(upbeat music)
- Hi guys, my name is Amanda and I'm one of your
ITA Video Ambassadors for Southeast Asia.
So today I'm gonna be talking to you a little bit about
cost of living in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
So I teach English full-time online, so I'm actually able
to hope around kind of from country to country so right now
I'm in Da Nang, Vietnam but I did live in Chiang Mai
for about three months.
So let's look at how much does it really cost to live
in Chiang Mai.
So toady I'm basically just going to break down all the
different categories that we tracked throughout our three
months living in Chiang Mai and I'll tell you what we spent.
So we have our accommodation, which will include our rent
and utilities, we have any fixed expenses such as our phone
bill, we have our food out and then we also have groceries,
and coffee, and the gym or fitness facility, transportation
and then we will also have an other category that I'll talk
a little bit more about at the end that's not necessarily
essential but just to give you an idea of some other
expenses that you might have in Chiang Mai.
So, let's go ahead and just jump right into it.
Okay so for accomodation you can expect to spend anywhere
from 300 to 500 range depending on if you are a single
person or a couple.
Our budget was 500 US dollars and we had read a few blogs
before just to kind of see some locations that we were
interested in and some apartment buildings, so we ended up
choosing something that was a little bit towards the top
of our budget but we chose that just because we wanted
a full one bedroom apartment, something a little bit newer
and then we also ended up doing a lot of work in
the apartment instead of a cafes so this had a nice pool
and gym included and a lobby to work in.
As well in accommodation are utilities,
were about $30 a month.
Okay so our phone was another really important thing,
if you have an iPhone you need to have it unlocked when
you come here and basically the best thing to do is to just
buy a SIM card and then you can just put the SIM card into
your phone and just top up every month.
So the two best providers in Chiang Mai that we have
gathered from multiple people are TrueMove which is what we
had and then AIS so were were able to get an unlimited data
package, we did not do any calling or texting and our
unlimited data package was about 500 Baht a month
or 15 US dollars.
So I think this is the most important
category that can make or break people's budget,
so food out.
So in Thailand food is so, so cheap that you probably are
not gonna cook much in your apartment, we definitely didn't.
So we spent most of our meals eating out, but we would eat
locally for almost every single meal.
So Chiang Mai definitely has some good Western options to
eat at but that will skyrocket your budget for sure.
So eating out, for almost three meals a day, for a month
cost us about 150 US dollars each.
So today we both got Kai Jeow Moo Sab
which is a fried omelet over rice.
So both of our meals are 35 Baht, it's something that we get
often for lunch and that's about one US dollar.
- So this bowl of Khao soi
with a chicken drumstick costs 75 Baht
so 2.50 US dollars.
- Okay so the next category would be groceries, so like I
said, we did not cook a lot but we did make a lot of 7/11
runs and our groceries also included buying some things
for breakfast in the morning, which we would eat at home
sometimes if it was just like peanut butter and rice cakes
or bananas, so things like that are all included in our
groceries category, and for us we spent anywhere from
80-120 dollars a month on groceries.
So the groceries category also includes water,
you cannot drink the tap water in Chiang Mai so most people
buy big water jugs that you can get at 7/11 and then you can
actually refill them so that is a big, great way to save
money is instead of continually buying new, big water jugs
every single couple of days, take them to a water fill
station and it is only a few Baht to fill up
that entire water jug.
Okay next category is coffee.
So we probably spend more on this category than most people
both Zack and I really enjoy coffee, but we mostly spent
a lot of money in this category because we were going to
cafes to work every day.
So, we would get a coffee almost, at least one a day,
seven days a week, and we spent about $35 a month,
so not too bad, again we'd get coffee from like a little
local stand or a local coffee shop and typically they're
about 30-50 Baht for a just classic Thai coffee.
Okay, transportation is the next category.
So we actually didn't rent motorbikes in Chiang Mai
although a lot of people do, I think if you are teacher
living in Chiang Mai you will need a motorbike just because
you'll have to drive to your school but honestly
the public transportation in Chiang Mai is great,
so you can take Songthaews almost everywhere
and we really enjoy walking.
So we living in Nimman which is a little area outside
of the center of Chiang Mai and it's so, so walkable.
But if you ever do need something there's also Grab
and then the red Songthaews that can take you to
all around downtown and actually even to areas outside
of Chiang Mai.
So typically one of the red Songthaews cost about
30 Baht per person for a ride anywhere in the city.
Okay so gym, this is always a super important category
for us, we actually did two different things.
So one reason we chose the apartment and spent a little bit
more on it was because it had a gym, it was brand new,
it had treadmill, free weights, everything, so it was
really, really nice to have
but there are quite a few gym options.
So there is a big gym that I know quite a lot of people
go to that's in MAYA Mall and it's on the top level
but it does cost about 30 US dollars a month.
Another thing that we did, just to kind of mix up our
work out routine was join a Muay Thai gym.
So this is a bit of a pricier option but it was so, so much
fun to do and such a great workout.
So we joined the Chiangmai Muay Thai Gym,
creative name I know, which is located right in the,
like downtown main Chiang Mai ares and this was about
9 US dollars a class.
Alright so our grand total for one month of living per
person in Chiang Mai Thailand is 641 US dollars per person.
So this includes absolutely everything that you need to live
and we were not skimping on anything.
If we wanted an extra coffee, we got it.
We did eat out Western food sometimes, so it's so, so doable
to live here and save money.
Now we actually do have a few other categories that we
spent money on but that are definitely non-essential
to living a comfortable life there.
So let me go through those now.
So, for our other categories, these include some more
personal and fun things to do such as massages.
So we love Thai massages and just because they are so cheap
and affordable we would get at least one a week.
So typically a Thai massage lasts about an hour
and it's about 6-9 US dollars a person.
So our total massage budget for each month was about
30 US dollars.
Next thing is, like grooming if you're gonna be living in
Chiang Mai for a while, you'll probably want like a hair cut
or something, also super affordable, so Zack would get hair
cuts almost every week, or get his beard lined up
and that was typically about 3 US dollars a person.
For me I got a hair cut one time and I also got a keratin
treatment which was about 150 US dollars but in the States
those are over 500.
But just for a normal haircut you're looking anywhere
from 15 and 30 US dollars a person.
The other main category that we did spend quite a bit of
money on was just travel, so living in Chiang Mai we only
traveled locally just because there's honestly so much
to do around Chiang Mai but we did travel quite a bit during
our three months living there.
So every month we spent about $200 on travel
and that would include any accommodations that we were
staying overnight, any transportation to get there,
or any just fees for the overall excursion.
Okay so another thing to note that would fall into this
miscellaneous category would be some entertainment like
the movies, so if you live in Chaing Mai,
or Nimman especially you can go to a big cinema
which is in MAYA Mall, and the tickets are
really, really cheap.
So for two people to go see a movie and get a snack,
was about eight US dollars.
So the other costs that we're not include in our main
cost of living was vitamins because I know that not everyone
takes vitamins while they're traveling,
for us that is really important so we typically buy
protein and vitamins in most places that we live
and those are pretty pricey especially for the local
budget that you're on but we were able to buy vitamins
for typically about 25-30 dollars a person a month
when you average it out.
And the last thing that we did not include in any of these
budgets was our travel insurance just because that varies
so much from person to person depending on if you're on
a work visa, if your work provides it or if you're just
traveling through, so for us we're always on a tourist visa
just because we do work full-time online but we typically
go with World Nomads insurance.
So they have been absolutely great for travel insurance
and I'll put a link below if you are interested in trying
them out you can do a free quote online,
type in whatever country and how long you're gonna be there
and they will give it to you right away.
And we're happy to answer any questions
about them as well.
Thank you so much for watching, I hope this was really
helpful for you guys, Chiang Mai is such an awesome
place to live and it is so, so, so affordable.
So if you have any more questions you can reach out to me
or Zack who is my boyfriend who travels with me,
you can reach us on Instagram @theuncommonpursuit
or you can reach out to TEFL and they have plenty
of great information for you as well.
So my name's Amanda and I'm one of
your ITA Video Ambassadors for Southeast Asia
and I will see you next time.
(upbeat music)