Monthly Costs

[BrettGC]

3 hours ago, Jack Peterson said:

 

Jack, is that school cost monthly or annual or per term/semester?  Nearly fell off my chair when I read it!

[davewe]

Town/Province: Valencia, Negros Oriental

Number of people in your residence: 2+

Type of Residence (house, townhouse, unit, studio etc): Rental house

Rent: 15000

Electricity: 3600

Water: last month was 23 pesos (I think we can manage this)

Gas (if applicable): We have it but are still working on the 1st tank. But let's say 250/month

Internet: 1899 PLDT fiber.

Landline (if applicable): Included with PLDT

Mobile/Cell: 600 for two phones.

Groceries (includes booze): Too lazy to have seriously tracked yet. 

Car rego/insurance: I have a year with the car. My recollection is that annual renewal will be somewhere around 10000

Fuel: 3000 is a guess

 

Brett:

Whenever this gets knocked around, it seems like the budgetary failure is because people only include the standard monthly costs: rent, utilities, food. They forget to include necessities or near necessities that impact the budget just as much as the "monthly bills."

These include:

Immigration was already mentioned: 0 for me (BB privilege).

Travel: My budget includes a monthly trip somewhere in the Philippines. Might be local, might be another island. But really, how many of us came all the way here just to stay in our house 365/year. So I budget for it. I also budget for an annual trip to the US for at least the next few years. This might be the largest single item I have in my budget. But for now it's a necessity.

Medical: Insurance - Phil Health at 17k/year. Vitamins. Other medical/dental is variable but I budget 2500/month and hope to avoid the big stuff.

Cosmetics, lotions, haircuts, women's needs: I mean you are with a woman, right? I don't want to get this stuff confused with food or drink, otherwise a shopping trip might mean no food, just this sort of crap. But anyway, I have 2000/month in my budget for this stuff.

Gifts: I know, I know. We are all kariput and give nothing to anyone. But since this is Xmas let's deal with reality. There are Xmas, birthday and anniversary gifts. Hell, I might even get myself something once in a while. It mounts up. I have $500/year budgeted and I am sure that's too small, but I'm trying.

 

[BrettGC]

11 minutes ago, davewe said:

 

Cosmetics, lotions, haircuts, women's needs: I mean you are with a woman, right? I don't want to get this stuff confused with food or drink, otherwise a shopping trip might mean no food, just this sort of crap. But anyway, I have 2000/month in my budget for this stuff.

Gifts: I know, I know. We are all kariput and give nothing to anyone. But since this is Xmas let's deal with reality. There are Xmas, birthday and anniversary gifts. Hell, I might even get myself something once in a while. It mounts up. I have $500/year budgeted and I am sure that's too small, but I'm trying.

 

Ah yes, the dreaded beautification process....  That night you met SAO, she'd just spent 3500PHP on that hair colour she was sporting and was also the reason we were so late for the resto!  And yes, the rest of it that goes with our girls.  Thankfully she doesn't go in for that scam of skin whitening that gives filipinas a deathly palour that reminds me of the walking dead and they're truly convinced anything other than surgical pigment removal a la Michael Jackson will work long time.... Sorry pet peeve of mine....

Gifts, yes, gifts...  I'm not putting that in as basic but we'll see how long that takes once I'm there.  I'm a sucker for punishment...

[bigpearl]

18 hours ago, Jack Peterson said:

 Immigration is not as Tr

 

 

Immigration is not as Trivial as many think, A lot of ex-pats here fall foul and become victims because they did not cater for it, Let's not not put any personal  feelings or thoughts into this,it is the downfall of many believe me

Copy that Jack and see your wisdom, something that all expats obviously should consider from day one. Hence this and other sites are a prerequisite for those wishing to or moving to another country.

Cheers, Steve.

[fillipino_wannabe]

23 hours ago, BrettGC said:

 

Town/Province: Antique

Number of people in your residence: 2 and 2 maids

Type of Residence (house, townhouse, unit, studio etc): Studio 

Rent: 5k (rent from gfs family so cheaper, would be around 10k)

Electricity: 4k, about 12 hours aircon per day

Water: free, have a pump

Gas (if applicable):

Internet: 1800 PLDT

Landline (if applicable): Comes with internet

Mobile/Cell: 350 for girlfriends, don't use mine

Groceries (includes booze): 15k

Car rego/insurance: 27k, had to purchase it with a truck we just bought

Fuel: 2k

 

 

[Jack Peterson]

1 hour ago, BrettGC said:

Jack, is that school cost monthly or annual or per term/semester?  Nearly fell off my chair when I read it!

 That is Monthly, K12 is a costly  Senior schooling if you Go private as she wanted to, her state school did not offer  her 2 of the 7 subjects she needs for her career Path (Vet) so she went private at Silliman senior High at a cost of some 57.000 per year, on top of that is the usual stuff and allowances for Travel and Food which when all added up and divided by the 12 months comes out at the 6+000 I stated, Yep darned expensive but she is our only Child and oh well, to us she is worth it (At times) We all read about the abysmal schooling here in the PI but as with many things you only get what you pay for so, we or her can't ever say we did not do our best for her.

We actually do get a Deduction from the main cost of Tuition for the year as we upgraded to private, but there are some 1 to 1 tutions to pay for [her maths are below Par] but the extra Tuition is paying off.So all in all the Whole year is around 96.000 all included. As I say expensive But.................................

 Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth  but she like her Mama is Headstrong and wraps me round her little Finger a lot of the time. 

 

Edited December 22, 2017 by Jack Peterson
Spelling AGAIN

[Jack Peterson]

 .BrettGC

Bret I see what you meant now, have read the Post again can't think how that happened but have explained in another post the School cost is 6700 per month

 

[bigpearl]

18 hours ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

Really

Petty and Trivial costs . What if the OP is on a tight budget? What if the OP lives in the mountains and has to make a day trip each time to immigration? Do we put that in transport cost? We can take all the trivial costs out and make a false budget but what good will that do anyone? 

So as a senior member of this forum my real advice is to stop trying to get up my nose as Christmas is coming and Santa wont play nice.  

Wow,  I am sorry you see my response as you have, I constantly get the impression that no matter what I say I am on the outer. If you read my submission in its entirety as we all should the truth is in the reading. Did the OP mention mention health care? No! A biggy. If the property is owned the ongoing maintenance, tax cost and insurance costs? The once a week massage or biennial? Jack Daniels or Emperadore Light? New slippers or the pump died? The curtains are fading etc.We need to buy new plants for the garden as the old ones are the wrong colour. Budgetary sums that come into play always and like myself have done my figures but come to "your" (apparently) site to glean info and contribute and see and assimilate only to be questioned time and time again. Offer a cognitive budget from your experienced perspective for the members instead of criticising new comers. Read the input and never take the dark side as this is a forum that will not be controlled for long with a negative attitude. Re read my post JGF.

Cheers, Steve.

[Jollygoodfellow]

55 minutes ago, bigpearl said:

Wow,  I am sorry you see my response as you have, I constantly get the impression that no matter what I say I am on the outer. If you read my submission in its entirety as we all should the truth is in the reading. Did the OP mention mention health care? No! A biggy. If the property is owned the ongoing maintenance, tax cost and insurance costs? The once a week massage or biennial? Jack Daniels or Emperadore Light? New slippers or the pump died? The curtains are fading etc.We need to buy new plants for the garden as the old ones are the wrong colour. Budgetary sums that come into play always and like myself have done my figures but come to "your" (apparently) site to glean info and contribute and see and assimilate only to be questioned time and time again. Offer a cognitive budget from your experienced perspective for the members instead of criticising new comers. Read the input and never take the dark side as this is a forum that will not be controlled for long with a negative attitude. Re read my post JGF.

Cheers, Steve.

Re read what I was replying to, your statement that my suggestion about immigration is trivial. I said nothing about health care or anything. Did I criticize anyone? Yes only your attitude against me and not only in this topic. I will do my budget when I get to it. 

[Gary D]

The problem with these budget requests are that they are at best just a snapshot. To make any sense at all we need a comparison with previous years. If you are good to go this year because the numbers work out what about in five or ten years time will you still have enough money.