| What does
"Escaping" really cost? |
| The Impact
of Personality and Personal Tastes |
| by Sandy Caputo |
| From my experience,
fitting yourself comfortably into one of those live well and cheaply
abroad scenarios very much depends on how you define the word well.
If to you it implies traveling, collecting, frequent entertaining, and
dining out - the word cheaply might have to be dropped.
In my year
and a half of escapist living, I’ve done both: lived cheaply and
lived well. The first variety easily fell into those much touted
under $800 a month descriptions; the latter has definitely exceeded such.
I’ve experienced staying at a business class hotel at $49 (U.S.) a day,
plus meals, to a bed and breakfast style situation with a local family
at $7 a day, to renting my own furnished apartment in one of Morelia’s
better neighborhoods at $300 a month. |
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| There were
less expensive hotels (starting at around $10 a day), full-meal
boarding plans (at around $15), and a wide variety of home and apartment
rentals ranging from a low of around $100 a month for an unfurnished place
in a small suburb - called colonias, here, to upwards of $1,000 a month
for a furnished mansion in an upscale neighborhood.
That $300 apartment
I opted for delivered me a place that spoke to all my romantic notions
of Mexico living: walled property with gates that opened to a parking
space; courtyard with a lovely fountain; an unbelievable variety of flowering
shrubs, plants, and fruit trees; a secure neighborhood; and a phone
line – a commodity not easily come by on short notice.
The main house
(which
I could have rented for $800 a month) was on two levels, featured some
seven fireplaces, a huge tiled kitchen, lovely bathrooms, terraces and
patios, and (though of course I could have cared less), a satellite
dish for picking up U.S. television.The one-bedroom apartment with neat
little kitchen, nice bath and bedroom, fireplaced living room and terrace
with sweeping view of the city was really all I needed. |
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| The terrace
even featured – and, truth be told, this is what sold me – a footed tub
for hot baths under the stars.
My living
costs were quite reasonable, compared to U.S. standards. My single
woman, somewhat hermit-like existence of eating little, writing and reading
constantly, catching an occasional movie, commuting around town by foot,
taxi, or on the small vans that are the local version of a bus system cost
me a total of $150 a month.
That included
about a $20 weekly grocery bill – manageable because of the abundantly
available fresh fruits and vegetables and my determination that meat and
I could probably stand some distancing; $3.50 a movie and about half
that much for popcorn and a soda; $7 to $15 for a really fabulous occasional
dinner out; and commuting that costs some 30 cents or $2 to $4 a bus or
taxi ride, respectively. |
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| Additionally,
I followed the custom of hiring local people to keep up with the abundant
plantings in the courtyard and to take care of my laundry and housekeeping
needs. The practice is first of all affordable but it also provides
needed work for a variety of neighbors, many of whom you might otherwise
never come to know.
In my case,
it also provided me the opportunity to fall gradually into a comfortable
acquaintance with the everyday language of the community. But,
most important, it has introduced me to the pride Mexicans take in their
work and the tranquility they seem to have gained from their emphasis on
people over things. I’d say that’s a good return on what was
costing me a mere $12.50 a week.
In addition,
I’ve averaged about $20 per month for natural gas, $7.50 per month for
electricity, and $10 per month for telephone service. I found an
excellent Internet service provider at $20 a month who makes free house
calls whenever there’s a problem I can’t solve.
So you can
see that I was seeming to get nicely by well within that magic $800 figure. |
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| I managed
to reach and probably exceed it through the purchase of many gifts
for friends and family and by venturing via the great Mexican bus systems
to the many fascinating indigenous villages throughout the state of Michoacan
and to places more distant such as San Miguel de Allende, Taxco, Cuernavaca,
and Acapulco. A trip by these streamlined, first-class air quality
busses to Acapulco from Morelia, for instance, cost approximately $100.
It was during
my last planned five-week immersion back into the world of advertising
and public relations in Tucson that turned into eleven that my fiancé
prevailed upon me to agree to allow him in on my adventure.
And while alone I may be frugal, with him I become a lot more open to an
if it feels good, do it attitude.
Thus a new
version of living well in Mexico. |
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| Save for doubling
the small amount I was paying for laundry services, our basic expense have
remained the same. But in other areas our costs have grown exponentially.
My weekly shopping trip has become daily forays to the mercado where
things that never would have been on my list seem suddenly irresistible.
We now make
at least weekly outings to all those same interesting little surrounding
pueblos, but now they are replete with the purchase of mementos from each
as we add to the ambiance of this apartment with an eye toward how things
will look wherever we may eventually settle.
My fiancé
is a gourmand, so we’ve found where to buy the best cuts of meat, the most
beautiful shrimp, the most exotic fruits and vegetables.
And in place of my occasional afternoon tea and cookies, there are now
the best liquors and wines filling our pretty new Mexican stemware. We’ve
made major art purchase, replaced expensive eyeglasses and a lightning
zapped modem, had the dog groomed, thrown dinner parties.
An expense
we haven’t taken on as yet is health insurance. But our procrastination
has only been because of the obviously excellent and low-cost medical care
here. For example, a recent hour’s personal conference with
a board-certified specialist, including the most complete testing I’ve
ever had for a standard physical check-up, cost just $20 and prescription
drugs are available over-the counter at much lower than U.S. costs.
Our research tells us there is federally provided health and medical insurance
available at around $300 annually that is far more comprehensive than in
the States. The $300 supposedly includes a spouse and dependents
and covers office visits, treatments, prescribed medicines, surgery, eye
and dental care.
Our live-well-in-Mexico
cost factor has been otherwise influenced by the fact that we’ve been bent
on searching out the best of all possible places to put down more permanent
roots, thus reflects such expenses as monthly bus or car travel to far-flung
places, dog sitting, hotel stays, meals, and special sight-seeing excursions.
In the last
three months we’ve covered the entire west coast of Mexico, stayed at lovely
hotels, eaten grand meals, and stinted on nothing here at home.
I hesitate to consider what that would have cost in addition to ongoing
day-to-day expenses in the States. But, at just over $3,000
per month, this is certainly a different take on the what does it really
cost dynamic. Still, I think it’s also a very realistic way
to force oneself to look at the impact personality and personal tastes
have on exactly what “escaping” costs.
To gain a flavor
of what daily life is like in Morelia – Why are those dogs on everyone’s
rooftops? What is rebar doing sticking above all those houses? Why
you’d better not be looking up, but down and why that car you’re passing
has suddenly turned on his left turn signal – stay tuned for Part Three
of Escaping the Rat Race!
This is
Sandy Caputo's second installment on Escaping the Rat Race. Her first article,
whisch appeared in the june issue of Escape from America Magazine, told
of her not so miraculous escaoe from the rat race north of the Rio Grande.
In this current article, Sandy poignantly gives example that not everyone
has the same concept of wants and needs.
Sandy rwrites,
"While alone I may be frugal, with him I become a lot more open to an if
it feels good, do it attitude. In my year and a half of escapist living,
I’ve done both: lived cheaply and lived well. The first variety
easily fell into those much touted under $800 a month descriptions; the
latter has definitely exceeded such." Stay tuned for more.
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