Expat Community > Colombia

JustSomeGuy
Joined 2018
Posts: 1083

Cost of living

1 year ago

My personal experience in Colombia is that it is inexpensive to live here. I’m just here for a little over 3 months so I’m not getting local health insurance. I do get health care here, a dermatologist froze some sun damage off my head and I’ll probably get my teeth cleaned before I leave. Both of those are about 1/5 the price of the same care in the USA, in my town.
The house I live in costs 200 mil a month, that’s about $45 USD, it’s in Estrada 2. It’s a nice one bedroom house in a quiet neighborhood with friendly neighbors. It’s 9:35 pm right now and my front door is propped open because it was hot inside when I walked home at 8:55 pm. It seems like a safe enough area, I walk home well after dark most evenings. I’m in a small town, you couldn’t hire me to live in Medellin or any other large city in Colombia. I’m seldom in the house during the day but was last Thursday and one of my neighbors was playing music way too loudly, I asked her to turn it down and she did.

I just paid my gas bill for January, it was 1092 pesos, that is just about 25 cents. I have a gas stove and a gas hot water heater. The bill was $0.00 for December, Estrada 2 gets a subsidy.
The water bill, also for January, was 16,580, just about $3.70 USD. I’m a bit of an eco-freak so I take short showers.
The electric bill was 12,517, about $2.80 USD
There is also trash pickup, I don’t remember what that was but it was laughably small as well.

Avocados vary in price by size, I’ve been paying about 2000 pesos for one, less than $0.50.
Eggs are 7500, maybe $1.70 USD a dozen at Ara. A little less at a shop up the street.
Chicken breasts were 18ooo for two at Ara, I think. About $4.00 USD.
bananas are 5 cents each, 15 small mandarin oranges are less than a dollar.
It would be easy for me to spend less money, I’m kind of extravagant in my spending. But I enjoy going out and over to friends houses, so I do. I have friends who are girls but I don’t have a girlfriend, I also don’t have a vehicle.

My bank has locked me out of my accounts right now and I don’t want to bother with changing my password so I’m not quite sure how much I have spent so far, I’ve only been here 70 days but I think it is less than $1000 a month and life is good.

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