On my first ever visit to phils, the two most important factors making huge dent on my holiday spending money are food and taxis

I'm not a huge drinker, so going to bars drinking myself and money dry was not an issue for me.

After a week, I was down by 20k PHP. It was a wake up call. I sat down and analyzed where the money went

1. FOOD [hotel restaurant eating, restaurants outside hotels, not only have me and my mahal to content with, family members mum and dad, her sisters, brothers also pop round at least 4 times a week and had to be fed]

2. TAXI [hmmm.. this is a touchy subject. It's not a secret that 95% of filipino think that all foreigners are moneybags, and the taxi are the ones exploiting this myth to the fullest. as soon as you get in they fiddle the meter and try every tricks in the world to ensure you pay 4 to 5 times the normal rate. have even seen cases charging 10 times the normal fare]


Anyways my 20k a week spending continued till end of my 3 weeks holiday as I couldn't figure out back then how to cut savings to my out of control spending.


Now fast fward to my 7th visit and gradually I've perfected the art of making savings on my holiday spending money in phils.

I won't discuss hotels etc.. bcoz these are all pre-paid before you leave home in England.

1. FOOD: To cut down on food cost,

a. stay away from most restaurants, except Inasal which are somewhat ok and cost an average £2.50 per person which is similar to mcdonalds or KFC. Stick to Mcdonalds and KFC as much as possible and chow king also fall within the £2.50 per person food bill

b. Try renting condo apartment for your short or long stay, they are much cheaper than hotels and give you options to even cut down on your food bills by going to supermarket and buy your own groceries and cook yourself. During my last visit I bought milk, cornflakes, bread butter and eggs for just about £4 and this fed 3 people , me, my wife and her sister for nearly a week for breakfast. even at mcdo which is relatively cheap it would have cost £7.50 for 3 people just ONE day alone. and here you're having to pay just £4 to feed 3 people for breakfast for a whole WEEK!! just by cooking yourself. 7ELEVEN is also a good source of saving on food bills and you will find they have a range of ready made meals for about £1.10 where they heat it up for you in microwaeve and you sit down there and eat. I had a delicious BBQ spare ribs and rice ready meal with generous portions there at 7eleven this morning for about £1.10 (yea i'm currently in manila rite now, lol)

c. I have also seen the workers at lunch break come out and eat at side street stalls. The side street stalls provide for the cheapest food bills with some as low as 50p (30php) per person but the hygiene in the food stall are pretty bad and if you didn't take a cholera or polio jab before you leave home and go and eat there, it might end up costing you more in hospital bills so I tend to stay away from the food stall even tho I got my cholera jabs, I still won't risk it.


2. TAXIS
Forget the taxis as much as you can, take MRT or bus as much as possible. The only fear I have with taking MRT and busses is getting lost in the middle of no where as you might have to make many busses connections to your final destination as a lone traveller this might be a challenge. But this also provide you with opportunity to mix in with the locals by commuting with them instead of being isolated in RIP-OFF taxis. To give you an example how much savings you can make taking a bus. A typical Bus ride which a RIP-OFF taxi will charge 2,000PHP(£33) will cost you only £1 by taking a combination of jeepney and bus to same destination. The tricycle drivers have also started to jump on the foreigners are moneybags bandwagon so try and keep away from them too as much as you can. Whenever I've taken the taxis, I've tried to educate them that we are not moneybags and we don't grow money on trees back home but it awlays falling on deaf hears, lol. bcoz as one of them told me they believe what they see in hollywood movies and other western movies more than what i'm telling them hahaha


In summary if you can keep lid on your food, taxi and bar bills while abroad anywhere then you've won half of the battle to keep control of your holiday spending money.