Cheap or Not?

Is Thailand really cheap? Personally, I don't think it's nearly as cheap as some people think. Street food is cheap and apartments are cheap, but this is about where it ends.
Before we got married and had kids, my wife bought Pad Thai for 5 baht. She would buy 3 packages, we would split them and for about 40 cents we were both full. Food in the grocery can be three to five times higher than in the United States.

​Apartments can be had for $150-$250 a month, but in many cases, you get what you pay for. They're still a good value for the money, but the point is that while Thailand might seem cheap, the days when you could eat a meal for 5-10 baht (15-30 cents) are long, long gone. A subscriber commented that Thai street food is far better for you than what is sold in the grocery. Of course, he didn't know that much of the seafood is injected with formaline (formaldehyde) and the fruit and vegetables were found to have a much higher level of pesticides than is acceptable. In Thailand, things are not always as they seem.