Can You Live Like A Filipino?

[Gratefuled]

Hello to one and all curious foreigners about living in the Philippines.

Yes, you can live on a small income. Meaning you can exist if you can adjust to the Philippines. You have to be able to live like a Filipino.

First, if you are not used to heat and humidity you're in for an awakening. Hot and humid night and day. Filipinos are used to it. I sleep with a/c on and a ceiling fan overhead. Wife sleeps all bundled up and still complains it is too cold.

You will need a clothes washer and dryer or wash by hand or send clothes out to be laundered. It rains a lot in the Philippines.

Get used to cold showers. I have. I don't mind at all. 

There are all kinds of insects from small to large ones. I let small lizards in to eat them. I spray and try to keep mosquitos at a minimum. Dengue fever is very common here. If you don't know about it , then read about it. It's a killer.

There are rats too. I've seen them in fine restaurants and hotels. The cats keep them at a minimum but still they're around. People get bit by them quite often.

Then, there's the food. I hate Filipino food. I won't eat it. I buy my food and cook my own.  Filipino food smells bad but Filipinos love smelly food. Try smelling dried fish fried. Then, there is squid, it smells bad too. They love cooking with fish sauce. Now, there is no reason why chicken or beef should smell like fish.

There are "brown outs" at any time of day or night that last from a few minutes to  long hours. You might need a generator to keep food from spoiling.

There is a lot more but this should hold you for a while and get you thinking. 

I've adjusted but only because I can afford to buy my conveniences. I'm not planning to live here forever. Just til my wifes parents pass away. Then, we will move to my home in California.

MABUHAY

[chris49]

Hello to one and all curious foreigners about living in the Philippines.

Yes, you can live on a small income. Meaning you can exist if you can adjust to the Philippines. You have to be able to live like a Filipino.

First, if you are not used to heat and humidity you're in for an awakening. Hot and humid night and day. Filipinos are used to it. I sleep with a/c on and a ceiling fan overhead. Wife sleeps all bundled up and still complains it is too cold.

You will need a clothes washer and dryer or wash by hand or send clothes out to be laundered. It rains a lot in the Philippines.

Get used to cold showers. I have. I don't mind at all. 

There are all kinds of insects from small to large ones. I let small lizards in to eat them. I spray and try to keep mosquitos at a minimum. Dengue fever is very common here. If you don't know about it , then read about it. It's a killer.

There are rats too. I've seen them in fine restaurants and hotels. The cats keep them at a minimum but still they're around. People get bit by them quite often.

Then, there's the food. I hate Filipino food. I won't eat it. I buy my food and cook my own.  Filipino food smells bad but Filipinos love smelly food. Try smelling dried fish fried. Then, there is squid, it smells bad too. They love cooking with fish sauce. Now, there is no reason why chicken or beef should smell like fish.

There are "brown outs" at any time of day or night that last from a few minutes to  long hours. You might need a generator to keep food from spoiling.

There is a lot more but this should hold you for a while and get you thinking. 

I've adjusted but only because I can afford to buy my conveniences. I'm not planning to live here forever. Just til my wifes parents pass away. Then, we will move to my home in California.

MABUHAY

 

The food presents no problem to me. It's not "smelly" to my senses. I don't actually like fish sauce or bugoong much, so I try to limit my intake. Can't really ask them to take it out, it's staple in their cooking. (hence the bad smell you quote). But I can't sit around being fairly  inactive and consume vast quantities of rice, 2-3 times a day.

 

We don't run AC here in the province. And although I don't mind cold water, we will sometimes mix in a kettle of hot water to take the chill off. Bathing from underground water, we pump it up.

 

Drinks and over consumption. I don't mind a few drinks, but I'm not going to consume half the bottle with no mixer just because there's a free bottle of booze going around. Note the word "free"...free drinks preferable to Filipino.

 

Credit and bad debt. Well we don't do that, and we don't risk a friendship by asking or repeatedly asking for "emergency" loans.

 

Dengue with not affect people with strong immune systems. I haven't heard of many if any cases of Dengue in foreigners. Dengue is prevalent in squatter area and low lying areas next to stagnant water.

 

Short answer. I can live like a Filipino for short periods. But I wouldn't want to.

Edited April 15, 2015 by chris49

[Old55]

I understand how you feel about Filipino food some of it is an required taste. With all the inexpensive fresh tropical fruit and seafood there finding quality eats is simple and healthy.

[jon1]

Dengue with not affect people with strong immune systems. I haven't heard of many if any cases of Dengue in foreigners. Dengue is prevalent in squatter area and low lying areas next to stagnant water.

 

 

I know of at least 3 foreigners on 3 different islands that have had to endure a bout of Dengue. The above statement is not true. The only way to mitigate this is to prevent factors that enable this mosquito to thrive; standing water in small puddles, debris that can hold such, long grass, etc. 

 

I have drawn the line on the smoked fish and durian. Everything else is fine with me. I find most filipino food too salty.  I find everything else palatable. We rarely eat out as my wife cooks 10x better than 90% of the restaurants here. We also eat healthier because of that. My wife also has cut back on the MSG and salt when cooking for me.

 

There is no reason that you should have to live like a filipino. It's your choice. A little bit of money will go a long way; washing machine that has a pump and good spin cycle, inline water heater, etc. For now, where I live we do not have the brownouts experienced throughout the Philippines. Even though this last month has been the hottest so far this year, my electric bill has been the lowest to date. I have adjusted to the heat and humidity (not much different than Florida) and we only use the AC so that we can get to sleep. A few hours only at night. We almost always have a breeze where I live.

 

If living within the confines of the city it's a different story. The concrete and tight quarters leads to lack of breeze and heat being held in. My friend in Olongapo experiences temperatures at least 10F hotter than where I live. 

 

Maybe you could look for a place that is a little better but close enough to look after the parents?

[Dave Hounddriver]

Yes, you can live on a small income. Meaning you can exist if you can adjust to the Philippines. You have to be able to live like a Filipino.

 

I have sympathy for your plight. The frustration in your post comes through clearly but the mistake is not committing to the long term.  I see you want to go back to California so you seem unwilling to fix your place up to the point you will have all the creature comforts of western living while paying Philippine prices.

 

First you need a place you can commit too.  Long term lease or get your wife to buy it and you can start to fix it up.  Get a small place so you can air condition one room cheaply.  Get a solar power setup if you can afford the initial outlay.  Not a huge system but enough to add 1kW to your system when the sun is hot and the aircon is being used.

 

Washer spin dryers and single outlet hot water heaters are cheap enough that most budgets can afford them.  When the clothes are spun out early in the day the 4 hours in the hot sun will dry most items.

 

Insects and rats?  Deal with them.  Seal holes, set traps, use poison, whatever you have to do but do it.  Or live with them as many Aussies do.

 

Filipino food?  Thats where it pays to have a wife who can cook.  Don't buy the local street food if you hate it. Have your wie try some dishes and cook with fresh, clean ingredients and spice it to your taste.  Then its like any other food, you eat what you like and don't buy what you don't like.  (Learn to cook yourself if your wife does not cook the way you like and you don't want to replace her :-) )

 

Brown outs are overemphasized.  They are inconenient and uncomfortable but your food does not usually spoil.

 

Adapt and overcome!

[scott h]

Nice variation of the "Can you live on $X,XXX?" topic :thumbsup:

 

Filipinos are used to it.

 

Human beings are very adaptive, almost any of us can adjust to almost any environment. The big question is, do I want to?

 

I personally would not have retired to the Philippines if there would have been any, any at all major lowering of my standard of living I was used to.

 

I can eat almost all Filipino food. Do I enjoy it? Not really. I find it a bit bland but besides that, when I eat I just like to "tuck it in" a lot of Filipino food is just a pain in the butt to eat :hystery: . So I just go to S&R stock up on what I like and make what I like. It makes sense really for the 20 years that my wife and I lived in the States, she would cook and eat stuff from my mothers recipes, but lots of time shee would buy and prepare stuff that she would buy at the local Filipino market. Now the situation is reversed is all :lol: .

 

Get used to cold showers

 

My first few visits here I would "Man UP!" and just take cold showers, then I got smart and heated a bucket of water like the locals. But when we retired, I insured that a hot water heater was included in the plans. Its much more enjoyable to start with warm water and lower the temperature as needed.

 

I sleep with a/c on and a ceiling fan overhead. Wife sleeps all bundled up and still complains it is too cold.

 

Didn't know we lived in the same house Gratefuled, :dance: . But we just use the AC. I have slept here with fans only (during brownouts) but its not enjoyable at all.

 

I've adjusted but only because I can afford to buy my conveniences

 

Agreed.............'nough said :thumbsup:

[chris49]

 

Dengue with not affect people with strong immune systems. I haven't heard of many if any cases of Dengue in foreigners. Dengue is prevalent in squatter area and low lying areas next to stagnant water.

 

 

I know of at least 3 foreigners on 3 different islands that have had to endure a bout of Dengue. The above statement is not true. The only way to mitigate this is to prevent factors that enable this mosquito to thrive; standing water in small puddles, debris that can hold such, long grass, etc. 

 

I have drawn the line on the smoked fish and durian. Everything else is fine with me. I find most filipino food too salty.  I find everything else palatable. We rarely eat out as my wife cooks 10x better than 90% of the restaurants here. We also eat healthier because of that. My wife also has cut back on the MSG and salt when cooking for me.

 

There is no reason that you should have to live like a filipino. It's your choice. A little bit of money will go a long way; washing machine that has a pump and good spin cycle, inline water heater, etc. For now, where I live we do not have the brownouts experienced throughout the Philippines. Even though this last month has been the hottest so far this year, my electric bill has been the lowest to date. I have adjusted to the heat and humidity (not much different than Florida) and we only use the AC so that we can get to sleep. A few hours only at night. We almost always have a breeze where I live.

 

If living within the confines of the city it's a different story. The concrete and tight quarters leads to lack of breeze and heat being held in. My friend in Olongapo experiences temperatures at least 10F hotter than where I live. 

 

Maybe you could look for a place that is a little better but close enough to look after the parents?

 

 

Sorry mate I didn't consider all areas. Here in Manila, Tondo, Paco and other areas where foreigners wouldn't live might be the Dengue area especially after flooding. And remote areas as you mentioned. I did not consider all that.

[Petey]

I could'nt eat rice 3-4 times per day. Once per week but ill stretch to once per 2 weeks. I cannot stand the smell of fish, makes me wretch. But if my wife wants to cook it im fine with that, i just won't eat it. Some of the foods are really pungent and god knows how they make it so strong... and why would you? Something that smells like that cant be doing your stomach much good.

 

Can't eat bell peppers - alergy.

 

Ill eat caldaretta, adobo - i actually enjoy over a baked potato. But ill leave pretty much everything else.

 

I never buy from a street vendor - How many bathrooms for you see around the place, and cross contamination of food... eww. When you have multiple people dipping fish balls into a vinigar and that pute vinigar is now gray... just think how much salava to vinigar mix there is.

 

I cook what i can with whats available to me, but an Englishman needs his Ginsters and Pukka pies in his stomach. Now thats food of the Gods.

[Gerald Glatt]

thats food of the Gods.

 

 

The next brit to lose 30#

[stevewool]

Wow, i am going to try to live as cheap as i can but healthy and safe and comfortable too, start cheap and work up to what i will need not buy what i am thinking i want ,

Maybe its the wrong way but for me thats they path i am going down, yes i shall have the funds to make changers , no AC for me its to noisy and cold, a fan and a open window will do for now, yes the food is not all to my liking but as long as i have some veg on my plate i am a happy bunny,