Mexico is getting EXPENSIVE! My Cost of Living in 2024

Mexico is getting EXPENSIVE! My Cost of Living in 2024

The increase in the cost of living in Mexico has been insane for two big reasons. Number one is prices here have gone way up. And number two, for those of us earning or saving in a different currency, the mexican peso has been strong relative to other currencies, which means it

Takes even more dollars to buy the same thing. And when the price has gone up in pesos, it’s like a double whammy. But anyway, on this video, I’m going to cover our cost of living in 2024 in Mexico for a bunch of various different topics.

And you’re going to be seeing real data from a household of me and my wife and our three dogs. So let’s get started. First topic is healthcare. Okay. And first, under healthcare, we’re going to talk about insurance. So last year my insurance cost was 12,000 pesos. This year it went up to 20,000.

Nothing’s changed with her health. There’s been no big changes. This is just the change in the cost. She got one year older, she’s been with the same company for quite a while, so she gets a nice discount and she’s paying like 20,000 pesos per year.

So that comes out to about $100 a month, because at today’s exchange rate, that’s double from last year. Because although the amount hasn’t gone up by 100% because of the exchange rate from dollars to pesos, her health care cost has doubled in one year. Now, I don’t have health care, but I should.

But anyway, we’re only counting it for my here. But that’s going to be $100 a month. Next is consultations and testing. So in Mexico, let’s say you get sick, you have the option to go to a specialist, which might start at about 800 pesos or a little under $50 a month, and then

Go up to 2000 pesos or like $120 a month. Or if you don’t have much money and you can’t afford going to a specialist, you might go to the pharmacy. And a lot of the pharmacies, they offer free consultations or consultations that cost very little, just like $2 or something.

On average, between consultations and testing, let’s put consultations, we’re looking at about $70 a month. So that includes blood test twice a year. My sees an endocrinologist and I had to go to the gastroenterologist. She had to go to the gastroenterologist. Sometimes she goes to the dermatologist.

So things like that average about $70 a month. Maybe I should write this out consultation. Okay. Consultations, 70 a month insurance, 100 a month. What’s next here? Oh, actually, let me talk a little bit more on consultations. So these days in 2024, for a specialist doctor, the

Cheapest you’re going to find is like seven or 800 pesos for a consultation or like $40 to $45 range. $40 to $50 range. But if you’re going to one of those who’s very popular, who gets a lot of recommendations, then you could be looking in the 1500 peso range, which at today’s

Exchange rate is like $85 or so. Pat has a good question here. Does May also have imss or public insurance? No, she only has private insurance. So this $100 a month she pays, that is for private insurance for a 33 year old who’s healthy, who’s

Been with the same company for quite a while. So is getting a nice discount from that. Okay. By the way, happy new year, everyone. Thank you all for joining. Henry, I see you said happy new year. Thank you very much. All right, next is like medications, vitamins,

Cold remedies, beauty supplies, things like that. So this is a pretty big expense for us, and let’s just call it meds. But there’s a lot more than just medications here that I’m talking about, and that’s about $200 a month. And part of that is we spend quite a bit of

Money on health products like vitamins and supplements, making sure we can fight off any colds and things like that. So that’s a pretty big expense. Between medications, beauty supplies like vitamins and all that, that would total 370 a month. But to get maybe a more accurate representation because

I should have health insurance, it’s just something I haven’t gotten around to doing, but I need to. So let’s say my insurance, I’m two years older than my, we’re both reasonably healthy, but I haven’t been with any company in Mexico, so I’m guessing mine might be around $130 a month.

So if I had health insurance, we’re looking at total health care costs in the $500 a month range. So that basically covers health care. But now let’s go on to the next topic. Next is car expenses. So the truth is that a lot of people choose to live in Mexico without a

Car, and maybe they use public transportation. Maybe they take a lot of Ubers or a lot of foreigners choose to live in a part of the city that’s very walkable, so they can walk to most of the things they need. However much of Queretaro is very car

Oriented, like it’s built around cars. Yes. There are walkable places in the city. You’re going to be paying a bit more for rent, typically in those places, but I would say in, like, 90% of the city, you’re probably going to want a car. And if you don’t, you’re going to

Be spending quite a bit on Ubers. And the cost of Ubers can really add up. And also here, at least when I used it last, they’re not very convenient in a lot of cities, your uber will arrive in two minutes. Here might arrive in 20 minutes, and then it cancels on you.

Then it takes another ten or 15 minutes for a car to get there. So it’s not very reliable in terms of, like, you can expect to be picked up quickly, if that makes sense. And then also, there’s a lot of people who are scared to drive in Mexico.

I think Rome here says we are scared to drive because of crooked cops. Yeah, I mean, in Queretaro, that’s not really an issue. It’s more of an issue in some parts of the country. Like, you go to some places near Tijuana. Yeah, it’s an issue there. You go to Cancun.

It’s less of an issue there than Tijuana, but still an issue. Some problems around Mexico City here in Queretaro, not really. I’ve never encountered any, and I don’t know if I’ve even heard of anyone encountering a crooked cop here in recent history. But anyway, car expenses, so upkeep.

So this is going to include my visits to the mechanics, the annual car checkups. I had to get new tires for the car that was kind of expensive. And that averages out to $167 a month. And then insurance. I just had to pay a year’s worth of insurance.

My insurance costs went up so much, especially with the change in the exchange rate, that is $66 a month. And then car washes typically get two car washes a month. And here, basically all the car washes are hand detailing places. So they hand wash it, they hand detail it.

And for your starting package is what I usually get with tip. We’re looking at. Let me just write down wash. So we’re looking at $9 per wash. I usually get two per month or so. That’s $18 a month, including tip, and then gasoline. This is another big expense.

And I’m at about $200 a month for gasoline. Oh, what else do we have here? Oh, just registration. Registration is pretty cheap. Unless you have a car that exceeds about $40,000 in value. So for my registration, I’m paying $4 a month. So for a total of $455.

Now, you can see that having a car can get expensive. So if you’re on a lower budget, maybe you’re going to choose to not have a car. But anyway, now let’s move on to the next topic. Next is a bunch of random topics or a bunch of random expenses. One is Internet.

So we have fiber optic here. And if you want 100 megabits per second with Telmex, which is one of the better companies, like, the two best companies are probably Telmex and total play here in Kiddro. Why are there balloons? I don’t know why there’s balloons appearing on the screen anyway.

So for 100 megabits per second, that’s 449 pesos a month, and that’s $26 at today’s exchange rate. However, I pay for the fastest Internet I can get because my whole livelihood is online. So I don’t want delays from any type of slow Internet. So I pay for 1000 megabits per second.

I’ve mistakenly called that megabytes per second in the past, but that is very, very wrong. Megabits per second. And that is $82. $82 for very reliable, gigabit Internet. Next is gas for home. So I’ll call this to not confuse people. This is not gasoline. This is to run the dryer.

And we have two water heaters in our house, one for each side of the house. And also, we’ve been cooking a lot at home. And I just filled up the gas tank, and it lasted for three months, and that is $52 a month. Now, in those months, where we eat out more,

This is cheaper because we’re using less for cooking. Now there’s a thumbs up. What the heck? I put my thumb up, and then the thumbs up appears. I’m so confused. This must be like AI or something getting into my computer. I don’t know why it created these balloons, though.

Okay, so we covered gas for home, now water for the house. So this isn’t talking about drinking water. This is like water. We used to wash dishes and shower and wash our clothes and water the lawn. We’re looking at $35 a month. And we have a pretty big lawn here, compared to

Average, so that increases our water bill a bit. And next is drinking water. So we have this service that delivers these big jugs of water to our home every week, and it’s called a garrafon. Garrafon is the big jug of water. And we get approximately six per month.

And at 47 pesos each, the price of this has gone up a lot. They’re raising the price on these garrafones, like, every couple of months, and now it’s up to 47 pesos each, which comes to $17 a month. And it. And now groceries have been expensive for us,

So we have to feed two adults, and we generally try to eat pretty healthy. We aren’t buying much alcohol. However, we typically try to buy organic, buy the higher quality foods, and in December, we spent $355 on groceries. However, in the month of December, we didn’t buy any dog food.

Oh, and that’s one other thing also. Laska, our 14 year old husky, has basically stopped eating dog food and will only eat human food. So we have to buy human food for her, too. So that’s included in the cost of groceries. But since I didn’t buy any bags of dog food

In December, but there was still dog food eaten, I’m adding a bit for that, and that comes to 400 a month after including the dog food. Now, this is a month where we haven’t eaten out as much, so our grocery bill is higher. Of course, eating out is.

The price of eating out is lower when we don’t eat out as much. But anyway, what’s next here, vet bills for the vet. Laska’s getting old. We have to take her to the vet a lot, and. Oh, so. But vet bills and also supplements for Laska

Because she has, like, joint problems and stuff. And we have to pay quite a bit for supplements each month. And there we’re looking at $176 a month. And now let me erase this to get some more space. Okay, next is our cell phone bill. So we have telcell, and with Telcel, you can

Buy a package that gets you, like, five or eight gigs of data for 300 pesos a month. And that also gets you unlimited calling and texting and unlimited social media use for, like, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and I think there’s a couple of others included.

So for the two of us, 300 pesos is $35 a month. It. And then you have, like, household goods. So shampoo, conditioner, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, a new mop, things like that. What else? A new hose to water the grass. That comes out to about $80 a month.

You it, and then you have clothing. So I’m having to replace a lot of my wardrobe right now because things get warm, socks get holes in them, of course. And that’s running about a month. So buying new clothing here is expensive. That’s one of the more expensive things, like name brand clothing, electronics.

Those things can get pretty expensive. Now, May gets a lot of hers secondhand, like in secondhand Facebook groups. And she gets actually really good prices on a lot of stuff doing that. And she can get it in great condition. Most of the clothes I buy, I actually buy from

Us stores and either get them shipped here or get them sent through a shipping service that delivers to San Miguel (de Allende), which is about an hour away. But anyway, yeah, clothing, another pretty big expense at like $150. And then we have tips and donations. So where we live, there’s this guy

Who does all the yard work. We occasionally throw him like 200 pesos, things like that for security where we live as well, like Christmas bonus kind of thing. And then, like people on the street, you’ll come across an elderly man or woman who can’t work, who’s asking

For some change, and give that person some. Or maybe a friend is in need of some money, give that person some. And that comes out to about $100 a month. Oh, I just realized. So one thing I forgot to include on this list was grooming. And we bring clover, our new husky.

We bring him to the groomers once a month or more, and then also Bimba, ou littler dog. We bring her a little less often, but we’re looking at, like, let’s call it two groomings a month at. How much does it cost? I think it’s 300 pesos per time. So 600 pesos.

I think that’s like $35. Okay, now let’s add some of these up. So this basically includes everything except for home, like, whether you’re renting or living somewhere. Chugzy asks, why did he remove groceries and dog food total from the list? I didn’t remove it. I just erased this to make more space so

You could see everything that I was writing. But anyway, so now I’ll get rid of this it, and we’ll throw this category up here as other. And compiling the total. I had the total here, but this was before I forgot to include the grooming expenses.

And that was 1192 plus car and health care. So what’s 35 plus 1192? I can’t do math right now. Don’t make me do math in hurry. 1227. So for a total of. We have 21 47 plus 35. 21 77. It over $2,000 a month. And that doesn’t include eating out, entertainment,

And also it doesn’t include rent expense. Now, a lot of these prices have doubled from a year ago. Like health care and various other expenses. Now, some haven’t gone up nearly as much, but just about, I think everything has increased. And they say that the mexican peso is strong.

However, it has only been strong relative to other currencies that are even worse. If the peso were actually strong, prices would be going down, but they’re not. So the peso is weak. It’s just that other currencies have been even weaker. So yeah, it’s gone up tremendously in the past

Year or two, but now let’s talk about what it costs to go out to eat. So last night we went out for wings. It’s a place that’s similar to buffalo wild wings. We have buffalo wild wings here, but buffalo wild wings is super expensive compared to a lot of the other wings places.

So we went to this place. It’s called Las Alitas. They have a promo every. I think it’s. Is it Monday and Thursday or Monday and Wednesday, or Monday through Wednesday. But anyway, we went on a Monday where they have two for one boneless. So we each got one nonalcoholic drink

And two for one boneless wings. It was 280 pesos, or about $15 plus tip for two people. So that’s not bad. But that’s going on the day when they have a promo and that’s going to the much cheaper wings place. I mean, they’re still really high quality.

Like, they’re just as good as buffalo wild wings. Actually, I think they’re higher quality than buffalo wild wings. You have like $15 plus tip, and typical tip here is 15%. That’s considered a pretty good tipper. I tipped 20 last night. I tend to tip more when it’s buy one,

Get one, because you get a plate for free. Right. But let’s say we’re going out to a nice restaurant. Maybe we go out to a steakhouse. Not ordering steak typically, but we’ll get one of the cheaper meals, like a chicken plate or a burger or a pasta.

And those cheaper places, or those cheaper plates at the fancy steakhouses is like in the plate range at the current exchange rate. So we might do that. We might get a big bottle of mineral water to share. And what are we looking at there?

We’re looking at like 600, 700 pesos, maybe $40 after tip for two people at a nice restaurant, not ordering the expensive steaks, that might give you an idea of how much it costs to eat out. Now, if you’re going to a steakhouse and having a ribeye, well, yeah, your meal is

Going to be a whole lot more expensive. But what else did I miss here? Entertainment. We sometimes go to the movies, so if we’re going to the movies, we try to go on Tuesdays when the tickets are two for one. And if you go to the fancy movie theaters, you’re looking

At like the ones where you have a big old chair that reclines and you lean way back and you can get your food served to you where you’re sitting. Well, you’re looking at 200 pesos or so for the tickets. For the two tickets, because they’re buy one, get

One, and then whatever popcorn and drinks you get. So if you want popcorn, like a large popcorn, you’re looking at four or $5. If you want a drink, you’re looking at maybe three or $4. So you can go to the movies with popcorn and drink for

$15, maybe $20 if you go on the two for one days. Or if you go to the less fancy theaters where you get a smaller chair, they still recline a little bit, just like the typical movie theater chair you’re used to, the ticket prices are about half that. So that basically covers anything

Or everything except rent. But your rent is going to vary so much depending on what kind of place you choose. And maybe you choose to buy instead. So you don’t have a rent payment. Now if you buy, you still have house upkeep and your property tax and insurance expenses.

And maybe you’re paying for an alarm system, various things like that. But anyway, since it varies so much depending on what kind of place you choose, I want to show you some options here in queretaro. So I’m going to click over here to this screen and we’ll look at some rental options.

So this 1st one, 11,500 plus monthly Hoa fee of 650, you’re looking at 12,150 pesos. 12,150 pesos. $2. That is a little over $700. It’s three bedrooms, two bathrooms and approximately 1200 sqft. So this is a pretty basic place. This is going to be somewhere that lower

To middle class family might live in. And what’s another option here? Okay, so here’s one in Altosano. This one’s bigger. It’s 200 m². So you’re looking at like 2200 sqft or so. 25,000 pesos to us dollars. We’ll get a conversion here. A little under $1,500 a month. This is a new neighborhood.

There’s lots of construction going on there. Almost all like practically all the houses are just a few years old or less. I believe oh, no, it’s not updating this. Sorry. Okay, now you can see the pictures. You can see the pictures of what I’m looking at. So again, new neighborhood.

All the houses are pretty new. This one’s about 2200 sqft. This is your typical middle to higher middle class home for Mexicans. And your average foreigner, the average expat, might live in something that looks similar to this, maybe a little less nice. Okay, now. Oh, I need to share it again. Sorry.

Share screen. Okay, here we go. I don’t know why it’s opening it up in a separate tab, but when I click on one of these, it’s opening it up in a different tab, which is causing you to not be able to see it until I share that new tab.

All of these are pretty expensive. Okay, here’s one for 20,000 pesos. This is in millennial, pretty decent location. 20,000 mexican pesos to us dollars. This one is about 2300 sqft. It’s a little under $1,200 a month. Got to share this tab here so you can see what I’m looking at.

And honestly, from what I’m seeing here, actually, they have a lot of pictures of what’s nearby and very few of the inside. Now, be extra careful when you see a rental like that, because when you see a rental like that, a lot of

Times if they don’t have pictures of the inside, a lot of times they don’t actually own the house. So they might just be trying to get you to pay a deposit, and then they’re just going to steal that money from you. Okay, El Refugio.

Here’s a very popular place for expats to live in Queretaro when they have a budget of under $1,000 a month. So 14,000 pesos. I’ll see what the conversion is. 14,000 mexican pesos to us dollars. We’re looking at $820 a month for this place. And let’s take a look at some pictures.

We’re looking at three bedrooms, three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, and about 15 or 1600 square feet. But however, when they put the square footage in Mexico, I don’t know exactly how they calculate it, but they say this many square meters of construction, but I think

Sometimes they include, like, the outdoor patio as construction, maybe even the garage area as construction. Because the thing is, when I enter a home here in Mexico that’s supposedly 2000 sqft versus a home in the US, that’s 2000 home in the US is so

Much bigger, so I’m not sure what that difference in calculation is, how that differs so much. But anyway, this is a home that I think was little over $820, if I remember right. So you don’t really have a yard there, just a tiny outdoor area in the back. It’s not bad.

But this is what you’re going to get in one of the more popular places for foreigners to live here for $820 a month. But anyway, I hope this gave you a good idea of how much it costs here to live in Mexico in 2024. Henry, thanks for the super chat.

He says it’s pretty discouraging to hear that Mexico is getting expensive. Why do you think that really is? Will a new mexican administration change that and make Mexico more economical again? Thoughts? Well, that’s a great question. So a big portion of this is just the exchange rate.

So when your dollar doesn’t go as far, it takes more dollars to buy the same amount of products. But then it’s just been a double whammy for us foreigners, because, yes, everybody living in Mexico has had to deal with the increasing prices, and the prices have gone up a lot.

And then the person who earns or saves in dollars or another currency, well, then they’re having to pay. Like, their prices have gone up an additional 20% or an additional 25%, depending on when you compare it to a year ago, two years ago, or whatever.

Actually, from the peak in 2020, it takes something like 35% more dollars to buy the same thing, or like a 35% increase in cost. So that’s one reason. But also, where we live in queretaro is one of the more expensive cities in Mexico. Now, you can go live a lot cheaper in

A smaller city, but you go to Monterrey, Queretaro, Mexico City, like these population centers where there’s a lot of business, a lot of the higher paying jobs for Mexicans are in these cities. So a lot of people are choosing to come live here to improve their own life, and it’s driving up costs.

The property costs are ridiculous, like the cost to buy a piece of land here. It’s crazy. For example, you go to one of the nicer neighborhoods in the city. If you want a third of an acre, you might be looking at half a million dollars, $700,000.

So typically, when people buy a lot, they buy one that’s very small, and they build up because it’s just cheaper to do that. And land is very expensive. So the typical person has very little yard, if any, and their home is on a very small piece of land.

But, yeah, I grew up in a not very populated part of Minnesota. And if I wanted to buy a third of an acre there, I mean, in a great location, maybe I’m looking at $50,000. Or if I could buy, heck, I could buy 100 acres for $50,000 in a more rural location.

And a third of an acre is like over a half a million here in the nicer neighborhoods, that’s really expensive. But what’s making prices go up? Inflation in general, the prices of all the inputs are going up. You’ve seen price increases in basically every commodity across the board.

And that’s all the inputs going into making all the products transporting it, the energy prices have gone up. So the cost of transporting it, the cost of operating the manufacturing plants have gone up. But what’s at the root of it? Well, the expansion in the supply of the peso

Has about doubled in the past five years. So the number of pesos in existence has doubled. Who’s responsible for that? The mexican government. And like all else, equal, if you double the supply of pesos, your one peso is going to buy half as much. So that’s a big issue.

And this is when the mexican peso is relatively strong compared to other currencies. Now, one of the reasons for it being relatively strong is the mexican government. Well, the Banco de Mexico, the Mexico central bank, well, they aggressively rose rates faster than other central banks were doing that.

And that was a big reason why the peso was relatively strong. But, yeah, general inflation, and then the dollar not being as strong relative to the peso. But what accounts for inflation? Money printing is the biggest thing, but also like the cost of everything going up in general.

But anyway, I wanted to make a relatively short live stream today just going over our cost of living. So thank you all for joining us. I appreciate you and hope you had a great holidays and happy new year to everyone.

In this livestream we’re going to chat about how cheap or expensive Mexico is in 2024 by reviewing my expenses and costs of living in Queretaro.

In this, I will be covering the cost of living in Mexico in regards to: Internet speeds and costs, rent costs, water bill, electricity bill, my gas costs to run the water heaters, dryer, and well as cooking at home.

I’ll be discussing food costs, in terms of both going out to eat and eating at home.

We will also be discussing how the exchange rate effects us who are living in Mexico and earning or saving in a different currency.

Are you an expat in Mexico or considering the move? The cost of living has seen significant changes, and in this video, we break down our 2024 expenses living in Mexico. Join us as we explore the impact of rising prices, exchange rates, and share real data from our household of two adults and three dogs.

📈 Healthcare Breakdown:
Insurance: Last year’s 12,000 pesos skyrocketed to 20,000 pesos due to currency exchange rates, equivalent to $100 per month.
Consultations and Testing: Approximately $70 monthly, covering specialist visits and regular health check-ups.
💊 Medications and Health Products:
Meds: A significant expense at $200 per month, including vitamins and supplements for maintaining good health.
Potential Health Insurance: Estimated at $130 per month, bringing the total healthcare cost to around $500 monthly.

🚗 Car Expenses:
Upkeep: Including mechanic visits, car checkups, and occasional repairs, averaging $167 monthly.
Insurance: Increased to $66 monthly.
Gasoline: A substantial expense at $200 per month.
Car Washes: Two hand-detailing sessions monthly, totaling $18.

🌐 Miscellaneous Monthly Expenses:
Internet: High-speed fiber optic at $82 monthly.
Electricity: It varies a lot depending on the season but it’s about $65 monthly on average.
Gas for Home: Used for the dryer, water heaters, and cooking, totaling $52 monthly.
Water for the House: Covering various household needs, averaging $35 monthly.
Drinking Water Delivery: At $17 monthly for six garrafones.
Groceries: Including organic and quality foods, averaging $400 monthly.
Vet Bills and Supplements: Essential for aging pets, costing $176 monthly.
Cell Phone Bill: $35 monthly for two people with data and unlimited calling.
Household Goods: Including toiletries, cleaning supplies, and more, totaling $80 monthly.
Clothing: Replacing and maintaining wardrobes at $150 monthly.
Tips and Donations: Supporting local services and charity, averaging $100 monthly.

🏡 Rental Options in Queretaro:
Exploring various rentals ranging from $700 to $1,500 per month.

💭 Closing Thoughts:
Living in Mexico has its perks, but the increasing cost of living is a reality. Factors like currency exchange rates, inflation, and urban development contribute to the rise in expenses. Stay tuned for more updates on navigating expat life in Mexico.

#Mexico #costofliving #tangerinetravels