Despite, the increase of gasoline price, here is a few suggestions regarding to the cost of living in Chiangmai.
Just imagine going to a 7-11 convenience store and buying a can of Coke, a package of Clorets, a bottle of water, a Nestles ice-cream and many more items for a quarter of the price you are accustomed to paying in North America or less.
Imagine yourself in this outdoor restaurant in the evening with your spouse/date. As the time nears to head back to your hotel you ask for the check and to your amazement the total with taxes and tip is less than $20 US dollars.
The hundreds of hours of research on the internet that I did prior to moving to Chiang Mai did reveal some of the costs of living here but it did not reveal that there are at times two prices. One for foreigners (farangs) and one for Thai’s. In some cases you have to pay the farang price and in some cases you do not. We will show you how best to deal with the two price system.
Accommodations can be had $450 or more US dollars a night or for $50 US dollars a month. Do you want to stay at a 4 or 5 star hotel and pay a premium for room, food, taxi and laundry costs or would you be content in a furnished apartment with TV, minifridge,private balcony, internet in room, laundry on site, and delicious freshly made meals and snacks at your doorstep for $200 U.S. on a monthly basis.
EATING IS ALWAYS an adventure in Thailand, but one part of the adventure that foreign visitors to the Land of Smiles may not venture very far into is the myriad variety of Thai sweets, called in Thai khanom. The main reason for this, perhaps, is the lack of recognition factor for all of those attractive little sweets in cups that look so appetizing on their bed of green banana leaf and all the rest. Thai cookbook writers have lamented about the eagerness with which the Thai people have abandoned aspects of their traditional customs and gone helter-skelter to take on the trappings of Western culture, but note with pride that the sometimes humble and sometimes elaborate Thai traditional sweets and desserts remain high on the preference list of indigenous Thais to the present day. 
It would be a misconception to say that these multitudinous products of this aspect of Thai cuisine are only desserts. The usual dessert after a Thai meal is a plate of attractively arranged mixed, cut fruit. It has been said that eating is the Thais national sport, and Thais are likely to nibble at one of the finger-sized sweets as a between-meal shack or take a bowl of one of the mixed sweets prepared with chopped ice as a refreshing treat on a hot tropical day. Some Thai sweets are also especially prepared for festivals such as the lunar new year, or as special treats to be offered to monks on special occasions. 
Thai desserts are usually simple and most of the ingredients can be found in any Thai marketplace. Basic ingredients for starting from scratch often include plain rice flour, sticky rice flour, or legume flour of various sorts. Sweeteners include cane sugar, palm sugar, coconut sugar, and the ubiquitous coconut cream. There is a whole class of khanom made from egg yolks, such as foi thong which are golden threads of egg yolk cooked hard in a sugar syrup flavored with essence of jasmine. Delicious, but not for those watching their waistlines or cholesterol levels. Sometimes aspects of khanom cooking can be exotic, such as used of the lowly pandanus leaf, which can be plaited into mats and other household items but finds its way into Thai khanom as a pleasing flavoring agent in anything from the small agar jelly snacks to ice cream. 