The Real Cost of Living in Hua Hin Thailand
Some guys come here and they want to party five nights a week. Other guys are a bit more mellow, especially as they get older.
Here’s an example budget done for Hua Hin and obviously Bangkok is a lot more expensive than a city or town outside of Bangkok. Similar expenses would apply in somewhere like Pattaya. Prices are about the same.
This doesn’t include anything to do with the bars, ladies, that sort of thing, because that’s extra that’s not part of a living expense.
Everything has been broken down in detail. You might have to tweak it a bit for yourself, take certain things out, add a bit more where you might do something differently.
Let’s go through all of these. The total will come at the end in Thai baht, along with a few foreign currency conversions. And then we’ll look at how you could actually save more than you’re spending because it’s possible to live a very nice lifestyle here in Thailand without being rich. No limousine required but equally, you don’t have to eat street food cart meals every night.
So let’s start with the monthly budget.
Essential Monthly Expenses
Bottled Water The first expense living in Thailand, which is an absolute must, is bottled water. When you first come out here, you’re probably going to go to 7 Eleven and get a couple of those 5 liter big bottles. That’s actually quite an expensive way to buy water here. A better option is getting the big 18.5 liter barrels delivered to your home companies like Smile offer this service and it works out at about just 228 baht a month.
Clothes and Shoes Most people don’t buy a lot of clothes or shoes here. The sort of things you’ll mostly buy is new underwear, socks, the occasional pair of trainers or sneakers, and that’s about it. The odd shirt? Sure, a couple of hundred baht or a little bit more. 600 baht a month is a reasonable figure.
Coffee Shops and Casual Eating This isn’t for main meals just things like meeting a friend, having a coffee and maybe a cake. No more than 1,200 baht a month. Probably less than that, but it’s been done conservatively so you can gauge what your costs might be.
Electricity An electricity bill in Hua Hin runs at about 1,500 baht a month, which is very good considering two wash loads every week, daily showers, and air conditioning in the bedroom on all night plus the lounge air con running periodically in the evening for a couple of hours. It does cost a little bit more in Bangkok a one bedroom there might run to 2,000 baht. So moving out of Bangkok is cheaper, basically.
Haircuts No more than one haircut a month. You can pay up to 400 baht, but a very good hairdresser can be found for 150 baht a month.
Visa Fees If you use an agent, you’ll need to incorporate that cost over 12 months in your budget. Doing your own visa particularly somewhere like Hua Hin where immigration is very helpful and less crowded is straightforward. A long term visa costs around 2,900 baht per year. Broken down over 12 months, that’s 241 baht a month to live here full time in Thailand.
Vehicle Costs
Scooter Insurance and Tax This budget assumes a scooter is already paid for. For reference, a Honda ADV 160 which many consider far superior to the Honda Click 160 costs around 103,000 baht new.
Insurance for the scooter is 1,900 baht a year, which works out to 158.33 baht a month. Tax for the scooter is 800 baht a year (400 baht for a 125cc, 800 for anything over 125cc). That’s 66.66 baht a month.
Car Insurance and Tax The older a car gets, the less the insurance becomes. Third party cover is very common here since bodywork and repairs are cheap. Fully comp on a car might be 16,000 baht a year, but third party on a 5 year old car runs about 4,800 baht a year just 400 baht a month. Car tax for the year is 1,900 baht, which is 158.33 baht a month.
Petrol
Petrol for the car: This one is harder to calculate. A reasonable estimate is 2,000 baht a month including occasional trips. For longer trips 30 minutes to a nice beach or an hour out of town fuel use goes up and could reach 3,000 baht. Using the car every day would push it to around 6,000 baht a month, which is why using a scooter for everyday errands makes much more sense. The car is best used for the weekly big shop filling the boot with soda waters, beers, bread, and groceries that wouldn’t fit on a bike.
Petrol for the scooter: Filling up once a week costs around 200 baht. Five fill ups a month puts this at 1,000 baht a month.
Car Washes
Taking both vehicles for a wash once a month (sometimes less often) a full valet for the car is 220 baht, and the scooter 125 baht. Monthly, that’s approximately 345 baht.
Oil and Filters 166 baht a month for oil and filters, broken down over the year.
Tires 600 baht a month for tires. Changing tires on both the car and bike every 3 years costs approximately 7,333 baht. Broken down to 36 months, that’s about 611 baht a month.
Scooter and Car Servicing 500 baht a month for servicing covers everything. Some months it’ll be more than others. And of course, if you don’t have a car or only have a scooter this figure comes down considerably.
Household and Utilities
Internet at Home 670 baht a month for a very fast broadband package suitable for streaming Netflix and live streaming at HD 1080 quality. Cheaper packages are available, and some apartments offer free internet included. Having your own is preferable for speed and reliability.
Medications and Prescriptions Getting medication from a government hospital works out extremely cheap around 450 baht for a 4 month supply. For those going to a pharmacy instead, common medications like statins, blood pressure tablets, and acid reflux treatment come to about 2,500 baht a month for everything.
Mobile Phone Bill A mobile phone bill with plenty of minutes and add ons runs about 600 baht a month.
Water Bill For flushing, showering, and even watering a garden with sprinklers every night, the water bill is a very modest 150 to 160 baht a month.
Food and Entertainment
Meals Out Eating out is very common here in Hua Hin because it’s so cheap. Mostly Thai food, with the occasional shared foreign dish a portion of fish and chips between two, or half a pizza each. Going out at least five dinners a week plus a couple of lunches, the estimate for food out comes to about 10,000 baht a month for two people.
Snacks and Drinks Things like a can of Diet Coke on the go, a plate of chips, soda waters. 1,000 baht a month is a worst case figure, but it can add up quickly.
Toiletries Toothpaste, razor blades, shampoo, and the like. No more than 200 baht a month.
Weekly Supermarket Shopping Groceries tea, coffee, bread, butter, vegetables, meat, chicken, beef plus toilet rolls, tissues, and household essentials. 10,000 baht a month for two people. It can fluctuate depending on what needs buying that week.
TV Subscriptions About 150 baht a month for TV subscriptions. Registering from Thailand instead of a home country like the UK can be cheaper, but you’ll get offered a different programming selection on services like Netflix so many people prefer to keep their home country package.
Online Shopping 6,000 baht a month for online shopping. This covers cables, tech accessories, hard drives, food products that aren’t available in local shops (Bisto gravy, Marmite, that sort of thing), tools, and gardening equipment all easily found on Lazada. This is a worst case figure; most months it’ll be less.
Savings and Extra Payments
Monthly Savings This one doesn’t have to be part of the budget, but it’s worth considering. Setting up a direct debit to save 20,000 baht a month about £500, $550 USD, or $1,000 AUD makes sense as a financial safety net. It could go towards paying off a house, buying a new car, or just sitting there for when a big cost comes along. Obviously, you could put nothing away each month, or just 5,000 it’s entirely personal.
Mortgage and Land Payment A mortgage payment of 11,000 baht a month is included here, with an extra 1,000 baht on top paying slightly more than required can help secure a better interest rate when it comes time to renegotiate. There’s also 3,000 baht a month going towards land, making the total mortgage and land payment 15,100 baht a month. This is very much a personal choice and will vary greatly depending on your situation.
The Grand Total
A couple of things not included in this budget: something set aside for emergencies such as an unplanned flight home, and health insurance when you take out your own insurance, that would need to be factored into your own budget.
Taking everything above into account, the grand total comes to 74,961.64 baht so let’s call it 75,000 baht a month. That’s:
£1,806 GBP $3,485 AUD $2,448 USD
What You Need to Consider
This budget includes going out for meals quite often, starting with a large bottle of Chang or similar, but very rarely going out in the evening for a night out at the bars. The occasional few beers with a visiting friend, home by 10:30 that’s it. If you’re planning to go out drinking three or four times a week, that needs to be calculated into the budget separately. And if you plan to do more cooking at home and less eating out, you can bring the food costs down.
Adjusting the Budget What You Really Need
Remember 20,000 baht a month is being set aside by personal choice. Take that off the 75,000 total and you’re down to 55,000 a month. Tweak a few other areas and it could come down to 50,000.
So realistically, what’s needed every month to live well in Thailand in a town like Hua Hin or Pattaya? The biggest cost is rent. With low rent a studio apartment in somewhere like Jomtien runs 12,000 to 15,000 baht a month a decent lifestyle is achievable on 50,000 baht a month.
That wouldn’t include regular evenings out at the bars say three times a week, a few lady drinks, four or five beers each time. Work that out, get the prices, and add it in. Maybe that brings it to 60,000 to 70,000 a month.
But running a car, a scooter, feeding two people, and living quite a nice lifestyle it can be done on 55,000 baht a month (excluding the savings portion).
