The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

- Robert Frost

the 1 less traveled by

A move to Nicaragua

SJDS Bay & Port

Cost of Living in San Juan del Sur

downloadfreethemes

I tried to carefully keep track of all our expenses this past April. I did not include the expenses incurred from building our house including the cost for our monthly daytime laborer and nighttime watchman.

Total:$3,708.21
Storage Unit in USA$232
Rent$550
Electricity Utility$112.91
House cleaner with insurance$290
Nanny$140
Gym Membership & Boxing Classes$100
Spanish Lessons$37
Escuela Adelante Preschool$100
San Juan del Sur Day School$300
Ballet Lessons (5 classes)$40
Groceries$746.49
Eating Out$157.90
Gas$259.94
Misc$9.42
Dentist - Cleanings for whole family$140
Netflix$9.99
Spotify$14.99
Student Loans$232.57
ATM Withdrawal Fees$35
Vacation to Puerto Sandino$200

4 comments on “Cost of Living in San Juan del Sur”

  1. How much did you pay for security-night watchman? And your handy man? As a solo woman there would be essential expenditures .
    Thank you

    1. Hi Martha,

      We pay our nightwatchman at the property we’re building a house on $170 per month. He works 5pm to 5am, 6 days per week. We pay a day laborer/handyman $240 per month plus insurance which is about $50 per month. He works 7am until 3pm 6 days per week.

  2. Love your blog. I’m in Cali and my husband and I been to Nica 3 times and would like to concider possibly retiring there. My question did you go on a tourist visa or did you apply for residency before you moved.
    Also in your monthly budget I didn’t see anything for car insurance. Can u tell me how u deal with Medical insurance. Thanks for your time
    Isabella

    1. Hi Isabella,

      Thanks for reading my blog. We renew our tourist VISA every 90 days. We looked into getting residency, but we are planning on moving back, so for the cost, it made more sense to just do it that way. We pay about $100 a year for our car insurance and registration. Not sure how much it really costs, but we pay someone to go handle it for us. We do not have health insurance. There are options, we just haven’t done the research and signed up for anything. To be honest, I’m more worried not having insurance when I got on trips back to the USA. Here healthcare, even at the “Gringo hospital” is very reasonable.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *