Tag: Random

Shopping /

What I bought in the Philippines

I live in Germany and prices of some goods can be way too high and sometimes, you can’t just find what you want. Here are some of the things I brought to Germany with me:

Keycaps

I am using it to write this right now and it feels really nice. Looks nice too. I got one from Shopee and some I bought from Taobao (I had it delivered to my sister who lives in China). Aren’t they so cute?

Balms and Ointments

There is Tiger Balm here but they’re so expensive. One costs like 6 Euros. I got these for under a hundred pesos (less than 2Euros) each and some of them cost only 1 Euro.

Inhalers

I love the new inhalers coming out of the market. They’re so cute. These are from Thailand. Such an inhaler can cost more than 6 Euros here.

Inhalers and more ointments

Powerbanks

These are so cute and functional at the same time. I love how you can charge your phone and the powerbank itself in different ways.

Gourmet Tuyo

Definitely a need!

Skincare

I bought this tinted sunscreen and normal sunscreen from this Filipino brand I saw on Tiktok and I have been loving them.

Mini wet wipes

I can barely find something like this in Germany. (Yes, there is Tempo but those are dry tissues)

Menthol Patches

I­ am not getting any younger.

There will be a part 2 it seems.

Random /

Sending Money to the Philippines

I have been working abroad for more than 2 years now and I have been regularly sending money to the Philippines. Don’t ask me why or what for, that’s a private matter that I am only willing to discuss with the tax authorities lol.

Anyway, there are a lot of ways to send money to the Philippines but the 2 that I regularly use are Revolut and Wise. Sometimes I find Revolut’s rates much better than Wise’s. So compare their rates first before choosing one for the other.

Revolut

It is a bank based in the UK. What I did was open an account with them, paid the card delivery fee  and I was good to go. From there, you can directly send money from your Revolut account to any Philippine bank account. It usually takes an hour to 2 days for the money to be credited to the receiving bank account but in my experience it doesn’t take a day for the money to be reflected. Click here to sign up using my link.

Wise

A remittance service previously known as Transferwise. I used this a lot too. It’s not complicated to use. One advantage of using this is you can cancel your transfer up to after 2 days as long as you have not yet sent the money to their account. That means if you made a transaction on the 12th and the rates have gone up on the 13th, you can make a new transaction with the higher rate (but there is a chance the fee will have gone up). I personally haven’t tried this but it’s one thing to consider. Sign up using this link and your first transfer will be FEE-FREE!

Have you tried them before? How was your experience?

-Finny

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