Frugality

Here is a breakdown of my expenses for December.

Household	$9.90
Rent	$440
Entertainment	$54.62
Transportation	$189.76
Food	$161.07
Travel	$70.53
Phone	$50.78
Health	$124.44
Total	$1101.10

My December expenses were reasonably low. I expect my monthly expenses will stay around this level for the next few months.

The rent was for 10 nights hotel in Kansas City while I was working on a document review project there. It also includes $125 paid to my mom for staying at her home. The next few months my rent will be very low since I’m staying at my mom’s house and she is only charging me 1/2 of the utilities as rent. I offered to pay more, but half of the utilities is all she wanted to be paid.

Transportation was mainly gas for my car. I drove between KC and southern Missouri several times while working on the document review job. I also had to pay a little over $50 for personal property tax on my car. This month I will only drive to KC one time and otherwise will be working from home so the transportation expense should go way down.

My food expense was about the same as always. It should go down a bit this month since I will be eating at home more often. Spending about $150 a month on food is pretty reasonable so I won’t sweat this expense category too much.

Travel was for taxes and fees on a round-trip airline ticket from a small regional airport near my current home to Shanghai, China. From China I can buy a round-trip ticket to Thailand for less than $200. I was going to delay buying a ticket to Asia then I saw a deal for cheap award flights on Delta from the U.S. to China. When I was able to find a ticket allowing me to start from Springfield, MO I decided to go ahead and get the ticket. The ticket was only 34,000 Delta points which is about half of the regular price.

Being able to leave from Springfield means that I don’t need a domestic positioning flight like last year. For my Asia trip last year I had to buy a positioning flight from KC to LA and also got a hotel in LA for the night since I wanted to be in LA a day early to make sure I didn’t miss my flight due to a delay from KC. Not needing a domestic positioning flight will save me a little money and time. The combination of the low cost of the ticket and the convenience of flying from a nearby airport on one itinerary was enough to convince me to go ahead and book my Asia flight now. It is unlikely there will be a better deal for my circumstances before I leave for Asia.

Phone was for almost two months of Google Fi phone service. When I paused my service in Thailand they didn’t be bill me for the almost full month I had used at that time. After I resumed service they billed me for that almost full month and the new month. This bill will go down to about $25 this month.

Health was for the January premium on my new health insurance. My health insurance premium for this year has gone up about $125 a month. Last year, subsidies were enough to pay my entire health insurance premium. With the rate hike that is no longer the case. I didn’t get much use from my Marketplace insurance last year. I had one doctor visit that I had to pay out of pocket for and then they paid a little towards my prescriptions. If I understand my health insurance coverage correctly, my new policy is a little better. It will allow me to have doctor visits for free or a low co-pay rather than being out of pocket until I hit my deductible like last year. Since I’ve moved I will be visiting a new doctor so I might have a few visits getting things checked out this year.

My student loan payment amount has adjusted from $0 to $132 a month. Since I’m on income-based repayment my premium went up due my higher income in 2017. The total of the required payments will still be less than I voluntarily paid last year so this isn’t really a big deal.

I’m pretty happy with my December expenses.  How was your month?

Since I’ve been back in Missouri from Thailand for about a month now I thought I would share and update of what I’m doing now and what I have planned.

I am currently working on a document review project in Kansas City. I started working on this project Monday of last week and my last day on the project will be next Friday the 28th. The Monday after that I will start my seasonal tax job. I’ll be getting my first paycheck since August this Friday. It will be nice to have money start coming in again.

My job has offered a remote option the last few years, but not for employees that live in Kansas City. Since I broke up with my ex-girlfriend in March of this year and we’re no longer friends the tax job was the only reason for me to stay in KC. I didn’t especially want to stay in KC so I asked my boss if I could work remote from southern Missouri. The answer was affirmative and I have now moved to a small town in southern MO.

I will be living with my mother. This gives me the benefit of low rent and no lease. Of course, it also gives me a lot of time with my mother which is mostly a benefit.

I do plan on returning to Thailand next year as soon as my tax job is over. Thus, I didn’t want to sign a lease anywhere. Renting from a month-to-month place would have been expensive and most of them aren’t great. Moving out of KC and in with my mother should be a great solution to that problem.

The lower living costs plus the lack of a commute should allow me to save quite a bit of money from my tax job. This will hopefully allow me to visit Thailand longer next year. I’m also looking into ways, such as teaching English, that I can earn money while in Thailand.

I’m not sure what my long-term plans are right now. All I currently have figured out is that I will work my tax job and then return to Thailand. I don’t currently think I will ever move to Thailand full-time. I may just split my time between Thailand and the US the next few years. I’ll see how things go with my Thai girlfriend and hopefully figure out my longer-term plans sometime next year.

Now that I have spent a little over one month in Thailand I want to share my thoughts on how I like living here so far.  This post will share what I consider to be the three biggest pros and cons of living in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Pros of Living in Thailand

1. Cost   

Living in Thailand can be pretty cheap. The biggest savings is on rent. I’m currently living in a studio apartment that rents for 10,000 baht (about $305) a month when rented month-to-month. This apartment is nicer than the basement studio apartment I was renting in Kansas City for $435 a month.  My KC rent included water and electricity whereas I have to pay for those in addition to my monthly rent here in Thailand. Factoring that in I am saving about $100 a month on rent. If I were to sign a three month or six month contract I could save even more on rent. I could also save quite a bit by moving to a smaller, more basic apartment. While apartment hunting I found a couples apartments for as cheap as about $170 a month that would have been acceptable. There are apartments even cheaper than that. I didn’t look at the cheaper apartments since I found plenty of nicer apartments that were still less than my monthly budget for rent.

Food is also pretty cheap if you buy Thai food. If you eat at Western style fast food restaurants or fancier restaurants the savings is much less. I’ve found that American fast food costs about the same or maybe even a little more than what I usually paid in KC. This is because I was usually able to use coupons or get app deals back in KC and I don’t think they have those here.

Those are the two biggest potential savings for the expenses I typically spend money on. I’m guessing I’ll end up spending about $800 this month compared to usually spending $1000 or more in KC.

The cost to travel to and from Thailand and obtaining a visa also has to be factored into the cost of living in Thailand. Adding those in Thailand is still cheaper than KC. It isn’t a huge difference though.

2. Weight Loss

I’ve lost a little over 10 pounds since moving here.  This is from a combination of more exercise and eating less. Of course, if I exercised more and ate less back in the U.S. I would lose weight there too. However, I find it much easier to lose weight when I’m outside of the United States. I think it is a combination of fast food not being as widespread plus the fact that I walk almost everywhere I want to go. Since I’m not working and have plenty of time I’ve found it easy to get in a routine of working out when I get up in the morning.  I also have been going for a swim most afternoons. I’ve had to give that up for a while due to a skin rash which is irritated by the pool chemicals. I’ve replaced the swim with going for a walk in the evening.

Even though I feel like I’m eating way too much fast food and I’m still drinking soda most days I have managed to lose weight anyway. Living here is conducive to me losing weight without even having to try too hard.

3. Women/My Girlfriend

This is probably the biggest pro for me. I met my girlfriend on the night of my first full day in Chiang Mai. We hit it off and have been dating ever since.  In the U.S. a woman as attractive as her would probably be out of my league. Here in Thailand she is firmly in my league.  And it isn’t just looks, my girlfriend has a great personality too. We’re still getting to know each other, but we joke and laugh a lot and always have a great time when we’re together.

If things were to not work out with me and my girlfriend I would have plenty of other options. I joined a dating site before coming to Thailand (which is where I met my girlfriend) and I received quite a few emails and notifications from other women interested in me. Since I immediately hit it off with my girlfriend I didn’t pursue any other women. Judging from the interest level I don’t think I would have had any trouble finding another woman to date. I could also date a much younger woman if I wanted. My girlfriend is age appropriate and I don’t have any plans to date a much younger woman even if my girlfriend break up, but it is still nice to know the option is there.

Attractiveness is somewhat subjective, but I find Thai women to generally be very attractive. Although I am only dating one woman it is still quite nice to be living in a place where I see lots of attractive women every day.

Cons of Living in Thailand

1.  Heat

This is probably the biggest con for me. It is too hot and humid here. Although it is supposed to start getting cooler this month, right now it is still hot every day.  Whenever I go outside I end up drenched in sweat.  The heat makes it unpleasant to be outside. Despite the heat I do spend a fair bit of time outside each day since I walk to wherever I want to go. I probably spend more time outside here than I did back in KC.  The heat also contributes to poor air quality.

The heat is still better than having to deal with the worst of winter.  I am adapting to the heat somewhat but I don’t want to be hot all year.

2. Distance from U.S.

Another con is that Thailand is really far away from the U.S. It took me basically a full day to fly from the U.S. to Thailand.  The trip actually wasn’t that bad and I’m okay with making the trip a couple times a year. The drawback to the distance is that I can’t make a quick trip to see friends and family. Those visits will have to be done during the part of the year I’m in the U.S.

The bigger potential pitfall of being so far away is that it would take me a long time to get back to the U.S. if there were an emergency. Also, a last-minute flight would likely be prohibitively expensive. My mother is in good health, but she is in her 70’s. If she had a serious health problem it would take quite some time for me to be able to get back to see her.

3.  I Can’t Work Here

For this trip I saved up money to pay my expenses for the 2 1/2 months I’m living here. It looks like I will end up with plenty of those savings left over at the end of the trip.

The biggest cost of this trip isn’t the money I’m spending while here. I will probably end up spending less money on this trip than I would have spent if I had just stayed in KC.  The big cost of this trip is all of the money that I am not making while I’m living here.  I really can’t afford to have 3 or more months of the year where I’m not making any money.

There are some possible solutions to not making any money while living in Thailand. Lots of people living in Thailand make money by teaching English online. I have looked into that and may start teaching English once I return to the U.S. so that I can continue teaching when I return to Thailand.

Teaching English is just one way to make money online. If I could get this blog and my other sites making money like they were several years ago the income from them would easily cover my living expenses in Thailand. I’m not sure if I’ll ever make that much money from my blogs again, but I should probably start working on them more to see what is possible.

Summary

Overall, I’m undecided if I will return to Thailand next year. If I am able to maintain my relationship with my girlfriend while I’m back in the States, then I will definitely return to Thailand next year. If not, I’m not sure whether I will return. I’m having a good experience here in Thailand and I’m glad I came. That being said, if I’m only looking at cost I think I could probably have a similar experience in a country much closer to the U.S. There are a couple more issues I wanted to address in this post, but I think I will wrap it up here.

If there are any readers out there who happen to be in Chiang Mai, let me know, I would love to meet up.

With the recent cancellation of my Moviepass account I now have only 2 monthly bills. My rent and my cell phone bill are the only monthly bills I have.  Of course, I still have other expenses every month such as food and gasoline, but rent and phone are the only monthly bills I have.

My rent includes utilities so that eliminates having an electric, gas, water or trash bill. The city I live in provides free internet so that is another bill I am able to avoid. I also don’t have a home phone, choosing to have just a cell phone. When I first opted to have only a cell phone and no landline about 15 years ago people thought that was weird. Now I think that having only a cell phone is pretty much the norm. My cell phone is only about $25 a month. It might be possible to save a few bucks on that bill. Since I’m happy with my service and it will work for me when I’m in SE Asia for 2 1/2 months, I don’t think it is worth the trouble of switching providers and possibly not liking the new service for a tiny savings. If you were to sign up for Project Fi cell phone service through my referral link we’d both get $20 Fi credit after you’ve had service for 20 days. That would make my cell phone bill even cheaper.

My car insurance could be paid monthly, but I choose to pay six months at a time to save a few bucks. Technically, I also have a monthly student loan bill and health insurance bill. These are both $0 right now, so I don’t count them as monthly bills. I have been making voluntary payments on my student loan since I will eventually have to pay it. Next year when my payments are based on my 2017 income rather than my low 2016 income I will have a required student loan payment. I’ve been considering not renewing the IBR plan and just letting my student loan go back to the 10-year payment plan. If I do that the student loan will be by far my biggest monthly bill. My health insurance is $0 since ACA subsidies are covering the premium. I’m hoping I will be able to resume my employer health plan once I return to my job. That would give me another monthly bill, but since it comes out of my paycheck it doesn’t really feel like another bill.

For a little while I might be able to cut down my monthly bills even more. Since my lease is up right before I leave for SE Asia I am planning on moving out of my apartment. Then my only monthly bill will be my phone and possibly a storage space for my stuff while I’m out of the country. I will have to pay to stay somewhere while I’m in SE Asia so the money I save by not having rent will be spent on that.

I’m pretty happy with my current level of expenses and won’t spend too much energy trying to get them even lower. What I need to concentrate on now is developing more sources of income.

 

Last Sunday I moved into this tiny apartment. The landlord stated that it that measures about 150 square feet and I think that is probably about right. It is definitely a small apartment. I’m posting a couple of pictures to show how small it is. The first picture was taken while standing in the bathroom area and viewing the kitchen/bedroom/living room area. The apartment is still a mess in these pictures. I don’t own very much stuff, but it still took quite a while to get it organized and squared away in this tiny apartment.

The apartment is a bargain at $435 a month including utilities. The only thing I will have to pay for in addition to the rent is internet.  The city I live in has a good deal, where you pay a $300 installation fee and then have free 100mb internet for life. Even if I only stay in the apartment a year that will only be $25 a month. If I stay longer the internet gets to be more and more of a bargain. The drawback to the free internet is that customer service is lacking and they don’t appear to be in any hurry to get my internet installed or even tell me when it might be installed. I haven’t been posting much the last few months, but this month I have a reasonable excuse for not posting too much.  Once the internet is installed I plan to post on a more regular basis and hopefully revive the blog a little bit.

The apartment is a great bargain. You can’t find an apartment close to that cheap in this area of Kansas City. Of course, the apartment being that cheap means there are a few drawbacks to the apartment. The size would probably be the biggest drawback for most people. I’m okay with the size. I actually like living in small spaces. The biggest drawback for me is that it is a basement apartment which leads to it smelling musty and having more insects than I like.  I’m working on both of those problems. I’ve got some air fresheners to help the place smell better. I’m cleaning which will hopefully lead to fewer bugs. I think some of the bugs are here due to the last tenant being messy. The apartment was sprayed before I moved in which I think did significantly reduce the bugs. It appears the bugs were probably much worse before I moved in. If insects continue to be a problem after I have the apartment cleaned and squared away I’ll have it sprayed again. Although I’m complaining about the insects they aren’t that bad. It isn’t like the apartment is infested with cockroaches. There are just a few random, little insects coming into the apartment each day.

Another drawback is that the apartment doesn’t have a real kitchen. It just has a sink, cabinets, and a refrigerator. I’ve bought a hot plate and toaster oven and I think that will make it enough of a kitchen for me. It doesn’t have a lot of cabinet, but it is plenty for the few dishes I have.

The second picture shows the bathroom area. It has a vanity in the middle, a shower stall on the right, and there is a little toilet cubby on the left side out of view. The toilet cubby does not have a door which could be awkward if I ever had anyone over to the apartment. It did have a curtain rod across the entryway which I hung a shower curtain on so if anyone does come over and need to use the toilet they can have some privacy.

Although this apartment is a bargain it will end up costing me about the same as I was paying my GF for expenses while living in her house. Before anyone asks I will go ahead and say that my GF and I are still together.  Moving out has strained the relationship a bit. It might not have been the smartest move on my part. Time will tell. That is about all I have to say for now. If you have any questions about the apartment ask me in the comments.