take care of them because I am a foreigner and hence should be rich, so I didn’t have a girlfriend and ate out every meal which has been said before is about the same… in Patong, cheap food was 40-50 but it’s cheaper if you are in Phuket Town or altogether somewhere farther out, even Bangkok is cheaper than Phuket.
One thing most people forget when budgeting like this each month is what type of visa you will be living on. If you have a year long visa that’s better but many expats just cross the border every 90 days which is going to cost you quite a bit depending on the always changing laws and the area you live in. Be aware if you ask advice from Visa run companies some of them are just trying to send you out farther than you need to go so they make more money and blame it on a new law. It’s really hard to know since the law does change so often, but I’d call a few places and compare their law explanations or Thaivisa.com has some resources. But don’t forget to budget this in, I had to fly to Kuala Lumpur once when I thought I could just take the bus to Penang and that meant I had to stay home for a week (this is where internet comes in handy).
So, obviously the answer is yes, it is completely viable to have a good time sustaining yourself in Thailand for 20,000. I would realistically have a good time with budgeting 30,000 to 40,000. I learned to read Thai in a month studying 1 hour a day and I think you could speak and communicate very well in a matter of 4-6 months with the same frequency (faster if you are living there). If you speak thai you are instantly not taken advantage of and ultimately you could find yourself making money there being a dual language speaker.
Well hope some of this might have helped.