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[Housing:]

Mga peeps. Para may idea kayo ng konti with regards to cost of living sa Kuala Lumpur, eto mga estimates per month.

Housing: RM1,200- 1,600 (2 to 3 bedroom fully furnished condo) - pero if may ka-share ka mga RM600 – RM700.
Transport: RM100 per month (Max)
Food/Groceries: RM400-RM600
Utilities (Electricity bill, water bill, Gas bill): RM150

Yan eh sa Kuala Lumpur. Sa other places mas mura for sure. Like dito sa amin mga RM300 partially furnished apartment na may ka-share.

How about the others, ano cost of living expenses niyo?

[Housing:]

Eto COL namin. Family of 3, living in a small 2 bedroom condo.

Housing: RM1,100 (2 bedroom condo, semi-furnished: 1 Aircon Unit, 3 Ceiling fans, Kitchen with stove and cupboard and ref)
Transport: RM100 (commuting by train) RM50 per week (By car, kasama na jalan jalan dyan over the weekend...hehe)
Food/Groceries: No more than RM200 a week (Kasama na Diapers at Gatas at eating out once every 2 weeks)
Kurente, Tubig at Gas: [/b] RM130 a month Kurente (Mataas kasi I'm always at home) No more than RM25 Water (Kasi si misis mahilig maligo at maglaba, araw araw naman eh) RM28 every 30-45 days Gas.
DayCare: RM560 A month (You can probably get a RM200 daycare, pero from our experience mas magastos magpadoctor kasi palaging nagkakarash ung anak ko, nangayayat tapos palai pang sinisipon at nilalagnat. We gave up on the RM200 daycare because of that)

Total is around RM2800. When I was single my budget was no more than RM1000 a month. Kasama na gimik dun every week. For those who are planning to have kids, this should give you guys an estimate of how much you will spend every month just for maintenance. A note though, If you plan to hire a Pinoy nanny, I have no idea kung magkano magiging COL niyo. Any body hired a nanny here? Can you share kung magkano bayad sa nanny? So others can compare if they want a nanny or a daycare instead.

Cheers!

[Housing - RM 500]

This is my cost of living here. Single and renting one room in a Condo

Housing - RM 500 (Medium size room and it includes utilities such as Internet connection,Electricity,Water and gas)
- Condo with amenities like gym,swimming pool,tennis and basket ball court and so on.
- 24hrs Security


Transport RM 100 - commuting by bus including weekends lakwatsa and going to church

Food RM 650 - Including groceries like milk,fruits and snacks (Matakaw po akong kumain- kaya malaki ang gastos ko sa food..hahaha)

Total expenses per month is around RM 1,250. Sumusobra lng if I have extra curricular activities which is out of the budget like Shopping and lakwatsa out of town..hehehehe

Normally, the cost of living is not the same...It depends also in your location.When I'm working in a province here..The food and the housing expenses is much cheaper. In my case, my room is expensive because of the location and amenities...dagdag mo pa ung security services.

This is just a rough estimation of expenses...

@Higen - I can apply during weekends...hahahaha.....

LOL...send me your resume and Ill review it....LOL

Hi! The forum here is really enlightening. Maraming salamat sa thread na ito.

My husband has just been offered a job in Malaysia. I'm wondering about the living expenses. We are a family of 3 with a 7 month old daughter. I wonder how much a pedia's services would cost in Malaysia? Also, Higen mentioned day care? Ok ba service nila? Can you get like a stay-out nanny? Which would you recommend: getting someone in the Philippines to work as a help here in Malaysia or just hire someone from Malaysia?

Also, we're looking for a 1 bedroom unit to rent preferably within city center (this is because my husband's office, if ever, is located in the Petronas Tower)  pero our budget is only RM 1500. Okay kaya ito? If not, can anyone point me to other locations outside KL na most convenient ang commute?

Thank you very much for all your input.

Hi,

Living near the petronas tower might be even add cost in the rental. usually some pinoy xpats in KL rent a condo unit na usually 3 bedrooms, (master,middle and small rooms), the unit cost around 2000 so mag hati hati na lng, kalimitan sa master mag asawa. cable tv RM 89, internet RM88, electricity atmost 394 if all aircon on.

Kaya sa condo, kasi may security guards. pero if may agency nman yun husband mo, baka yung agent nya may iofer sa kanya na lugar to stay.

See you soon.

[Doctor's fee for a normal check up would cost you around 40RM]

Hi! The forum here is really enlightening. Maraming salamat sa thread na ito.

Welcome to the forum hungryfortheworld  

Regarding your questions...I'll to answer them based on my experiences.

Doctor's fee for a normal check up would cost you around 40RM. That's just the doc's fee and not including the meds yet. Meds are generally cheap and when a doctor prescribes meds during your visit the clinic will usually dispense the meds as well. It's a common practice here since there are very very few, if at all, over the counter drugstores here.

There are many daycare in KL however you might want to take your time searching for the one that suits your standards and budget. A good daycare would cost you around 500-600RM a month. There are 200RM daycares around but I do not recommend them especially you have a 7 month old baby. They are usually staffed by untrained people whose idea of baby care is to give milk when the baby cries. We tried one of them 200RM daycare once, my baby was around 13 months then and for 2 months she had the worst case of diaper rashes for days that keeps coming back even after doctor's treatments and colds that didnt disappear until we took her out of the daycare. The Chinese run daycares seem to be the best daycares in KL. My advice is to tour the whole daycare and check their facilities before signing up. Regarding stay-out nannies, is it the same as a baby sitter? Sorry, not familiar with the word...lol! Regarding getting a yaya vs taking your baby to the daycare. If you and your husband dont mind having another person in your house then getting a yaya is the "most convenient and the most cost effective", hands down. The only reason why we havent gotten one is because my wife says she's not ready to share the house with someone else...lol!

Im not sure if you can find a condo for 1500RM near Petronas, CBD kasi kaya prime area. But around KL defintely meron, even cheaper. Cheras would be a good area to look for a place to stay. There are a couple of LRT stations in Cheras and bus ply the route too. We are staying in D'Alamada condo in Cheras, you might want to check it out. Here is their website http://www.d-alamanda.com.my/concept.asp. I dont think they have a single room/studio type condo here in Malaysia, if they have I haven't seen one yet,  but you can find a 2 bedroom condo for less than 1500RM, furnished na yun. There are some property finder websites you can try using to find a condo that would fit your requirements. This is one of them http://www.iproperty.com.my. You can try using their filtering tool to narrow down your search. There are quite a few postings on the internet regarding property rentals in KL. Try doing a search using google.com.my instead.

If you have more questions, please feel free to post them. We can answer them as best we can

For those members who can recommend any place to stay to hungry please post your resources. Thanks!

[Which is better: getting HMO to cover medical services/hospitalization at more than 100 RM or just pay per service that you need?]

Thanks for the replies.

Phogi95, he's actually a direct hire. But yeah, we are also forwarding our concerns to his recruiter. See you soon din (if everything goes smoothly).

Salamat sa reply Higen. Very informative. Of course this leads me to more questions. Hehe.

Which is better: getting HMO to cover medical services/hospitalization at more than 100 RM or just pay per service that you need? My husband is covered but since he's contractual, my daughter and I aren't. I wonder what are the common inclusions with HMOs in Malaysia?

Yep. Nanny would be the same as a yaya. Pareho pala kami ng wife mo. Is she Filipina? I also don't like having a maid. Even here in Phils, I only got one for 6 weeks because I was doing contractual work. The rest, I'm taking care of my daughter myself. Pero I'm thinking about getting help in the eventuality that I also might find contractual work there in Malaysia. What's the youngest age that they accept in daycares there? What's the ratio of the kids to nannies/attendants?

Nice digs Higen. We'll check out D'Alamada Cheras when we get there. Our plan is that I accompany my husband a week prior his start date so that we could also look for a place together. I have checked their website and they do have 1-2 bedroom units but I haven't found one yet for rent on the web. We are in the market for a fully furnished unit. What's the usual terms when renting? How many months deposit and advance and minimum length of stay?

I also have a question regarding tax pero I posted it under Employment. Maybe someone can elaborate on it?

Thank you very much!

Thanks for the replies.

Of course this leads me to more questions. Hehe.

Hi hungry,

Edit ko na lang yung qoute kasi mahahahaba ung replies ko eh....lol!

Regarding HMOs in Malaysia, unfortunately I really have  no idea regarding the regular inclusions, sorrylah! I think it's best to get in touch with an agent and ask what they can offer you for such and such. My wife any I never really thought of getting one for us because my daughter has some kind of PPO coverage supported by my wife's country's government. That was a mouth full, did that make sense? lol!!! She's not pinay but she's also an expat.

Regarding the earliest age daycares accept babies, usually it's 6 months onwards but there are quite a few daycares who will accept babies no less than 2 months old. The earliest we took our baby to the daycare was when she was 2 months old, just after my wife's maternity leave expired. We had her at that daycare until she was around 9 or 10 months. We never had any significant problems with the daycare. Some mosquito bites, some slight rashes, the regular fevers and my baby didn't gain as much weight as our doctor wanted, the usual stuff to be expected, but nothing significant to really worry about. The ratio of babies to nannies depends on the daycare. 2 daycares ago the ratio was about 5:1 (5 kids to 1 staff). It was a good daycare but had to leave the country for about 4 months because we both lost our jobs. The 2nd daycare we tried, the 200RM daycare was 10:1. They had over 50 kids I can only count 5 people at a time every time I picked up my baby, terrible terrible daycare...The current one, I'm not sure since it was my wife who did all the interviewing but if I were to guess I'd say the ratio would be about 4:1 or 5:1. I've been taking my baby there for 3 months now and I'm still meeting and seeing new staff so I pretty sure they have a pretty good staff to kids ratio and the staff are well trained and very professional. When you find  a place to stay, let me know and perhaps I can help you and your husband look a daycare in that area (perks of being unemployed...hehehe).

For the rental terms. Minimum length of stay is usually 2 years and renewable after that. Me and my wife negotiated for a 1 year initial term and renewable every year since from our experience being expats is that we never really know when things can change for us and we suddenly either by choice or circumstance are made to move somewhere else so we negotiated for a yearly agreement. We were lucky enough to find a very kind old Chinese uncle landlord that accepted our terms without any re negotiations...hehe! We paid 2 months deposit and 1 month advance (which is the usually terms here). Usually the two months deposit is not deductible from the monthly rent should you decide not to renew the agreement but refundable. BTW I just texted 2 friends about what you found out that D'Alalamda's 1 bedroom unit, it would seem neither my friends who has been living in D' Alamanda nor I had any idea they had such units and I've been here more 1 year already...lol! Thanks for enlightening me on that one...hahaha...We live in a 2 bedroom unit ourselves. Quite small but just right for a family of 3 with a below 2 year old girl. But once she turns 3 or 4 we'd probably be looking for a bigger unit. With your budget of 1500RM it wont be hard for you to find a place that would suit your requirements.

Cheers

Thank you very much for your replies Higen. Really appreciate them.

Unfortunately, my husband hasn't heard from the company the past 2 days. He was supposed to be a contract for hire but now the client company wants to get him as a regular employee. I think the companies are doing a tug-of-war and the casualty (if it won't work out) would be my husband. So we are at a wait-and-see stage for now. Will update you guys for any new developments. Again, maraming salamat.

Thank you very much for your replies Higen. Really appreciate them.

Unfortunately, my husband hasn't heard from the company the past 2 days. He was supposed to be a contract for hire but now the client company wants to get him as a regular employee. I think the companies are doing a tug-of-war and the casualty (if it won't work out) would be my husband. So we are at a wait-and-see stage for now. Will update you guys for any new developments. Again, maraming salamat.

Nakaw! Mahirap nga yan...tsk tsk tsk!...Hope everything turns out well, all the best.

anu na kaya nangyari kina Hungry? hmm abangan ang susunod na kabanata..

We haven't heard from the recruiter Phogi95. Guess the deal between companies didn't push through. My husband is still looking for other opportunities in Malaysia (as Siebel dev). So if you know of anything, we'd really appreciate it if you could forward the information to us.

hey,anyone here in KL? wala akong kakilakilala pa dito e. mag-isa ko lang. puro indiano kasama ko

Naku po, medyo mahirap nga kapag iba lahi kasama mo sa apartment. How's it living with them so far? Ayos ba mga indiano

Actually, meron pa iba, living with Chinese, Malay, Pakistani, etc. Dami din lahi dito and you encounter different types of people.

Dami din mga pinoy dito pre malapit sa KL. Post ka lang dito, magrereply din mga yan. Busy ata mga tao ngayon hehe