I hope to visit the Philippines for Php200k, hehe, as my trips to the Philippines usually cost me $10,000.

You know what's worse than going home to the Philippines? Having your family/relatives come to your country for a vacation. You pay for the all food and pasalubongs even though they are the ones on vacation.

That doesn’t even cover our airfaire. 🥲 plus pasalubong, pamasahe for domestic flights, eat out, paying for experiences. Our palawan trip alone cost us more than that. We travelled to 4 EU countries and mas mahal pa din ang total ng pamasahe namin pauwing Pinas.

The 20kg of chocolate already hurts me before the trip 😅

Lalo ngayon mahal ang airfare. Usually ako lang umuuwi, pero last yr, sumama husband ko. Ang budget lang namin $2,500. Ang gawa ko kasi, nagpapadala na ko ng 2 balikbayan boxes, para lang yun sa mga kapatid ko, and some friends. Sa ate ko kami nagstay. I usually spend my 2-week vacation w/ my family, some relatives, and piling mga kaibigan. Umuuwi ako para sa family ko, maigsi lang bakasyon namin. May allocated budget kami, and ayaw kong gumastos ng sobra sobra, pagbalik naminbaon kami sa utang.

Let’s normalize not feeling obligated to buy pasalubong or cover everyone’s expenses unless you explicitly invited them to join you. This mindset fosters peace of mind and helps manage expectations from those around you. From my experience—and as advised by my Filipino family—I’ve learned that it’s not my responsibility to always bring back souvenirs or pay for everyone during my trips to the Philippines. ❤️😊

Domestic flights are expensive in PH most specially in places like Palawan specifically Coron😅 because they can only use smaller planes because we mostly have small airports domestically too. High demand but less available seats means higher the price.

Magastos talaga kasi pag may lakad usually ikaw lang magbabayad. 😭

Also, yung nakasanayan na yung bagong uwi pays for everything tuwing lalabas lahat. I know it’s an act of love but they also deserve a nice treat from their family paguwi.

Well this blew up! Haha.. add ko na lang din that moment when you're super excited to give pasalubong and all you got instead of "thank you" was "ang taba mo na" huhuhuhu iyak na lang talaga