How much are the monthly expenses for a family of 4 in the Philippines?

[joban99]

hi sisses, my family and I are currently living abroad and early next year I may send my wife home to the Phil with my 3 kids while I stay abroad and send them a monthly remittance. My wife and I have been talking about this for a while and wed like to have more info. Basically Id like to know how much is the total monthly expenses to live a comfortable life for a household of 4 (my wife, my 8 yr old daughter, 6 yr old son, and new born baby). We plan to live in the Southern area of Manila (BF Paranaque) and already have a house there so we wont need to rent. Id just like to know how much they would need for monthly groceries, 2 kasambahays, utilities, gas for car, monthly school tuition in a nice school, plus any other monthly expenses you can think of. Even a rough estimate of how much this would be per month would be appreciated. Thanks very much.

On a side note, if you could also give good ideas for a small business my wife can start, that would be appreciated as well. Just something that would need small capital at the beginning like 100-200k which she can grow and make into a good family business. Thanks again.

[binggay]

It will be difficult to recommend a "comfortable" monthly household budget for you since we do not know the kind of lifestyle your family has been accustomed to. Even for utilities, it will be difficult to gauge unless you itemize all the household appliances that will be running and for how many hours (ex. aircon). Even for groceries, monthly expense for this varies from household to household.

School - what is your definition of "nice"? Most parents here will say that the school our kids go to is "nice", and the tuition fee can range from 40K all the way to 200K per annum. The best way to budget for this is to come up with a shortlist of what school you want to send your kids to.

Take into consideration you plan to get 2 helpers (sweldo + additional mouths to feed), you have a new born baby (milk, diapers, vaccines, etc).

[joban99]

Thanks Binggay. Actually Id just like to get a feel of how much a family of four would spend.  If for example, you could say how much you spend and how many family members you have. I was hoping to get something like at least 20 comments and then I would have a good idea of how much I would need to remit. As for schools, I have La Salle Zobel in mind. But again, Id just like a feel of how much a family spends. Maybe to rephrase my question then so more GTers would answer would be:

How much are your monthly expenses all in all and ilan kayo sa family? Also if possible, could you pls give a simple breakdown of your monthly expenses. Thanks.

[imeego]

To give you an idea, here's the list of our monthly expenses..family of 4 (me, hubby and 2 kids aged 4 and 2) plus 3 helpers..

Grocery 25-30k
Helpers 10k
Electric 4-5k
Water 1k
Internet 1.5k
Cignal - 2k
Gala budget- 20k (5k/week)
Gas- 5-6k
Kids- 15k ( milk, diaper for my toddler, water, snacks etc)
Tax- 😁  amount varies, depende sa monthly income but definitely, dito napupunta big chunk of our budget

I did not include in the list my son's tuition fee and misc expenses. Also, not included ang vaccines since we get these for free

That's it, i can say na we live a comfortable life naman, meaning di kami kinakapos, we get to cover all the basic needs, plus we can still buy some things/luho for ourselves para di naman feeling deprived and most importantly, nakakapagsave pa din..we see to it na may monthly savings pa din kami kahit madaming gastos

[joban99]

Hi sis Imeego this is perfect, thanks very much. I tried looking online for this type of info pero wala talaga akong mahanap, puro for foriegners planning to live alone in the Phil kaya its good to get the info from real families who are living in the Phil na talaga. Now I have a small idea of how much wed need, but hopefully I can get more samples from other GTers. Anyways, thanks again Imeego.

[cldy_1981]

Hi joban99, I hope everything works out well for your family.

For our household the expenses are more or less broken down as:

1.) Grocery - 16k / month
2.) Palengke - 5-10 k / month
3.) Electricity - 7K / month - we iron every week and use the air con for 2 rooms everyday, plus heater for 2 bathrooms
4.) Cable, internet and phone bundle - 5k/month
5.) Water - 600/month
6.) Gas - 6k/month for our small car and 12k/month more or less for the SUV's
7.) The entertainment/luxury expense is really case to case but its safe to say that you will spend at least 1K per person for food and toys of your kids per day. So if your kids and wife go out once a week then that's 4K/wk if its 2x a week then that's 8K/week. Shopping is a different fund altogether too. Depending on the spending habits of your wife din
8.) There's also the check up of the kids - when you visit pedias its usally 700-1k per consult per child then dentis is also the same.
9.) Milk for kids is about 1K for 1Kg for the older kids and formula for the baby in case your wife doesn't breastfeed is aboyt 1500-1800/900g. These cans usually last about a week to 1 1/2 weeks depending on the consumption of the kids.
10.) Kasambahay - ranges from 3500-5k/month just for the usual maids, for specialized yaya's the rates can be from 6k-12k/month
11.) DLSZ - tuition is roughly 110K per annum roughly
12.) Toddler school or baby classes for your youngest is 80K for toddler school and about 11K per sem for classes like kindermusik or gymboree.

[joban99]

Thanks cldy_1981, mahal pala ng gatas ng baby, I cant remember how much it was as its been such a long time since we bought baby formula or baby stuff, hehe..  Thanks again for the breakdown.

[iannewn]

Just the monthly expenses lang with out the extra money for shopping a mom with 3kids with 2 kasambahay is around 50k a month hindi kasali tuition fee and mga pambayad ng extra when you dine out and go malling