Apr 4, 2011

Expenses when living on your Own..

Do you plan of renting or living on your own? I want to blog this even before to help some couples deciding to live on their own or want to separate from their parents house. This is only base from our own experience and our own expenses.


photo credits here.

We're renting our current place for almost 7 months and now i realize that living on our own is really damn expensive. When we were living with my in-laws, we were giving them P6,000 monthly as our share for the food and utilities. Our only expenses aside from the P6,000 was the schooling of our daughter, the yaya's salary and sometimes do grocery for the house. Living on our own makes me realize that 6,000 monthly is not enough, its just a portion of the huge expenses that awaits us.
photo credits here.

This is our monthly expenses. I wanna share this to you guys for you to have an idea of the expenses when living on your own.

House Rental - Nowadays, house is very important to every family and here in Manila renting a townhouse with 2 bedrooms costs PhP 7,500 (minimum) to PhP 12,000 (maximum). So if you have your own house, then you are lucky.
photo credits here. 

Maid - Maids or Yayas now cost minimum of P2,500. You just need to source out from the province to get that starting rate. With my maid/yaya, her salary is only P2,500 but all her basic needs are free like her hygiene products (shampoos, lotions etc). In my case, its my in-laws who choose maid for us, they trained her first because according to Mama, i was so generous and kind to maids that sometimes they abuse. My reason is i want them to treat my daughter the way i treat them. I help the maid with household chores and now im also paying her SSS monthly as an additional benefit.


photo credits here.

Food - I think this is the most expensive part of living on our own. Since im the wife, my task is to make budget every month. I do grocery every second week of the month (Paydays) and my budget for every grocery is Php 4,000 to Php 5,000.00. That makes at least P9,000 average of monthly grocery. This grocery consists of my daughter's need (milk, snacks) and house needs (kitchen needs, toiletries etc.)

The day after doing grocery, i also have schedule of going to public market for the raw foods. Hubby always accompany me here to help decide for the menu of the week and help me bring the things bought in the market. My budget here for every 2 weeks food is Php 2,000.

Sometimes in between the 2 weeks scheduled grocery, there are needs to go back to grocery kasi there are some items that you forgot to includes in the list or biglang mauubusan ng stock. Like this week, kaka-grocery ko lang ng bongga last week (after payday) and last Saturday, we go back to Hypermarket to bought some. This impromptu grocery sometimes costs me P1k to 2k budget.


The impromptu grocery last Saturday. Naubusan kami ng coffee, milk, french fries and ketchup but ended up buying this all for some stocks. Would you believe that this little grocery costs P2,300?

Ang mahal na talaga ng bilihin ngaun no?

UTILITIES. Who cannot live without lights and internet now? Wala na dba? And internet now became one of the necessities because of the high-tech living. In our case, here's the monthly utilities that we're paying.

Meralco - PhP 2,000 to 2,500 (no aircon). Pano pa kaya kung may aircon kami?

DSL - PhP 1,600. They also have promo for students of P999, combination of dsl and telephone line. Yun nga lang mabagal ang net. Samin kasi hindi pwede ang mabagal because of hubby's online games.

Cellphone bills - P1,000 to P1,500. Hubby and I both have postpaid line from Sun Cellular's P350 Plan. In our years of paying our bills, im paying minimum of P700.00 for hubby's bill alone, puro kasi tawag to other networks because he's a team leader and  communication to his agents is very important. My bill also is always P500.00 up, i also have Globe Prepaid network. And with my raket, sometimes malakas din sa load.

Cable - P495.00 It is one of important to us. Hubby is not watching local channels. Its always history, nat geo, HBO and other channels. Tami is always on cartoons and disney channel. Mine's travel and living and sometimes nakakanood ako ng local shows pag busy si Tami and hubby.

Water - Php 400 to P600.

There you go our monthly basic expenses. Our monthly expenses is about P35,000 to P40,000. Basic necessities pa lang yan. As i write this, naiisip ko na ang laki pala ng gastos namin monthly. This does not includes the following:

-work allowance
- Sunlife insurance quarterly / investments
- Tami's school tuition fees and school needs
- Shopping
- Travels
- Eating at a fancy restaurants etc.

So, if you want to live on your own, you need at least P35,000 on basic needs only. But its up to you pa rin on how you will budget your monthly expenses. Siguro di lang din ako magaling mag-budget kaya malaki ang gastos namin.

Again, this is base from our own expenses only. Now im thinking where to cut costs in order for us to save more for the interiors of our house soon. I dont have problem anymore with the expenses of constructing the house because we got it from one of the known developers here in the Philippines. I am saving now for the interiors of our house.



2 comments:

  1. Paki convert sa dollars. hahaha! pra may idea narin ako pag ngpksal na kmi ni jowa. ahaha! I'm learning here ha!

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  2. Haha. Natawa nman ako kit. Naku sa tingin ko hindi ka rin marunong mag-budget like me. Mahilig ka din mag-shopping eh.. Anyway ang laki talaga ng gastos pag sarili nyo na...kaya ngaun pa lang mag-ipon na kayo :)

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