Living on $800

[Jim Sibbick]

In Cebu City, I require about P65000 per month. I just proved to myself I can still do it on that amount by only spending P35000, hotel included, in 3 weeks in December, after I decided I had enough of Leyte for a while. I still had a good time on P35000On P65,000 per month, I can live permanently at the Cebu Century Hotel, eat out for every meal, live with a girlfriend or entertain the ladies on a daily basis, pay extension fees, socialise with friends every day, have a daily reflexology massage and travel occasionally to other islands. However, out of Cebu City, away from all the distractions, I can get by on a lot less. AUD $800 is plenty for a comfortable lifestyle. I rent in Palompon Leyte. that is not to say I live permanently in Palompon Leyte, i work in Australia and just go home when I have enough money. Elsewhere on these forums, I have given the breakdown of my base monthly expenses. It is AUD $170 per month for rent, electricity, internet, cable TV, gas and mobile phone. AUD $800 leaves plenty left over for entertainment, eating out, extensions etc.Regards: Jim

[Jake]

In Cebu City, I require about P65000 per month. I just proved to myself I can still do it on that amount by only spending P35000, hotel included, in 3 weeks in December, after I decided I had enough of Leyte for a while. I still had a good time on P35000On P65,000 per month, I can live permanently at the Cebu Century Hotel, eat out for every meal, live with a girlfriend or entertain the ladies on a daily basis, pay extension fees, socialise with friends every day, have a daily reflexology massage and travel occasionally to other islands. However, out of Cebu City, away from all the distractions, I can get by on a lot less. AUD $800 is plenty for a comfortable lifestyle. I rent in Palompon Leyte. that is not to say I live permanently in Palompon Leyte, i work in Australia and just go home when I have enough money. Elsewhere on these forums, I have given the breakdown of my base monthly expenses. It is AUD $170 per month for rent, electricity, internet, cable TV, gas and mobile phone. AUD $800 leaves plenty left over for entertainment, eating out, extensions etc.Regards: Jim

Thank you Big Jim for the current boots on the ground report regarding inexpensive accommodations in Cebu.We also would like to thank you for your colorful website about traveling around Visayans (middle island group).Well done sir -- Jake

[Jim Sibbick]

Thank you Big Jim for the current boots on the ground report regarding inexpensive accommodations in Cebu.We also would like to thank you for your colorful website about traveling around Visayans (middle island group).Well done sir -- Jake

You're welcome!

[roy2cebu]

In Cebu City, I require about P65000 per month. I just proved to myself I can still do it on that amount by only spending P35000, hotel included, in 3 weeks in December, after I decided I had enough of Leyte for a while. I still had a good time on P35000On P65,000 per month, I can live permanently at the Cebu Century Hotel, eat out for every meal, live with a girlfriend or entertain the ladies on a daily basis, pay extension fees, socialise with friends every day, have a daily reflexology massage and travel occasionally to other islands. However, out of Cebu City, away from all the distractions, I can get by on a lot less. AUD $800 is plenty for a comfortable lifestyle. I rent in Palompon Leyte. that is not to say I live permanently in Palompon Leyte, i work in Australia and just go home when I have enough money. Elsewhere on these forums, I have given the breakdown of my base monthly expenses. It is AUD $170 per month for rent, electricity, internet, cable TV, gas and mobile phone. AUD $800 leaves plenty left over for entertainment, eating out, extensions etc.Regards: Jim

Hi Jim,is that $170 per month for living in Leyte?I'm paying that much alone for rent per month in Talisay.Where can I find your other post on monthly breakdown...(and thanks for the other info sent via PM...appreciate your time for that).

[Papa Carl]

Wow, what can I say, I am surprised to hear many comments here! I live in Pasig Manila, and for 2 years lived in a western built 2 bedroom house with a terraced roof, with my filipina wife, (and now 5 month old daughter) on a salary of 40,000 pesos a month! Now if you knew me before I came to the Philippines the last thing you would expect from me is to be careful with my money! In deed I have made some very foolish mistakes while visiting and living in the Philippines. However once settled, and married to a wonderful woman I can say honestly living on 40,000 pesos a month was not difficult. Did we go out and eat in fancy resturants often...., no. Did we have a car...., no. Do we live in a gated community...., no. So I guess like others have said, it will depend on what your lifestyle is. As I said though, with a wife and baby, (and if you know what it is like to be married to a Filipina, then you know that usually means feeding and housing, and paying for funerals, weddings, births etc etc for the entire extended family. At times it got crowded in our little 2 bedroom house, with 5 or 6 people there).We do have an "ama" or "yaya", which costs 2,500 a month to help my wife, but I can still live comfortable earning 40K a month.Recently my wife and I have been talking about moving to Cebu, and in fact this friday I am arriving for several job interviews. In light of what has been written here I think I need to re assess what my asking salary would be, maybe increase it to 80,000 just to make sure I earn enough to enjoy living in what appears to be one of the most beautiful parts of the country.

[Dave Hounddriver]

Wow, what can I say, . . . .

You may have hit on one of the big problems here. You have made good points but everything you say is about what your expenses were in the past. So how long ago was that?5 years ago 800 a month would go a lot further than now. The Philippines has had very high inflation but the people who are reading the stories on the Internet today are thinking they can live as cheap as the people who wrote those stories 5 or 10 years ago. For some it can be done. In my personal experience, half of the people I knew living on $1,000 a month or less for a year or more have moved home or into the provinces or to some other place, (or passed on). Of the other half, I see them barely getting by rather than enjoying paradise.

[Papa Carl]

Hi Dave, I only left that position at the beginning of March! So in other words I have been living as I stated for the past 2 years. Granted, I needed to work at it in the beginning, as I would spend like I was still living and working in the UK for the first few months, and that made life difficult. Admittedly it also meant that "saving" was not easy, as witnessed by the fact that 2 months without work life is starting to get difficult. Having said all of that, we are truly happy. My wife is always asking me if I am happy, and at first I automatically replied "of course", but now I say "I am more content with my life than ever before, but it would be nice to have a little more money". Thinking back to when I left the UK, I was earning over 8K a month, and I was not content with my life, and I am not sure I was all that "Happy" either. For sure at the end of the month I was broke!No, life is much better here (Philippines), and I am hoping that I can find work at a wage I can afford the same standard of life as I do now in Cebu. It will be good to visit in Dumaguete, Tanjay, Mabinay etc in Negros again, as it has been some years since I was last there.When I am speaking in schools etc. I ask the students, why do you think I choose to live and work in the Philippines? The 7,000 plus Islands? Just as many beautiful while beaches? The rice steps up North, possibly the watery caves in the South? Well yes all of the above, but most of all....., it is the people! Truly remarkable!

[Dave Hounddriver]

I appreciate that Kuya Carl. I know it can be tough getting by on $1,000 a month but you leave us with the impression that it is better to try it and realize life in the Philippines than to stay away because you haven't enough money. Good post!

[Jim Sibbick]

In Cebu City, I require about P65000 per month. I just proved to myself I can still do it on that amount by only spending P35000, hotel included, in 3 weeks in December, after I decided I had enough of Leyte for a while. I still had a good time on P35000On P65,000 per month, I can live permanently at the Cebu Century Hotel, eat out for every meal, live with a girlfriend or entertain the ladies on a daily basis, pay extension fees, socialise with friends every day, have a daily reflexology massage and travel occasionally to other islands. However, out of Cebu City, away from all the distractions, I can get by on a lot less. AUD $800 is plenty for a comfortable lifestyle. I rent in Palompon Leyte. that is not to say I live permanently in Palompon Leyte, i work in Australia and just go home when I have enough money. Elsewhere on these forums, I have given the breakdown of my base monthly expenses. It is AUD $170 per month for rent, electricity, internet, cable TV, gas and mobile phone. AUD $800 leaves plenty left over for entertainment, eating out, extensions etc.Regards: Jim

Hi Jim,is that $170 per month for living in Leyte?I'm paying that much alone for rent per month in Talisay.Where can I find your other post on monthly breakdown...(and thanks for the other info sent via PM...appreciate your time for that).

Yes, it is cheap but not for everyone. The place is low class 2 bedrooms. P2500 per month rent. There is no aircon. Electric, when i am around is about P1500 per month. Cable TV is P400. gas about P500. My mobile phone costs average P1000 per month. We had landline and internet combined for P995 per month but I have found I am more happy using internet cafe at P15 per hour. No cost for water. Regards; Jim

[Art2ro]

What amazes me the most, is how the average and poor Filipino families living in poverty approxmately 36 million of them, can survive on way less than $800 a month! I don't expect an explanation to that, because we all see it on a daily basis in real life and what we all see on TV, I'm just in awe and sad what the Filipino people has to go through just to survive in this depressed global economy! At least, we foreigners residing and vacationing here in the Philippines are contributing to the Philippine local economy which helps and provides livelihoods to a lot of Filipinos! "Money makes the world go round"!