Coastal living on US$1000/month

Costa Rica no longer affordable. Nicaragua cost of living is much less and afordable. I suggest you get on FACEBOOK and join Nicaragua groups to learn more or visit when the borders reopen.

Thank you! I took your advice. 

The average Nica family makes ends meet with about 300$/month...Many of them with  less than that.

How do they manage? I have noticed that very few people rent here; and when they do it tends to be for a period of time until they can buy land and start building on it (at whatever pace their financial situation allows). Thus if you could own something...the 1000$/month goal is easily achieved.

Now in your case, a few variables need to be clarified  here:

1) where do you want to live? In general, if you need to stay immersed in an :expat" type of environment such as San Juan del Sur or Laguna de Perla (must admit, that I have never been to the Atlantic coast) then just the rent will chew up most if not all that sum. At the very least, it would make your goal quite challenging.

2) Other locales near the water are likely to be more attractive cost wise but will in general appeal to a more adventurous crowd. You mentioned that you were a retired lady therefore I am not sure how to gauge your tolerance for safety or doing things on your own or ability to make new friends and even forget that you came to the country alone.

I chose a small hamlet 40 km from Managua and 20 km from a beach called Transito ( Pochomil is about 35 km away). Bought 3.5 hectares of land and built a small one bedroom (yes, I have a kitchen and running water; I have a water heater but never installed it and don't really need it ) on it to go along with the old existing house that the caretaker and his family use. All said and done, less than 50K where used for this and since it has been 7 years now, I can say that I would have paid close to that in rent anyways.

By now everybody knows me and I have not had any safety issues at all. Though I tend to keep on the margins a bit, I still have friends and people that have helped me at times when only a "favor" could get you out of the Jam (yes, those times come when you least expect it I might add)...And yes, I tend to keep it under 1000$/month with 200$ worth of gas spending being my only " luxury" expense...

Even cheaper if I had the discipline to grow stuff and sell it...  :-)

Hope that helped a bit.

Good luck!