In this article, let’s shed some light on how much money you need to support your girlfriend in the Philippines, let’s touch on topics such as monthly expenses, food prices, transportation prices.
I will try to explain by giving examples of what your girlfriend will demand from you;
1) Credit or phone payment, this is one of the most used excuses for asking for money by Filipino women, the credit options here are very wide, you will only need to send $2 at most to load credit. Fiber speed internet connection here is around $23 per month, so you can calculate accordingly.
2) Rent payment, there are generally shared rooms in the Philippines and students and young people usually live this way, the cost of these is usually around $50. However, if we assume that she prefers to live alone, then it starts from a minimum of $60 and goes without limits. Rental houses here, especially the cheap ones, are given unfurnished. A bed is given in shared rooms, the bed is not included. I would not recommend you to stay in very expensive places either.
3) Transportation Costs, there are many methods that can be used for transportation here, For example, transportation by Jeepney (minibuses here) varies between $0.30 and $0.60. When you want to use a Tricycle specifically, the highest price I have given so far has been around $2. Scooter-type motorbikes are very common here and their prices are quite reasonable, second-hand ones start at around $350 and a very nice scooter motorcycle can be purchased for $1000.
4) Phone, I think it is related to the proximity of China and Taiwan, phones, computers, etc. You can buy a cheap android phone for around $90 on average. A good android device with high features will cost you around $100. Branded devices like iPhones will be expensive here as they are everywhere else in the world, just so you know.
5) Food and beverages, can be considered as an average of $150 per month, of course this figure is the average for a single person and this cost will decrease as the number of people increases. 25 Kilos of rice is an average of $35. The reason I am giving the price of rice here is that bread is rarely used in the Philippines, rice porridge is used instead of bread. The monthly tube cost is around $20. The people here consume a lot of street food and there is a lot of variety, the average food varies around $1-$2. A bucket of fried chicken costs around $8 at Jollibee, the famous fast food chain of the Philippines. I am trying to give you many examples so that you can visualize something. There is something called Korean barbecue and it is very popular, it is around $10 on average. You may not prefer it, but a large roasted pig costs around $200, of course it can be bought cheaper by bargaining.
6) Let’s touch on a few points about giving birth and child expenses, There are state-owned maternity hospitals in almost every region here, I don’t want to say anything about health etc. but the average cost of giving birth in a private hospital is around $1000. Diapers are around $20 on average, Baby milk is around $80 on average.
7) The average cost your girlfriend will spend to look beautiful is $30 for hair dye, blow-dry etc. at the hairdresser, around $10 for fake nails and eyelashes, and a budget of $5-$30 for clothes will be enough, so your girlfriend can renew herself from head to toe with a budget of $100-$150.
8) The subject your girlfriend is most likely to hear about regarding school and education expenses will be the annual school fees, the annual school fees are a maximum of $2000.
Now that we have written the expenses, let’s talk about the earnings, they earn around $150 per month in places like towns. The monthly earnings of someone working in a shopping mall are around $250. The most commonly worked sector in the Philippines are Call Centers, an average monthly earning of around $500 can be earned.
Let’s talk about the support amounts a little bit
$100 is not a small or large amount, but it is support. It will be sufficient, even considerable support, especially for those living in villages and towns.
$200 is considered a serious support when the average expenses of a person including rent are considered as $400.
$400 covers all expenses of a person including monthly rent, of course if there are no children or dependents.
Supporting $1000 and above would be a very wrong amount based on what we wrote above. The person who asks you for support in these amounts is either scamming or exploiting you.
To summarize our entire article, I have written the average prices above and explained them as much as I could. Despite this, the amounts you will send are of course up to you, but please do not send money to anyone you are not sure of. Let’s say you have come to the Philippines and live here, never, ever lend money no matter how reliable you think it is, the probability of not getting it back is very high.
If you have any questions or want to ask, you can check the contact page for my other social media and contact information.
I wish everyone a good day, Best regards, Welcome to the Philippines in advance.