Cost of living Pt.. 2
Posted on November 19, 2005
Filed Under Living in the Philippines |
As I said earlier I had decided that I was going to live in the Philippines for 6 months with a budget of about $300 per month.
This is the breakdown of my projected expenses
1st Visa extension : P2000
2nd Visa extension : p4340
3rd Visa extension : p2370
- Drinking water:p960 per month
- Public water : p80 per month
- Lights : p600 per month
- food : p5000 Per month
- Rent : p1500 per month
- travel : p1250 per month
- Misc. : P6200 Per month
- Internet : P600 Per month
- Cell Phone : p300 per month
- Cooking gas : p350 2 maybe three times while I am there.
This amounted to about $300 Per Month @ 54 pesos to $1. I did not include the airfare of $1495 in this budget since it was prepaid and not part of monthly expenditures.
Now for the incidentals that I did not count on but needed. Most of these items I do not have a price on as I do not remember What the water dispenser cost me, I do have that written down.
You will need:
- water dispenser: p350
- Hand and body towels
- Bar soap
- Dish soap
- Soap for laundry
- Shampoo
- Bed linens
- Cookware
- Eating utensils
- Cooking oil
- stove ( gas probably )
- refrigerator
- Dining table
Basically all the furnishings you will need here in the USA you will need there and fret not since your host will be glad to help you get all of this stuff.
I also, and I do not know why or how I did it, but I budgeted for travel. Even though I did not know how to get around I just threw some Pesos in the pot because I knew I would need it.
We will talk about that later in another post.
As for cost of food there. And what you should do.Well I will say this…It does not matter what your budget is you will still need help in shopping or the price will always go up! Trust me when I tell you this.
there is an unwritten rule that if you ask the price it automatically doubles so don’t ask Have someone, your girlfriend, howsoever, whomever is your host to do the shopping for you.
If you want to convert the Peso to Dollars ratio just use the ratio of 52 - 54 to 1
The conversion rate varied and if you are budgeting for a trip there it might be safet to use 50:1 ratio and I don’t think you can go wrong.
That’s it for now, I welcome your comments, questions and suggestions.
Until then,
Don
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