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Living in the Philippines on less than $1000 per month
The claim of living for under $1000 per month seemed incredible to me so I have been conducting some research to find people actually living on shoestring budgets in the Philippines.
I think the claim to be able to live like a king on such a budget is subjective to say the least but it does seem that many are living in reasonable comfort on a budget of less than $1000 per month.
Here are the living costs of three expats currently living in the Philippines.
1) Living in the Province
The cost of living depends on where you live. Get out of the city (Province) and costs drop dramatically.
One Expat living in the Province with his girlfriend has a small 2 bedroom house about 150 metres from the sea.
Here is a break down of some of his basic monthly costs:
- Rent, P2000
- Electricity, P800 (no aircon)
- Gas, about P100
- Water, included
- Land line telephone, unknown, he doesn't have a landline.
- Cell Phone, about P500
- Dream Sattelite TV, top package is P750 for 50 channels
- Groceries, P10,000
The total basic living costs are approximately P14,150 (about $260)
2) Living in a Hotel in the City
Another expat lives in downtown Cebu at a Hotel near Colon street (the oldest street in the Philippines). Not even sure if the Hotel even has a Star rating.
For P14,000 per month he gets a room with a double bed, aircon, cable tv with about 60 channels, direct dial telephone with free local calls, private bathroom and daily house keeping.
He has access to the internet in his room on a dial up for 10p an hour prepaid which is very slow with an average cost of P600 per month.
The hotel has a 24 hour lobby with snack bar, a night club, cafe/restaurant, room service until 3am and massage service 24 hrs per day.
Within 100 metres, he can eat at a multitude of places including KFC, Jolleybee, Chowking, McDonalds, Food court in Gaisana Metro, local eatery called Pete's Kitchen and many others. His average meal cost is about P100, 3 meals per day x 30 days gives an average of P9,000 per month. He has an average P1,000 per month in cell phone costs.
His basic living expenses which covers utilities, rent, food, cable TV and internet comes to about P25,000 or $450 per month.
3) Cebu City 3 bedroom Apartment
Another Expat said the he lives an average of $750 per month. For that he lives in a 3 bedroom apartment with a full time house keeper. He uses taxis for most of his trips around town. (in many cities in the would you could spend $750 a month just on Taxi’s).
Most Filipinos live on much less than the amounts mentioned above. There is also many affluent Filipino’s that would spend these amounts in an afternoon at the shopping Mall without a second thought.
As I have mentioned previously my budget is considerable more than the above amounts but at the same time I have no intention of being careless with my money either.
The StreetWise Philippine Dreams books has lots of good info on Living in the Philippines whatever your budget.
Posted: Monday 27th June 2005, 7:37 AM
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