This is the 98th day (70 days left) of my temporary language study abroad program in Baguio, Philippines.
As this is my 100th day of blogging in a row, I would like to take this opportunity to look back on my stay so far. This time, I looked at how much money I spent. Although all agents give a rough estimate of post-study abroad expenses, I will try to calculate how much I actually spent.
My lifestyle and what I spent the most money on
My lifestyle is relatively frugal. I choose inexpensive stores to buy processed foods and fruits. When I buy mangoes, if they are overripe and inexpensive, I buy them. I spend my money sparingly when I do something special away from my daily life, such as when I go on a trip.
However, I am not good at traveling long distances, so I don’t do it that often. I have taken one big overnight trip and four day trips such as hiking.
I try my best to go on trips and out for drinks when I am invited, rather than inviting myself to go. I am a person with a sense of values who thinks that a weekend spent studying is not so bad. I live with the flow.
I am not a person who keeps a household budget, so I am not going to give you a rough idea of my expenses. The biggest expense I have ever spent was 4,000 pesos for a one-night trip, followed by a few drinks.
I also had a Brazilian wax once for about 1,000 pesos (about ³). Fortunately, I have not had any serious illnesses, so I have no other major expenses.
Amount paid before leaving the country
First, the total amount I paid to the agent was 1,191,000 yen. This was for a 6-month course of 8 lessons and a single room in a condo type room. This amount is almost constant and does not vary from agent to agent.
The breakdown is as follows: entrance fee is 12,000 yen, and tuition (including lodging and breakfast) is 1,179,000 yen. It varies depending on the school, class, and other conditions, just for reference here. What you should pay attention to is the amount to be paid locally, which is written in the remarks column below, and will be described in detail later.
After that, I needed to pay for the airfare. A one-way ticket from Narita Airport to Manila Airport cost 15,513 yen (including checked luggage up to 20 kg), and since it is an LCC, entertainment facilities such as movies and meals are optional, which I did not add.
The rest is what is called a “throw away ticket”: if you are going to stay for more than 30 days, you need to have an exit ticket from the Philippines in advance, whether you use it or not. Actually I was not asked to present it, but I prepared it just in case.
The ticket to Taipei was 4,190 yen. Therefore, I needed 1,210,703 yen before leaving Japan.
Amount paid locally to the school
In conclusion, the amount I paid locally was 59,440 pesos (about 154,544 yen). The bill came in as estimated because the 3,000 peso airport pick-up fee was added to the amount written on the estimate in Japan.
The details are as we were informed in advance and there is no problem if we follow the agent’s instructions. Also, regarding the water and electricity bills, we were announced in advance that there might be additional charges if we used too much in the room we were staying in, but so far, after 3 months, that has not been the case.
I say easily about 60,000 pesos, but it is quite a pain to prepare it on the first day. Our school has recently established a yen↔peso exchange service, so we don’t have any difficulty, but if you want to exchange money at a place with a good rate, you may need a little more time.
Also, as for overseas travel insurance, we chose the one attached to our credit card, so we do not think it cost us anything.
Calculating living expenses from the amount of money exchanged
The rest will be the various living expenses paid in the area. I have not kept track of how much I spent, but I have exchanged 297,612 yen worth of pesos. Subtracting the 154,544 yen that we paid on the first day, we spent 143,068 yen in three months.
Since lunch and dinner are optional at our school, the cost of meals is included in this amount, which may be more expensive than at other schools. However, I don’t eat at school, but go to local restaurants.
If I were to assume that I ate at the school cafeteria every day for 90 days at 170 pesos per meal, the cost would be 30,600 pesos (about 79,560 yen). I am confident that I can keep the cost of meals lower than this amount, so I would spend about 90,000 yen for travel, shopping, dry cleaning, and miscellaneous expenses.
Summary
Although this is a rough estimate, I have introduced the amount of money I spent during my 3-month stay. Our school charges for food separately, so it may be a little unusual, but I hope it will be of some help.
As a small side note, let me verify how much difference there would be if I had exchanged all of the approximately 300,000 yen I exchanged on days with good and bad exchange rates since my arrival.
10,000 yen = 3,894 pesos (August 31, 2023), 10,000 yen = 3,696 pesos (November 11, 2023)
(3,894-3,696) x 30 = 5,940 yen
This is a rather large amount of money, isn’t it? You want to exchange money at an exchange center with a good rate anyway. Please refer to my previous article on rate efficiency!