How much DO things cost?
I read a lot of blogs and articles regarding the cost of living in the Philippines. It generally goes from it costs a lot more than one thinks, to being dirt cheap. And that’s probably true, because there are just too many variables to be able to come up with one answer.
Recently Dave Starr put up a great (IMO) article that describes in detail his expenses. This is the kind of article I can really appreciate, because it doesn’t really attempt to compare things back and forth, just give you a “real world” example that you can use as a baseline to make your own conclusions from. He breaks it down expense by expense, leaving only the disposable income to question. Actually, he even averages that for you, too.
Dave’s got a couple of great blogs going, PhilFaqs and Retired Pay World. If you haven’t been there, check them out.
Thanks for the kind words, Randy. There are times I want to drop everything to do with blogging in the “about the Philippines space”, because I really have lot of other things going on and there are a _lot_ more profitable ways to spend one’s online time.
But the people I meet in the “Philippines space” are so often interesting and first-rate that I really don’t want to let go. Keep writing, I’ll keep reading.
Hi Dave – my pleasure. I don’t put near the time into blogging that you and Bog do, for instance, but I can certainly understand how much time it could take up.
It’s valuable information, and I’m glad you’re doing it.
The higher the quality the higher the price. Is it a cheap china product or a good china product. If you want US standard you will pay dearly for it. 25-100% more here than in the US.
You won,t ever find veggies as cheap as the philippines anywhere on earth…esp at the big farmers market where you can haggle the prices…my wife can buy a weeks worth of stuff for 4 or 5 dollars ha ha
That’s true..
But you have to watch the cleaniness of the veggies and wash them well, we once found us a potatoe vendor that had clean nice potatoes cheaper, we shopped with him for a year , oneday we came shopping and we saw him washing his potatoes with his grubby foot in a bucket, just took his flip flop off and was giveing them a foot bath , then we saw everyone doing it…so we wash things very well ha ha
That was a very old article that somehow got published here after I removed the link to Dave Starr’s page that is no longer working. Gotta agree with both Travis and Randal though. Love the price of fruits and veggies. Not so crazy about the prices of good electronics.
I am not familiar with US prices at the meoment, been six years since we lived there, but anyone who thinks a tiny head of brocolli at nearly $2.00 US, or a tiny softball-size cabbage at more thna a dollar is is cheap erans my sympathy then.
Mostly though, it’s not the prive that is a problem, though, it’s availability and the lack of variety/quality. Living here in Luzon reminds me of the winters I lived in England back 40 years ago, when the only green veggies in the winter were cabbage and sprouts, cabbage ans sprouts, over and over again. I understand English cusine has advanced a bit since I lived there.
Not so sure about Luzon in general, because I’ve only spent time in Quezon City and Manila, but Mindanao has some great fruits, in particular Durian, mango, banana, pomelo, etc.. The only imported fruit that I’ve bought were apples, and those were a little pricey and not very tasty. I believe they were from China. As long I I stick with native fruits, the price and quality is great. Local veggies are also very affordable and of good quality.
OK Dave Starr’s link has been fixed. Good article, go read it.