The Real Cost of Living- $1500 to $2000 a month

Others will tell you how you can live here like a 'king' for $1000 a month. As an American friend here put it "you can live here on $1000 a month if you don't want any modern conveniences". My electric bill (I like air conditioning) now averages $200 a month. If you are serious about the Philippines than you better do your homework. It can be a joy or a nightmare. This is not the place to go broke in as there are no social safety nets. If you don't have money, you don't even get in a hospital, and I use that term loosely. There are some good hospitals and good medical care here, but prescription drugs are expensive as it seems they don't have a drug industry and everything that is imported is expensive. Don't even consider the hospitals most Filipinos would use. Do visit one though. Multiple people to a small bed, filth, no air conditioning, and all the lizards and bugs you can eat crawling around. Being older, I prefer to be reasonably close to decent medical care and prefer not to count on 'Chinese' folk medicine for my ills. Cebu City has four hospitals that I consider good: Chong Hua, Perpetual Succour, Cebu Doctors, and Velez. We have used Perpetual Succour and an American we know uses Chong Hua. Perpetual Succour has just about every type of specialists in their attached medical building and they have modern diagnostic equipment.

Our Housing Costs

You really want to be near either Cebu, Manila, or one of the other large cities if you want to be able to find some of the things you are accustomed to. We own our own home and car which are both paid in full. We try to live on $1000 a month so that we can travel with excess funds. When we lived in a condo in central Cebu City it was costing us over $700 a month just for housing broken down as follows:

Description	Cost (USD)
Rent	$360	(See below, this is low)
Condo Fees	60
Condo Parking	70
Electricity	165	(We had two Window type Air Conditioners)
Water	40
Phone & DSL	30	(Local phone service with DSL)
Total	$725

This was for a small 2 bedroom, 2 bath Condo. It was partially furnished, with a table and chairs, two sorry beds, a small cheap sofa and two small chairs. I would not even place a value on the furniture that was there. The building administrator told us that most people are paying $450-500 for their rent of the same size condo. We rented from an individual who has other rentals and we were willing to sign a one year lease and pay for the year in advance to get our rate. The air conditioners in the condo did not keep it cool. They were not big enough to do the job. The bathrooms had showers only (typical here) and were small by western standards. All rooms were small by western standards.

Places to Live

As I said, you want to be near one of the major cities. It is more expensive in Manila than Cebu. Real estate near one of the cities is also not what you would call cheap. I don't know about you, but I want to be comfortable and I will not do without if I can help it. There are plenty of things you will do without, so try to get a comfortable home. We have been to Baguio too and consider it one of the nicest and cleanest cities. Many areas of the Philippines are susceptible to earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis so do your homework. Cebu Province is in a pretty good location and relatively safe from most natural disasters.

Now figure in all your other expenses. A maid will cost you $35 plus her room and board which is provided by you. That leaves $240 for transportation, food, doctors, medications, entertainment, and food. If this is living like a king I wouldn't want to be a king. Eating out at reasonably decent restaurant (you and your Filipina) will cost you $20-30 for 'nice' meals. Plan on $40-60 for a real good meals and a few drinks.

You can get by on $1000 a month. You won't want too. Plan on $1500-2000 to live reasonably comfortable and not like a king.

Hotels and Pension Houses

You can live in a hotel or pension house for the rest of your life if you want. I wouldn't. I have a friend who has lived in the Mercedes Hotel in the old part of Cebu City for a few years. His girlfriend lives with him. He only pays $288 a month for the room with electric and water. He gets a lower rate than most as he has been there for so long. Most pay substantially more, as they have remodeled most of the rooms. This Hotel, like so many pension houses scattered about, is in the old part of Cebu City and I could live there for a month or two at most. Restaurants that are within walking distance and the one in the hotel will do in a pinch but not for everyday meals. I really don't think you want to live in this part of the city either. All I can say is don't wonder too far at night down some of the streets in and around some of these places, and be careful during the day. This is a country where people die for very few dollars. Did you come here to enjoy the rest of your life or just survive for the rest of your life? My home needs to be a place where I can relax and do anything I want and I need to be able to hang out there for days at a time and feel good about it. You will get sick of the four walls in a pension house.

Live Like a Filipino

You can always live like a Filipino. With $200 a month considered middle class, almost anyone can afford to live like this. Plan on eating a lot of rice and dried fish. The Filipino can eat three meals a day for less than $2. I know a family that has seven kids and they pay $20 a month for rent. Two rooms in a tin (or thatched) roof shack is what you'll get. The bathroom is an outhouse located fifteen feet from the water supply, a manual pump like you'd see in early America. Security? Lets just say you will not want to leave anything of value in your pad. This is not living, its barely surviving. The poor who depend solely on government handouts in western countries live at a much higher standard and have many more creature comforts than the vast majority of Filipinos. Why anyone would come here to live like a Filipino escapes me. You can rent a room in a boarding house too. I know a college student who pays $16 a month for a room that is barely big enough for the bed in it. It looks about what you'd expect for the rent and it isn't exactly in a nice part of the city.