Cost of Living - Dumaguete

For Rentals informantion only:

Like yourself, I am single but usually have a live-in helper and Imp , Uggy and some Filipino cats also. So two or three bedroom is a necessity for me. I like a yard for gardening, just some background.

I recently looked for a new house. I found a very nice three bedroom, but I could only use two bedroom because the owner wanted the master bedroom for furniture storage. The house is almost to American standards, except for water pressure and air con. Those can be remedy for about 40,000 P... take the stuff you invested in with you when you leave. Price was 12,000 P. for three year lease.

I found that housing starts at about 9,000 P for rentals, going to about 20,000 P per month for either very nice rental, with pool or nice single family house. Imp is a cat and I have other cats so I usually look for a single family home. I found that for every 1000 P over 12,000 P I got more than a 10,000 P value. Remember the Expats are the only ones who can afford the nicer places.. except for the rich Filipinos.

I would say 20,000 P would be the absolute max you need to spend, unless you are trying to impress some lady or gentleman. Usually a good meal at Jolibee will do the trick for impressing a lady that is low maintenance here… go all out and up size the coke if she is a keeper. If it takes more than that then keep looking for a new lady. The high maintenance ladies are nice for the short term but become high cost in the long run... and they do not love you any more than the low maintenance ladies... probably even less.

Read all the posts here, noise is the main complaint of Expats, so do not rent without staying for a weekend at night in the neighborhood. Illegal Karaoke’s, grow like weeds here, and can ruin the environment for a peaceful person. You also need to know the "drug areas" unless you want to be awakened by Swat gunfire at 7 AM, like I did at my last place.

I would suggest you find one of the Expats who have apartments here, There are a few here on the forum. For the temporary extended stay, that is completely furnished and to foreigner standards. There are a few here on the forum. You will have everything to survive... kitchen ware etc., and can look to find what you really want at your leisure. Trying to arrive and find a more permanent place is risky because of the unknown factors in the neighborhoods here. Use word of mouth and develop a network of good people here to help you find the right place for YOU. There are many good Expats, that will help you find what you want.

 

Thank-you Robert K!

Within about 3-6 months before I shove off this Mainland, I will be starting a new thread specifically about electronic devices, it's related must-have or bring-with-me peripheral equipment, and other stuff I'll need to have with me so I don't fry all my stuff up, or bring a bunch of stuff I don't need/won't work, or worse yet, forget to bring stuff I will really need but can't find in Duma but once in a blue moon.

So this electronics thread will become a new thread when the time is a bit closer to arrival. And I'll have to figure out how to use some of it, too, before I arrive as I have a steep learning curve on all these new gadgets out there.

Good to read that 50k PHP will be an adequate budget. I don't want to live in a hovel, but not going to live in a mansion, either. Just somewhere safe, secure, in a solid neighborhood close to Silliman U -- close to where I can call or wave down a taxi/pedicab without having to walk a mile to catch a ride in all kinds of weather.

Thanks again robert!

V/R,
nwlivewire

 

Dear Dave & Imp:

Your lifestyle desires and mine run in a similar vein, so I appreciate just what you're saying.

For sure when I get off the plane and begin the SRRV in-processing up North, I WILL let this forum know and keep you abreast of my timeline for arrival in Duma.

Staying short-term in a fully furnished place is a smart idea as this will help get my Duma "land legs" underneath me.

Thanks Dave (& Imp, too!).

V/R,
nwlivewire

 

Thanks Billybob... you have pointed out the item that breaks my budget every week, I seldom drink ...

 

This is one of those impossible to answer questions.

Typically you ask this because you are worried about a constrained budget. If you had a relatively strong budget you wouldn't need to worry about it. So the closest I could come up with is for the low end.

If you have the monthly income that will continue to come in and which allows you to live on your own in the U.S. then you'll likely be able to live a bit cheaper here. If you can't survive in the U.S. on your income (even at a hand to mouth level or by moving to a cheaper area in the U.S.) then you probably shouldn't come to the Philippines.

That's it. You don't really need numbers. You would just be over-thinking and over-planning. Any plan you come up with will just unravel once you get here. You're bored and day-dreaming of life on the islands. Stop it. Go read a book instead.

NOTE: If you aren't from the U.S. then the same applies to other Western nations.

 

House Payment: 7k/month (house is owned with a small loan on it. Includes taxes and homeowners dues)
Electricity: 5k/month (I enjoy an airconditioned house)
Tap Water: 150p/month
Bottled Water: 200p/month
Internet 1700p/month (useless landline included)
Cable TV: P500/month
Food: P10k/month (Average 2500 a week to feed 2)
Entertainment: 8k/month (for 2) Wife's bags and shoes and couple days a week dining out
Visa renewal: P1500/month (plus an ACR card once a year)
Incidentals: 2k/month (unusual expenses like refilling the gasul and getting the aircons cleaned)

Total: P36,050 (different individual expenses but monthly totals are very similar)

 

While those numbers are nice for a quiet home body who already has a partner for the rest its no where near accurate. If your new you won't have transportation and may very well hate taking jeepneys and easyrides hence taking trikes far more often. Transportation costs for a semi active single guy can easily jump to a couple thousand a month. If your looking for nicer food and not fine eating cheap most meals groceries can easily jump to $15k a month when your dipping into anything not local. Eating out can get very expensive if your not a home body, single, and going out a lot also as you surely won't be eating like a local but spending anywhere from 100-300p per meal per person. If you don't have your own furniture and not looking to spend to buy all of your own then your looking for a fully furnished place which usually runs 15-18k a month (yet some of these come with free internet and cable already). I would also say more then $1500 a month for visa renewal since its $3k now to renew every 2 months but at 6 months and a year there are additional costs that can take your renewal up to $7k peso's. Then you'll need to also be planning an exit ticket come your 3 year mark (fortunately its now 3 years instead of 16 months) which requires an exit clearance, travelers tax, round trip ticket to another country, throw away exit ticket to another country. But what about electronics, gadgets, buying a ride, and a future lady? You'll be spending a bit on cloths for her, you'll probably want a decent phone for yourself and potentially her as well. Maybe you'll want a computer, laptop, tablets? Maybe you'll want a motorcycle? How about going out to the movies or swimming at a nice pool or hot springs?

For those who have been here a long time and settled into the way things are and learned to live in a mix between a foreigner and a local they can do it fairly cheap. For newer guys or single guys (especially newer single guys) its rarely ever the case.

I'd say for right now someone should want at least 60k peso's to live semi comfortably as a single or with just a GF. But soon as you start adding in family and such expenses start going up quickly more often then not.

 

Is this because the ladies who are dating single foreigners are only doing it for the money so it costs more to date a single lady than to date your wife? I ask because I do the same things with my spouse that others do with their dates EXCEPT give 1000 pesos at the end of the night and pay for a short time hotel.

 

I agree with the above expenses. My monthly budget is 100,ooo pesos and most months i have pesos left over.