Cost of living in the Philippines

UPDATED Feb 2014

How much money do you need to live in the Philippines?

I came across this question in a forum recently.

There is this family based abroad and thinking of retiring early and go back to the Philippines for good. Their reason being the high cost of living in their host country. It got me into thinking how high is high and how low is low. If you are living abroad, I guess you will be treating the current currency at their face value and not compare it to the Philippines because high and low differ between these countries. And if you are living in a first world country, there’s no shortcuts and you can expect high cost of living because you’re paying for the premier life you are living. The downside is that you are also expected to earn more to enjoy the good life.

Anyway, migrating is a plan we hope to do in the future with God’s permission of course. Only because of the security and safety the host country can provide and because of the benefits the government can offer to their citizens. But we’re also thinking that perhaps we are just getting ahead of ourselves and maybe our present situation is better left untouched.

So I remain optimistic about our future here in the Philippines and despite the prevailing condition of our economy, I guess it is still more fun in the Philippines and better, it is cheaper to live in the Philippines.

This is a case study of a family of 3 adults and 1 kid.

We're both working. Let me just show you the expenses for 3 persons (Daddy Chris + Mommy Joan + Yaya Lyda + 1 Baby Johan)

Budgeting is happiness when you have more money to budget. But it can also be challenging especially nowadays. Consider the inflation and other factors, taxes and other fees, everything is higher now so if you are like us who work so hard, you would want your money’s worth for the products you buy.
Below are our monthly expenses:

House – We bought a condo before we got married. It's under PAGIBIG payable in 15 years. Our monthly amortization is around P10,000 + P1,120 monthly condo dues + the new tax imposed by the BIR. Because it is still new, there is less maintenance indoor, for the exterior repair that would be under condo management. I think that’s one thing convenient with condo living, you don’t have to worry about leaking roof, cracked or peeling paints, structurally-related problems, plumbing defects, all exterior-related and building concerns will have to be addressed and repaired and monitored by the condo administration. Included also is the security and maintenance of the premises.

Electricity – Normally we pay around P2,500 with aircon. But with the recent price hike, we now pay around P3,500. Appliances we mostly use are aircon, iron, TV, electric fans, microwave, refrigerator.

Water – P1,000 a month minimum. The condo where we lived has high water rate. We are sub metered to them that’s why we cannot deal directly with Maynilad.

Grocery - P5,000 a week. Groceries and supplies in the house plus our baby’s needs.

Cable TV - P500 for our Destiny cable
Internet/Landline - P649 for my pocket wifi broadband. We don’t have landline but we have 3 cell phone lines (2 Globe and Smart). Though we only pay the Globe (P1,000), because Smart is my husband’s company phone.

Gasoline/Transportation – P1800+ full tank per week.

Baby milk/diaper – Included in our grocery

School fees (Kinder/GS) – None yet because Johan is still young but we enrolled Johan in Kindermusik Village during summer and we’re planning to enroll him at Gymboree next month.

Yaya - P3,900 plus SSS, PAGIBIG and PHILHEALTH

Car mortgage - P18,000 monthly for 4 years

Condo parking – P2,000 a month

Laundry – P1,500 a month

Additional expenses:

Our allowance every week.
Date night
Weekend gimmick with Johan
Birthdays
Vacations - we try to have 2 per year. 1 local and 1 international.

The bonus is that we have free rice from my parents. Free food every Saturday when we visit Chris’ parents.

We also save a portion of our salary. Our goal this year is to save more and invest more for Johan's future and for our retirement as well.

This I think requires real skill and the ability to ward off the temptation to buy new shoes or that fabulous dress or the voucher from Ensogo.

I believe as in any other things, moderation is the key. Balance work and play. It is important to us that we work smart but we play smarter. We want to enjoy life given the resources. We don’t want to scrimp on life’s pleasure just because we’re saving for retirement. Nobody knows for sure when you’re going to live or if you’re going to live until retirement age. And usually retirement age is when all kinds of illness kicks in so there are things you can’t do anymore so we enjoy life while we can but we balance it out so that we can still live comfortably in the future.