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Best Posts in Thread: Hi everyone

  1. Rye83

    Rye83 with pastrami Admin Secured Account Highly Rated Poster SC Connoisseur Veteran Army

    Aug 13, 2015 #5
    Welcome to the forum. I would cross CDO off of your list, replace that with Iloilo. CDO is a big dirty city from what I hear. 1k a month is going to be tight but it is doable. If you plan on living off that you will be going paycheck to paycheck and won't have much of anything left over each month. It would be wise to come over with a pretty good chunk of cash in savings in case of emergencies. Last thing you want is to have a medical (or any other type of) emergency and get stuck with a huge bill that you can't afford. Life can get miserable very fast in the Philippines....there are absolutely no social safety nets for us expats here.
     
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  2. TheDude

    TheDude DI Forum Patron Highly Rated Poster

    Aug 13, 2015 #3
    1K / month is an easy budget to do here. You aren't ballin' but once you get settled in, you could figure out how to get by with a lot less.

    Depending on your eating habits, the food budget is a little on the low side. That would work for simple and cheap meals. If you can eat that cheap back home, then you can eat that cheap here. If you can't eat that cheap back home, then you will probably spend more here also. Eating out here is probably cheaper than it was back home though.

    You should be able to find something on that budget for a place to live. There are tons of places at the $150 / month range. There are studio's which cost more or less. The number of rooms isn't necessarily an indicator of rent. You'll just have to take your time to find a place. Ask any locals that you know.

    Your travel budget is a bit high depending on where you live. If you move close to downtown, you could drastically cut this budget. If you live far from downtown and makes lots of trips, then you could get up to that amount. You could also take the time to use pedicab terminals and multi-cabs to drop the budget even on longer trips. This assumes you don't have your own motorcycle. If you buy a motorcycle, then gas won't eat up much of your budget.

    Your electric is about right if you go with air-conditioning. If you can get by with an electric fan, then you could drop your electric budget nearly in half.

    Phone and internet should cost no more than half of what you have budgeted for it (1K / month for a 3mb connection and use a cell phone to make calls and text.)

    Add the extra from categories you over-budgeted to your food budget and you are about right.
     
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