How Much Could You Live On? One Month.

[stevewool]

 

 

Most of you did not answer

 

I was not going to respond as the topic of how much can I live on has been done to death but I do have one point to add.

 

Stay away from other foreigners who have money.  If my gf and I go for a walk it costs nothing.  If we go for a walk and meet friends who are not on a tight budget there is always pressure to go for drinks, snacks, meals etc and doing that every day kills any budget.  Today we were invited to join friends at a pool party.  We go to that pool all the time for an entrance fee of 40 pesos each but when we go with friends we are expected to chip in for the 'cottage' and food and beer and the cost goes from 80 pesos to 500 pesos in a heart beat.

 

So the easiest way to save money is to have no social life.

 

Dave, late reply on you first point. COL, Cost of Living has been a frequent topic especially as a question from newcomers, perhaps guys who have not yet arrived. And it can be a bit irritating, because most of this you pick up after living here for a time.

The spirit of the question however is slightly different. What I am saying is, in the face of family pressures and doubly, triply broken budgets, if you had to shut down for a month, how far down could you take it down over 30 days without going down to poverty level.

I thought 12k. Now after a few days experimenting, but did not cut anything at home. I reckon 10k pesos, about 330/day with no serious problems. I found another lugaw in the market this morning, aroz caldo with chicken, and bits of ginger, you know the usual. 15 pesos and could pull through a whole day on that, 3 bowls, until the evening meal. The more you look the more you find. I got 20 Sabah bananas for 50 pesos and will eat them for breakfast/AM. That's the kind of thing I mean.

August is a long month and we already have our commitments. Sept will give it a try and maybe report back. Gina will have her own allowance and will generally not have to include me, so we might save money both sides.

 

Good reading this, and good luck too, i know we could do the same too, its not about living cheap and going without , its all about spending what you want on what you require, waste not want not sort of this

Edited August 1, 2015 by stevewool

[luisa jane]

Living in provinces will cost Filipinos lesser than living in the city. Basically, if you can earn in the provinces, you can save more with lesser spenditures.

[BrettGC]

 

Most of you did not answer

 

I was not going to respond as the topic of how much can I live on has been done to death but I do have one point to add.

 

Stay away from other foreigners who have money.  If my gf and I go for a walk it costs nothing.  If we go for a walk and meet friends who are not on a tight budget there is always pressure to go for drinks, snacks, meals etc and doing that every day kills any budget.  Today we were invited to join friends at a pool party.  We go to that pool all the time for an entrance fee of 40 pesos each but when we go with friends we are expected to chip in for the 'cottage' and food and beer and the cost goes from 80 pesos to 500 pesos in a heart beat.

 

So the easiest way to save money is to have no social life.

 

 

So true mate.  We all have different expectations, we all have a different idea of happiness.

 

Me, I'd be perfectly happy in the provinces with no other expats around but go and visit every now and then for an outlet, on a very rare occasion.  I love the people and the double edged sword that is family, I actually like the food and have never been a fan of Western meat and veges boiled to death.  I'm becoming pretty proficient at Cebuano and Tagalog through force of will and not wanting to get ripped off as you do as a foreigner in any country but also to be more comfortable and they do appreciate the effort.  

 

I like a beer a couple of times a week, I like to eat out once a week.  I have my guitar, I love to read, dive and play online games.  I go to the gym and run most days.  Bed, shower, sh&tter, AC when it's stupidly hot and I'll be happy.  That's it for me, it's not for everyone but that's me.  

 

It's different for everyone.  Pokermike is on one end of the extreme, Tuka Ram is on the other.  They're both happy and that's what matters. 

 

There is no answer to the question

[Thomas]

Living in provinces will cost Filipinos lesser than living in the city. Basically, if you can earn in the provinces, you can save more with lesser spenditures.

Not only Filipinos. me too   :)

So I recomend living ELSEWHERE than in the biger cities of economical reasons too.

[tothevictor]

I'm a little late to the party on this thread but I thought I'd throw in my two cents.

 

We live in the provinces, run a car, a business and have three household staff.  We run the aircon whenever we want to (I didn't come here to scrimp) and probably do about 250km a week in the car (one of the downsides of being in the provinces).

 

My basic expenses by the time we pay the household staff (driver, main and houseboy), pay the power bill, the broadband etc (we have no water bills as we have our own well) are about 30k or so a month.  That is before I have a beer, go out for a meal or take a trip away (usually a couple times a month we'll go to a beach resort somewhere in the PH or up to Hong Kong for a shopping trip).

 

If I was to tighten my belt and keep my lifestyle my *absolute* bottom line would be about 100k a month. In order to be comfortable it is usually more like double that.

 

To put things in perspective, 200k a month is only a little over 1000 dollars a week. Which is far less that I lived on when I was living in the west and it comes with ten times the lifestyle (having the freedom to drink any time I want and NEVER have to worry about driving is worth its weight in gold).

 

Before anyone jumps in and shoots me down for this, I am well aware that I could live on much less. If I got rid of the staff, turned off the airconditioner (my average power bill is usually about 10k) and made some other changes I could probably live on about 20k a month - but not live comfortably. 

 

Instead of trimming the man to fit the cloth I took a very different approach when I moved out the Philippines. I decided to find a way to build up my income to the point that it supports me in the manner that I wanted to be supported. Doing this was actually incredibly easy. We now have three very successful businesses here in the Philippines.  Our little bar / grocery store is packed every night and makes us at least 4000 pesos a day in profit.  On top of that we have a solar power company which works all over North Luzon and then I have my Internet marketing interests.

 

The long and the short of the matter? Asking the question "how little could you live on" is a crazy approach to take. The first question you've got to ask is "how do you want to live".

 

I am not wealthy, but I make sound investment choices. We set up all the various business ventures for a couple thousand bucks. They were all profitable in month one. I often ask myself why it is that people who come here insist on living on so little when it so easy to take a TINY amount of capital here and have it generate an income that is higher than most pensions.

 

Just my two cents, sorry if I went a bit off topic.  TL;DR: How much could I live on in the Philippines for one month? About 200,000 pesos. 

[stevewool]

Like we all have mentioned some cant live like others but it does not make them poor or rich, there is more to life then having a little more cash then your neighbour,

Being content in where you are and what you have is very important and yes a little cash helps that along the way, more cash could improve it maybe

[chris49]

Our little bar / grocery store is packed every night and makes us at least 4000 pesos a day in profit.

Hard to believe, while others in the province can't make 400.

On what daily turnover?

[tothevictor]

Our little bar / grocery store is packed every night and makes us at least 4000 pesos a day in profit.

Hard to believe, while others in the province can't make 400.

On what daily turnover?

 

Our margins run about 30% on groceries and ~200% on things like siomai, pizza etc. If they drink in house they also pay a premium for use of the videoke, tables and CR (140 pesos for an Emperador set with glasses and ice, same for ginebra.  A Bucket of beers is 200-250 depending on the beer). We are packed every night.

[tothevictor]

Our little bar / grocery store is packed every night and makes us at least 4000 pesos a day in profit.

Hard to believe, while others in the province can't make 400.

On what daily turnover?

Oh and if I could just say, if less than 100 dollars a day in profit is hard to believe, what's the point in being in business in the first place?

[tothevictor]

Like we all have mentioned some cant live like others but it does not make them poor or rich, there is more to life then having a little more cash then your neighbour,

Being content in where you are and what you have is very important and yes a little cash helps that along the way, more cash could improve it maybe

It's like I said. For me the decision about coming to the Philippines was not about money, it was about lifestyle. If I can't have the lifestyle I want then I may as well not be here.  So I took steps to make it happen.