To be on a budget - Part I

I decided to start a series called "Being on a budget" in which I shall share my experiences about travelling to Thailand and living in Chiang Mai on a budget. If you are thinking about doing a trip similar to mine, the number one question you would like to hear an answer for is: How much money do I need?

Even if you just want to do a four week trip I will try to give you some useful tips.
So let me introduce this upcoming series to you in this post:

About me and my way to finance this

When I decided to go abroad to concentrate on training for one year I was in my last year of school. I did not have enough time to work on the side because I was spending all my free time already for training six times a week. So instead I had to use the time originally set aside to prepare for the final exams for work. So I started to work full-time in an amusement park, selling slush-ice, right on the first day I did not have to attend classes anymore. Not the most exciting job, especially because it was March and still around five degrees in the late morning. The weather did nothing to motivate the people to buy the freezing cold, extremely sweet, chemical product (I will never eat this again).

After one month I quit this job to work in a storage building, which can be described as a gigantic refrigerator, of a big supermarket chain. There, I packed pallets at two degrees what was not more fun but definitely more exciting and better paid (but also much more exhausting). All in all I worked for five months and saved enough money for the year.

What will my tips be like?

I try to save as much money as possible, living a quite economical life here and writing down how much I spent over the day every night. That makes it easy to calculate how much money I will have left over to afford extra trips, like doing a one-week journey to Laos.

So for my daily expenses, I think it would be hard to spend less than I do now. Unless you live in a tent or skip all fun activities, like going out sometimes and having an awesome sushi all-you-can-eat for 300 Baht (10$ / 7€) instead of a simple (but still awesome) meal at a small restaurant on the street for 40 Baht (1,30$ / 1€).

Furthermore be aware that Chiang Mai, or rather the north, is one of the cheapest parts of Thailand. Living here is much cheaper than in Bangkok. The Islands in the south are even more expensive than the capital.

For fighters only?

Definitely not. I will try to give all the information necessary to do a training trip to Chiang Mai but most of my suggestions will be useful for any kind of traveler. Whether you want to train for a week and then move on to another destination or just jump in for one single session at Team Quest to experience the national sport of Thailand – my tips will hopefully help you as well.

I would be glad to welcome you back on my blog at the next post,

Felix