Week 3: Summary of Expenses.

Day 22: Living in Thailand

Today was just another day, catching up on chores. I could quite easily do next to nothing when it comes to washing and cleaning. It�s easy to find a place to have clothes washed and ironed for 10 Baht � 30 cents apiece, cheaper still for wash and fold. In Phuket I had someone clean the house once weekly 4 hrs for 400 Baht $13.50 and that was very expensive, my neighbor has his room cleaned, including the sheets been changed all for about 100 Baht $3.35 Labor is very cheap in Thailand.

• Washing 30 Baht - $1.00

Total for the day: 30 Baht $1.00 - Total Remaining: 925 Baht



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Taking a look back at the week's expenses.
End of another week, this week saw me pretty much finalize the fact that I will go over budget for the month, I will still be well under $500 a common number thrown around when talking about living abroad. With 8 days to go, a trip to the border on the 31st that will cost 600 Baht it is very unlikely that I can get by on just 40 Baht a day $1.35.

Since my last weekly summary on the 17th I have spent a whopping 1440 Baht $48.40 in 6 days nearly doubling what I needed to do, to stay comfortably on target. No unexpected expenses that I can blame it on, a simple case of needing to stock up the fridge and other supplies. I personally cannot skimp on some things the main been food & safe decent accommodation. If asked as I am often "How much do you need in Chiang Rai" to live comfortably I respond $600 and its hard to spend it all.

We now head in to the last part of this 31-day exercise, challenge, looking at life in Chiang Rai on a budget of $400 a month, along with daily summaries of what I have learnt over the last 18 months. This next part covers the last 12 months in Thailand, wanting to find somewhere that is more Thai and considerably cheaper than Phuket. In December of 2010 I took off on a small motorbike going as far South as Malacca in Southern Malaysia then turning around and heading north to Northern Thailand 23,000k in 4 months and plenty of excellent cities that I stayed in worthy of consideration. Pros and Cons on a few of the different cities, including a look at the south and a little of Malaysia. After the final setup and costs, when I found a place that I knew was going to end up been home for a while.

   Continue Reading Day 23: Exploring other places to Live Phang Nga and Trang.