penny-pinching or spendthrift

[Teacher]

To be penny-pinching or spendthrift and live in the Philippines this is an interesting topic I like to know my fellow forum members thoughts on this subject?

[Coyotes]

i think there's a steady change towards being a penny pincher the longer your here, when you first arrive, your astonished with how cheap everything is, then gradually you realise that it's all relative, after 6 months you realise that you have to watch the money. after about a year, your on a par with a jock lol tight as a camels backside in a sandstorm!

[TheDude]

Yep, once you get here you start thinking in peso's and get relatively tight with your money. But you are likely still throwing a lot more money around than the average local here.

[Rhoody]

hmmm, I spend my money the same way as I did in my "past" life....

beer, cigarettes, unnecessary electronic toys, traveling, looking for best quality to lowest price, don't care if a meal costs more if it's good, trying to avoid rip-offs...

but I also know plenty of peso-millionaires who change the restaurant cause another offers a 30 minute longer happy hour and going to MC Donald's for bottomless coffee (or should I say black water) and ordering extra ketchup to take the unused ones home... somehow I feel like throwing up, This people are very pristine to Dumaguete's Expat community, they can be found in others cities but the percentage of them in Duma is unreal high...

Rhoody

[grandpainak]

I am not living there yet but hope to soon. I think for me it will start out just the same is when I have been there in the past, at least for the first month or so. Here in the states my retirement is very small and if we stay here in the states, one if not both of us, will have to keep working and my health will not take much of that. I am a old fart that grew up poor and hungry and I never forgot what it was like to go to bed hungry. That makes me a sucker for the beggars. I'm thinking that my heart will harden some what when it comes to handing out my pocket change but I hope not to much. One thing I know for sure is, that if I were to become homeless there I will not have to worry about freezing to death. I don't think that I'm a penny-pinching or spendthrift I hope I'm a little of both.

My 2¢

[Teacher]

I know when I arrived. I treated pesos like monopoly money and let’s party. Now I am so tightfisted that Jose Rizal screams because I am holding the peso so tight. Don’t get me wrong I still spend money always buy my friends beer. It is just that my list of friends is much smaller now than before.

Making money in Asia is very hard the return on your investment is so low the average Expat can’t live on their profits from the business. Begging is a business in the Philippines and other countries if you lose your money no one will feel pity for you.

I love to eat lechon manok but now I won’t pay 1.99p for one I only buy the 1.10p Lechon manok it taste just as good. We are living in the great depression part 2 can’t trust the banks or anything else. Not even sure it is safe in your mattress anymore lol.. So my new favorite hobby is being a vegetable and there is no better place to relax than the Philippines..

[TheDude]

Originally Posted by Rhoody

hmmm, I spend my money the same way as I did in my "past" life....

beer, cigarettes, unnecessary electronic toys, traveling, looking for best quality to lowest price, don't care if a meal costs more if it's good, trying to avoid rip-offs...

but I also know plenty of peso-millionaires who change the restaurant cause another offers a 30 minute longer happy hour and going to MC Donald's for bottomless coffee (or should I say black water) and ordering extra ketchup to take the unused ones home... somehow I feel like throwing up, This people are very pristine to Dumaguete's Expat community, they can be found in others cities but the percentage of them in Duma is unreal high...

Rhoody

I think where I'm at, I'm the only expat with an income. Everyone else is living on a dwindling savings trying to figure out how to stretch the stay as long as possible. I'm sure there are many others out there like that.

Many other expats are living on a fixed income which is very tight. They came to the Phils largely because of the lower cost of living. I imagine there are a lot of tightwads among that crowd also.

Ordering extra ketchup to be able to take some home kind of makes sense to me. Not so much because of saving money but because good ketchup seems to be hard to find here. Or maybe I haven't been looking hard enough.

Otherwise, that sort of thing is a bit extreme.

[Rhoody]

dude, you're not the only one... I earn my money here since almost 8 years now... I have multiple sources of income. I buy peanuts from the vendors at the boulevard, re-size the portions and sell it with profit again. I steal the pepper-corns out of Casablanca's peppermill's and sell them per kilo and I fill banana-ketchup into McDonalds sachet's and cheat the long-noses who think they get real ketchup (but thats just for fun, no income with that).

[Pedro]

Originally Posted by Rhoody

I have multiple sources of income. I buy peanuts from the vendors at the boulevard, re-size the portions and sell it with profit again. I steal the pepper-corns out of Casablanca's peppermill's and sell them per kilo and I fill banana-ketchup into McDonalds sachet's and cheat the long-noses who think they get real ketchup (but thats just for fun, no income with that).

I think Rhoody has it all figured out. Now I am inspired to develop my multiple sources of income and live the dream life too. Why pinch penny's when you can pinch pounds?

[TheDude]

I want to heist a box or two or hamburger patties from McD's. Good hamburger is also hard to come by. I went to Jollibee's the other day and had a "hamburger." I don't know what it really was, but certainly that gray slab of mystery substance wasn't actually beef. Interestingly it was about the same color as the ground "beef" at Lee's plaza.