DoDi2
Feb 28, 2006, 2:29 PM
Post #52 of 60
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"Just wanted to comment on living in Mexico on $600 a month.
It can be done. And you can live a pretty good life.
You'd have to make some changes, for sure. "
Being from NOB and ignorant of these things, would you please elaborate a bit more on how this could be done and what the lifestyle, etc. would be like?
Thanks
Ron
I can tell you pretty specifically how it can be done.
First of all you start by either living with your extended family sharing a room or perhaps your parents give you a little piece of thier plot when you're of age.
If your on your own then you go off someplace to work and save for five or ten years (depending on where you go) and save up enough to buy a little land and construction materials.
Then you start preparing your construction site, buying bags of cement and making blocks yourself, getting the posts, pipes, windows, doors, etc. and building your house, hooking all the connections, drainage, electricity, water and so on up yourself with the help of family and friends unless you're still off somewhere working and sending $ home to pay a crew that's being supervised for you by a family member.
Then you move in and throw a party.
Now you can start living off of $400 to $600 per month depending on if you are married and have kids.
You'll eat all meals at home, except for a rare splurge during fiestas or when you feel like having a treat at one of the stands in the mercado.
You won't go on vacation and if you get seriously ill or need an operation and haven't put away emergency money then you'll either have to find someone to loan it to you or go without the operation.
You have a TV but it's hooked up to an antenea. You might have a cell phone, but it uses a pre-paid card and is only for emergencies. If you don't have a cell phone then you make and recieve calls at the caseta down the street.
No internet.
You can buy clothes and shoes, but not too often so you take real good care of them.
If you need extra money you can make tortillas or plant something that grows fast, like cilantro, and sell it at the weekly market. Or you can hire on as a day laborer with someone for some quick cash.
You tend to keep the refrigerator unplugged since it suck up electricity faster than a las vegas nightclub.
You count all your change at the store.
You raise chickens/turkeys for eggs and meat. You feed them leftover tortillas and masa you make in the morning from old maize that's gone all powdery from bugs and isn't fit for human consumption.
There's lots of food to gather in el campo... chepil, chapulines, rabbits, small birds, etc.
You have fruit trees in your patio, and you might grow onions, tomatos, herbs, etc. But maybe you just buy them at the mercado... they don't cost much.
You tend to make things fresh from scratch and pretty much never buy any prepackaged food. (You do drink soda pop, but you drink it warm because it's not worth the cost of pluggin in the fridge to keep them cold.)
You know where to shop and the price of everything. You talk about this a lot with neighbors who always share detail price information when returning from a shopping trip.
You wash your clothes by hand. You recycle things. You use the bucket system in the patio for managing drinking water vs. washing water vs. water for your animals. In other words you don't need a lot of fancy house fixtures and appliances.
Actually it's pretty easy to live on $600 if all you need is to eat and have the nessecities of life. And if your $600 is from passive income vs. having to actually go out and work everyday, then you have enough time to do all the manual sort of household work required to live inexpensively.
Actually $600 is a lot for just one person if you live the style I describe, which most people do.
It's quite doable, but restrictive and a lot of hard work.
(This post was edited by DoDi2 on Feb 28, 2006, 2:52 PM)
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