Best Posts in Thread: Why Not

"it turned out for every jump I had at the Wife it had cost me £250,36, now when I moved to the Philippines this was to drop by a huge amount down to P156."

So it turns out that the more the jumps the greater the savings - and Why Not? (Pleased I eventually brought this back ON TOPIC).

It reminds me of a story I heard but am not sure if it apocryphal: A guy brewed his own alcohol and realised he was saving so much money daily that he drunk more and more with the sole aim of saving the cash. In the end he saved enough to buy a property portfolio. Sound Financial advice Mr. D.

 

There's still quite a few things "cheap" in the Philippines:
1. and yes, eating out is still one of those (I will elaborate, see below).
2. strong alcoholic beverages like rum and whisky etc., but also cigarettes
3. meat (in the supermarket)
4. public transport (from trike to buses and ferries to taxis)
5. medical assistance (try to get your broken leg fixed for 2,000 pounds in the UK when uninsured).
6. household help (try to find even a cleaning lady in the UK for less than 25 quid per hour)
7. labour generally (whatever you need fixed, we got the tv fixed a while ago for 1.5k and the ceiling ventilator for 300 peso, cleaning the aircon is like 750 per unit, and nobody charges to drive to your door)

As for the eating out, I left Europe back in early 2016, but I guarantee that even back then I couldn't afford to eat out except for special occasions (and even then I would still pay grudgingly because more often than not I'd spend 50€ per head or more, even when ordering cheap wine.
Even a simple fish and chips meal at an average pub in the UK is going to set you back around 14 pounds these days.

The average lunch at Casablanca (and many other restaurants here in town) still goes for around 400-500 peso, or 6 to 7 pounds.

I'm thinking you may need to travel back to the UK for a couple weeks, just to get a "price reset" .