Philosophical 11

Thanks again for all your replies both positive and negative. Just want to say that this is not the time to leave my gf for a few weeks or whatever. My point has been made to her and her family and they know the score.....there is no need to prove that point. But more importantly, she needs my support which is best served with her...not away from her.

Best regards

Gazza-d

I wasn't for one minute suggesting you leave her. I was assuming that you would go together, have a road trip, do a bit of island hopping. Just keep both of you away from the family for a couple of weeks or more.

mikek1

That what I also meant. Might give you chance to be alone together, gather your thoughts, and have a good 'holiday'


Mikek

Philosophical 11

Now on cordial terms with her parents who have had to move house (yet again) because of leaking roof and landlords refusal to make repairs. Gf has pawned a necklace to raise 9k for deposit etc on new house where I will help them to move next Saturday. No request for money has been made to me.

Her sister who lives rent free and uses my electricity/water and Wi-Fi has asked for 2k loan until next week to pay for her recently acquired tv. I have agreed (I can hear a sharp intake of breath from you all). First time she has asked for a loan. No re-payment...no more loans. Simples.

In a bid to save money, (we normally eat out twice a day) she is now using the cooker more frequently. Problem is.....she cooks for us and then makes the same for her family. Cheaper to eat out I think! The realities of budgeting will be made next month when I sit her down and talk about how to deal with our over-spend.

One of the things that has gone is water-melon. Thank goodness! Don't need it anyway.... :-)

Life is good

Regards all

mikek1

Hi ,

That's very kind of you to loan money for your g/f sister to buy a TV (priorities right of course). I know electricity is very expensive in the Philippines, what is your average monthly bill ? Do you use aircon or a fan. Would imagine with your in-laws not having to contribute to the electric bill its a it of a 'free for all' and no consideration is given for your generosity.

Regarding, eating out, your correct, its cheaper. Think of the electric/gas you will be saving, as well as feeding the extended family !! At least with all the diners you should not have to wash up. I will bet my last peso no one ever thanks you for the 'free' meal.

As you say....................its more fun in the Philippine's.

Philosophical 11

Thanks mikek1. She obtained the tv last month and is paying monthly. I suspect she is short of cash because she may have given her parents some money for the house move. I have no qualms about her not repaying.

Electricity is about 3k per month. No idea how that compares to others but cheap compared to uk. We have a/c in the bedroom.... need it. :-) Have a fan in the living room only and now using that in the bedroom during the cooler periods. Cooker is gas only.

I do not think thank you is part of the vocabulary here.

As far as eating out/cooking at home is concerned, I am toying with the idea of giving her 15k pm for food plus her personal allowance plus the maintenance for her sister. If she goes over the food allowance, then she has to dip into her or her sisters maintenance. If she goes under the allowance....it will be more for herself. A nice incentive. Beer allowance will be separate! But....we will see!

Regards



Got the OXYTETRACYCLINE......thanks Stokkevn.

Stokkevn

Electricity sounds about right mine varies between 2,700 and 3,500pm, I will not have A/C in the house but I do have my beer fridge upstairs ( occasionally food is found in it, so serious words are had ). Not sure cheap vs UK, I rented a flat in Aberdeen, all electric, and over 12 months electric was average £41 p/m. Philippines has the same electric cost as Germany, which apart from a few pacific islands is the 2nd most expensive in the World.

Glad you got the OXYTETRACYCLINE, my life would be hell without it. I can not believe it, I actually got some post today & got a bloody paper cut opening the letter.

Philosophical 11

All sweetness and light here now. All back to our normal friendly relationship with her mother and father. Small fly in the ointment is that her sister has not yet repaid her £2 loan. Will give her another week and then mention it to my gf. If she does not repay she will never get another "gift". Her brother saw me yesterday and mentioned that it was his birthday on Monday. I duly wished him a happy birthday for Monday :-)

Mentioned to her about giving her a 15k pm allowance for food and she said it was too much. Music to my ears!

So..... all is good again. Will update in about a month unless something untoward happens.

Best regards

Philosophical 11

Thought I would post an up-date as its so quiet on the Philippine forum.

So far so good. Sister repaid the 2k loan and gf is so far sticking within the budget. I thought in view of previous comments about a budget this may prove to be a problem but she has done well. Always looking for bargains and counting the pennies. She enjoys the freedom of spending with "her" money and in retrospect, I should have done this earlier.

Only one small "beef" if you forgive the pun. She is buying frozen food which goes in the freezer but every now and then her sister (who pays no rent, utilities etc ) and lives on my property pops in every now and then and helps herself to the sausages in the freezer. On enquiring about this, I am told they belong to her. Funny that...I see no food going into the freezer from her....but plenty coming out. So I provide her accommodation, utilities and Wi-Fi etc free of charge and now I have to feed her and her son also? Gf as I said denied this, but the other night caught her handing some chips she was frying to her sisters son. Now, I am not bothered about the cost of chips, but what annoyed me was she gave them away at the back door. They always use the front door. Told her in future to give any food away etc via the front door. This resulted in the normal pinay pout, long face and silent treatment but the end result is chips now go out of the front door. Went to the market today and find that the cost of sausages was very cheap....about 90 peso for a couple of kilos I think. So maybe I should just forget about food disappearing out of the freezer. I wouldn't mind if there was a please or thankyou, but she just waltzes in....grabs a load of sausages and disappears. Most irksome!

Thinking again about lending money. Yes....I can hear a sharp intake of breath from you all. But with a slight difference. All loans will be max 5k at 10% interest and fully repayable after 30 days. Only to Government Employees which gf father knows. He is an employee. ATM card will be retained by me until payment of debt. As I say, just thinking about it. Had a woman who runs a business whom my gf knows wanted to borrow 10k but no ATM card. Told her no. Resulted again in Pinay pout, long face and silent treatment. She could not understand that loaning money for someone else to use for their business without any guarantee of repayment is a big no, no.

Finally. What is the best way to obtain "load" for my Globe SIM Card? All I want is to receive and send texts locally and to the UK. Not particularly interested in the internet. Currently paying 200 peso per month with a few free texts etc. Do not like to keep checking the balance which in turn reduces the balance each time. After one month any unused balance is lost.

That's all for now folks.

Thanks for tuning in.

Regards

quiltman

Nice to hear from you again pete! You seem to have things mainly under control.
re your phone. I have smart so it may be slightly different. I always keep a couple of prepaid load cards handy. When I think I'm getting low on credit, and it's surprising how you sense these things, I just use one of the cards to put more load on. From what I can tell, when I add load, it adds it to any credit i have but extends the date of all my credit.
I do have a globe tattoo pocket wifi and when putting credit on this, usually at least 300p, the voice message says I have 75 days to use the credit. Now, as i only use this thigymybob for internet , that only lasts 30 days.The 75 days applies to calls/texts.
The allowable time for credit varies depending on the load you credit.Smaller the load, shorter the time!

Otherwise you'd have to look at getting a postpaid scheme.

InVinoVeritas

Well no news is definitely good news!

A tricky one with the sausages, on the one hand it is not worth creating a fuss over a few peso on the other hand will it stop at sausages? Possible solutions? A lock on the freezer, an honesty book in the freezer or just give her (rather than let her take) some sausages from time to time?

I don't know about your loan business, if the sums are not important you could give it a try and see what happens. Is it 10% for a month or what? Anyway, as you know, the problem is what you do when the first person doesn't pay up because everyone will find out at that point and it will set a precedent.

Happy days.

Stokkevn

, not too sure if you have actually tasted these sausages here, if I found those in the freezer I would happily pay someone P90 to take them away.

Globe phone I just keep a few top-up cards around, unlike Smart you can top up once your balance is empty. Texting the UK I normally do it on Skype, same as for calling the UK, phoning a landline costs about 1.2 pence a minute from here and normally better sound quality.

mikemike

Make sure your gf handles all the loans and you are not seen as a front man. loan business does have to be registered or in breach of any amount of laws which may following a complaint mean deportation, best way of locals not paying the foreigner!!

Stokkevn

Even though the family see me as the money man, any non payments comes out of 'her in doors' monthly allowance so she has to vet every potential borrower. Occasionally even I think she is being a bit strict for a P500 loan and give the loan on the condition that if it not repaid in full & on time I will set the misses on them.

Never lend more than you can loose and never expect to be repaid, especially anyone who works for or are connected with the government.

Gazza-d

Drive by shootings are not unknown in the Philippines, I'd stay well clear of money lending.