What International Teachers Actually Spend on Food in Bangkok

Bangkok has a reputation as a street food paradise where you can eat pad thai for loose change and drink fresh mango smoothies for the price of a bottle of water back home. And there's truth to that. But if you're moving to Bangkok to teach at an international school, your grocery bill won't look anything like a backpacker's budget. You'll want real coffee in the morning, you'll crave cheese that isn't processed slices, and at some point you'll stand in Villa Market staring at a block of imported cheddar that costs more than your lunch. The gap between what Bangkok can cost and what it will cost you depends almost entirely on how much of your home diet you're willing to let go.

I've watched teachers arrive with wildly different expectations. Some show up thinking they'll eat like locals for 6,000 baht a month. Others panic when they see the price of almond milk at Tops. The reality sits somewhere in the middle, and the data backs that up. According to Numbeo, a single person in Bangkok spends roughly 20,000 THB per month on living costs excluding rent [1]. Food makes up the largest chunk of that number, and it's the category where your choices swing the total the most.

The Grocery Landscape: Where You Shop Changes Everything

Bangkok's supermarket hierarchy matters more than most expats realize. The store you default to will quietly shape your monthly budget by thousands of baht. Big C is the workhorse; it consistently comes out cheapest in price comparisons, and with 49 locations in Bangkok alone, you're never far from one [2]. Tops Market sits a tier above, with better selection and a more pleasant shopping experience, though you'll pay 10-15% more for the privilege. Then there's Makro, which operates like a Costco for Thailand. If you've got freezer space and don't mind buying rice in 5kg bags, the bulk savings add up quickly.

The real budget trap is Villa Market, and every expat falls into it at least once. It stocks the imported brands you recognize: European cheeses, American cereals, Australian wines, proper sourdough bread. It feels like home, and it's priced accordingly. A colleague at ISB used to call it "the homesickness tax." She wasn't wrong. When you're craving something familiar after a rough week, you'll pay 300 baht for a small wedge of brie without blinking. The trick is treating Villa Market as an occasional treat, not your weekly shop.

What Things Actually Cost at the Register

Local Thai staples are genuinely cheap. Here's what you're looking at based on current Bangkok prices [1]:

Item	Price (THB)	Approximate USD
Rice (1 kg)	45-50	$1.30
Chicken breast (1 kg)	100-110	$3.00
Eggs (12)	80-85	$2.40
Bananas (1 kg)	60	$1.70
Tomatoes (1 kg)	65	$1.85
Onions (1 kg)	48	$1.35
Milk (1 liter)	59	$1.70
White bread (500g)	55	$1.55

Now compare that to imported items:

Item	Price (THB)	Approximate USD
Imported cheese (1 kg)	500-1,500	$14-43
Wine (mid-range bottle)	500-800	$14-23
Imported beef (1 kg)	350-660	$10-19
Imported beer (330ml)	90-250	$2.50-7.00

The pattern is obvious. Anything grown or produced in Thailand costs a fraction of what you'd pay in London or New York. Anything shipped in from Australia, Europe, or the US carries import duties and cold chain costs that double or triple the price. A kilogram of chicken breast for 100 baht is genuinely cheap by any standard. A kilogram of imported cheddar for 1,000 baht is genuinely painful.

Street Food and Local Restaurants: The Budget Superpower

This is where Bangkok earns its reputation. Street food remains absurdly affordable even as the city modernizes, and it's not some budget compromise you have to suffer through. The food is good. Really good. A plate of pad thai from a street vendor runs 40-70 THB, som tam (papaya salad) costs 40-60 THB, and a full rice plate with two toppings from a street stall sits around 50-80 THB [3]. You can eat a satisfying lunch for under 100 baht most days, which works out to less than $3.

Local sit-down restaurants, the kind with plastic chairs and a laminated menu in Thai, typically charge 80-150 THB per dish. These aren't fancy, but they serve proper Thai food cooked fresh. Many teachers eat at these spots near their schools during the week, and the quality is often better than what you'd get at a mall food court.

Where costs climb is the mid-range restaurant bracket: air-conditioned places with English menus, maybe a wine list. A dinner for two at one of these spots averages 1,000 THB, though popular expat areas like Thonglor and Ekkamai push that higher [1]. Western restaurants, the ones serving burgers and pasta and brunch, sit in the 300-600 THB per person range. And Bangkok's high-end dining scene can absolutely compete with Singapore or Hong Kong prices if you let it.

The teachers who save the most in Bangkok are the ones who genuinely enjoy Thai food. That's not a throwaway comment. If you're happy eating khao man gai (chicken rice) three times a week, your food costs plummet. If you need Western food daily, you're looking at a completely different budget.

Three Realistic Monthly Food Budgets

After talking to dozens of teachers across Bangkok schools and tracking actual spending patterns, here's what different lifestyles cost. These assume a single person and include both groceries and dining out.

The Local Lifestyle: 8,000-12,000 THB/month ($230-345)

This is achievable, but it requires genuine commitment to eating Thai. You're shopping at Big C and local wet markets, cooking Thai dishes at home, eating street food or local restaurants for most meals, and only occasionally buying imported items. Maybe one Western restaurant meal a month. Some teachers manage this, particularly those who arrived with a genuine love of Thai cuisine or developed one. It's not deprivation; it's just a different relationship with food than most Westerners are used to.

The Mixed Approach: 15,000-20,000 THB/month ($430-575)

This is where most international school teachers land after their first year. You shop primarily at Tops or Big C for basics, supplement with some imported items (coffee, cheese, pasta, olive oil), eat Thai food during the week but go out for Western food on weekends, and keep a modest stock of comfort snacks from Villa Market. Coffee shop visits two or three times a week add another 500-800 baht. It's comfortable without being extravagant.

The Comfort Budget: 25,000-35,000 THB/month ($720-1,000)

This is the "I want to live well" bracket. Regular shopping at Tops and Villa Market, imported ingredients for home cooking, dining out at mid-range restaurants several times a week, weekend brunches at trendy spots, good wine at home. Some teachers with housing allowances and senior salaries land here comfortably. Nobody's judging, especially if you're earning at the upper end of Bangkok's international school salary range, which can reach 150,000-200,000+ THB monthly at top-tier schools [4].

How This Fits Against a Teacher's Salary

The food budget conversation only makes sense against actual earning power. Bangkok international school salaries range dramatically. At the lower end, ESL and local hire positions might pay 50,000-70,000 THB per month. At established international schools like NIST, ISB, or Patana, overseas-hire packages typically range from 120,000 to 200,000+ THB monthly when you factor in housing allowances of 42,800-64,200 THB per month [4].

For a teacher earning 120,000 THB with a housing allowance, a food budget of 15,000-20,000 THB represents about 12-17% of gross income. That's a healthy ratio by any standard, and it still leaves significant room for savings and travel. Compare that to teachers in London or New York spending 25-35% of their income on food, and the advantage becomes clear even before you account for the lower overall cost of living.

The savings math is what makes Bangkok attractive for teachers in their late twenties and thirties building long-term financial security. A teacher on a solid package who keeps food spending in the mixed-approach range can realistically save 40,000-60,000 THB per month. That's $1,150-1,725 going into savings or investments every month, which is difficult to match in most Western cities on a teacher's salary.

Practical Tips That Actually Save Money

Forget the generic advice about "cooking at home more." Here are the specific things that make the biggest difference in Bangkok.

Fresh markets beat supermarkets for produce, and it's not close. The Or Tor Kor market near Chatuchak sells premium fruits and vegetables at prices that undercut Tops by 30-40%. Even smaller neighborhood markets scattered throughout the city offer better quality produce than what sits under fluorescent lights at Big C. You'll need to get comfortable pointing at things and using a calculator, but the savings justify the learning curve.

The 7-Eleven trap is real. Bangkok has more 7-Elevens per square kilometer than perhaps anywhere else on Earth, and their ready-to-eat meals (toasted sandwiches, rice boxes, onigiri) are convenient. But 60-80 baht per snack, two or three times a day, adds up to 4,000-7,000 baht a month you didn't notice spending. Track it for a week. You'll be surprised.

Buy Thai brands for pantry staples. Thai soy sauce, fish sauce, coconut milk, jasmine rice, and cooking oils are world-class products at local prices. The imported alternatives from Japanese or European brands cost three to five times more and aren't measurably better for everyday cooking.

Learn to love the food courts in malls. Places like Terminal 21, MBK, and CentralWorld have food courts where you buy a prepaid card and choose from 20-30 vendors. Meals run 50-100 baht, the food is clean and air-conditioned, and the variety is enormous. It's a solid middle ground between street food and restaurants.

The bottom line for teachers heading to Bangkok: budget 15,000-20,000 THB monthly for food if you're willing to embrace Thai cuisine most days, and you'll eat well while still saving serious money. If you need more Western comforts, plan for 25,000-30,000 and don't feel guilty about it. Either way, your food dollar stretches further in Bangkok than almost any other major city with a serious international school scene.