Offline For a Week

Catching Up July 7th 2008

My Internet connection has been down for almost a week. It is starting to drive me a bit batty. Globe (my ISP) is blaming it on Typhoon Frank but that makes little sense. Why would it go down a week after Frank came blowing through? But I can understand why it would slow their response on the repairs.

While I’ve been patient, it is starting to drive me a little batty. I may spend some time in an Internet Cafe today. I have a lot of things I need to be working on. It was okay to take a bit of a break but now I’m sick of the break.

Reworking My Budget

Speaking of things that are broke, that would include me at the end of every month. This has prompted me to re-work my budget. Now that I’ve been here for five months, I have a better idea of what things cost. I wont be able to hire a helper for a while as I had hoped. There are no diving lessons in my near future. I’m going to share some specifics in hopes of helping other expats prepare for their stay here.

On the bright side, in theory at least, I should be able to save about $200 a month. Once I get three months salary in the bank, I’ll be able to spend some money on fun things, like travel and diving lessons. But it may be difficult to get those three months in the bank. My desire to return to the states once a year will have to be put on hold. Assuming I could actually save the $200 every month and not dip into it from time to time it will take me a little more than two years to save that amount. But I will have to dip into it as I will have to leave the Philippines in about a year. Of course there will always be unforeseen needs to dip into the savings. So I will estimate that it will take three years to accomplish this goal.

Right now I have a monthly payment of almost 8000p (180 USD as of July 2007) for the appliance and furniture we bought when we first moved to Bogo City and rented an unfurnished home. We bought a kitchen table, Katrina queen size mattress and “frame,” two Katrina twin size foam mattress, two Sanyo TVs (21 inch and 14 inch). We also purchased two air conditioners. A .5 and a 1.5 horse power unit. We purchased a washing machine with spin dry and a Samsung refrigerator. We have another 16 months to pay on this. It is important to avoid debt and that will greatly improve finances. But some of these things were necessary. We also need to get a generator. I would like to get that before three years. I had hoped to get one this month We also need transportation. For now, an automobile is out of the question. A 125CC Honda scooter will cost me around 55,000php or about $1200 USD. The payments will be between 2500php to 3000php (or about $60.00 USD) for 36 months.

I am going to have to put off having more of my things shipped here. I just cannot afford it at this time.

My budget is located on Cebu Experience.  I have not updated at the time of posting this but I will be soon.  First I need to go for my walk though.  Since my net has been down for several days, Ii have several things to catch up on.  Click here to go to my budget.

Expat Living In The Philippines

I plan to get my ACR card, Philippine version of a green card. I believe that will make it possible for me to stay in the Philippines indefinitely. I’ve talked with a travel agent and she tells me she can guarantee my ACR. I don’t yet know the cost of that though. I believe once I have it, I need only check in with the Philippine Bureau of Immigration (BOI) once per year. So that will avoid the requirement to leave and I believe to get an extension once per year. The cost to get an extension every other month is probably an average of 3000p a month or $70.00 every two months. But there will be a cost for the ACR and it may be more than the extensions. I will need to find out how much this will cost me.

Bored

With no cash and no net, I’m really bored. I didn’t feel well yesterday and slept through most of it. didn’t log into a computer at all. I was awake enough to be nuts from watching Discovery, National Geographic, and Animal Planet channels. If I had let Jessie have the remote and watched reruns of stuff I have seen and really bad junk I didn’t bother to watch the first time around, such as Crime Scene Investigation I would have gone bonkers. CSI is one of the worst TV shows I’ve ever seen. That motor (the name for a motor cycle here) is about to drive me nuts. I really want to go out and get it. I could do it but it is time to stop putting off saving money and get it done. But at least I’d have something to do. Like getting lost, see, I need a GPS when I get a bike and two helmets. So it will have to wait.

I fear my Internet connection may be down for a while. I hope they are going to refund what I have paid. Internet cost about 2000p a month and is one of my biggest expenses. That includes the phone which I don’t really want. This sitting here doing nothing is a good way to start a massive eating binge. :)

LOST WEIGHT

I have lost 20 pounds since leaving the US and nearly 40 pounds in all. I’ve not been walking quite as much as I was but still walking. I bought a pedometer and will be able to graph my results and activities on to my web site. I have to figure out exactly how first. I also ordered some nice scales from the US. But they don’t insult you for not loosing weight. I remember back in the late 70′s and early 80′s those kind of scales were on the market. That had to go over like a lead balloon. I’ve have not seen any in a long time.

Diabetes

My blood sugar is not doing well as It was. It is not doing badly but I’m getting a lot of readings above 120. Nothing over 200 though. I’ve not been taking it as much as I use too. The cost of the strips being the chief concern. I’m down to my last 25 strips now. I brought about 200 with me. I usually only take it when I think it is high, so the results are probably a little skewed. Most people don’t feel any symptoms from high blood sugar but I’m one of the lucky ones that do. I can feel weak or fatigued but most likely and most troublesome to me is the burning skin. There was a time, that I had this feeling every time I ate. I finally got where I didn’t want to eat because I knew it would make me feel bad and that was probably just as well.

Tagged with: Diabetes • Expat • Expat Living In The Philippines • Internet • Lossing Weight • Philippine Budget • Philippines

Filed under: Cebu Experience • Expat Living In The Philippines

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