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DavidE
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3814
Registered: 12-1-2003
Location: Baja California México
Member Is Offline
Mood: 'At home we demand facts and get them. In Mexico one subsists on rumor and never demands anything.' Charles Flandrau,
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Living The Frugal Life
When Money Is An Object
Except for rent, services, and productos regionales (local goods) things can cost a lot more in Baja California and México in general than they do
north of the border. So, if a life consists of rent, services, and locally produced items, things can be quite a bit less expensive.
But paying six dollars for a six-pack of Mexican beer, and up to thirty cents US per kWh of power is NOT cheap. Everyone touts "inexpensive" Mexican
medicines when in fact generic medications from vendors like Costco, and Wal-Mart in the states are often a tiny fraction of the price of the most
deeply discounted medicamentos from the cheapest farmacia.
Rent, taxes, and the cost of basic housing, is less, so is gasoline. My question is, most successful ex pats live frugally down here. But this for the
most part is a way different lifestyle than you would find north of the border with retired people.
Your hints, tips and secrets for living on a tight budget south of the border?
A Lot To See And A Lot To Do
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Mexitron
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3397
Registered: 9-21-2003
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
Member Is Offline
Mood: Happy!
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Make your own beer!
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tiotomasbcs
Super Nomad
Posts: 1837
Registered: 7-30-2007
Location: El Pescadero
Member Is Offline
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Don't splurge at the Santa Fe! Taquerias only twice a week. No mas un Octavito (beer). Cheap Tequila! Help! Somebody wake me up from this nightmare. Tio
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sancho
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2524
Registered: 10-6-2004
Location: OC So Cal
Member Is Offline
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I believe living in the US, in a rural setting away from
most coasts, one could live CLOSE to the cost of living
in Mex. Fish, fruits, vegs seem to be maybe 30%+ lower
in Mex. But other than that, it is kinda a tossup.
David E, I've noticed you move around Baja a bit,
are you in an RV or do you rent places where you stay
for a while?
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Cypress
Elite Nomad
Posts: 7641
Registered: 3-12-2006
Location: on the bayou
Member Is Offline
Mood: undecided
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Make your own Tequila!
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Cisco
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4196
Registered: 12-30-2010
Member Is Offline
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Cypress
Make your own Tequila! |
http://sandiego.craigslist.org/csd/for/3154440479.html
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Cypress
Elite Nomad
Posts: 7641
Registered: 3-12-2006
Location: on the bayou
Member Is Offline
Mood: undecided
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Cisco, Have priced those stills. Not a bad deal. Gonna do it to it! Why not? Can make way more booze than any one person can drink. Supply the whole
neighborhood! Let 'er rip!!!
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Cisco
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4196
Registered: 12-30-2010
Member Is Offline
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Cypress
Cisco, Have priced those stills. Not a bad deal. Gonna do it to it! Why not? Can make way more booze than any one person can drink. Supply the whole
neighborhood! Let 'er rip!!! |
What a block party I am envisioning.
EVERYBODY ripped.
oh but make sure nobody lights up one of those, whadda ya call em, oh yeah, JOINTS! those be illegal and the Man'll get ya, cost ya big $$$.
[Edited on 7-22-2012 by Cisco]
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Bajaboy
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4375
Registered: 10-9-2003
Location: Bahia Asuncion, BCS, Mexico
Member Is Offline
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For me, it's hard to compare. Yes, electricity might be more expensive in Baja but my family uses much less electricity there. Purified water is
much less expensive in BA as is municipality water than in San Diego. As for food, I find the staples a bit more expensive in BA but we tend to eat
less. A night out for pizza in San Diego might cost our family about $45 which is far more expensive than heading to Conchitas for tacos and ice
cream (maybe $18-20). Not only is the cost of gasoline less in BA but I drive a LOT less than I do here in San Diego. Overall, we spend much less
money in BA than we do here in San Diego but again it's hard to do a head to head comparison and not look at the big picture.
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DavidE
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3814
Registered: 12-1-2003
Location: Baja California México
Member Is Offline
Mood: 'At home we demand facts and get them. In Mexico one subsists on rumor and never demands anything.' Charles Flandrau,
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sancho, my home is in michoacán - being built tabrique por tabrique. But even then, gobernación is putting the squeeze on with new regulations. The
car permit must be renewed every six months, and California Highway Patrolmen will write a citation in a heartbeat and quip "The judge'll figure this
out" no matter if you have a mexican driver license and a mexican car. So, looks like I am headed to Guatemala after all. The new PRI government won't
do a damned thing to make things any easier as it was PRI technocrats who toughened car permits and resident's permits starting with Miguel de La
Madrid. I feel it has only started. I can rent a nice hotel room, a nice room for six dollars a day and eat very well on five more. So once the casita
is finished, it will be used to store my stuff and then return a couple times a year for hugs and kisses from my granddaughters. Long vacations,
probably in the deep of summer (December - March) in southern Mexico and C.A. May - October is "verano" and Nov - May is "Invierno". But for now I am
taking advantage of the best this area can offer. BTW running one tiny 5,000 BTU window air conditioner in the hot months of most of coastal Mexico
ends up costing TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS a month, just for the AC, nothing else. The electric bill will go into DAC rates, and it is very probable to end
up paying three hundred dollars +, a month for power that would cost sixty dollars in California. I've done it, I've crunched the numbers, I know
about the different zones, the four tiered electrical tarifas and what DAC means. Some of the "Money Is No Object" Cabo San Lucas big places have
socked their owners with SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLAR per month (Fourteen thousand dollars per bimestral) CFE bills before they learned to sweat like
everyone else. No I didn't mean pesos. I mean dollars. US. Million dollar home and they huddle in a windowless cubicle all day with a window AC going,
but most flee to Aspen, or Switzerland in the summer.
A Lot To See And A Lot To Do
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Lee
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3597
Registered: 10-2-2006
Location: High in the Colorado Rockies
Member Is Offline
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Wow you might need to see a financial advisor. The definition of frugal really is subjective.
An ex pat living frugally means nothing without knowing where their income comes from. If you don't have money from NOB, MX would be a difficult
place to live -- even frugally.
No secret that having more retirement income might mean working longer.
Cost of meds is meaningless if a person doesn't need meds and doesn't get sick.
Budget in at least $6.00 a week for beer or stop drinking.
No utility bill if you have solar.
If you don't need a block home, RV living doesn't get any cheaper. No taxes, minimal or free rent -- be a caretaker somewhere and live in someone's
home p/t.
Buy bulk and start fishing if you don't already.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/opinion/sunday/our-ridicul...
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comitan
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4177
Registered: 3-27-2004
Location: La Paz
Member Is Offline
Mood: mellow
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DavidE
I have an LG 5000 I use in the bedroom Part of the night I also have a KillAWatt that measures the watts used for this unit It does not use more than
435 watts at the highest setting. There are many statements you make about the cost of living in Mexico that I disagree with and will not argue each
and every point with you, because you are not happy here and are putting down living here and going somewhere else so be it. For your info We have a
huge place here in La Paz our last CFE bill was 985P for 2 months.
Strive For The Ideal, But Deal With What\'s Real.
Every day is a new day, better than the day before.(from some song)
Lord, Keep your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth.
“The sincere pursuit of truth requires you to entertain the possibility that everything you believe to be true may in fact be false”
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prorader
Junior Nomad
Posts: 69
Registered: 6-18-2012
Member Is Offline
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Boy do I have a deal for you, it is a small dairy town, with the best queso in Mexico. I lived there for 3 years. The town is San Jose de Gracia
Michoacán. My last house was on the side of a mountain, 3 bdrm, 2 1/2 baths 50 foot ceramic tile deck. from the garage was 27 steps to the front door.
No air or heat, $1,300 pesos a month. The deal is you will be the only Gringo
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acadist
Super Nomad
Posts: 1125
Registered: 3-31-2007
Location: Spanaway,WA
Member Is Offline
Mood: Waiting for the Sun
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I do not live in Baja, but I can say that from an outsiders' perspective it looks much less expensive. If I can take my wife and the boys for dinner
for less than $50 it is surprising......and that is no alcohol, I may spend the same in Baja but that is for a much higher quality meal with drinks.
My wife gets frustrated that I only want to vacation in Baja, but it is hard to argue with the fact that I can make 2 Baja trips for the cost of one
almost anywhere else even with paying for fishing (ever charter a boat in San Diego???). I realize that everything is perspective, and to me the grass
looks greener in Baja(so to speak).
Dave
I moved to CO and they made me buy a little rod to make it feel like a real fish
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DavidE
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3814
Registered: 12-1-2003
Location: Baja California México
Member Is Offline
Mood: 'At home we demand facts and get them. In Mexico one subsists on rumor and never demands anything.' Charles Flandrau,
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Part of the night is not 24/7. Eight hours is 1/3rd of a day. Try running your A/C 24/7 and see what DAC does to your bill. This has nothing to do
with "happiness". This has to do with cruel, cold, hard, numbers. I've lived in several ancient vast sisal haciendas in Yucatan, where the power bill
equaled six dollars a month. Why? Because power was not used, because there were few lamp outlets, even for an 11,000 square foot structure.
You are entitled to disagree comitan. But I deal in numbers. Like fifty four dollars every six-months to Banjercito to keep a car permit active. Want
to see an EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLAR power bill from 2008 for 1,148 kWh? That's under 600 kWh per month. I deal in numbers.
A Lot To See And A Lot To Do
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makana.gabriel
Nomad
Posts: 115
Registered: 1-10-2008
Location: Honolulu
Member Is Offline
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David- regarding your car and the CHP. Even showing that you are a MX resident, you are still being ticketed? I had been contemplating putting MX
plates on my car as I'm sick of hidden cameras etc and thought that if I had my MX drivers license, I would have no problems.
FAITH sees the invisible, believes the incredible, and receives the impossible!
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comitan
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4177
Registered: 3-27-2004
Location: La Paz
Member Is Offline
Mood: mellow
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I have been driving Mexican plated cars with Mexican driving license for years without any problems, and yeas clear across the USA.
Strive For The Ideal, But Deal With What\'s Real.
Every day is a new day, better than the day before.(from some song)
Lord, Keep your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth.
“The sincere pursuit of truth requires you to entertain the possibility that everything you believe to be true may in fact be false”
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comitan
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4177
Registered: 3-27-2004
Location: La Paz
Member Is Offline
Mood: mellow
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DavidE,
My 985P 2 month CFE bill aside from the 5,oooAC, I have 2 refers, 1 freezer, and a pool. and I don't have to go to Aspen. on edit you can see my CFE
anytime.
[Edited on 7-22-2012 by comitan]
Strive For The Ideal, But Deal With What\'s Real.
Every day is a new day, better than the day before.(from some song)
Lord, Keep your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth.
“The sincere pursuit of truth requires you to entertain the possibility that everything you believe to be true may in fact be false”
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bajacalifornian
Super Nomad
Posts: 1117
Registered: 9-4-2010
Location: Loreto/Lopez Mateos/Rosarito
Member Is Offline
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I like your topic because it hits so . . . on accepting and joining the Mexican culture.
Friends have said, ¨No, I have no problem with dust.¨ They lives in a house with a dirt floor.
Only the white guys have so much junk they need to build storage sheds to store the stuff.
Electrical billing is tiered. If you have an old refrigerator and a light bulb, you dwell in the first tier. All the other stuff takes you to a second
or third tier, each billing costing more. Live as you used to, you will pay more.
Learning and adapting as Mexican I believe is an important key to successful life after the bizarre.
Except for my sons educations, Mexico is highly doable.
American by birth, Mexican by choice.
Signature addendum: Danish physicist — Niels Bohr — who said, “The opposite of one profound truth may very well be another profound truth.
Jeff Petersen
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ncampion
Super Nomad
Posts: 1238
Registered: 4-15-2006
Location: Loreto
Member Is Offline
Mood: Retired and Loving it
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I live 80% of the time in Baja (Loreto) and maintain a house in So. Calif. (San Juan Capistrano). I find it cheaper to live in Baja for one simple
reason, not because everything is cheaper here - it's not, but because there are far fewer things to spend your money on. When we go up the the
states, all we do is spend money - mostly on things that we don't need. We're glad when we cross the border again, although we do like seeing our US
family and friends, can't give that up.
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