Cost of living 2019 in Mexico

IT's a little too early to answer this question for 2019. There is a new President and since he came into office it appears that there will be major shifts in costs.

Currently, I'm not seeing major changes, but there are changes. The cost of gas has been going up and it now looks like a gas shortage has been generated. The cost of water delivery has gone up and parking costs have gone up.  Everything related to gas and deliveries will likely go up.

The new airport Cd de Mexico is being reevaluated and the project already funded and in progress may be scrapped. So I don't think any of us can speak about the costs in 2019 right now.

We are currently paying $950 (USD) in Ajijic for rent of a beautiful modern 1 bed/1 bath apartment with an awesome view of the lake.  The rent that we are paying includes gas, electricity, water, internet, telephone, Shaw TV as well as maid service twice a week so we pay nothing else except our groceries etc.  We are a little ways out of town. We make use of local telcel cell phone service for which we pay 150 pesos every 28 days for unlimited calls and texts as well as virtually unlimited social media and we never run out of data.  Admittedly prices have been going up a lot here and we know that we have a good deal and more Mexican type housing is available (though hard to find) at cheaper prices.

The local bus service is very good and it costs 7 or pesos to catch the bus pretty much anywhere between Ajijic and Chapala or Jocotopec.

I have been keeping a spreadsheet for the last 12 months to record our expenses and though we don't eat out an awful lot (local restaurants have very reasonable prices but higher end restaurants are also available at reasonable prices - a good steak meal can be had for less than 200 pesos) I have found that we are averaging between 5,000 and 6,000 pesos a month for groceries etc.  We live very well on that amount.

A visit to our local doctor (no time restrictions and we could spend a good 45 minutes with her) is 300 pesos and prescription medications are much less that our co-pay used to be in USA.  I recently had cataract removal with corrective lens implant for about 12,000 pesos package deal and our average medical expenses last year for both of us was about 1,200 pesos a month (which includes the eye surgery, several doctor visits and medications)

A taxi from Guadalajara airport to Ajijic cost us 400 pesos and when we got a taxi to drive us to the airport, wait time to pick up some friends and bring us all back it only cost us 600 pesos round trip.

Prices are going up here because there are a lot of expats in this area.  The price of gas has also risen during the last couple of years and we are currently paying (when we can get it) around 20 pesos for a liter of gasoline but our average expenditure on our car last year (we walk most of the time) including a couple of oil changes etc. was less than 600 pesos a month.

Hope that this helps

the reason for my coming to mexico was simple. how am i going to afford housing, food on a SOCIAL SECURITY USA BUDGET? look at all the homeless retirees in usa. i did not want to end up on skid row with no plaCE to live, so i followed my son's advice, and moved to juarez. best move i ever made. homeless, no car, in US, not a good option. i pay $270 monthly for a 2 bedroom ap;t. cant do that anywhere in usa. food, dirt cheap, and being diabetic, insulin costs $25 bucks per vial; lot cheaper than $200+ per vial. in any state. dont need prescription, just walk into any farmacia and tell them what i want. gas is a little spendy 15.30 pesos per liter. lots of corruption down here so those in gov r gouging the citizens. all in aLL, BETTER HERE THAN US. MY GIRLFRIND SPEAKS ENGLISH, HAS A CAR. so why i am helping myself, i help her by having her live with me. she is an excellent cook, and SUPER LOYAL. she is a retired CPA, but still has clients. BEST DEAL EVER BEING IN JUAREZ!

These  are  my  cost of living  figures for San Miguel de Allende, Mexico where  I have lived for over a year as of today:

3 bedroom  two story home:  $340.00 (usd)  per month (Rent)
Bottled Water  home service $35.00  per month
Gas  (Propane  tank 1 time payment)    $40.00   Only use when  solar panels  do not heat  the  showers
Heating:  Solar  Energy   0.00
Electricity;   Smart  Energy/Technology  0.00
Groceries:  $63.00 per  month  (family of 2)  (Groceries consist of  all meat, canned goods,  all produce,etc.)
Public Transportation:   $30.00 per month
Internet/Not WiFi (Direct)  $26.75  per month

In comparison  to New York City where  I lived all my life, my new life is greatly improved by the
economics I have discovered. Life is good in San Miguel and I'll  never go back to my former city.
These   figures  are  current  as of today.  I hope it helps you to update your figures.

grapenut:

It sounds like you are very content in Juarez. Is the crime situation easing up down there or is it still bad but you just learn to deal with it?

Juarez, despite all its obvious defects and problems is a place I also am considering moving to in a few months.    Why would I do that?    Because my daughter and spouse can live in El Paso where work for them is available and me and my wife can live off my meager Social InSecurity checks and still be there for them and vice versa.    We might soon even run into each other, Grapenut.

Great tool to compare cost of living is numbeo.com  Here's a comparison between Boston and Oaxaca.

[img]C:\Users\hhf1002\Dropbox\!Temp\2019-01-28 15_19_44-Cost of Living Comparison Between Boston, MA, United States And Oaxaca de Juarez.png[/img]

I have found a great blog, Two Expats Mexico.  Retired police officer from Florida and his wife have settled in Rivera Maya, Mexico.  He is able to retire, pre-social security, on his police pension. His blog covers everything from how to get residency permits, to insurance costs (both auto & health), healthcare costs, travel costs, just lots and lots of great, current information.  He even offers free Spanish lessons!  Here is the blog link:  https://qroo.us/

My husband and I are planning on relocating this summer to Los Barriles, Baja Sur, Mexico.  Once those social security checks start coming in! We have sold almost everything we own and are waiting for the magic date when I start collecting SS.

Our research shows we can live a great lifestyle on social security in Mexico.  If you are not a retiree and plan on working, if you can do it remotely great! But if you plan on getting a job down there, look into the residency laws and tax implications.  My 2 cents.

I  too follow "Two Expats" and it's a great blog.  I also follow www.usadios.com  They haven't moved yet but still a great site and he really writes well.  It might be a little to political for some and it's pretty much CA centric.  But still a good read.

Thanks for your info. I am two months away from moving to Ciudad de Guanajuato and hope expenses there are about the same or less for a single individual . I hope there are expats in GTO with cost of living info to share.

Hola Gtodel. I am contemplating moving to Gto Gto as well but will never make it in 2 months. I went last April for a few weeks to see if I still liked it and I really do. I felt very safe. The people are kind and very hospitable. There’s so many cultural things to do. There’s also a strong ex-pat community. I can hook you up with a few names if you wish.
Saludos,
Picara

Hello,

I'm interested in having a look at the information/data you obtained on the price difference of life in Boston and Oaxaca. I was unable to download the document you saved in Dropbox and wondered if you'd be so kind as to send it to me.

Thank you in advance and best regards,

MB

Check out numbeo.com.  It compares cities from around the world with other cities. 


https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/c … +de+Juarez

Hello everyone,

Please note that since a few months, a new Cost of Living in Mexico topic for the year 2020 has been launched by the Expat.com team.

You are most welcome to ask any questions on that matter by posting on it

Thanks,

Diksha
Team Expat.com