Living on $800

[piglett]

I tightened my belt for one full month to see what it would take me to live a decent life .It was 750 dollars 200 for a small apartment200 for food and beer200 entertainment50 visa costs50 gas20 internet30 phone A furnished place and I already had my motorbike . This was for a couple we ate at home around 60% of the time . No fancy dinners or trips to moalboal etc.It was alright we rode the bikes lots exploring local back roads and visiting friends . Could I live like this long term ? Yes I could life is so much better in the RPThe biggest problem I see is boredom with little money you need stuff to do besides drink everyday .

Try it for a year or two and let us all know how it went! A one month trial period doesn't count! Motor bikes you say? Good luck with that too, because MikeB found out the hard way, but we all hope he will recover from his motor bike accident soon!

i ride a motor bike ONLY in the province, the road is mostly dirt & most people still walk .in the city i ride a jeepney or FX piglett

[scott h]

I have read over the last several weeks about the inflation rates in the Philippines. However every time we have visited our house over the last 12 years the prices have not changed. P40 for a haircut, P20 for pan de sal P33 for a coke at 7-11, P150 for BBQ Manok (whole chopped chicken with mang tomas suace hmmmmmmmmmm). Is the inflation mainly for utilities and the like? At SM and other major stores? Am i missing something?

[Mr Lee]

I have read over the last several weeks about the inflation rates in the Philippines. However every time we have visited our house over the last 12 years the prices have not changed. P40 for a haircut, P20 for pan de sal P33 for a coke at 7-11, P150 for BBQ Manok (whole chopped chicken with mang tomas suace hmmmmmmmmmm). Is the inflation mainly for utilities and the like? At SM and other major stores? Am i missing something?

My wife's friend a Filipina from Cebu just returned after a few years away and was shocked at how much everything had gone up. For her it was so bad that she had to have her husband wire her more money because she ran out 2 weeks into a month vacation. Maybe it is more in the cities and possibly it is more noticeable for those of us who shop in supermarkets, yet every year when my wife and I return after no more than 8 months, costs have gone up on Water, Cable, condo maintenance, supermarket food, Rice, electric, taxis, fuel, restaurant food, used clothing, to name a some, so I guess it depends on where a person lives yet we have found everything has also gone up in the provinces of Mindanao as well as in CDO. I believe things in areas nearer the capital are often lower priced because they do not have to be reshipped to other parts of the Philippines. I even noticed that beer had gone up earlier this year. :9436: Oh and haircuts in the malls in Cebu went up as well.

[Art2ro]

Fortunate for those who can live on $800 a month in the Philippines, but believe what you read here when other members on this forum say that everything of cost no matter what they are, has risen in the Philippines! Good luck with your $800 a month! Seriously!

[MikeB]

I don,t have to try it for a year or 2 I did just to see and its still a way better life than back west I,m just as poor there .. As for motorbikes its a chance I,m willing to take I have been riding for over 30 years with out a problem ..In fact I think it safer in the rp than in canada because of the slower speeds just don,t drink and ride .. It seems a lot of these accidents are drinking related not saying mikes was because I don,t know

No drugs or alcohol involved. It was 3pm and a dump truck owned by the city came barreling around a blind curve much too fast and swerved into the opposing lane and struck me. Besides the excessive speed, the truck had an expired, invalid registration. According to the police that automatically makes him in the wrong. Bikes are fun and cheap but there is a disregard for life on the roads here so I will abstain. From what I have heard, you are correct about many or most of the expat bike accidents being alcohol-related but talking to the nurses here in Chong Hua, they say that they constantly see terrible bike accidents; amputations, severe facial injuries, paralysis, etc. What really made me decide not to do it was thinking about someone being on the back and the consequences to them.

[joeatmanila]

driving a bike here is so convinient and so dangerous on the same time. I do not drive them, car and now i aim a suzuki samurai 4x4 for the rainy season and rough roads.

[Art2ro]

Fortunate for those who can live on $800 a month in the Philippines, but believe what you read here when other members on this forum say that everything of cost no matter what they are, has risen in the Philippines! Good luck with your $800 a month! Seriously!

Don't get me wrong with my post above, I have an Uncle in his mid 70s and a dual citizen! Lives in a Barrio near Olongapo City and he is living comfortably on his U.S. Social Security pension of $700 a month. He owns a nice simple home, with a wife and niece with one child living with him. He mostly lives on the local economy only in his area to save on his monthly expenses! So, it's doable on less than $800 a month! Anyone who can live like a local in the province, well do OK!

[Jake]

This may be a slap in the face reality check but with a monthly retirement income of ONLY 500 buckstranslates to over 21 thousand pesos. The luxury of this is the steady monthly income. As a Filipino(if single) and living alone, I would consider myself very fortunate, eating 3 meals a day, having a solidroof over my head and occasional visit to the local beer house. However, budgeting 21 thousand pesos a month becomes more difficult (if not impossible) if I gamble,become a lender or borrower, womanizer, drug addict or an alcoholic with all kinds of medical issues. And the biggest problem would be family members and so called friends and neighbors. That is anotherreality living native style. Jake

[Art2ro]

Here's the reality check for your average semi-skilled Filipino worker/laborer making an average of P500 a day! That's around P13,000 a month not including the other deductions that the Philippine Government takes out if any! So, even if a guy is single, how does one live on P10,000 to P13,000 a month? Maybe side jobs, selling stuff like balut at midnight or whatever on one's day off! I don't really know! Does anyone know how a local can make do on a small income, except for my uncle I mentioned above in my post (but he lives on $700 a month and owns his own home)? I can only imagine, because I don't know any one in that situation personally, except for what I see around bad neighborhoods, hear second hand gossip or read on forums and watch on the local news on TV! For example, once a week my wife and I go grocery shopping and we have to cross a railroad crossing, we notice a lot of poor people living in makeshift houses all along the train tracks! How can anyone live like that with no electricity or running water? I see the same thing along rivers, creeks or channals and under bridges! Sad but true! Desperate situations at desperate times, one just have to make do what's available or die trying! I know this topic is about living on $800 a month, but hey, we're all just the same here, people in general, but just of different circumstances! I just hate to see unfortunate people suffer! That's why I always say, "Life is what we all make it to be"! "Que sera, sera"! "It's always a matter of money"!

[Jim Sibbick]

I provided an update a couple of days ago but the message was lost. So here is a new try. Before I start, i was speaking to a Singaporean man last week in Cebu City who said he is living on P35,000 per month in Mindanao with his wife and 2 children. He says he is happy on that amount of money and even has a house maid. USD $800 per day means a comfortable life, outside the cities but as another poster said here recently, he got bored. The answer in my opinion is to have a hobby or a business or to make a business a hobby. It doesn't necessarily have to make money but if it does, that will be a bonus. Just so long as it does not lose money. I don't believe i mentioned that we closed the karaoke bar. It wasn't making much money then some one broke in and and stole all the stock. I closed it down same day so as not to give them a chance to try again. I thought I would have to pay out the year left on the lease but I caught a break. About the same time, the mayor decided to redevelop that part of the market. So all the buildings have gone. No building, no rent to pay. My girlfriend said she wanted to try a karaoke bar again when the redevelopment was complete. I said she can do what she likes with her money. Now we are doing everything from home. RiceWe are trying to sell rice but at "our" buy price we can't sell rice and make a profit. The cheapest we could buy a sack of rice was P1720 for 50 kg. I was speaking with my ex sister in law today, she is selling rice. Her buy price is different every week. Last week was P1450 for a 50kg sack, Today it was P1480 for a 50 kg sack. The most she has ever paid was P1600 per sack. I know nothing about rice. Apparently there are a hundred different varieties but the rice she buys is the good rice. So, we have an agreement now. She will supply our rice for us at cost. At P1480 per sack, we can sell at P34 per kilo and undercut everyone else. My ex sister in law manages to sell a sack of rice a day and does not have anywhere near the through traffic that we have. So we are hoping to sell at least a sack of rice per day for a profit of about P200 a day. OtherWe are also selling barbecue, ice candy, ice water and ice.The benefit of selling from home is that we don't have to pay a site fee in the market. There are plenty of people passing by at night and we sell out of barbecue most nights.The ice is a surprising money maker. Everyone else sells for P2 per piece. I asked my girlfriend why we aren't selling at P2 per piece and she said no one will buy. She is selling at P1 per piece. The water is free. There is electricity to make the ice but it is just kept in the ref freezer. We have to pay the electric anyway business or no business so i don't count the electric on the ref. The little plastic bags are P15 per hundred. We sell up to 100 a day. So the profit is up to P85 per day. Since our rent is only P2500 per month, the ice about covers the rent. By the way, I think where we are living is too low class for most foreigners and certainly too low class for some one contemplating coming to the Philippines for the first time. I think a first timer would probably want a P5000 per month place in a better location. However, our P2500 per month still has all the facilities a westerner will expect such as a private bathroom and flushing toilet. Perhaps that should be flush-able toilet. You have to fill the bucket to flush the toilet.We have cable TV. It is P380 per month for every channel, which is only 33 channels. The 33 channels does however include CNN, BBC, Australia TV, discovery channel, national geographic channel, history channel and 2 movie channels. For kids, they have cartoon network, nickelodeon and disney channel.Internet is now by Globe dongle. We used to have the Globe landline and internet plan of P995 per month but ditched that. Then i was paying P15 per hour at the internet cafe. Now we have a dongle. We pay P50 for unlimited all day. But we only have to pay for it on the days we use it. So every second day will mean a bill of about P750 per month. The speed varies a lot. mostly it downloads about 140kbps That is what you see on the file download info. That equates to about 500 megabytes per hour. However, I have seen at times only 40 kbps and up to 600 kbps in short bursts. Regards: Jim