SHOESTRING LIVING- IS IT WORTH IT?
A Brief Look At How Little You Can Live Off, But Why Would You?
There is living on a shoestring budget, and then there is the "frayed" shoestring and the "broken" shoestring. Most Filipino families live on the latter, but is it something foreigners can copy and is it worth doing so?
What exactly is a "shoestring" budget? I would say that, living in a city such as Cebu, Davao or even Manila, a decent budget would be US$1000 a month. A shoestring budget would be less than that, say US$750 while a frayed shoestring would be US$500. A broken shoestring, (you know the type where the lace has rubbed so hard it snaps and you have to adjust the rest of the lace and end up with really short bits?) is anything less than US$500 per month. I'm talking at least a foreigner and a Filipina living on this, not just a foreigner by himself. Why would you live here on bugger all money and no honey-ko?
I know many who could not survive on even a grand a month, but perhaps they have never had to. For them the ability to buy western luxury items such as decent ham or steaks from The Tinder Box is to be taken for granted or else go home. I can understand that mentality, why suffer if you don't need to? The truth of the matter is that sometimes circumstances find you having to do more with less than you ever planned on having to do it with!
Those who live the high life, or spend a lot of their free time supporting the local expat girlie go-go bar may find US$1000 a month hardly covers their bar fines. Half your luck mate but this article is aimed at the bloke who has a wife or girlfriend, doesn't have the funds to hang out in bars and wants to get a few clues about getting by on as little as possible.
The great news is that you can get by, and often live well, for very little here. How can Filipino's earn a few thousand pesos a month and still raise large families on a single income? Many earn less than P10,000 a month, that's about US$200, approximately although actually less than that at current rates.
Lets look first at the gorilla, the grand, the US$1000 a month. I earned that for several months working at Bigfoot as a writer of online English Dialogue and drivel. It allowed us to live well enough in Cebu but didn't leave much left over for saving. Especially as it coincided with major repairs to the car and other unusual expenses. We moved down from the province where we had been living well for a monkey (half a gorilla or US$500 a month) to the big smoke where twice as much didn't make much difference! Lesson number one would probably be, if you are on a shoestring budget, to avoid the city and all its' temptations!
Our rent went from P2000 a month to P6000 a month, an increase of three times the money for maybe twice the house. If we had rented in Cebu City itself, then we could expect to pay twice that for a similar size dwelling. Of course, the extra rent would be offset by the savings in traveling expenses, getting to and from work in the city every day. If you aren't having to work for a living, then the tip is to live out of the city where the rents are a lot less than downtown.
Living where there is bugger all to do!
