I have been in UK both as a single person and as married. Each situation influenced how I live and spend in London.
Living in London without family
Back in the days (pre-social media years) when I was single, London life involved full-time work, a balanced social life, and ready made food! I was happy at my numerous jobs. Didn't need to save because unlike in Philippines, health costs are not an emergency expense that needs to be prepared for. But in hindsight, this was not the smartest move because I should have saved and thought of my future family. Having said that and young as I was, no regrets of a balanced social life since it was relatively affordable then as long as I had a job no matter how simple it was. And it is highly important as well that we take care and enjoy as someone living abroad to divert away from homesickness and loneliness.
As for cooking, I might be a non-typical Pinay because I knew nothing about cooking. There wasn't youtube to teach me to cook so ready meals was generally my go-to. Way back, accomodation was way cheaper so I was living in a one-bedroom flat on my own and so I generally had no other Filipino friend to teach me cooking at home. But nowadays that flat sharing is generally the best option and youtube cooking shows are in abundance, it would have been different for me and different for you my non-cooking readers.
Living in London with a young family
Now that I have a young family, life is so much different. Work is part-time, have an imbalanced social life and home cooked meals! I would say though that there is more opportunity for the mothers in UK to have atleast part time work as there are companies who cater to out of school drop off and pick-up hours work. There are more opportunities as well for work from home because internet and electricity connection is much more reliable compared to Philippines.
As any family person in any country though, social life will be affected so let's leave this as no explanation needed.
Then I have learned to make home cooked meals because eating out everyday is simply unaffordable and unpractical now with two children with growing appetites. Speaking of children, they will greatly affect your choice of where to live because here in England, the proximity of home address dictates which school they can get into unlike in Philippines where financial capacity generally affects what school options you have.
Where do most Filipinos live?
I will not refer to any census of the number of Filipinos to confirm where most of us live but a good indication of a Filipino community would be the presence of a Filipino store nearby. Take for example Earl's Court in London where lots of Filipino do live. It has atleast 4 Filipino shops to cater for our sinigang and salted egg needs. So if you are in the crossroads of choosing an area to live in, checking out the Filipino shop might be a swinging factor for your decision.
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