Coby, there doesn't seem to be any relief in sight, at least here, in Cancun. Yesterday was the hottest that I've been aware of so far this year, at 93 degrees F. But, there has been a bigger day/night difference in the temps in the last two weeks or so, and we've been able to sleep comfortably without a/c most nights. (That wasn't true, last night, though: seemed like we just had to have it.) Speaking generally about the cost of living here, I don't think of Mexico as being a particularly cheap place to live. But, what living here does do is allow the option of living more cheaply for those who choose to exercise it. In my opinion, it does this mainly by reducing the social pressure to conform to standards common elsewhere. For an example, I live here without a car, as many have chosen to do. In the states, people would think it odd that I didn't have a car, but regularly took the public buses which ran a few blocks from my suburban home, took taxis, or walked- for something other than exercise. Back home, if I had regularly walked, arms laden with groceries, the three blocks home, as I do here, I'd have been greeted with stares and become a subject of conversation. Here, these behaviors attract no attention at all that I'm aware of, and I enjoy the freedom that comes with not having to take care of a car. For another example, many expats live in housing that would not attract admiring glances back home, but happens to fit their budget nicely- and, it makes them happy that, perhaps as a result, they can easily live within their budget. Mexico is being touted as a retirement haven: it can be that for many, of varying means. But, Mexico is not cheap, and a life style comparable to back home will probably be comparable in cost, for most people.
V - Very nicely put. I've struggled to put that into words for a while. I live on less here than I did in the US. But by US standards my living standard is lower here too...sort of. It is easier here to chose to live on less money because the economy here is set up for an overall lower standard of living...there are more items in the market for less money here. It's easy to find a cheap laundry basket here, but try finding a nice one...if you do it will cost more than in the US. It's easy to find cheap clothes here, but good quality, well-made clothes cost more here. There are a million styles of cheap shoes available here...but to buy one solid pair of good quality shoes would cost me way more here than in the US. Like you said, it's easy to chose to live on less money here. But if you want to maintain the same lifestyle and buy the same quality of products as you did back home it will be both a struggle and it will be expensive here.
That's a very interesting perspective V and RG -- our costs are actually about 30% less based on the first month, but then again, I'm a bargain shopper and new shiny things aren't ever a Temptation for me (here or in the States.) Now if it contains silicon.... I've found that the housing here is more expensive than any other part of Mexico I've visited; Laura's last apartment outside of Guadalajara was similar in size and quality of neighborhood as our current, but half the price. That said, we live 100 yards from the beach -- a similar property in San Diego/LA/Miami would cost 4 times as much as what we pay. When I lived in Huntington Beach, CA our rent for an apartment of similar size was $2200; and I was a mile from the beach So yeah, I would agree for the most part; for what we pay here we could live similarly in a medium-sized city in the Midwest, but living in a warmer climate near the ocean in the US for the price we pay? No way Edit: I should add that our living amenities aren't quite 1:1 to what we had in the US; but it's pretty close (and obviously the concessions we've made matter little to me!) Edit 2: I should also mention that it seems like living in the HZ Cancun is comparable in price to some of the warm, coastal areas in the US.
Elec costs Coby, how'd you finally make out on getting the KWH/day usage down? We used just over 1,000 KW in the last two month period of time using an a/c about 20 hours/day, and a washer and dryer. Our bill for elec was just over 550 pesos/month, during the hottest part of the year. [We live in Benito Juarez Municipality, Cancun, which has a heavily subsidized elec rate on the first 900 KWH/month of consumption in the billing period.] We could cut the a/c costs further, if we could seal the apt better, but it has some old-fashioned, louvered glass windows, popular twenty years ago and seemingly still used in poorer neighborhoods, which allow hot air to flow into the apt even when closed. [For those not familiar with the way the elec subsidy here works, as soon as you go over the subsidized amount of consumption (which varies, depending on where you live), you pay from 2.3-2.5 pesos/KWH- a very high rate, indeed. This is part of a policy to discourage/punish higher consumption of elec, and benefit those who use less.] Does anyone know what tariff class the Zona Hotelera, Cancun, is in? I've always been under the impression it is in a more expensive (less advantageous) tariff class than Benito Juarez Municipality, Cancun, where most of those who work there, live.
Well, we've got usage down to something manageable, but still not so great. From August 17th to September 17th we used 495 kW/h -- which really isn't terrible, except when you consider that it's already over the subsidized amount of 400 kW/h for the bimester Based on the rates online for the tariff class, I estimate our 2 month bill will be ~$2,400 MXP for the bimester with 990 kW/h of usage. That is definitely not great, but it could be a lot worse. Thankfully though, we've actually been able to dial back the A/C a good bit recently and still be comfortable, so I'm hoping the worst of our usage is behind us Speaking of the HZ (in a sense) -- I was talking to a lady the other day about living in Playacar (private resort area here in Playa not so unlike the HZ), and she told me that all residents in that area are DAC by default. That doesn't seem fair to me, not even having the chance to reduce usage/save some money. Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if the HZ in Cancun is the same way.
Coby, that's not bad at all, you're running about the same consumption we do, and living where you want to live for just about $50/month more than here, in BJM. Lots of people would think that was a trade off worth making! What you said about the H.Z. is what I've been led to believe, too. We'll have to wait for someone with first hand experience, but I've suspected the H.Z. must be tarif DAC, too. When we've looked at condos in the H.Z., the agents have uniformly pretended not to know what I was talking about, or said they didn't know, when I asked about it. Still, paying $150-200 or so per month for electricity, where I'm paying $45-50, would be a trade off many people would be willing to make to be living on the sea, in a beautiful part of the world!
Re: Elec costs All I have with me here in the States is a copy of a CFE bill from last Dec and it shows the Tarifa as 1C, Hilos as 3 (?) and Uso as Domestico.
Hotel Zone elec rates Hi, Mole, thanks for giving us some input on this. This may dispel a misconception on my part. I wonder if you could look at the portion of the bill which breaks down the per KWH cost, and tell us what was charged, per KWH, for each increment of usage- basico, Intermedio, excediente- on the bill from December, last year (in the hotel zone, as I understand your post).
Re: Hotel Zone elec rates Yes, this is in the HZ. This is for 19 Sep 08 a 20 Nov 08 so should be a decent representation as we were there from Oct 4 onwards through this billing. Basico 150 kWh @ .657 Internedio 150 kWh @ 1.077 Excedente 961 kWh @ 2.290 It is less there in Cancun for us than here in NH...
Thanks, Mole, for going to the trouble. That looks like tariff 1-C to me, too, same as here in BJM. That small degree of subsidy suggests the winter rate structure. I never paid this much attention to elec billing in my life. The subject was made interesting to me by the fairly complex approach the CFE takes to billing, across the country, with their switching between winter and summer rates, applying different tariffs to different parts of the country, and subsidizing the cost for modest consumers of electricity. Mole, I don't suppose this elec bill, of about 2,450 pesos seemed large at all to you, being from NH; and, best of all, no snow!
