Check the links page.

November 2007- Prices continue to rise. Food restaurants all are going up incrementally. Building materials and costs are also going up. Because of the housing market stagnation NOB the costs of built homes is stable.

October 2005- In light of the Dianna restaurant debacle use the forms (maids button above) anytime you hire or fire an employee. It might prevent a disgruntled employee suing you years after you paid the correct severance and let them go.

March 2005- Looking at the August 2004 costs below I  think that after the first of this year most everything went up about 5%.  I don't think that increase is world shaking. It happens everywhere.  The value of our U.S. dollar vs. the peso is what we all need to watch. Since last year we have been "hit"? with a 20% decrease in the value of our dollar.

The restaurant prices have gone up. The food and utilities prices went up a bit. The tax bill was the same, only the water bill went up from $110.00 to $140.00.  It will be interesting to see if  the current dump/garbage crisis may make a change in next year's taxes. 

We are not doing any building/renovation but friends who are say the costs of ALL building materials keep going up.  Handy man work of any type right now means a wait since they are all busy. Last work we had done, we hired a maestro and another workman for a  5 and a half day week. Cost was 2750.00 pesos, labor only, did not include any materials. In that time they took the terrace roof apart, resealed it and the dome and took out a cracked section of the terrace replacing it with new tiles.

December 2004- The continuing insurance saga. " We have Advance PCS as the company supplying the drug benefit. And they do have forms for submitting purchases from a foreign country. I will let you know how time consuming/cumbersome it is to collect from the company. "  We as I said below have pretty much got the Blue cross Blue shield people whipped into shape. But we were still getting NOTHING but grief from Advance PCS. Harry sent them 10!! letters and we NEVER got a reply. They were still sending checks to the wrong address, still telling you a prescription was "going to some review board" which meant you never heard about it/got a reimbursement again. Once Harry got an EOB with all - negative numbers on it. Were we to assume we owed them! money! Finally Harry sent a complaint letter to the NJ Commission of Insurance and Banking. They sent us a we have received your letter form letter and then!! yesterday a letter saying they had checked into the problem. It included a letter from Advance PCS.. they speak!! sort of! First of all NJ said that our problem was with a state health benefits program and they had their own complaint board, whose address they kindly supplied. But they also contacted and did rattle Advance PCS's cage to the extent that this woman a "client service analyst" sent them a letter. Which they (NJ) forwarded on to us.  Among other things we now have our own designated claims person and they are reissuing some of the checks we never got due to their continued screw ups with our address. If you have insurance that supposedly covers here, the having your own person.. seems to be the key. That and writing polite but insistent letters when they blow you off as they usually do at first. That was how we straightened out the Blue cross Blue shield problems. Harry only corresponds with our Gina! Hopefully this will be the solution with the prescription service. Who ever this person is I sure hope we are on the way to fixing the problems with Advance PCS. Will keep you posted.

August 2004- There have been many recent articles including that bogus AARP one on the cost of living here. Is it or isn't it cheap??!! There are still a lot of first time people just coming here and buying houses. Here in the village, home prices as well as materials costs still seem to be going up. Here are some of our current costs.

Electric bill: Covers two months, Last bill was approx. $170.00. Phone bill for two lines runs around $45.00 a month. Car gas- for Wrangler or Acura tank/fill-up approx. $40.00. House gas averages about $35.00 a month. We have gas stove, hot water heater, dryer. Car insurance based on age and value of the car-blue book what it is worth. The new Acura TL about $1900.00 , the 2002 Jeep wrangler is much cheaper. House insurance about $400.00 a year based again on the value of the house. Many people here don't bother with house insurance and on car insurance only liability insurance is required. Cost of repairing cars here is cheap! Tax bill this year was $175.00, water $110.00. This is a four bedroom,  four bath house. It is about four years old.

Maid- three hours a day, six days a week, 20 pesos an hour -weekly cost 360 pesos or $32.73. Gardener three days a week for nine hours total. 225 pesos or $20.45

Food. Eating out prices have been going up; and it is NOT the high season. The town is packed with the Guadalajara touristas on weekends and they have no problem paying higher prices.  Tony's, Harry's hamburger fix raised the price of the platter from 43 pesos to 48 pesos and he says the hamburgesa has gotten smaller! A medium pizza with pepperoni and two diet cokes at Domino's was $13.60. Walt and Jean at Casa Flores have discontinued the 50 peso comida corrida because they were losing money on the deal! They are offering a menu now. Everything there is very well prepared. We ate lunch there today, me: two chicken enchiladas and green salad, iced tea and Harry: small Aztec soup, shrimp platter with spaghetti and green salad, iced tea for total 114 pesos or $10.36.

Food purchased for home: We still shop the tianguis or the carneceria at Chapala. Boneless, skinless chicken breast  at the tianguis is $2.00 a lb. A kilo of large fresh eggs at the abbarote around the corner (that is around 15 eggs) cost 10 pesos or $.90. Fresh shrimp the last time we were at the fish market in Guad, jumbo ones 16-20 to lb. One kilo-2.2 lbs. 125 pesos or $5.16 a lb. Fresh red snapper or sea bass fillet at the plaza fish market at about $2.90 for a half pound piece. The prices there vary. The large can of Progresso chopped plum tomatoes in sauce 36 pesos or $3.27. You pay more for the American brands but the Mexican brands of tomatoes are crummy. So some food prices are cheaper and some much higher. We also shop Costco and Wal-Mart in Guad.

Prescriptions- We are covered here with U.S. insurance but collecting is still troublesome. We still have problems with the idiots supposedly sending checks to the old NJ address and/or a wrong or fragmented Mexican address!  Today Harry sent off a multiple page complaint to the company and to the NJ insurance and banking commission. Major medical. We finally seem to getting somewhere with NJ Blue Cross and Shield. The payments are up to date even for my recent knee surgery.

February 6, 2004- One of the things that newbies find very "third world country" here is the plethora of street vendors. Now I am not talking about the Wednesday tianguis. I am talking about the sellers of "stuff" who set up in front of their homes or move around. You see a lot more of the move around town kind during the high season.

Most people are a bit hesitant at first. Should they buy from these people?? Especially if it is food! The price is usually right but... they are sure they are going to get sick. Your best bet is to ask someone who has lived here for awhile. Friends vouched for the tamale seller who sets up next to Guad farmacia across from Lloyd's. They offer beef, pork and chicken, plus sweet pineapple!! They are very good!!! The corn seller at the plaza is also OK although the corn won't taste like the sweet corn you are used to. The kids who pass through our neighborhood selling cookies and cake from a metal tub usually get my business (if I have any change>>they don't ..the curse of cambio.) I also love to buy the sliced fruit, cukes or jicama with chili. Just watch the place selling it a bit for cleanliness on knives and cutting boards.  Menudo often sold in front of someone's home is NOT one I have eaten. Not that I am afraid of getting sick..innards just don't do it for me!! Pick up trucks loaded with fresh seasonal produce also drive the streets. In summer it might be sweet corn, some people do say off the truck, fresh it is as good as the northern stuff.  This time of year it might be the fresh garbanzo bean or oranges or grapefruit.

The sellers of baskets, handbags, belts etc move around. Right now you will see them on Colon and near Nueva Posada. Again the price is all what you bargain it down to and how much do you want it.  A fixed place  seller who I find a hoot is the car things man at Guad farmacia. He has been trying to sell this gringo lady new windshield wipers for the wrangler for a year! I just keep telling him that the wrangler is new and doesn't need wipers yet! Last week he tried a new tack.. floor mats!! Didn't need those either. He smiled and went on his way.  Like him, Mary with her brief case full of silver jewelry will often find you as you eat in the restaurants around town. Other entrepreneurs come to your home. The burro loaded with firewood stops at many homes on our privada and sometimes the man selling the native orchids tied to a log stops as well.

I have never had any street side vendor behave in a pushy or discourteous way. If you shake your head and say "no gracias" they move on. Yet they are a source of "irritation" to many. I guess it ranks up there with church bells and roosters. No it isn't the way it was in suburbia stateside, but I like them. The price is usually cheap enough that you can give them a try  without worrying about it.  They are just another interesting thread in the warp and woof of the Mexican fabric of life.

November 20, 2003- DRUGS- Ok way back in May I said I would keep you posted on the reimbursement issues. " We have Advance PCS as the company supplying the drug benefit. And they do have forms for submitting purchases from a foreign country. I will let you know how time consuming/cumbersome it is to collect from the company. "  Our experiences so far dealing with insurance companies long distance are just like yours back in the states. They stall, they lie and they make it even harder since you are in another country and their 800 numbers don't work here!! You write letters, e-mail usually won't work and when all else fails you use the call back phone service and sit on the phone on hold waiting for a human. We filled out forms, sent original prescriptions with the  facturas etc. And NOTHING came back!! No rejections, no nothing. Harry called and they said  "it was being processed."  Last month a friend of ours mentioned that he had some of our mail. It had been sitting around for a month since he had been back and forth to the U.S. dealing with a sick Mother. One of the pieces of mail was a check from Advance PCS. It was addressed to Chris Bublin, APDO19, no city, no state, Mexico, no zip. I certainly hope that mess was a computer generated address as I would hate to think a human ever typed that and I am still AMAZED that it actually arrived here in Ajijic!!! The only correct part was my name. Needless to say we called again. They said they got the address from Blue Cross, NOT... they actually have it correct. They also said they had sent out checks for reimbursement totaling over $700.00 none of which had arrived here, what a shock!! Since then we have been receiving checks from them at the correct address. It does require that Harry do a major form fill out for at least an hour or so every month, but they are actually paying. The percentage of reimbursement varies depending on the individual prescription is. Just like in the states they have their approved and unapproved lists, which vary the amount they reimburse.

Speaking of call back phone services we are now using Roland at Global Instant Call Back. 20 cents a minute to the U.S. or Canada sign up on line at www.1134.total-talk.net or email him at rvanhoudt@prodigy.net.mx  Roland will come out to the house to set up the fax machine etc. He came a second time when the fax machine got pissy and solved the problem! A nice guy. The service works fine and has been a big help in Harry's long distance negotiations with the insurance companies. And the beat goes on. Tune in next week!

July 26, 2003-

The furniture factory has started up on the mirador. When we bought the new pieces from the factory in Delores Hidalgo, we arranged for them to be painted in colors of terra cotta, gold and green. The pieces have flowers and vines on them.  The factory charges over $150.00 a piece to paint them instead of applying the gratis stain of your choice. We bought the same rustico type  furniture for the new bedroom only these came from nearby Tonala saving us the $200.00 shipping cost from DH. But.. I wanted these pieces painted as well, Enter our maid Lucia. She used to work for a home decor fabricator called Billy Moon. In his heyday Billy employed over 200 village artisans in his fabrication shops. Then he went belly up. Lucia got together an old Billy painting crew and she, her mother-in-law and nephew have been working on the furniture. Painting involves a sealer coat and six  coats of the color. When it is finished Bruno, the artisan takes over adding the gold, and green accent paint of leaves and flowers. Painting a dresser, armoire, two bed frames, a bar serving cart, and bed table will cost us about $600.00. That is a saving of about $50.00 a piece over Delores Hidalgo's costs, and we didn't pay shipping. Plus I get to see it all as it is painted. Some of the colors that came on the DH pieces were not the ones I chose. The painted furniture is popular here as you can coordinate  it with wall, curtain and bedspread colors. You can ask around town for prices from the various artisans we were just lucky to have one in house!!

May 23, 2003- DRUGS!!  I must admit I was a bit apprehensive about prescription drugs, costs and availability before I retired. I was stocking up to the max before I came. After being here a few months my 90 day supplies (all the prescription plan at work would allow!) were running low. I have a drug benefit as part of my retirement package. If I was in the states I could use one of the mail away programs but I checked before I left you MUST have a U.S. Dr.'s script and of course we also know they won't mail to Mexico, assuming you would actually even get it. So as my supplies dwindled we scheduled an appointment with Dr. Lastra in Six Corners. That means we went to the office, signed in and waited about ten minutes!!! Dr. Lastra lived in the U.S. as a child and speaks perfect English. He went over my and Harry's health records, prescription lists and looked at the health insurance we have as part of our retirement packages.  He said our insurance coverage was good and if needed the good hospitals in Guad would take us and bill the insurance company. Then he wrote us prescriptions for all the drugs we take. He explained that we didn't actually need scripts to purchase any of them but he knows if we use the reimbursement option here in Mexico we buy the drugs, and then we must submit the prescription, and the pharmacy receipt.  We get 80% back from the company. He spoke to us for about 45 minutes as we laid out the program for routine tests and other health maintenance chores. He also gave us both his home and cell phone numbers. Any medical emergencies call him first!! Cost of office visit  $14.00 each!!!

For our drug reimbursement program we need when we buy any meds to have a Dr.'s script and most important we need to ask the pharmacy clerk for a factura. This receipt lists the drug, their cost and your name and address. You have to ask for it they do not just print it out. I went to the Guadalajara Pharmacy next to Lloyd's and filled five prescriptions for 90 days each. Allegra, Norvasc, Voltaren, Actonel-the once a week kind, and the only one which was not the same stateside brand a 5  mg. diuretic.  I also added to the bill a large tube of  a topical version of the anti-inflammatory Voltaren, which I have never seen sold in the states. It really does work on my arthritic knees.  Total bill for 90 days worth of all this stuff $4,315.84 pesos. All the exact same brands as I took in the states. So around $430.00 dollars of which I will get 80% back.  In the states I remember that the actual price of some of these drugs for 90 days was over $175.00 each. There we just had a co-pay but even without a drug plan the prices are cheaper here. And no problema with the availability. Same stuff!!!  We have Advance PCS as the company supplying the drug benefit. And they do have forms for submitting purchases from a foreign country. I will let you know how time consuming/cumbersome it is to collect from the company.

January 6, 2003- A reader sent me this link and asked me to include it here. He has put up a web site detailing the travails of some expats with a local builder. It is a good cautionary tale and before you buy anything you should all go look at his website. Ajijic Developments

Costs to live here are still a relative thing. Everyone griped that their gas  and electric bell went up but now they seem to have gone back down?? It still all depends on how frugally you wish to live, but that said, here at lakeside, you can pretty much forget the $500.00 a month thing. Keeping it at $1000.00 depends on just what amenities you are willing to forgo.

August 19, 2002- One of the things that takes getting used to here is the concept that you can have anything made to your exact specs for a reasonable cost! And.. you actually get it within a reasonable time (well mostly.) So after buying a nice upholstered chair at Barbara's bazaar for around $50.00, I got it recovered along with a bench and two chair cushions and three hassocks made new, all for the price of $2300.00 pesos. In the U.S. a new reading chair and matching hassock would have cost me $300.00 to $600.00.

Work on the house. We had Jaime, the nice young man who does iron work make us a new set of iron, double screen doors for the terrace doors. He matched them exactly to the screen doors on the two bedroom terraces. The set installed was about $400.00 dollars. He is also making me a staircase for the mirador on the master bedroom roof for about the same price.

I paid the gas bill the other day. This is for about two months worth. $435.00 pesos for them to refill the tank. It was not quite empty. The monthly phone bill was $180.00 pesos. We had the star choice dish already on the roof. The costs for two boxes (two TVs) and various hook up fees was about $500.00 dollars. Monthly fees vary depending on what you choose. From $21.00 to $60.00 but that is in Canadian dollars.

August 9, 2002- When I posted the last message Georgia e-mailed me a very thoughtful reply. Unlike me she isn't a newbie. She lives nearby towards Jacotopec. She mentions that assuming you are retired even though the gas is more expensive you drive alot less. Which is true..A tank of gas lasts well more than a week here vs. two tanks a week when I was driving back and forth to work. And again clothing expenses are much less since you are not maintaining a "work" wardrobe. Now that we have been here a whole month!! ;-) I can honestly say that checking the outgo on-line the costs of living here do seem to be less. And that is despite purchasing new things for the house. Do remember to factor in that there are no mortgage payments on the house. Still for now I can say that it seems to be cheaper to live here. You'll have to wait for a few more months data until I can actually say how much cheaper.

July 14th, 2002- We have been here for about 10 days and I am beginning to get a handle on the cost thing. It is sort of a wash. Harry doesn't feel that the cost of living here is really that much cheaper. And you have to consider we were living in central NJ, where the cost of living is very expensive. The cost of car gas and electricity, both Mexican monopolies, is very high. So we turn off the lights and make sure we don't use the car unless we need to. Food is cheaper for some things..veggies etc, but more expensive for other things. Clothes about the same, meds we were getting for free through our work prescription programs so those will cost more.

I guess that is about all the financial news as more bills come in I will keep you updated.

First, go to the link above and read Scott Michael Long's wonderful and idiosyncratic article called $$$$$ . He is a good friend and lives not far from our home in Ajijic. He will tell you the costs of a bunch of his daily necessities.

Second, I will add the caveat that a financial expert  I'm not! And we are not living there full time as of yet. I will, just for fun,  try to keep a running list of what we buy and what it costs when we go to the house in April for Easter vacation. I will post it here when we get back.

Finally, what does it cost again depends on how you want to live. As Scott says in his articles, he is "slothful" and doesn't actively pursue bargains the way he did when he first moved to Ajijic. I think a couple could certainly  live on the $1000.00 or less a month that is quoted at times on the various Mexico info web sites. Your home may be elsewhere in Mexico or in one of the outlying villages not Ajijic. You may not be eating out at some of the restaurants three times a week, perhaps you won't be hiring a maid or gardener at the going rate of around $2.00 an hour, and you may be living in a rental not owning a house. You may use the bus instead of owning a car.

In other words you will be living more like a Mexican family than a gringo family. Nothing wrong with that! The price of gas is higher here than where we live in the states, so.. we bought a house that is in the village allowing us to walk for many of our daily errands. I like shopping at the Wednesday market for fruit, veggies, and all and sundry (meaning whatever is offered that day!) The prices are cheaper and the produce fresher than anything at Super Lake or El Torito. However the real shopaholics would castigate me for not always bargaining! I guess it comes from having that Hort degree and a better than average knowledge that no small farmer gets rich! The price for that bunch of radishes is already cheap and I'm not about to bargain with some hardworking Mexican-Indian farmer for a $.20 reduction. I'd rather he got the money and kept on farming. I do bargain with the people selling stuff, but I'm a sucker for someone who works on the land. I also shop the village stores for hardware, cleaning supplies, kitchen stuff etc. We compared the prices in Wal-Mart in Guad and often times they are cheaper at your small local stores. As for availability of things, I don't see much of a lack except as noted on another page, not too much low fat and non fat stuff. It is a pain to not have all the nutrition info printed on the labels, but you just read your ingredients and estimate!

Housing, either bought or rented can be checked on the Mexico Connect web-site. There are links to all the Ajijic and surrounding area realtors and their listings, easily separated by price. We have bought and sold a lot of real estate in our 30+ years of marriage. No matter where you live you are going to pay for location, property size, new or newer, and square footage. If you check the listings, prices can range from $90,000.00 up to $400,000.00. Nobody is going to pay the asking price. What you end up with depends on how much you want it, what you can afford and how well you bargain. Although you hear that "nothing is selling in Ajijic" our own realtor showed me a breakdown of his closings on sold real estate for the previous six months. Someone sure bought quite a few houses in and around Ajijic!

In Ajijic, if you want a newer or remodeled home with two or more bedrooms and baths, the living room, dining room, kitchen, garage, terrace, a yard and/or garden in a gated community or in the village etc. you are going to pay somewhere between $125, 000.00 and $250, 000.00. Bargains may exist but for less you will probably trade down on location, square footage, or age.