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Post by chris on Nov 4, 2013 8:46:23 GMT 7
Sadly guys, I never take my own advice. But occasionally I do come up with some brainstorms. Like leaving the extended family without food for a day or two, but that can rebound back quite hard.
Generic tips. Can be applied to any country. Feel free too add on. I'm in the Philippines.
Alcohol. Well I assume most of us drink and I actually love 1-2 cold local (San Miguel) beers in the evening. Even that has it's pitfalls as I often get family and neighbours, visiting, hanging around. Sometimes even requesting drinks. You do have to allow for special occasions, which are numerous enough, but let's talk day to day.
So here's what I do.
Beers. I stopped bring them home. Since I don't actually drink 2 beers a day, I will take a walk or a short bike ride down to the local Sari Sari. Get a cold beer, drink it down there, go off home and even though my partner knows what's going on, she barely notices or doesn't even mention it. That's assuming, guys, you don't frequent bars, which would be a whole different topic, and would not be money saving.
Red wine. Quite tricky buying red wine overseas in tropical countries. But moderate size markets do have some stock. So firstly I will ask the attendants what is selling well. This lead me to 2 cheap wines (Chilean/Aussie)@ around $5-6 per bottle. So what I do is drink that over a 5 day period..eg 2 glasses of 70-80 ml sipped in the evening, will last 5 days on a 750 ml bottle. I go with maybe 2 bottles in a month which covers 10 days. Note that resealable wines don't have a long lifespan and 5 days is around the limit before the taste goes off.
Hard liquor/spirits. Not a good idea to keep around as the locals consume gin/brandy, stronger beers in large quantities. Note above that the red wine and 1 beer on the other days keeps me going for almost a month. But there is a time when I will take a single shot of brandy. So in keeping with that, I keep a bottle of brandy hidden in the bedroom. That's local brandy, $2.50/bottle. The whole bottle will last a few months, but when it's about half gone, I usually bring it out for any occasion.
So what do other contributor's do?
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Post by chris on Nov 7, 2013 11:34:20 GMT 7
Tip No. 2.
Get out of the city/metropolitan are as fast as you possibly can. And yes it takes some guts and gumption to do that, but as much as humanly possible, get to a rural area.
Again, I wish I could say I took my own advice. And if I was to land in Bangkok right now, and not having been there for around 20 years, I'm sure I would not heed my own advice again. But anyway...
Head for a non tourist rural area, but try to select a larger town if you don't have other options. There are plenty of coastal cities, so near a beach is always a good option. Nothing is guaranteed, but somewhere along the line you are going to meet someone who is going to take you in "Free". It's not exactly free but you are getting a good deal, companionship, general care like cooking and washing your clothes. And you get a local guide and someone who will help you control your spending.
If you get 6 months "chill out" and maybe you are leaving for a short time, you still have freedom to decide if it's good for you. The main requirement is roughing it a bit, but with a good companion, this is usually no problem.
I wish someone will add on and expand on my ideas.
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Post by chris on Nov 14, 2013 15:14:19 GMT 7
Tip No. 3.
Cut the food budget to your advantage. Don't buy in bulk unless it's something too good to be true, like an over catch of fish. Otherwise, buyer beware, whatever you buy is likely to be consumed very quickly.
Anyway what me and the partner do is have a shopping day once per month and maybe a second trip to buy a few things, but not major shopping. This is also our day out, possibly breakfast at Maccas, but definitely lunch out in a modest establishment. Leaving no food for the extended family on those 2 days, they must forage for whatever they can find and they usually come out quite well.
Then when it's lunch time and we put out a good meal, my partner has to reserve our food for the evening from the lunch, to make sure we have food. (THESE ARE HARSH MEASURES, LIVING ON LESS THAN THE BASIC PENSION, OK). We leave a few packets of noodles and a few eggs, just to ensure they have food. But then when we have a decent loaf of bread, she again hides it, to ensure we will still have enough for the PM/AM. She hides the jam, peanut butter and etc and she hides the better quality soap and shampoo....there are a few in the house who like a new bar of soap, while rest of us stuggle with the remnants.
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Post by zingzingzing on Nov 14, 2013 21:06:34 GMT 7
Alcohol, I probably skip that, as it is extra expense (unless you can get for free of course).
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Post by latindancer on Nov 15, 2013 5:15:21 GMT 7
Growing your own veggies saves a lot of money, and is very satisfying. All it takes is a bit of work to improve the soil,(hopefully you don't have back problems, or perhaps your partner can do the planting) and then watering.
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Post by Banjo on Nov 15, 2013 7:32:25 GMT 7
Very few Thai villagers seem to have a vegetable garden now and those that do usually sell the produce.
Veggies like greens are by far the cheapest to buy in the markets, a few cents a bunch, it's hardly worth the hassle of growing them.
Gardens are hard work in the tropics, weeds grow overnight and bugs multiply before your eyes.
I have a plan involving stuff in large pots but it would be mainly herbs and chillies.
None of these are expensive to buy, bunches of anything like this seem to be 15 to 30 cents locally, it would just be the convenience of having it fresh on hand, and, as LD says, a certain personal satisfaction.
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Post by latindancer on Nov 15, 2013 16:58:15 GMT 7
If you're in Australia, and you need furniture or other stuff but don't have the money to buy it, I highly recommend Gumtree. Scroll down and look up "freebies". Of course you need a car (or a good friend with one) to pick it up.
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Post by chris on Nov 17, 2013 14:56:32 GMT 7
Growing your own veggies saves a lot of money, and is very satisfying. All it takes is a bit of work to improve the soil,(hopefully you don't have back problems, or perhaps your partner can do the planting) and then watering. We do have land, but it's mixed agriculture. It's hard to have a patch devoted strictly to a veggie garden. But we have beans and pumpkins growing around perimeter. We have rice but it's shared with the extended family. The more work you do, the more you get. But (here in Phils) we can buy or barter with the neighbours to an extent. We have these fighting chickens taking up quite a bit of space. We have a few goats and 3 cows with calf. |
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Post by zingzingzing on Nov 17, 2013 17:49:10 GMT 7
Growing your own veggies saves a lot of money, and is very satisfying. All it takes is a bit of work to improve the soil,(hopefully you don't have back problems, or perhaps your partner can do the planting) and then watering. We do have land, but it's mixed agriculture. It's hard to have a patch devoted strictly to a veggie garden. But we have beans and pumpkins growing around perimeter. We have rice but it's shared with the extended family. The more work you do, the more you get. But (here in Phils) we can buy or barter with the neighbours to an extent. We have these fighting chickens taking up quite a bit of space. We have a few goats and 3 cows with calf. Have you tried above ground farming/agriculture? i.e. www.abovegroundfarming.com/Not an expert on the subject, but, try to point others in a direction. |
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Post by Banjo on Nov 17, 2013 20:29:18 GMT 7
Clever.
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Post by chris on Nov 23, 2013 9:37:45 GMT 7
Like in this case, the father in law to partner's brother died. Absolutely nothing to do with me, but had to make an appearance. With Gina onto me every few minutes to contribute something and buy additional food and refreshments. Pretty soon I'm in for about $50 and we ourselves haven't yet eaten anything that day.
Again. Cut the food budget at home and eat in a local carinderia. Cut the budget the next day also and see what they come up with. As usual a big fish appears and food starts coming in from the garden.
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Post by Banjo on Nov 23, 2013 11:00:06 GMT 7
I like the Thai way of handling expensive funerals.. and their's go for three days... all adults/households in the village chips in 100 baht, about $3.
Most of what they drink is moonshine at about a dollar a bottle and the food is local, a couple of pigs and a ute load of veggies and away they go.
This is the real Thai food as well, not Chinatown Tom Yam.
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Post by chris on Dec 17, 2013 13:24:50 GMT 7
I like the Thai way of handling expensive funerals.. and their's go for three days... all adults/households in the village chips in 100 baht, about $3. Most of what they drink is moonshine at about a dollar a bottle and the food is local, a couple of pigs and a ute load of veggies and away they go. This is the real Thai food as well, not Chinatown Tom Yam. A decent size pig (100 kg goes around $350 farm price. To baptize my daughter we are expected to raise 2 hogs, with the little caveat that we are going to buy feed for about 4 months. No savings there, I'm sure we are going to lose. Take a bar of soap. A decent quality soap is around .80 cents. Set it aside in a container and use it for yourself and your partner only. The soap lasts a month but if left out the family dissolves it in 3 days. Same with shampoo... |
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Post by Denis-NFA on Dec 18, 2013 8:29:43 GMT 7
A decent size pig (100 kg goes around $350 farm price. To baptize my daughter we are expected to raise 2 hogs, with the little caveat that we are going to buy feed for about 4 months. No savings there, I'm sure we are going to lose. LOL...your going to lose! $350 sounds outrageous to me. It would be cheaper to get one from Canada or even Cebu www.ayerlechon.com/ |
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Post by chris on Dec 18, 2013 14:10:20 GMT 7
A decent size pig (100 kg goes around $350 farm price. To baptize my daughter we are expected to raise 2 hogs, with the little caveat that we are going to buy feed for about 4 months. No savings there, I'm sure we are going to lose. LOL...your going to lose! $350 sounds outrageous to me. It would be cheaper to get one from Canada or even Cebu www.ayerlechon.com/NFA, I agree that Lechon is an amazing delicacy when properly prepared. But those charts exaggerate the no. of persons..and since Lechon is a baby or small pig, I wonder about the weight. Not sure what you pay but we pat 190/kg off the bone at the market and about 120-130 pesos/kg live weight bought whole. |
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