# Living cost



## tumi (Sep 20, 2012)

What is the approx living cost in Mexico?


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## tumi (Sep 20, 2012)

please tell me in details if possible


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## mickisue1 (Mar 10, 2012)

Tumi, I don't live there yet, but I can bet that you will be told, by those who do, that the cost of living depends on a minimum of two things: where you will be living, and the style in which you live.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

mickisue1 said:


> Tumi, I don't live there yet, but I can bet that you will be told, by those who do, that the cost of living depends on a minimum of two things: where you will be living, and the style in which you live.


Exactly. Your housing costs will be very dependent on whether you live in Mexico City or a small rural village. Your housing, food, electricity costs will depend on how you like to live. Do you cook or eat in restaurants? Do you enjoy the ambient temperature or modify it with heating or air conditioning? Do you drive or take buses?

If you put ---"living costs" mexico--- in the google search box at the top of the page, you will get links to lots of discussion of this topic.


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

mickisue1 said:


> Tumi, I don't live there yet, but I can bet that you will be told, by those who do, that the cost of living depends on a minimum of two things: where you will be living, and the style in which you live.


I agree location has a lot do do with monthly expenditures, however there are some basics that remain stable when doing cost comparisions with, for example, San Diego. One is the rent and cost of a house. The other is the cost of basic foods and refreshments. Another is the cost of local public and intercity transportation. These account for the ususally lower cost of living here and other infrequent expenditures like local service costs also account for a lower cost of living here. Rent/price of buying a house/property taxes being the greatest desparity by far, at least from a San Diegian´s perspective but possibibly not from the perspective of someone coming from Oaklahoma City etc.
.
The overall difference in basic food costs is averaging close to 1/3 less here including sodas, snacks and fruit juices but not beer, which I do not use. Fruit is probably 2/3s or more less etc..

Rent is about 20% to 25% the cost, however the surroundings here are much different so a complete comparison is not easy to do.

Mechanics and handyman work is about 20% to 35% of the cost if you know who to use; the quality depends on that more than pricing usually.

Public local buses and taxis are about 20% of the cost here. Intercity buses are about 30 to 40% of the cost here and better equipped and the schedules are incredible. They used to be even less expensive a few years ago.

If you consider a young single worker in San Diego pays 55% to 60% of their take home pay to rent a 1 bedroom apartment in San Diego here it might be not as large an apartment but I would guess a single young worker would pay about 25% to 30% of their take home pay.

These are also somewhat area specific and very general and not researched at all, just the impression I have, at the moment. Small towns obviously have less expensive rentals and houses to sell and probably handymen and mechanics work for less, I would assume, but my impressions are based on the cities of San Luis Potosi, Mexicali and Tijuana, which are all large industrial cities.

I went into a house here in San Luis Potosi last week that the nearby agent showed me for $80,000 pesos and being on a 4 ,very narrow, meter wide lot and very old, it was not bad and the area was also not bad. I was expecting worse once inside.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

AlanMexicali said:


> I agree location has a lot do do with monthly expenditures, however there are some basics that remain stable when doing cost comparisions with, for example, San Diego. One is the rent and cost of a house. The other is the cost of basic foods and refreshments. Another is the cost of local public and intercity transportation. These account for the ususally lower cost of living here and other infrequent expenditures like local service costs also account for a lower cost of living here. Rent/price of buying a house/property taxes being the greatest desparity by far, at least from a San Diegian´s perspective but possibibly not from the perspective of someone coming from Oaklahoma City etc.
> .
> The overall difference in basic food costs is averaging close to 1/3 less here including sodas, snacks and fruit juices but not beer, which I do not use. Fruit is probably 2/3s or more less etc..
> 
> ...


On the other hand, to someone coming from Bangladesh, I would guess that things in Mexico are going to seem very expensive.


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

TundraGreen said:


> On the other hand, to someone coming from Bangladesh, I would guess that things in Mexico are going to seem very expensive.


I was thinking the same thing, but I know many people read here and was in the mood to type. LOL

My wife´s ex compañera moved to Oklahoma City to be with her new husband and we see her here and she fills us in on her new life there. Houses can be bought for a fraction of what they cost in San Diego and renting is much less. I guess some expats will not see a greater difference as I have depending where they are coming from in the US . Rents in San Diego never went down after the real estate bubble burst either, sad for renters. Good for landlords who paid the price near the top of the bubble though or bought near the bottom of the bubble.


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## spunky (Oct 8, 2012)

Hi Tumi, well it all narrows down to "where"? Prices differ from city to city, even from "colonia"to colonia. 

(By the way out of subject, my ex roommate was from Bangladesh, Dhaka.)


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## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

Detail for Tumi:
Somewhere between the $1300 USD INM Visa requirement and whatever you have.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

RVGRINGO said:


> Detail for Tumi:
> Somewhere between the $1300 USD INM Visa requirement and whatever you have.


That $1300 income requirement for a visa is only for those who will not be working in Mexico.


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## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

True, but if working in Mexico, it will be about the same amount; just not an INM requirement.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

RVGRINGO said:


> True, but if working in Mexico, it will be about the same amount; just not an INM requirement.


Not necessarily. I live on rather less than $1300 a month.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

RVGRINGO said:


> Detail for Tumi:
> Somewhere between the $1300 USD INM Visa requirement and whatever you have.


That minimum is the minimum income required of foreigners by Mexican immigration authorities. The amount you actually need to live on can be less or a lot more, depending on your life style and family size. 

Incidentally, I believe the actual visa requirement is 250 times the minimum daily wage in Mexico City which is currently $62.33 pesos, making the immigration minimum about $1240 US dollars. But I don't remember where I got that 250 number.


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