Very poignant thread.

I support three adults and three kids in Manila.

The adults are my partner, Nanay and my partners slighly disabled sister, the kids are mine plus one neice that we are trying to help though school.

This costs me 500 quid a month + emergencies.

I have spent a lot of time in Manila and I know the price of food both in the supermarkets and in the local markets.

Yes a family can live on 200 peso a day more than half of our extended family live on less than this :( but it's not an acceptable amount of money for a decent life.

My rent in Manila is around 100 quid a month for a nice two bed terraced house in Las Pinas, full of ants but the neighbours are nice and the location is safe. The other 400 goes on food, bills, clothing and a little bit of a life for Nanay.

This is a lot more than most Filipinos get from abroad but in my case we have no other earners in the family, Tatay died some years ago and Nanay has been living with us for the last 5 years.

Food bills are around 3500 peso a week for 2 adults and 3 kids, (my partner is not at home just now) that provides 3 meals a day for the family and my daughter is still on bottled milk which is unfortunately expensive over there, that adds a lot each week to the food bills.

This works out at around 33 peso a meal per person on average, 105 meals a week at 33 peso a meal, it's not a lot is it?

Electric is 3000 peso a month. (we have the luxury of aircon although I dont know how much longer we can keep that up)

Water is 800 peso a month.

TV is 450 peso a month. (I have TV in the UK why should my family NOT have it in the Phils).

Emergencies never stop, in the Phils there is always someone in deep doo-doo, in the early years I helped a lot but I simply can't anymore.

You might think that the Filipino partner is just trying to milk the foriegn asawa for as much as possible but in reality when in our case the (really extended) family were constantly trying to get help, it upsets and hurts the Filipina tremendously as she does not want to be constantly asking her partner for help but her family can put her under terrible pressure to obtain help and as others have said Filipinos often have no idea of relative wealth or just what it's actually costing the foreign spouse.

The Philippines is such a disaster and black hole that no amount of help will ever be enough but that does not give one an excuse to provide less than is needed for a basic decent standard of living.

In my opinion that level is around 35,000 peso a month, we live above that standard but I don't know for how much longer we can afford that :(

If you are already a family in the UK and both of you are trying to help family back in the Phils then a couple of hundred is more reasonable.

Without aircon electric bills would genreally be around 1500 peso a month (constant use of electric fans for cooling and a basic fridge/freezer)

Water is always going to be around 500 to 800 peso a month.

Gas will be 1500 peso evey two months

Rent will be whatever you can afford, if your family is living in a slum then you are maybe paying 1000 peso a month in a half decent place Manila you might be paying 9000 peso a month.

Equivalent of Council tax is for us in our current house in our subdivision is just 200 peso a month (garbage collection etc.) in our condo a few years ago it was 1500 peso a month for association fees.

Remember that any illness will cost money when you have a newborn every vaccination will cost money and some of them are 7000 or 8000 peso.

We spent around 80,000 peso last year on hospital fees when my daughter was born, a couple of days later I was talking to my taxi driver and found out that his wife had just given birth as well, total cost 1100 peso God knows what kind of care his wife got.

Lastly as an example of the kind of emergencies that always happen, a few days before my daughter was born last year my partners neice was also giving birth, she is only 19, she nearly died in childbirth she was haemorrhaging badly after delivery and no one in the family could help everyone was broke (and we have a few OFW's in the extended family) anyway it was left to me I had to help what choice did I have, I knew this girl really well she was my future brother in laws youngest, could I let her die?

This is what you are letting yourself get into when you get involved with a Filipina, don't get me wrong the adventure is huge and the rewards will help you grow up in ways that you never imagined possible, it will make a better person of you, but is it no easy path to paradise getting involved with a Filipina, they are a very beautiful people with the richest souls I have ever met but they live in a complicated world.


Jim