Oh my, I can totally relate. We cancelled our trip but still got dinged with cancellation penalties.

Etihad has really good airplanes and service from what I heard but yes, very expensive. Do you have a credit card you use to buy tickets? Sometimes it helps to get a credit card with travel or miles rewards you can convert to your currency.

Did you try playing around with https://www.google.com/flights they have pretty good search for airfares.

Also, if you choose departure dates of Tue or Wed it's cheaper. Oh and try to get a flight that doesn't stop in Manila.