how you are coping with the increase in the prices of gasoline and other basic commodities.
Gone are the days when the exchange rate of the US dollar to the Philippine Peso was 65! Nowadays, the Peso holds strong at 43 to the US dollar and it does not seem like it will be moving much. My family, like many others in this country, had to make some lifestyle changes to cope with the economic crisis affecting everyone, not only here in the Philippines but all over the world.
I arrived here in the Philippines in 2007 after having lived in Europe for a few years. One thing about living and working abroad is that you bring back foreign currency when you come back here to the Philippines. You think, oh no problem the exchange rate is high; I can stretch out my Euro to the maximum. So you live quite lavishly. Everything here in the Philippines is “cheap” in comparison to Europe. There is a huge discrepancy to the standard of living between both areas of the world. Where a loaf of bread would cost 3 Euros (at today’s exchange rate of 64€ to 1 Php that would be 192 Pesos per loaf), here it cost 65 Pesos. Buying an 8oz coffee at Starbucks in Europe is about 5 Euros (320 Php), here in the Philippines it is 95 Php. So can you imagine how cheap everything is in comparison when you come back here to the Philippines?! Do the math.
My family is considered small by Filipino standards. We are only four. Since I got married and my sibling got married, our family’s size has increased to 11 members. However, my sibling and family are not here in the Philippines. My family and I have moved in to my parent’s home when we came back here. So the total number of people in our home is 8, including our 2 domestic helpers. When we first arrived back in 2007, I remember when 500 Php spent in the supermarket would yield almost a cart full of groceries which is good enough for one week for a family our size. Now, 500 pesos barely fills up 2 shopping bags.
Our typical monthly expenditures for groceries alone run at 30,000 Php. For holidays like the Christmas season it goes up to 50,000 Php. Our utilities, monthly, run at 10,000Php for Meralco, 2,500 Php for Maynilad, and 2,000Php for PLDT. Our total monthly bills (for non-holidays) are 44,500Php. This excludes car gas consumption and miscellaneous expenditures such as eating out at restaurants and shopping.
We have two cars. One is a 5 series BMW which we brought back from Europe and runs on gasoline and the other is an Isuzu Alterra which has a diesel engine. The BMW has a fuel tank capacity of 2 Liters and costs 3,500Php to fill to full with Petron’s XCS. The Isuzu’s fuel tank capacity is 3 Liters and costs 3,000Php to fill to full with Shell’s Vpower. Monthly we spend approximately 8,000Php on fuel consumption for both cars. This is also traveling just within Manila. If we have out-of-town trips to Laguna or Subic Bay, the cost would rise to about 10,000Php monthly.
Our family enjoys eating out. After all, that is usually what we end up doing when we go out to the malls. We spend on an average about 10,000Php to eat out at fast food restaurants. On special occasions we do splurge on fine dining and that runs us at around 6,000Php for a full sit-down meal at one of the hotel’s restaurants or one of the better quality restaurants in town.
Other expenditures, which includes books, clothes, etc. shopping would run us at an additional 6,000Php. Plus, our 2 children go to a local, private school which costs us (for the 2011-2012 school year) 61,200Php for grade 3 and 67,100Php for first year high school respectively.
Hence the grand total of our average monthly bills is as follows:
44,500 (utilities & groceries) + 8,000 (fuel) + 10,000 (eating out) + 6,000 (misc) + = 68,500 Php/month.
This excludes the total of 128,300Php for the children’s school fees for the entire school year and the misc fees of school books and supplies that would be added to this!
Below is the current salary statistics from http://www.averagesalarysurvey.com/article/average-salary-in-philippines/14175948/income.aspx, retrieved 28 April, 2011.
What Is Average Salary In Philippines?
Average income in Philippines in year 2011 is around 250,000 PHP (5,800 USD) per year.
Employees in IT receive in average from around 350,000 PHP to around 600,000 PHP if they are more experienced Software developers.
Certified Public Accountant (CPA) receives average income of around 300,000 PHP per year. Much lower salaries are for employee in Customer Services Jobs where Customer Service Representative (CSR) receives around 200,000 PHP per year.
Average Salaries In Philippines For IT
As ZdNet Asia statistics shows average IT salaries in Philippines are a little bit above 500,000 PHP (11,600 USD) per year.
This makes me wonder how others here in the Philippines can afford their lifestyles. I am sure what my family spends per month is probably the same for people who have approximately 11 household members, own their own house and cars, and have children in schools.
As the costs of fuel and good rise, my family and I have made many changes. Our bills have gone down by at least 10,000Php/month. Groceries still top the most expensive item on our spending record per month. We walk when possible and try to buy our vegetables and meats at our neighborhood stores. Our “European” cravings for cheese and cold cuts have been limited to a once-a-month indulgence. Out-of-town trips have been cut-down to maybe once every 3 months. Usage of air-conditioning has been limited to 1 hour at night before going to sleep. We pump Maynilad water into our tank so we do not have to run our pump every time someone uses the bathroom. We turn anything that is run by electricity off when not being used. Generally, everything we have done in the past we are literally doing only half of. Being smart about things which are cost-effective is the only way to survive the economic brouhahas’ of today. Tighten your belts, as the saying goes!
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