JANUARY BUDGET: COST FOR A MONTH IN THAILAND AND AUSTRALIA FOR A FAMILY OF FOUR

In the month of January, we spent time in three separate locations (Phuket, Thailand and Sydney and Palm Cove in Australia) and so we incurred some additional transportation expenses as well as the increased cost of living in Australia, which we attempted to mitigate by preparing more meals ourselves in our own Airbnb (compared to almost none during our time in Southeast Asia).

Far from losing our restaurant meals feeling like a negative, after four months in Southeast Asia we are still just enjoying having all of our western food products readily available to us. Going to a western grocery store for the first time in almost half a year was an AMAZING experience — we literally felt like kids in a candy store!

MEALS, GOOD, AND SERVICES COSTS

Our expenses for meals, goods, and services for January increased slightly over our comparable expenses in December to 1502 USD, due mostly to the increased costs in Australia and also because we met up with friends and family in Sydney for a few more expensive restaurant meals. With the average main at a restaurant in Australia being around $25–30 USD per person, we avoided restaurant meals insofar as possible and instead decided to take advantage of the good kitchens in our Airbnbs and well-stocked grocery stores.

We would note that we also managed a few more expensive tourist excursions on this budget, with trips to both the Great Barrier Reef and the Taronga Zoo in Sydney also included. Overall, we were happy with our spending in this category this month, as we have managed to keep these expenses somewhat stable in a significantly more expensive country.

ACCOMMODATION COSTS

This month, we spent 16 nights at an Airbnb in Phuket, 12 nights at an Airbnb in Sydney, and 3 nights at an Airbnb in Palm Cove. Our accommodation costs this month have increased from our expenses in this category in December, ringing in at 2888 USD, but overall we are still quite happy with this level of spending given that Australia is significantly more expensive than Thailand. All of our Airbnbs this month have been very comfortable, with our current Airbnb also giving us (and more importantly our kids) access to five different swimming pools and a beautiful beach.

TRANSPORTATION COSTS

We spent a total of 2556 USD on transportation in January. As alluded to above, we started the month in Phuket. From there, we flew to Sydney via Kuala Lumpur and then from Sydney up to Cairns. This total also includes our car rental costs, public transit costs, and airport transfers. Overall, given the distances travelled, the amount we’ve spent seems fairly reasonable.

SUMMARY

Overall, we spent a total of 6,946 USD in January of 2024, which is comparable to our regular monthly expenses back home in Toronto, Canada. Our one ongoing fixed expense back home is for storage, which costs us 140 USD per month and is excluded from our totals.