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i tried to live like a broke student in cagayan de oro and my wallet cried

@Clara Moon2/8/2026blog

okay, real talk. they told me cdo was cheap. they did not mention the psychological warfare of watching your ₱200 vanish in 15 minutes on a single grab ride. i’m a budget student, which means my entire personality is scrounging for free wifi and pretending i like instant coffee. so here’s my month of bleeding pesos in the city of golden friendships. my bank account is a crime scene.

first, the weather. it’s not ‘tropical’ or whatever brochure crap you read. it’s like someone left a giant pot of steaming soup in the sky and occasionally it just tips over. humid enough that my notes got soggy and my backpack grew its own ecosystem. but hey, at least the mountains to the west (malaybalay, valencia) are a short, winding bus ride away if you need to escape the soup-pot. and the beach? camiguin is just a ferry hop, but that’s a whole other budget leak.

let’s get to the bloodletting. i scoped out a bedspace in a condo near la castilla. ₱3,000 a month. sounds great until you realize you’re sharing a bathroom with three other people who have zero concept of ‘quiet hours’ and the water pressure is a sad sigh. a proper studio in a less fancy area like Carmen or Patag? start at ₱6,500, and that’s without a decent fan. my ‘luxury’ was finding a place with a window that didn’t face a concrete wall. progress.

food is where you either get smart or starve. neighborhood karinderias are your savior. ₱50 for a heaping plate of rice, a piece of fried fish, and vegetables that might’ve seen a garden once. i ate so much ‘sinuglaw’ (grilled pork + kinilaw) i started dreaming in vinegar. my grocery bill for one? about ₱2,500 if i’m trying to be ‘healthy’ (meaning i bought one apple and then ate all the instant noodles anyway). the real killer is ‘timplang malamig’ from the sari-sari store. that ₱15 coke float habit adds up faster than your tuition fee.

transport is a special kind of hell. i thought jeepneys were cheap (₱10-15 per ride) until i had to do three transfers to get to my part-time data entry job in uptown. that’s ₱45 a day, minimum. tricycles are a fever dream of pricing. ‘by meter’ is a suggestion they laugh at. from recto to the university area? they’ll name a number out of thin air. ₱80? ₱100? you haggle like your life depends on it, because sometimes it feels like it does. and don’t get me started on the ‘habal-habal’ (motorcycle taxis) weaving through traffic like they have a death wish and a sweet tooth for your fare.

*internet is not a luxury, it’s the oxygen. home fiber from the big names? ₱1,300 for the slowest plan that still buffers during a group study. i dodged that by becoming a professional café squatter. my ‘office’ was a coffee shop near capitol where a single americano costs ₱120. i nursed that thing for three hours, guiltily eyeing the staff. mobile data load? pray to the Smart or Globe gods. a weekly 10gb promo is about ₱200, but it dissolves if you accidentally open a youtube video.

my grand total for one chaotic month? rent ₱3,000 (bedspace, remember), food ₱2,500, transport ₱1,350 (average ₱45/day), ‘social budget’ (i.e., one single halo-halo with a friend) ₱150, mobile load ₱800, emergency sari-sari store runs ₱500. that’s ₱8,300. that’s before any books, materials, or the crippling anxiety of realizing you have ₱500 left until the next allowance. supposedly a student can scrape by on ₱10k-12k if they’re a hermit who smells like sinigang.

now for the local gossip you won’t find in any tourist guide:

> “beware the ‘payagan’ near the riverfront during amihan. sure, the rent’s ₱2,500, but the flood’ll climb your stairs like it’s got a personal grudge. my cousin lost his laptop to a surprise indoor lake. twice.”

> “the job market’s weird. call centers pay okay (₱18k-22k start) but they’ll chew you up and spit out a ghost. real talk? the hustle is in selling stuff on shopee or being a ‘social media helper’ for small businesses. that’s where the unregistered cash flows.”

> “everyone says it’s safe, but don’t walk alone at night in certain parts of divisoria after 10pm. it’s not ‘dangerous’ dangerous, but your phone better have a death grip. better to just take a tricycle, even if the driver tries to quote you double.”

conclusion*: can you live here on a student budget? yes. should you? only if your soul is already as weathered as the jeepney paint here. it’s a city of sharp contrasts-cheap eats next to overpriced bubble tea joints, stunning nature within spitting distance of traffic that could cause a nervous breakdown. you’ll save money on rent and maybe on your sanity if you find a good spot, but you’ll spend it all on ‘convenience’ fees and the emotional toll of constant fare negotiation. bring a thick skin, a empty stomach, and a calculator you trust more than people.

(quick links that actually helped me not die: check the cdo subreddit for room listings that aren’t scams, this yelp list for affordable eats, and tripadvisor’s budget hotels if your bedspace situation goes full horror movie.)

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About the author: Clara Moon

Making the complicated simple, and the simple profound.

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