We arrived in Bangkok, Thailand after spending two weeks traveling throughout Laos. We spent a month in Bangkok, one of Asia’s biggest cities. It has plenty to keep you busy, including historical sights, bustling markets, food, and culture. What Bangkok doesn’t have is a high cost of living compared to similar sized cities. Let’s take a look at our spending in Bangkok.
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Our Cost Of Living in Bangkok
Housing – US$710 Per Month
We stayed in a nice one-bedroom apartment building with a fitness center and beautiful pool. It was small but had everything we needed. We found this apartment on Airbnb, and the monthly cost of $710 included all utilities and internet.
Food (Groceries and Restaurants) – $362
We enjoyed eating out at some local restaurants in Bangkok, but most of our food for the month was purchased at the Big C grocery store. You can get a local dish at a food stall for around $1.50, or get a meal at a mid-range restaurant for around $6-$8.
Activities – $36
Yep, we only spent $36 on activities while in Bangkok. The COVID-19 scare was beginning when we were there in January/February 2020, so we decided to play it safe and didn’t go out much. We know we’re coming back to Bangkok sometime in the future, so we weren’t too worried about missing out on sightseeing this trip. We did take a visit to The Grand Palace, the home to many generations of Thai royalty.
Transportation – $60
Since our sightseeing was limited, this also kept our transportation expenses low since we weren’t traveling to many of Bangkok’s tourist attractions. We were fortunate to have our apartment located just a minute walk to the MRT metro system. This made getting around easy peasy.
Miscellaneous – $89
This was for things like toothpaste, pharmacy items, our COVID-19 masks, etc. Unlike our time in Chiang Mai, we didn’t have any enormous miscellaneous expenses in Bangkok.
Health – $202
Again, nothing out of the ordinary here. Almost all of our health related expenses was for the premiums of our health insurance. We just had some medical checkups and dental work done in Chiang Mai, so we didn’t have any urgent medical needs.
Adding It All Up
Adding up the categories described above, our total spending for one month in Bangkok came to $1463. Note that the total spending here does not include our flight to Bangkok from Laos or some donations that we made.
How Much Will Your Cost of Living be in Bangkok?
If you come to live in Bangkok, your cost of living will probably be different from ours. Everybody has a different lifestyle and it’s impossible to predict the exact costs to live here ahead of time. But we do have some suggested budgets depending on the type of living you expect to have.
- If you live in a cheap but comfortable apartment, skip expensive restaurants, and keep your entertainment to a minimum, we believe a couple could happily live on $1,400 per month.
- If you want to live a middle-class type of life, we suggest $2,100 per month for two. This will get you a nice one-bedroom and modern apartment, plenty of nights out with friends, and some nice meals.
- At $3,200 per month, a couple could have a nice house, use private taxis to get around the city, and still have some left over for entertainment, a house cleaner, and dinners at upscale restaurants.
Bangkok is the perfect place to live if you want big city life at an affordable price. But don’t believe us, come find out for yourself!
The Snail Travelers 
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