I have not told you before, but I am actually the one doing everything in my house. I do not have a maid. Occasionally, my sisters go to my home and clean it for me. But more often than not, I am the one who do all the house chores. I cook, I wash my clothes (if I'm very tired I send it to the laundry shop across the street), I feed the pets, I groom the plants, I fix old furnitures, I fix the water tubes etc. Plus I also have a business that I personally run of which requires me sometimes to go to different places. I travel a lot and I actually like it. Hiring a maid in the Philippines is not a bad idea because it will not cost you much but I prefer doing these tasks myself and besides, I do not like spending for the things I can do myself. A typical maid, basically the one who do general chores and will work for at least 12 hours a day, according to the law, will have a salary of a minimum of 3 thousand pesos or roughly USD$70/month.
But there are actually a few who gives higher, like my mom who pays our maid 6 thousand pesos plus benefits like health cards and pension plans, maybe because she's been working for us for more than 15 years. But there are more who hire maids and pays them less than the standard. My bad neighbor pays their maid 2 thousand pesos only for a month. That alone is not enough for my electric bill! Pffttt! They are heart less!
I am also sending a nephew to school (using my own money and I do not ask any from my parents or siblings). He will be a college freshman this school year that will start this June. A State University is sometimes more expensive here than those private ones. But since state universities have better quality of education, I chose it for him. A typical course has 2 semesters per year and a semester usually cost 25-30 thousand pesos for freshies while private colleges usually offers below 20 thousand per semester.
If you are American or from other countries, you usually say its a lot cheaper to live here than in your country. That is absolutely a fact. But for common Filipinos, living in their own country is pretty hard. USD$1 is equivalent to 42 pesos. That means you can go many places with just a dollar because a basic transport fare here is just PHP7.50 and with a dollar, you can already have a decent meal. You can actually have a cheese burger and fries with drinks in a McDonald store with just a dollar.
I will be more than willing to share more of these cost of living matters but now let me have my dinner first!