Cebu Living Guides - Cost of Living in Cebu

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Costs of living in Cebu, Philippines:

The day to day living expenses are an extremely important aspect when trying to determine if your budget will allow living in Cebu. I will say from the outset that this is an area where huge savings can be made. The figures I have detailed in this section are based on my own expenditures, and you may in fact spend a lot more or a lot less than me. Bottom line is that the cost of living in Cebu is way below that in the UK.

From my experience the cost of food in most instances is lower than in the UK, however a number of items are a similar price if not a little higher (typically the imported ones). It would bore you I think if I were to try and give a price breakdown of every product I purchase, so I will limit it to giving you examples of my own weekly and monthly expenditure on food and utilities.

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Food Expenditure:

Including myself there are three of us in my family, we shop at our local supermarket and will spend typically between £35-£45 GBP a week. This is a lot less than our equivalent weekly shopping bill in the UK, but in my opinion I am buying a little less here. The food we buy normally lasts the week but sometimes unexpected guests can mean an extra visit to the store.

We do not eat extravagantly but then we never go hungry either. There is always plenty of chicken, pork and fish on the menu along with fresh vegetables, so I cant complain and indeed could benefit from eating a little less. My weekly shopping bill includes all the food, cleaning products for the house and various snack items for my 6 year old daughter to take to school.

As mentioned earlier you might spend a lot more than me on your weekly shop, but for two adults and one child the £35-£45 is more than enough. Bear in mind a lot of Filipino’s are not earning this amount in a week. As a single person I would say £20 GBP would be a good starting figure to use in your budget calculations for food.

My wife and I shop in the local supermarket, this is not the cheapest option, but then I like the convenience. Going to one of the local markets (Marcado) to shop can save you some money but personally I prefer the air conditioned luxury of the supermarket. That said a visit to the local market is a must do event if you’re new here, only then will you be able to savour the blend of pungent aromas of old fish and meat being baked in the tropical heat (another good reason to shop at the mall).

Alcoholic beverages are very cheap here with a 330ml bottle of San Miguel Pilsner costing 17 pence, a 750ml bottle of 12 year old Tanduay rum will cost you the princely sum of £1.35 GBP. There are various imported beers, wines & spirits that cost more than local but on the whole you can get very merry for very little cash outlay.

So to sum up the cost of my weekly shopping is £35-£45 GBP in the supermarket, however you can save money buying from the local markets. In the end it's up to you where you shop and how much you spend.

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Electricity:

I understand that the Philippines has the second or third highest KW/H charge in the world. I would have to concur with this as my bills always seem high. I pay between £30-£40 GBP a month for my electricity usage. This might seem high at first glance, however you must remember this is a very warm country with the average temperature being around 30c all year.

I find that air conditioning is a must when I go to bed and usually run it for at least 10 hours a day. We often all share the same room at night so as to keep the cost down a little, otherwise my daughters air con unit would also be running all night. I will be honest and say I occasionally take an afternoon siesta and this will obviously add a little to the bill.

It is impossible to determine from this information what your electricity consumption would be as there are many factors that will effect the final bill. I have a three bedroom house and would use more power than say a small studio or town house. I think it fair to say that you should budget for £25 GBP per month for starters, it's better to over budget a little than to under budget.

There are a number of electricity suppliers and one would assume they all have there own rate albeit competitive with each other. On Mactan Island the supplier is MECO and whilst fairly reliable it is not unusual to have the odd power outage or two. The supply in Cebu City proper is on the whole more reliable.

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LPG Gas:

The majority of households cook using LPG gas (there is no piped gas supply here) so you will have to use the cylinders. For safety I would advise that whether you are renting or have bought a property, you ensure that the gas tank be placed outside the house. LPG gas is heavier than air and should the tank leak it might pose a slight risk of an explosion when you light up your cigarette or candle (back to the power cuts again). You will just need a small hole in the wall to pass the gas hose through.

You will easily find a local supplier of refill bottles and most will happily deliver to your home free of charge. Work top free standing twin burners are readily available and prices start at around £7 GBP, the tank I believe is around £15 for your first purchase and then £6.50 GBP each time you need to replace it.

I originally used the work top twin burner and found my gas tank lasting several months, however when I moved into my new home and had a fancy gas hob installed (we were sold on the fact that it had 2 double burners and one single) I found my gas consumption had increased enormously. I've put it down to the fact that my two twin burners equate to four normal burners, so each time we cook we are using four times the gas. Anyway I digress, I am paying around £5 every two months or so for my cooking gas.

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Water - Tap & Drinking:

Water is readily available here, however some places have more pressure than others but on the whole Cebu & Mactan Island have a reliable water supply. It is not advisable to drink the normal tap water, so large bottles of purified water are required. These are always available as a delivered to your door item. I use a water chiller that the bottle fits straight on top of. This way you have fresh chilled water available 24/7.

The subdivision I live in has a water company supplying the tap water and uses a high pressure system. The water has been purified and is ok to drink. I am not that trusting and always use the bottled water for drinking.

The cost of our water is probably higher than the normal water supplied to most of the homes in the area. My water bill is roughly £5-£7 GBP per month for the tap water and £4-£5 GBP for our drinking water. Once again there are three of us drinking the water plus our helper, so your bills could be well below mine. Additionally we have a lot of plants in the garden that require copious amounts of water in the dry summer months to stay healthy.

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Telephone Services:

There are a number of telephone providers in Cebu with the main ones being PLDT, GLOBE and ISLACOM. I use globe and find the service to be fairly reliable. You can be limited to what providers you can chose depending on your location. I do not have IDD activated on my line, so my bill is based purely on National Direct Dialed calls, calls to mobiles and internet access. The local calls here are free of charge.

The monthly line rental is just over £6 GBP and my total bill is usually around £20-£25 GBP monthly. I do use the internet a lot and would suggest you base your budget for the telephone at around £10-£15 GBP monthly.

I have now signed up for Broadband with Globe. I availed of a promo offer and get a 350k connection with unlimited access for the grand sum of £11 month. The service is OK but not great. I understand that the PLDT service is a better option if available in your area. The connection speeds here are lower than the European norm, but for most things it's more than adequate.

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Television Options:

You have the option of cable, satellite and the 5 domestic free broadcast channels. I chose satellite TV as cable was not available to me when my house was built and the local channels are very limited in their content. The satellite service here is called DREAM TV and is similar to SKY in the UK, albeit a very cut down version.

You have access to a couple of Pinoy PPV channels and a movie will cost around £1 GBP. To have access to all 52 channels you will have to buy a 890 peso card each month (approx £10 GBP). Look at their web site to see what they offer Dream TV. Dream just increased their prices but have offered a few more channels, we now have Discovery and Discovery Travel & leisure. Unless you opt for the 890 peso package you will not get any sports channels! what miss my MotoGP, no way.

Satellite & Cable TV give you access to a wealth of mainly american tv shows but their is a small amount of English programming with shows like "The Kumars", "The Office", "Little Britain". You also gain access to a number of news channels including BBC World, so keeping up with developments around the world is not a problem.

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Domestic Staff:

One of the luxuries of living in the Philippines is that you can easily afford to employ a domestic helper / maid. Our helper cost us £22 GBP for the month. She works Monday to Saturday 5am-12noon. We chose not to have a live in helper but many do stay in their employers house (in many cases not in the best living conditions). You will normally employ your maid through an agency. See our Domestic Help Guide.

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Appliances from the UK:

The supply voltage here is 220v so your UK appliances should work fine if you decide to bring any over with you. I would point out that the whilst the voltage is comparable with the UK the supply frequency is 60hz as opposed to the 50hz in the UK. This has no real affect on most appliances however appliances with an electric motor (refrigerator compressor) will run slightly faster.

I brought over a large Bosh fridge freezer and this has now been operating for two years without a hitch. My Sharpe Microwave oven went bang but I cannot put this down to the difference between 50hz & 60hz.

You can buy voltage regulators in the hardware stores and these can be used to protect various appliances against some of the wild supply voltage swings we can get here. From my own finding I would say your domestic appliances should work fine over here but don't take my word for it. If you are unsure then searching the internet should give you a greater insight into this area.

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Sample Budget Sheet, 24th January 2006:

I have put together an example budget sheet showing how much I should typically allow for my monthly bills. I have already said that this can only be used as a guide and your personal lifestyle will ultimately determine your final bills. It should also be noted that the VAT rate is rising here in the Philippines and by the end of January will be at 12%, so will affect the sample costings given below.

The above budget breakdown details purely the essential items I pay on a monthly basis. Below I show other expenses that I incur but cannot describe as as essential;

It is hard to detail exactly what I spend each month, but I have given a basic idea of the major items. I will be honest and say that I am working on a tight budget and as such really have to limit the number of times I take the family out for a meal. Obviously your disposable income could be higher and as such allow for a greater expenditure in all of the areas listed in the above tables.

I hope this section of the Living Guides has given you an insight into some of the areas of expense associated with living here in Cebu. The costs I have indicated will be similar all over the Philippines with the Manila area probably being a little higher in general.

Last Updated: April 25, 2006 16:24

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