How Much Does it Cost to Live in Mexico?

January 21, 2013 · 5 comments

You can get a great, several-course Mexican meal of soup, rice, main dish, juice, and a desert of some kind for around 50 pesos ($4). The other day here in Playa del Carmen I went to a nice restaurant on the beach and had a big hamburger, french fries, several small burritos with beans and guacamole, and a bottled water all for 100 pesos ($7.80).

You can get three tacos for 20 pesos ($1.58).

A local bus to wherever you want to go in town is less than 10 pesos (80 cents).

My studio apartment in Mexico City was $650/month.

My one-bedroom apartment in San Miguel de Allende was $680/month.

My studio apartment in Cancun was $430/month.

My studio apartment in Playa del Carmen is $500/month.

I’ll be going back to Cozumel for a few months, and my one-bedroom apartment there is $515/month.

All of these prices are for short-term, month-to-month rentals (i.e., you don’t have to rent the place for a year) with English-speaking landlords or property managers. All of the places pass the mom test (my mom could stay there and not be grossed out or feel like she was in danger).

So there you have it. It’s cheaper for me to live in my own apartment on the beach in Mexico than it was to share an apartment in Salt Lake City.

{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

Murray Lunn January 22, 2013 at 11:58 am

Dang Tristan, that’s not bad at all!

I’m wondering how you don’t go about gaining a ton of weight because of how cheap the food is haha.

Hell, even the simplest bit of earnings from doing online stuff could have you living pretty comfortably there.

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Tristan January 22, 2013 at 12:07 pm

I’ve actually been losing weight here. The problem is that in the States I lived within walking distance of a grocery store and was always buying ice cream, Coke, Red Bull, chips, candy, whatever. I stuck with that for the first few months I was here in Mexico, too.

For the last couple months, though, I’ve been cutting the sugary stuff out of my diet. No Coke, no ice cream, no cookies or anything. I honestly can’t say that I feel very different, but I’m losing weight (and I’ve always been darn pretty skinny as it is) and I’m not wasting money on that junk. But apart from that, I eat whatever I want. It’s great.

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Murray Lunn January 22, 2013 at 12:48 pm

Very cool man.

What sucks about my location is that the grocery store is just too far out of reach to realistically walk or bike over (especially considering the big highway it’s on), but I know whatchya mean, doing those trips back and forth definitely adds up.

Mexico uses real sugar in their sweets, right? That would be hard to pass up. However, that too makes sense because why waste money and appetite on sweets you can find anywhere when you could nab some authentic Mexican meals, yeh?

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Grace January 25, 2013 at 8:35 pm

Happy early birthday! Your first birthday in a foreign country. Let’s hope you can make it another year!

Funny Birthday Quote:

Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest.

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Tristan February 7, 2013 at 5:52 pm

Thanks Grace!

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