I live with my partner and his parents so I contribute the equivalent of what you might spend on rent and food in San Antonio, and more than I used to spend when I lived there in 2011. And my health insurance and lunches are covered by my employer, so that would be an additional cost for some expats.
Rent/bills/food: $400.000
Phone: $20.000 (1gb data and unlimited Whatsapp, email and Facebook with ETB, see my post about mobile phone providers).
Taxis: $32.000
Restaurants and bars: $300.000
Cinema: $9.000
Clothing: $40.000
Trips: $250.000
Toiletries: $30.000
Miscellaneous: $100.000
Grand total: $1.181.000
I know a lot of expats truly do not believe you can survive on $1million, but I am just careful with my money and am trying to save this year so I make it happen! We still get to go on trips, I just don't buy things I really don't need! Of course, if my living situation were different, or certain things weren't covered by my employer then this would be a different story. So in conclusion, I would say that if you are really good with your money, you could live on just over $1 million pesos, however most expats couldn't live on less than $2 million. I'd love to hear your experience here and anything you spend money on that I missed out on. Leave your thoughts in the comments below!