My Cost For A Year Of Living In Cebu City

[Travis]

it cost me less than $1000 a month to live in Cebu but I rent not own

[Art2ro]

I am constantly amazed by how so many people on phils orientated forums are able to live so cheaply. I m wondering whether it is a characteristic of someone who used the internet more than the general expat, because all the ones I encounter all seem to be trying to get rid of that pesky money as quickly as possible.Me included.

A lot of it is location. Our rent is only 5k per month. We don't live in a subdivision or expensive part of town for security reasons. Our landlord is a well-known local guy involved with politics. Our apartment is on his lot and he lives upstairs from us. People just don't mess with his property or tenants. Its cool up here in Baguio so we don't use AC and the per unit cost of electricity is also less. We use about 75 kw/h per month and pay about 500 pesos.For lifestyle, we don't eat out more than 2-3 times per month and when we do, it seldom costs more than 500p. We don't have any kids, don't smoke, drink, or gamble, and do not have a maid. We don't belong to a gym, rather we walk most places we go to so that is a double savings. One of the primary reason for me moving to the Philippines was because I was tired of the consumer driven lifestyle in the US. I prefer a simple lifestyle and don't need that many material things to keep me happy. I don't need to go out of the house much for entertainment. A few DVDs and books per month are the sum of my entertaiment costs. I don't mind living in a smallish apartment with bare cement floors and no hot water. My living expenses in the US were also significantly below what others in my social circle spent. I'm just the type of person that doesn't spend much on day to day life. I prefer to save my money so I can travel whenever I want and not have to work too much. Fortunately, my wife shares the same values so we manage quite well on a very small amount of money.

Yes, I too like my simple lifestyle here in the Philippines! We too have no children. I'm like you, I'm mostly a stay at home type of person! I have a 1979 Toyota Corolla we only use on our weekly grocery shopping day, that's the extent of driving here. The weather here in our area is comfortable and breezy and centrally located to everything we need and it's of walking distances of only a few blocks. We like it here in our gated community, it's safe, quiet and secluded!Here for now! have a nice day!

[TheMason]

A $500 a month budget? That's great! How do you do it? My total living expenses is at approx. at $1,350 a month (PhP62,000), and that mostly covers everything one could think of! And it's just my wife and I in a small house that's almost paid for and we don't have any other bills. We can't live on $500 a month as you can see! Our mortgage payment is only Php11,983 a month, utilities; phone, DSL, Celph use, water, electricity, cable approx at PhP9,000 a month, PhP2,500 live-out housekeeper. Our grocery budget alone is already at PhP28,000 ($600) a month! How do you do it? And I base my conversion rate at PhP46 to the dollar.

I don't think I could eat 28k worth of food if I tried!That budget was when I was living in Baguio. Rent was 5k, water was free (paid by landlord), electricity was 500 a month (no AC needed). Our grocery bill ran about 5k per month. I've largely adapted to a Filipino diet. I eat rice 2-3 times per day. I eat fish and chicken a lot and have virtually eliminated beef from my diet. I buy very few Western foods. For cellphone, I very seldom use mine for anything. I spend less than 100p per month on load. My wife sells Smart load. She generally gets about 1000 free texts per month based on her sales volume and receives the 12% discount on load she does buy. We don't have any servants. DSL and cable cost us 2300 per month. Transportation was about 2k per month.We've recently moved to Manila. Since then, our rent has jumped to 12k per month with the addition of a water bill. I'm concerned what our electric bill will be. I can't stand the hot weather and will need AC on most of the time. We haven't gotten our water or electric bills yet, but I'm dreading what they will be. Cell, DSL, cable, and food have stayed about the same as in Baguio. We've bumped our budget to 30k ($652) and I'm hoping we can keep it there. The electric bill will be the main factor.Years ago, a friend of mine told me that I squeeze a nickel so hard you could hear the buffalo scream. I took it as a compliment, not an insult. My wife and I were discussing our budget last night and I used a similar line on her....I told her she could squeeze a peso so hard you could hear Rizal screaming, 'aray, aray, aray' She thought that was damn funny, and took it as a compliment. I think our innate stinginess is the main reason we have such a low budget. We both like simple lifestyles and have very few things we want in life.

[Art2ro]

A $500 a month budget? That's great! How do you do it? My total living expenses is at approx. at $1,350 a month (PhP62,000), and that mostly covers everything one could think of! And it's just my wife and I in a small house that's almost paid for and we don't have any other bills. We can't live on $500 a month as you can see! Our mortgage payment is only Php11,983 a month, utilities; phone, DSL, Celph use, water, electricity, cable approx at PhP9,000 a month, PhP2,500 live-out housekeeper. Our grocery budget alone is already at PhP28,000 ($600) a month! How do you do it? And I base my conversion rate at PhP46 to the dollar.

I don't think I could eat 28k worth of food if I tried!That budget was when I was living in Baguio. Rent was 5k, water was free (paid by landlord), electricity was 500 a month (no AC needed). Our grocery bill ran about 5k per month. I've largely adapted to a Filipino diet. I eat rice 2-3 times per day. I eat fish and chicken a lot and have virtually eliminated beef from my diet. I buy very few Western foods. For cellphone, I very seldom use mine for anything. I spend less than 100p per month on load. My wife sells Smart load. She generally gets about 1000 free texts per month based on her sales volume and receives the 12% discount on load she does buy. We don't have any servants. DSL and cable cost us 2300 per month. Transportation was about 2k per month.We've recently moved to Manila. Since then, our rent has jumped to 12k per month with the addition of a water bill. I'm concerned what our electric bill will be. I can't stand the hot weather and will need AC on most of the time. We haven't gotten our water or electric bills yet, but I'm dreading what they will be. Cell, DSL, cable, and food have stayed about the same as in Baguio. We've bumped our budget to 30k ($652) and I'm hoping we can keep it there. The electric bill will be the main factor.Years ago, a friend of mine told me that I squeeze a nickel so hard you could hear the buffalo scream. I took it as a compliment, not an insult. My wife and I were discussing our budget last night and I used a similar line on her....I told her she could squeeze a peso so hard you could hear Rizal screaming, 'aray, aray, aray' She thought that was damn funny, and took it as a compliment. I think our innate stinginess is the main reason we have such a low budget. We both like simple lifestyles and have very few things we want in life.

My wife and I lived in the U.S. for the most part just making ends meet on a month to month to basis. She didn't work, because my salary was sufficient for the both us to live on, but just barely! But when we retired and moved to the Philippines in 1998, my government pension went a long way here in their local economy, which made our lives a little bit more easier. And even got better still when I started receiving my 3rd pension from the military just last year which doubled my tax bracket, but my taxes are still bearable! I just filed my 2009 income tax yesterday and I owe Federal only $662, due to the fact I was getting back $500 a month from my U.S. medical health plan that I suspended for the time being. We now use our TRICARE military health care plan which has no monthly premiums while residing in the Philippines! It's wonderful when our plans comes together and puts extra cash back into our piggy bank for those rainy days!:)

[Art2ro]

A $500 a month budget? That's great! How do you do it? My total living expenses is at approx. at $1,350 a month (PhP62,000), and that mostly covers everything one could think of! And it's just my wife and I in a small house that's almost paid for and we don't have any other bills. We can't live on $500 a month as you can see! Our mortgage payment is only Php11,983 a month, utilities; phone, DSL, Celph use, water, electricity, cable approx at PhP9,000 a month, PhP2,500 live-out housekeeper. Our grocery budget alone is already at PhP28,000 ($600) a month! How do you do it? And I base my conversion rate at PhP46 to the dollar.

I don't think I could eat 28k worth of food if I tried!That budget was when I was living in Baguio. Rent was 5k, water was free (paid by landlord), electricity was 500 a month (no AC needed). Our grocery bill ran about 5k per month. I've largely adapted to a Filipino diet. I eat rice 2-3 times per day. I eat fish and chicken a lot and have virtually eliminated beef from my diet. I buy very few Western foods. For cellphone, I very seldom use mine for anything. I spend less than 100p per month on load. My wife sells Smart load. She generally gets about 1000 free texts per month based on her sales volume and receives the 12% discount on load she does buy. We don't have any servants. DSL and cable cost us 2300 per month. Transportation was about 2k per month.We've recently moved to Manila. Since then, our rent has jumped to 12k per month with the addition of a water bill. I'm concerned what our electric bill will be. I can't stand the hot weather and will need AC on most of the time. We haven't gotten our water or electric bills yet, but I'm dreading what they will be. Cell, DSL, cable, and food have stayed about the same as in Baguio. We've bumped our budget to 30k ($652) and I'm hoping we can keep it there. The electric bill will be the main factor.Years ago, a friend of mine told me that I squeeze a nickel so hard you could hear the buffalo scream. I took it as a compliment, not an insult. My wife and I were discussing our budget last night and I used a similar line on her....I told her she could squeeze a peso so hard you could hear Rizal screaming, 'aray, aray, aray' She thought that was damn funny, and took it as a compliment. I think our innate stinginess is the main reason we have such a low budget. We both like simple lifestyles and have very few things we want in life.

Well, that PhP28,000 monthly grocery budget of ours didn't just cover food. It also included household cleaning stuff, toiletries and lunch weekly before doing our grocery shopping. We also go to Alabang with friends and buy imported meats at S & R, a membership discount warehouse, equivalent to that of Costco in the U.S.. Yeah, monthly budgets really depends on one's lifestyle, income and spending habits. Splurge when you can and be happy, because you can't take your money or assets with you to your grave when your time comes! :thumbs-up-smile: