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With my girlfriend and daughter I live in Thailand (Thai countryside) and we have a budget of about 50.000 THB per month, or about 1.300 USD. We own our house,

by wsc981 5y ago

With my girlfriend and daughter I live in Thailand (Thai countryside) and we have a budget of about 50.000 THB per month, or about 1.300 USD. We own our house, so we don't pay rent and we don't have any loans. This budget doesn't include costs for health insurance, which I pay separately. I think a single guy could live on quite a bit less, but has to pay some rent. For about 250-300 USD per month you can get a decent enough place to live I'd wager (think: condo studio, 35 m2, gym, swimming pool). If you eat Thai food some of the time, food can be quite cheap (a meal without drinks could be had for about 1-2 USD in a typical Thai food stall or at a food court). If you buy foreign food things can get more expensive. Depending on where you live, coffee can also be had for 1-2 USD. Renting a scooter would be advisable for getting around a city, but would cost an additional 100 USD per month.

rwmj 5y ago
Thai food is so good I don't know who wouldn't want to eat it all the time.
- busterarm 5y ago
  I have a lemongrass allergy but I get by.
- Markoff 5y ago
  yeah, I thought Chinese food is great and diverse as well, but you will get tired of it after eating it daily for year or two and wanna change, so have to switch at least to Korean, Japanese, Malaysian or Western (Big Pizza and Saizeriya FTW)
danenania 5y ago
Can I ask how old your daughter is? Doing the nomad thing in cheaper, less developed countries seems a lot tougher to manage with kids, and even more so in the countryside. Gotta think about schools, pediatricians, dentists, finding play-mates for them, kid-friendly things to do, and so on. I'd be curious to hear about how you balance all that.
- wsc981 5y ago
  > Can I ask how old your daughter is? Doing the nomad thing in cheaper, less developed countries seems a lot tougher to manage with kids, and even more so in the countryside. Gotta think about schools, pediatricians, dentists, finding play-mates for them, kid-friendly things to do, and so on. I'd be curious to hear about how you balance all that. Our daughter is 4.5 years old now. Due to COVID the schools have been closed for the last month or so, but should be open again starting September. My daughter is half foreigner, half Thai and goes to a Thai private school in the area. Don't expect too much of these private schools on the country side, but it should beat government education (which is pretty much free). For the private school we pay about 700 USD per year. I work from home and since our daughter has been home a lot lately, I've resorted to working during the nights when my daughter is asleep. I tend to sleep from the morning to the afternoon. From the afternoon until the evening I spend at least a few hours every day with my daughter, playing LEGO, looking the iPad together, drawing, etc... She has a niece nearby that visits almost every day and is just a couple of years older. In daytime she often plays with her niece. We also have a neighbour with a son of about equal age as our daughter and sometimes they play together. There's not too much kid friendly stuff around here I guess, but my girlfriend does occasionally take our daughter to a playground nearby, at a government school. There's a soccer field and such for children to play on. I believe even here on the country side there's plenty of good dentists, but I have to admit I haven't tried any dentist here myself. Usually when I visit The Netherlands, once or twice a year, I visit my own dentist. Our daughter hasn't visited the dentist yet and my girlfriend doesn't either (she just takes good care of her teeth). If our daughter is sick, usually we first visit the clinic of the doctor that delivered our daughter in the hospital (many doctors here in Thailand have their own clinic that they work at after finishing their work hours at the hospital). If there's a bigger problem, we drive to Chiang Mai (about 2-3 hours drive) to visit the private Ram hospital which offers better care. We had to visit the hospital in Chiang Mai two times in the past and stay there for a few days. In the future I'd like to move again to a coastal area, perhaps Pattaya, perhaps Hua Hin, perhaps some other place. In those areas there's more stuff for kids to do, for example there's often an entertainment area for children in the larger shopping malls like Central, BluPort, etc... Also at these coastal areas there's entertainment like amusement parks, zoos, beaches, etc... Also there's better quality (but much more expensive) education available, like international schools.
ohashi 5y ago
Buying a scooter would be a better idea if the goal is saving money. They don't seem to depreciate that much, rent where I was like 2-3k/month, I bought one for 17k.

by wsc981 5y ago

rwmj 5y ago

Thai food is so good I don't know who wouldn't want to eat it all the time.

busterarm 5y ago
I have a lemongrass allergy but I get by.
Markoff 5y ago
yeah, I thought Chinese food is great and diverse as well, but you will get tired of it after eating it daily for year or two and wanna change, so have to switch at least to Korean, Japanese, Malaysian or Western (Big Pizza and Saizeriya FTW)

danenania 5y ago

Can I ask how old your daughter is? Doing the nomad thing in cheaper, less developed countries seems a lot tougher to manage with kids, and even more so in the countryside. Gotta think about schools, pediatricians, dentists, finding play-mates for them, kid-friendly things to do, and so on. I'd be curious to hear about how you balance all that.

wsc981 5y ago
> Can I ask how old your daughter is? Doing the nomad thing in cheaper, less developed countries seems a lot tougher to manage with kids, and even more so in the countryside. Gotta think about schools, pediatricians, dentists, finding play-mates for them, kid-friendly things to do, and so on. I'd be curious to hear about how you balance all that. Our daughter is 4.5 years old now. Due to COVID the schools have been closed for the last month or so, but should be open again starting September. My daughter is half foreigner, half Thai and goes to a Thai private school in the area. Don't expect too much of these private schools on the country side, but it should beat government education (which is pretty much free). For the private school we pay about 700 USD per year. I work from home and since our daughter has been home a lot lately, I've resorted to working during the nights when my daughter is asleep. I tend to sleep from the morning to the afternoon. From the afternoon until the evening I spend at least a few hours every day with my daughter, playing LEGO, looking the iPad together, drawing, etc... She has a niece nearby that visits almost every day and is just a couple of years older. In daytime she often plays with her niece. We also have a neighbour with a son of about equal age as our daughter and sometimes they play together. There's not too much kid friendly stuff around here I guess, but my girlfriend does occasionally take our daughter to a playground nearby, at a government school. There's a soccer field and such for children to play on. I believe even here on the country side there's plenty of good dentists, but I have to admit I haven't tried any dentist here myself. Usually when I visit The Netherlands, once or twice a year, I visit my own dentist. Our daughter hasn't visited the dentist yet and my girlfriend doesn't either (she just takes good care of her teeth). If our daughter is sick, usually we first visit the clinic of the doctor that delivered our daughter in the hospital (many doctors here in Thailand have their own clinic that they work at after finishing their work hours at the hospital). If there's a bigger problem, we drive to Chiang Mai (about 2-3 hours drive) to visit the private Ram hospital which offers better care. We had to visit the hospital in Chiang Mai two times in the past and stay there for a few days. In the future I'd like to move again to a coastal area, perhaps Pattaya, perhaps Hua Hin, perhaps some other place. In those areas there's more stuff for kids to do, for example there's often an entertainment area for children in the larger shopping malls like Central, BluPort, etc... Also at these coastal areas there's entertainment like amusement parks, zoos, beaches, etc... Also there's better quality (but much more expensive) education available, like international schools.

ohashi 5y ago

Buying a scooter would be a better idea if the goal is saving money. They don't seem to depreciate that much, rent where I was like 2-3k/month, I bought one for 17k.