This is always a popular search subject here. In particular we had a series of articles and some comments during August about living in the Philippines on $770 a month. (US dollars of course, you can convert from and to any currency you want, here)
Can you live here in the Philippines on $770 USD per month? Absolutely. Do you want to? Ahhh, that one I can’t answer so easily. Bur here’s some examples from my own actual expenditures. Bear in mind that I run a car … and I maintain it well. Especially here in the NCR (National Capital Region).Metro Manila area, this is a luxury, but hardly a necessity.
Also these figures are nominally for three people now, actually four starting at the end of August. Our nieces (aged 16 and 21) are living with us full time. They get transportation and occasional cost of living expenses thrown in there in the GOK category.
We also travel frequently to Zambales, a three hour trip, with tolls each way as part of our farming and house building ventures, so that drives up our travel costs quite a bit. You can clearly see though, on the bottom line, that with some modifications and economy measures, we could get down to $770 if we had to.
You’ll also notice these figures are based on the cost of the Peso on the day I worked up the spreadsheet … and I have a separate lines to show the worst case and best case our costs would have been at different levels of Peso exchange rates over the nearly three years we have lived here.
Many people can’t get their heads readily around the fact that the world doesn’t run on one currency, so any time you live outside your home country you are involved in foreign exchange dealings, like it or not.
Summary:
And, in detail, here’s what our Philippine Living costs looked like in August, 2009..
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Hi Philly,
Thanks for your reply.
I have not been to the RP, but I’ve done a lot of research on various countries and have narrowed my choice down to the RP – likely Cebu, but maybe Subic/Olangapo although that area is getting more and more expensive from what I’ve read.
I also realize that the RP is not the US and that there is oppressive heat and humidity, heartbreaking poverty, power outages, the “Kano” tax and other issues, but as mentioned, I feel that the RP is the best place for me for a variety of reasons, not just financial and that I will have to make sacrifices and trade-offs. (I read about your “computer adventure” and other stories.)
I’ve always been able to live inexpensively and to adapt to different living environments and I’m sure that the culture shock will be overwhelming at first and will last for quite a while.
Health care will eventually be an issue for me as I get older and will be factored into my cost of living expenses.
As mentioned, my goal is to live on about $800 per month and to bank the remaining $500 or so every month for emergencies.
I don’t plan to “live large” on that amount, and I’m more of a “Wal-Mart” type of person than a “Nieman-Marcus” type.
I will also set aside about $10,000 USD in “seed” money to “set up shop” so to speak as I will have to buy many of the things that I will be leaving behind.
I would like to have a car, as I love to drive and have my independence, but navigating traffic in the RP might be better left to others and I will likely hire a driver for weekly grocery shopping trips and take cabs/Trikes elsewhere.
Ideally, I would like to live in an area with other US retirees who can “show me the ropes” of living in the RP, in addition to my online research.
I think $800 per month would be reasonable for a single guy in reasonably good health. (I do not currently take any maintenance meds, but again, that will likely change as I get older.) and I will have to also factor in the cost of health care, which is something I have not investigated yet.
I also realize that this subject (Cost of living in the RP) has been beaten to death here and I appreciate your input and patience.
Thanks again.
Pete
OK, I’ve re-read your post and see that your monthly expenses for August, 2009 were for 3 people.
Your combined, total Food expenses were about $500 US, so I figure a single guy who would probably eat out more often and order home delivery more often would spend 1/2 that amount, and not 1/3rd, so let’s assume $250 US Food expenses for 1 person. (11.5K PHP)
Also, your total Car expenses are about $200 US per month.
Assuming no Car, but instead bus, rail, trike, Jeepney, cab, etc… or hiring a driver for a few hours a day once a week or so, can we then assume that figure to be halved as well?
So then, let’s then assume a $100 per month expense for “Transportation” for someone without a car. (4,600 PHP)
So that would be a savings of $350 US per month for a single guy without a car. (16.1K PHP)
Deduct that from $1,121 US and we have:
$771 US per month. (35.5K PHP)
(No, I was not trying to hit the aforementioned figure of $777 – that’s just the way the numbers came out.)
Maybe a single guy will have a lower cost for housing and electricity as well, or perhaps higher, depending on where he chooses to live.
But using your numbers, it would seem that a single guy in decent health could live on $777 in the Phils, not counting money for emergencies and other unforeseen circumstances.
Any feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks.
BTW, great site. Very informative.
Hi Pete,
Yes I would say you are on the right track. A single guy could eat for much less than we are spending, or much more … as you say, where you eat and what you eat are the key … also, how much will you cook for yourself. Eating out can be very cheap … even ordering in from some places. Example, we order say a couple times a month from a local place that does (what they call) Chinese cooking. Some of their food is quite good, but it’s kind of bland and boring … no real Chinese would own up to cooking it Lol .. but a couple hundred pesos will yield enough for several “foreigner” size meals, btought to your foor in minutes … and if you tipthe delivery guy 5 or 10 pesos he’ll be your freind for life … tipping is done here, but it’s nver obligatory and certainly never at the rate we typically tip in the US). There’s a little shop a few blocks away, 5 minute walk,that sells empanadas, little pastries that are alot like mini-calzones, filled with ground beef, ground pork, ground chicken, ham and cheese, vegetable mix, etc. It’ll set you back P120 for a box of a dozen … assorted the way you ask for, along with a plastic sack on non-hot hot sauce. Depending on your appetite, that’s three of four meals for about $2.50.
Supermarket food can be pretty cheap too … a can of tuna and a bottle of mayo can make a lot of tuna sandwiches. You can buy tons of ready to heat meals too, fish balls and such, sticks of pork BBQ, 9 pesos uncooked in the supermarket or 20 pesos a stick in local shops. You can get a whole chicken 9they are small), spit BBQ’d and ready yo eat for P160/P165, cook a cup of rice and there’s ameal for tonight and meat fir a chicken sandwich or two tomorrow, and if you throw the carcass in apot and add water, half a cup of rice,seasoning and P50 worth of cut up and cleaned ready to cook veggies from the supermarket, you’ve got several nights worth of chicken soup.
OTOH, if you want only “American food”, much is available at the supermrket, but expect to pay more than in the US for it … I think the best thing to say is, as my wife has said many times, the difference in cost between livig here and living in the states is you have a much broader range of costs here … you _can_ live much, much cheaper than in the US … but many people may not want to live as cheap as they actually can live … that’s the part that is difficult to predict.
regarding transpo, yes a car is aluxury … I wouldn’t even own one except for two reasons …a., I use it mostly for family trips, and that’s somehting totally optional, and b., I’ve pretty much had a car for 50 years now and I choose to give myself the luxury here.
I take it that you haven’t lived here before, correct? The point I always try to make is, cost of living is the _last_ thing you should be worrying about. There are many factors of life here that some Westerners have difficulty with. Until you have been here and dealt with finding your way around, with being a foreigner and having essentially no rights and no voice in how things are done, gone shopping and found everything “out of stock, sir”, paying bills (oh you can’t pay that here sir),dodged motorcycles, gotten cut out of line a few thousand times, just when you thought it was your trun, said ‘no’ to a hundred beggars when your heart told you you should real help, watched dogs starving to death, etc., etc. you will never know if it is for you. (I also note you didn’t mention anyhting regarding health care, which I pointed out to you). Again, money is essentially the easy part.
The monthly expenses figure for August of 2009 – can you tell me for how many people that is?
I’ve heard you mention a wife and nieces.
I’m assuming more than one person then?
Also, the 7,000 PHP per month rent – what size home is that?
I’m a few years from retirement but am making my plans now and have narrowed my choice down to the P.I., but haven’t quite decided exactly where although I’m considering Subic/Olangapo or somewhere on Cebu.
I’m a single guy in my 50′s in relatively good health and will have a monthly SS check of $1,300, although I would like to live on 2/3rds of that, about $800 per month and to put the remainder away for emergencies and occasional travel.
Hopefully SS won’t be bankrupt when I retire in a few years.
Thanks.
Spending less than $800 for August. That is pretty good Dave and Mita. I wish I could do that. The cheapest monthly expense we had was around $1200 a month. I know why this is high, because we have employees to take care of, both permanent and temporary. Adding to that is the high electric and telephone bills. Cheers!
.-= David B Katague´s last blog ..Cloyne Court, Episode Eleven =-.
Hi David, welcome to my little segment of the Philippine world. I’m afraid something must have been unclear with my spreadsheet though, becuase we didn’t manage to keep our spending that low … we did about $1200 USD for August. I will modify the post and show a clip ftom the spreadsheet.
It’s good that you mentioned the phone, the electric, and we should also mention food. In the US (vast majority of my readers are US), bitching about utility bills and the price of supermarket items is a national sport (as I expect it is in most countries). The difference is, in the Philippines, these items are way higher than the US average … especially supermarket prices. The US has, hands down, the cheapest food in the world.
Maria, one thing I like about living back home is the option of living cheap if that’s what you want. There are options for shopping and it’s up to you how cheap or expensive you want to live your life.
An important thing my husband has learned from living here is squeezing out all the tomato sauce from a can…making “SIMOT”. I like to think it translates to so many other aspects of life – and not just penny-pinching. I’m not Ilocano but was raised the Ilocano way you see…making SIMOT is second nature!
I hope you have a wonderful vacation. And even if .things have changed a lot, I hope you’ll feel as I did that this place will always be home.
Agree, hon. And for the others who drop by … just before I wrote this comment I, Mita and I were mentioning something different about living in the Philippines that is hard to explain. For some reason we both feel more in control of our lives here.
Now one reason might be money, because the dollar goes a lot farther here, but I think it is something different. Got to think about that some more and see if I can put it into words.
hi dave
i always appreciate your generosity for sharing personal money info. thanks again.
i have not been back to the philippines for 20 years. i am planning a trip next year and i am nervious about it.
maria
Hi Maria. Thanks for the ind words. And keep working on that trip, 20 years is along time to be away from home.
Is your nervousness due to lack of information, or is it over family/personal matters? If there is anything I can help you find the answer to, let me know, that’s why this site is here.