Instead of salaries, Peace Corps volunteers receive modest stipends meant to reflect the lifestyle of an average Thai counterpart. According to our Volunteer Service Handbook, the monthly allowance is intended to cover: “food, household supplies, clothing, utilities, recreation, and entertainment”.
For this month’s group article, we asked our Sticky Rice staff to tell us what category their biggest stipend splurge falls into!
Teresa Derr, 134 YinD
A 3000 baht guitar to teach myself with!
Morgan Shupsky, 134 YinD
I moved into my own house about a month ago and it has everything I could ever want… except for a microwave. I lasted one month without one, but there’s only so many times I can heat up plain white rice in a pot on the stove, as it’s quite annoying. I broke down and spent 1500 baht on a Shopee microwave, which came promptly in 2 days, and I was so excited I immediately unboxed it upon its arrival. I also ordered a shelf to put the microwave on, since there’s no counter space left due to the aforementioned stuff the house came with. But since my shelf hadn’t come and I was too excited to wait, I piled the microwave box on top of another box in my kitchen and made a makeshift, very podunk, shelf for my microwave.
I left the kitchen satisfied with my work and excitedly awaiting dinner time when I could heat up my food. Within the hour, I heard a huge crash which was, you guessed it, my brand new microwave. Turns out the construction of my homemade shelf was not very sound, and my microwave paid the price. So after you factor in the second one I had to buy, my 1500 baht microwave has turned into a 3000 baht microwave and I am still heating my rice up on the stove while I wait for the new one to arrive.
Kyra O’Connell, 134 TESS
A printer. Between printing out random odds and ends for Peace Corps, or more frequently printing out new flashcards and game pieces, my printer gets a workout pretty much every day. It’s one of the first things I bought at site and I have zero regrets.
Kayla Kawalec, 134 YinD
I’ve always emphatically protested that I would never become that Peace Corps volunteer. You know the type – they encounter one of their host country’s thousands of stray cats or dogs at their school or on their street, the creature looks up at said volunteer with its giant doe eyes (genetically designed to scream helplessness), intuitively knowing that their best shot at not having to fight over street scraps for the rest of their tiny life is by charming the benevolent foreigner. That volunteer, who despite enumerable logistical and financial reasons not to – inevitably caves, takes the stray home and begins to feed their modest volunteer allowance straight into its mouth. I swore I would never become that volunteer, spending baht on kitten litter, rabies vaccines, treats, toys, and ultimately, a plane ticket back to America for their fuzzy freeloader.
Despite our best intentions as volunteers, everyone is bound to splurge on something, mine is named Popcorn.
Dito Montaña, 134 YinD
Futon // Price: 2500 Baht
Moving out of your host family’s house and into a fully un-furnished home is bound to bring a host of stipend splurges. From kitchenware to towels, microwave, and stove top, anything you can think of that is essential to living on your own – I’ve likely had to buy it with our measly stipend. But my favorite stipend splurge by far has been my new prized possession, forever changing my quality of life in my new home: my futon.
For the first few weeks in my new digs, I only had one uncomfortable office chair that I lugged around from room to room in the name of leisure. I’m someone who lives for the sabai sabai life, and so not having a place to plop down on at the end of a long day was starting to get to me. I had a living room, but no living was happening in it. After perusing my favorite online shopping site, I found this company that sold futons of different sizes for your home, and I splurged on the medium 3-person size for just over 2,500. It has been a game changer. Like most things I buy – it’s a tad too small, but it’s perfect. I spend basically all of my time when I’m at home on that futon, whether it’s eating my dinner, watching a show, reading a book, or napping on a hot Saturday afternoon. It even folds down for full comfortability. If you’re a PCV in Thailand and your life isn’t as sabai sabai as you’d like it to be, a word of advice: get yourself a futon.
Dano Nissen, 134 TESS
Exercise equipment!
I used the entire move in allowance of 9000 baht (perhaps a teeny bit more) to buy a home gym, complete with a bench, barbell, dip belt, adjustable dumbbells, pull up/dip stand, jump rope and 100 KG of weights. Nothing like getting yoked by yohk-ing [lifting] (ยก-ing) weights.
Also, I bought a basketball hoop since my village does not have one. I set it up in the school, and the kids love it. Soccer and volleyball are the primary sports, so most are newcomers to hooping. All the more fun. They double dribble and travel like they’re on bpai tiao [vacation] (ไปเที่ยว), but they’re learning. The hoop also doesn’t stand more than nine feet, allowing me to dunk on and Mutumbo block children, which is amongst life’s greatest joys.
Basketball hoop: 3000 baht. Reverse windmill slamma jamma-ing on an eight year old: priceless.
Cloé Fortier-King, 134 YinD
My biggest stipend splurge (besides the obvious flights and fun travel expenses) is probably the supplies to fuel my matcha addiction. Truthfully, I used to be one of those people who claims matcha tastes like grass and doesn’t provide the same necessary caffeine boost as coffee. However, Thailand has shifted my perspective on this wondrous beverage known as chaa kiow. It’s now a beloved part of my morning (and sometimes afternoon, too) ritual. I’ve acquired a lovely matcha bowl made by a ceramic artist in Chiang Mai, a bamboo matcha whisk to ensure the smoothest, most authentic flavor, and high quality matcha powder that is admittedly a little bit pang…but so worth it.
Cadi Duncan Reszel, 134 TESS
While in Thailand, I have significantly reduced my shopping outside of the occasional 7/11 run (this is saying something since I worked in retail for 6 years!). Considering our PCV living allowance is roughly $200 a month, my biggest splurge thus far in service has been purchasing a pair of leggings, a pair of bike shorts, and an athletic shirt from Adidas Thailand. Those three items ran me about 5000 ฿, which is about $172. I’ve been quite pleased with all three items, so I say it’s 5000 ฿ well spent! And I got free shipping!
Bradford Reszel, 134 TESS
Serving as a couple in Thailand has many benefits and one certainly is that both of us receive the volunteer stipend while having our biggest expense (rent) at the same level as a single volunteer. To this end, I haven’t splurged on much in my first 6 months at site. However, the time I did spend a bigger chunk of baht was at our Reconnect Conference in July. Utilizing our close proximity to a larger grocery store, I was able to purchase a few ingredients for some cocktails. It was fun to make margaritas and a vodka lychee lemonade and share with my fellow Volunteers while we told stories by the pool over a couple of evenings. Definitely worth it to shell out some saved up money to enjoy some quality time with others serving here in Thailand!
Bianca Palese, 134 TESS
The most expensive item I’ve purchased here was my Scouts uniform (2000 baht, custom made), but that was kind of a requirement for my school if I was going to fit in. My biggest splurge for something that I treated myself to was ordering Olaplex No.9 (1500 baht for a 3 oz. bottle) from the Sephora in Bangkok. Between the heat, air pollution, and bucket showers, I felt like my hair needed a good leave-in treatment! I have no regrets.
Sticky Rice 