cost of living philippines

Applied For A new Business License In Mandaluyong

2009-01-06T22:09:00.000-08:00

Applied for business license here in Mandaluyong - it costs

13,000 pesos ( for 1 year) or around $340.00 - my nature of business is video production and corporate events

New Years Dinner Manila

2009-01-06T21:59:00.000-08:00

New years dinner we trekked over to mom in laws house in sta. ana, it was rainy , and the streets were relativley calm for this time of year. "Bombs" were still going off left and right , like we were in baghdad or something ( normal for the Philippines)anyways we didn't bother to cook that night - we just bought a few meals in a Chinese resto on Pioneer street in Mandaluyong

yang chow fried rice 2 servings good for 8 = $8.75
beef in oyster sauce with broccoli good for 4 = $5.75
sweet sour fish good for 4 $5.25
"buchi" 8 pieces $3.50

so for new years we spent around $22-24 - and this fed a table of eight with left overs to boot!

Transportation Costs Philippines

2008-12-30T00:23:00.000-08:00

For those of you wondering how much it costs to get around Manila , here are a few figures;

Taxi - from my placa in mandaluyong to makati intercon ( around 8 kilometers ) I pay $1.52
i dont tip these guys - they have no manners, used to be they said goodmorning / afternoon/ evening but the younger guys are just plain rude.

Jeepney - always a fun way to get around - now they charge per"sakay" which means ride or in this case per stop so one stop will cost you .16 cents

MRT - metro rail transit from .26 cents per stop

Tricycle - a three wheeler - negotiable

Rent a van - for one day, you feed the driver and put in gas $40.00 / 60.00 per day

Read about one white man's retirement story in the philippines Click here!

A night in Makati

2008-12-29T21:00:00.000-08:00

Wednesday night we were asked to chaperon a friends boyfriend, alex, it was his first time in manila, he arrived the 27th from Melborne. We met up in greenbelt 4 in makati ( a nice shopping center) but before that my girl and i got hungry so we ate in Kitchen - she likes their grilled vegetable panini, so here's what we ordered

grilled vegetable panini

170.00 = $3.69

lettuce caps
145.00 = $3.15

seared tuna sashimi
160.00 = $3.47

one san mig light
40.00= .80

one watermelon shake

90.00 = $1.95

$13.06 USD for dinner ( two people)

Kitchen is a resto in a high end ayala mall so consider these prices in the expensive range ( although there are more expensive places )

Aafter the meal we met up with alex and went to an even more expensive resto - m cafe in front of the ayala museum, lots of expats frequent this place for the food, drink, and music. i especially like this place in december as the wind is always blowing a cool breeze your way, anyway we caught up with alex and talked about boracay and where he was staying...

7 san mig light x 90.00 each
2 callijentes ( some girly drink) 360.00
tax 128.00
service charge 99.00

TOTAL = 1217.00 0r $26.30

GRAND TOTAL = kitchen $13.06 + M cafe $26.30 = $39.30

My parking costs were PHP35.00 ( less than a dollar for the whole evening)

Read about one white man's retirement story in the philippines Click here!

Cost Of Living Philippines (part 1)

2008-12-29T02:24:00.000-08:00

Hi guys,

Welcome to my blog cost of living philippines, here i will track my living expenses so that you may compare and have an idea of what it costs to live here in the P.I. or RP as it is called now. Just a small bio on myself, my name is Franz, Austrian citizen, i have a thriving business here in the Philippines, Im 41 years old and I live in Mandaluyong, just 10 minutes away from Makati.

For part 1 I will try and reconstruct what it cost to live a single life - so if your single you will have an idea of the expenses involved. ( please note that Mandaluyong though not as pricey as Makati is still much more expensive then living in the provinces and rural areas)

When i was single, ( two years ago ) this is what my major expenses looked like:

Per 30 days

a. Rent -
I lived two blocks away from where im living now, it was a two bedroom one car garage apartment.

10,000 pesos

b. Utilities -

water - 700 pesos
electricity - 5000 ( lots of airconditioning)
internet - dsl 1000 pesos

c. Maid -

5000 pesos

d. Food -

( for two me and my maid) = 9,000 pesos

e. Transportation -

Gas ( i have a car) - 7,000 pesos

all in all this comes up to $710.00 / month

what i havent included in this short overview are dentist/doctors visits, haircuts, massages, gym fees, celphone, eating and drinking out , and other recreational activities, i will be posting part 2 where i live in a bgger house with my family, also i will be doing more posts on what it costs to do the following:

a. holidays
b. eating out ( expensive, average, cheap)
c. celphone plans
d. buying a condo/ house/car
e. busines ops
f. dentisits / doctors

and much more...

There's also an excellent ebook written by perry gamsby called Philippine dreams, He talks about immigration, dating, cost of living, how and what business models to set up in the philippines. Click Here! if you want to visit his site

Oh, and do sign up on the top of the page if you want to receive a newsletter on retiring in the Philippines