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