I only read the first post, My Take: Philippines is a good choice for living, if you have a work with a work from home set up , you can live $50 daily for a food. Electricity Rate and Both Water Rate is not that expensive tho yearly they have an outage problem. If your girlfriend is a Philippine Citizen, you can also have to apply for a rent to own house which is i think have an easy paying scheme.

Having a decent job with a decent pay you can really survive here in the Philippines. One Major Problem here is the Government, They continue to lick Chinese Government Asses, Duterte's Government is not only "extra judicial killings", Senators, Mayors, Much of them are stupid ass-lickers of Duterte, While Duterte is a stupid ass licker of China. News for this Government's stupidity is not only happening once, it happens everyday and I'm sick of it, Much of the Filipinos are poor, uneducated and uninformed who uses free facebook (a place where idiots shares fake news and continue to support this hellish Government) which made them a fan and a supporter of this Shitty Government. Anyway, Good Luck, I hope you find a comfort and peace living here in the Philippines with your Girlfriend.