Thailand Cost of Living: What It Really Costs Us to Live Here

Name: Thailand Cost of Living: What It Really Costs Us to Live Here
Uploaded: 2026-09-04T12:05:48+00:00
Duration: 13 min 6 s
Channel: Lloyd & Mandy

00:00Okay, if you clicked on this video, then chances are you're thinking about moving to Thailand.

00:04And you've probably heard a lot of people talk about how affordable it is in Thailand compared to most other

00:10countries.

00:11And aside from beautiful beaches, warm weather, amazing food and everything else Thailand has to offer,

00:17the cost of living is definitely one of the main things that draws people to come to Thailand for an

00:23extended period of time.

00:24But while a lot of content creators share what it's like living in Thailand, not too many are willing to

00:30share exactly how much they spend each month living here.

00:34Our aim for this channel is to provide you guys with as much value as possible.

00:38So in today's video, I'm going to be sharing what me and my wife spend each month living here in

00:44Thailand.

00:44And if you find this video helpful at all, please hit the like button.

00:47And if you'd like to see more content like this, then hit subscribe.

00:51Now, before I get into it, if you're new here, my name is Lloyd and my wife Mandy and I

00:56have been living in Thailand for almost a year

00:59after traveling around Southeast Asia and North America for almost three years as digital nomads and content creators.

01:07We live in a small coastal town named Hua Hin, which is just a couple hours south of Bangkok here

01:13in Thailand.

01:14And we chose to relocate to Hua Hin because of its close proximity to Bangkok, the beautiful beaches, the family

01:22-friendly atmosphere, but also the affordability.

01:25While Thailand in general is very cheap compared to most other countries in the world, places like Phuket and Koh

01:31Samui are a little bit more expensive when it comes to cost of living, especially for accommodation.

01:37So, let's break down all of our monthly living expenses one by one.

01:42And at the end of the video, I'm going to share with you what our total living expenses are per

01:47month here in Thailand.

01:48Okay, let's start with probably the most important expense, which is accommodation, because obviously you're going to need a roof

01:56over your head if you're living here.

01:58We live in a three-bedroom villa, which is located pretty much right in the center of Hua Hin.

02:05It's close enough to a lot of amenities like cafes and restaurants that we can walk to, but it's actually

02:11far enough from the nightlife and the hustle and bustle, and it's really peaceful and quiet at night.

02:18Our villa isn't huge by any standards, and I wouldn't exactly classify it as luxurious, but it's got everything we

02:27need.

02:28And we're really happy with where we live.

02:30So, for our villa, we pay a total of 35,000 Thai baht per month, which includes garden maintenance three

02:39times per week and pool maintenance, I believe, twice a week.

02:42But one thing it doesn't include is electricity, and you'll actually find that most long-term accommodation in Thailand doesn't

02:49include electricity, unless you're renting through Airbnb.

02:53So, our electricity bill usually averages between 4,000 to 6,000 Thai baht per month, depending on how much

03:01we're using, which honestly seems a little bit higher, considering just how cheap, like, everything else is in Thailand.

03:08I was a little bit surprised when we got our first bill, but when you take into account the fact

03:13that we're running a pool pump every day, and we're also running air conditioning pretty much all the time.

03:21Like, we try to turn it off in the morning once we get out of bed, and not turn it

03:27on again until the afternoon.

03:28But there are some days here in Thailand where it just gets too hot, and we end up running it

03:33for most of the day.

03:34And, of course, it's running all night when we sleep, because we like to sleep in cold temperature.

03:39So, when we were looking for accommodation here in Hua Hin, we were trying to find something under 40,000

03:46Thai baht that was kind of our ceiling.

03:48And it was pretty easy to find a lot of places for that price, but most of them were pretty

03:54far out of town or very far from the beach, which wasn't ideal for us.

03:58So, we really got lucky with this place, but if you're a single person, and you don't have a dog

04:03like us, and maybe you just prefer to live in a condo, you can definitely find accommodation for much cheaper

04:10than what we pay.

04:11You could probably expect to pay between 15,000 and 20,000 baht for a single bedroom apartment, or probably

04:19even as low as 10,000 baht for a studio apartment.

04:22Now, we also just started using a housekeeper to help us with deep cleaning of our villa, and she charges

04:29220 baht per hour.

04:32We usually get her to come twice a week for about two to three hours, which is honestly more than

04:40enough for us.

04:40And I know this is a little bit of a luxury, but it's been super helpful for us, especially with

04:46my wife Mandy being pregnant and both of us working a lot.

04:50It's really made life a lot easier, and we think it's worth it.

04:53We're really grateful to have her.

04:55One cost you really don't want to skimp out on, especially when you're living in Thailand, is having a VPN,

05:00and especially because it's so affordable starting at just $2.80 per month.

05:06And in case you don't know what VPN stands for, it's Virtual Private Network.

05:10So basically, it acts like a mask encrypting all of your data that gets sent between your computer and the

05:16internet so that no one can steal all of your sensitive information.

05:20Up until just a few months ago, we actually didn't have access to our own Wi-Fi because we were

05:25traveling full-time, which meant going to places like cafes, public libraries, or co-working spaces to get all of

05:32our work done.

05:33And that means logging on to public Wi-Fi.

05:35And not only that, when we were traveling to other countries, we were staying in hotels and Airbnbs, and we

05:42were constantly using public Wi-Fi.

05:45Whether it be in airports or trains or buses, wherever it was, we pretty much used whatever Wi-Fi was

05:52available at the time.

05:53But here's the thing, public Wi-Fi is an absolute goldmine for hackers, which is why for over two years

05:59now, we've been using our Surfshark VPN, and still to this day, even in our villa, I never go online

06:06without first firing up my VPN.

06:09But that's just one reason we use Surfshark.

06:11The other reason is that it lets us log on to servers from all over the world, which means accessing

06:16streaming services from other countries such as HBO and Netflix.

06:20So, don't leave yourself vulnerable to hackers any longer.

06:24Secure your privacy with Surfshark by clicking the link down below to get four months extra.

06:30Okay, the next thing you're going to need to pay for is transport, and we've been renting a scooter on

06:36and off pretty much since we got here in November last year.

06:40And we pay 4,000 Thai baht per month for our scooter rental.

06:44It's a pretty nice scooter, it's 150 cc's, and it's big enough to carry both of us, although with Mandy

06:50being pregnant, not really anymore.

06:51But I'm quite tall, I'm 6'2", and it's kind of the only scooter I really fit on.

06:57If you're a smaller person, or if you're on your own and there's not two of you, you could probably

07:03get away with renting a much cheaper scooter.

07:06And you could probably expect to pay around 3,000 to 3,500 Thai baht per month.

07:12Next up on the list is groceries.

07:14So, we usually try to go grocery shopping about once a week, and we spend around 2,500 Thai baht

07:22every time we go to the store.

07:24And this really gets us just all of our basic necessities that we need to cook breakfast, and a couple

07:30of dinners, and maybe a couple of lunches at home for the week.

07:34As well as just things like tea, coffee, drinks, snacks, and all that sort of stuff.

07:39And to be honest, we could probably do it a lot cheaper if we shopped at a cheaper grocery store.

07:45But we prefer to go to one of the nicer grocery stores here in Hua Hin, because it has a

07:51lot of fresh fruit and veg and produce, as well as a good selection of meats.

07:57And kind of just everything we really need that we would usually buy back home.

08:01We also like to go out to dinner or lunch, usually a couple of times a week, maybe two to

08:06three times a week.

08:07And we usually spend anywhere from 400 to 600 Thai baht every time we go out to a restaurant to

08:15eat.

08:16It kind of depends.

08:17Sometimes if we go to a local restaurant or markets, and if we're not having a drink or anything like

08:22that, we can pay a little bit less than that, maybe like 300.

08:26But if we want to go and get some pizza or burgers or Mediterranean food or something, for instance, then

08:32generally the bill is probably around 600 baht.

08:34And sometimes if we're not cooking or if we just don't feel like going out, we'll order takeaway from grab

08:40delivery.

08:41We honestly usually do this a few times a week, either for lunch or dinner.

08:46And we try not to spend anything more than 400 Thai baht when we do.

08:51I also like to grab a takeaway coffee here and there when we go to the beach in the morning

08:56or before I go to train.

08:57And that costs me 60 baht each time, which is only about two bucks.

09:01Also, if you're going to be living in a place like Thailand, you definitely should think about having some form

09:07of travel insurance as well as probably health insurance.

09:10For our full comprehensive health insurance, that covers us for pretty much everything from hospital bills to road accidents, even

09:19maternity for Mandy.

09:20We pay around 4,300 Thai baht each per month.

09:25But that price can vary depending on your age, which country you're in, which country you're from, and also what

09:32sort of coverage you would like.

09:34Before we moved here, we were paying about 1,300 Thai baht each.

09:39And that was just for basic travel insurance.

09:42But when we decided to move to Thailand and we knew we were going to be having a baby, we

09:46obviously needed a better full comprehensive health insurance, which is why we upgraded.

09:51Another thing that's super important to us is our health and fitness.

09:55So I have a gym membership here and all gym memberships here are actually extremely cheap.

10:02I pay about 850 Thai baht per month for a full gym membership, which I usually use three to four

10:10times a week.

10:10I also train Brazilian jiu-jitsu two to three times a week, sometimes four.

10:16And that costs me 4,500 Thai baht for an unlimited membership.

10:20I can go there any day of the week.

10:22We also both like to do yoga.

10:25Mandy does it a little bit more than me, but we pay 3,500 Thai baht, which gets us 20

10:30classes.

10:31That usually lasts us at least a month, sometimes two months.

10:35And the yoga studio is actually really good.

10:36Another expense is if we don't feel like driving or riding our scooter when we want to go out to

10:42dinner or something, we pay for a grab taxi.

10:46And we can pretty much get anywhere within the city for under 100 baht.

10:51Usually it's like 70 or 80 baht, which is just a couple of dollars.

10:54And it's so convenient.

10:55It's so easy.

10:57As soon as we order a taxi, it pretty much shows up within five minutes.

11:00And it can take us anywhere within the city, as I said, for under 100 baht, which is super convenient.

11:06So if we add up all of our expenses, it comes to around 60,000 Thai baht per month or

11:14just over 1,800 US dollars and around 2,600 Aussie dollars.

11:19But remember that this does include some luxuries such as housekeeping, going out for dinner, gym expenses, yoga, takeaway coffees,

11:29and also our fully comprehensive health insurance plan.

11:32If we wanted to live a lot cheaper and didn't spend money on these extras, our cost of living could

11:37be far less.

11:39And we could honestly do without the swimming pool in our villa and live in a much smaller place, but

11:48we don't really want to do that.

11:50Also, if you're a single person who's looking to move to Thailand, you could probably expect to spend probably half

11:56this amount on your living expenses per month.

11:59And honestly, if you really wanted to live on a budget, you could probably get that number way down just

12:05by renting a cheap condo and eating out at local restaurants every night.

12:10Because it actually costs more for us to go to the grocery store and cook our own food than going

12:15out to local restaurants.

12:16It's just that because we were on the road for so long, we sort of see it as a bit

12:21of a luxury to be able to cook our own meals from time to time.

12:24And that's just something we choose to do.

12:26So let us know what you guys think down below in the comments.

12:28Is that more than what you expected we would be paying?

12:31Is it cheaper than what you thought it would be to live in Thailand for a month?

12:35I'd be interested to hear your opinion and how it compares to what you pay for living expenses where you're

12:41living.

12:41And if you're thinking about coming to Thailand, check out the rest of our Thailand travel vlogs as well as

12:47travel tips.

12:48And if you made it this far, we appreciate it.

12:50Please remember to like and subscribe.

12:52Cheers.

12:59Cheers.

13:00Cheers.

13:01Cheers.

13:02Cheers.

13:04Cheers.

13:05Cheers.

Thailand Cost of Living: What It Really Costs Us to Live Here

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