By Paul & Gloria in Blog, Featured Welcome to our RetireForLessInCostaRica.com Newsletter! Paul and Gloria In Our Special Health Care & Health Insurance Issue: Costa Rica’s Caja: How it Works Our Caja Experience, by Norman and Frankie Siegel In the Mailbag: Regarding Getting Residency in Costa Rica and Joining the Caja New Development: Make Caja Appointments by Phone Update: […]
Category Archives: Cost of Living
By Paul & Gloria in Blog, Featured Welcome to our Retire For Less In Costa Rica Newsletter Paul and Gloria In This Issue: Our March 2016 Costa Rica Cost of Living Expenses Featured Property-San Ramón: Unique 2BR 2BA Home Priced to Sell at $62K Reduced! Our Ultimate CR Healthcare Tour If you missed our last newsletter, you can […]
By Paul & Gloria in Blog March was a relatively quiet month for us. We had a beach day, invited friends over for dinner a couple of times, and did a few tours for potential expats. We also had higher than normal expenses in healthcare and groceries. More about that below. Transportation – $206.14 March was a month […]
By Paul & Gloria in Blog Our plan was to spend September in Oaxaca, Mexico as we do most years, but Paul’s surgery to remove his right kidney in August caused us to delay our plans. We spent the month in Costa Rica as Paul recuperated and began to get his strength back. Transportation – $389.36 Our expenses […]
By Gloria in Blog In June, we came close to our goal of spending $2000 for the month. Transportation, Healthcare, Personal Care/Clothing, and Pet Care came in higher than normal. Here’s the breakdown: Transportation – $272.23 Though we only had one fill-up at the tank in June ($59.38) we had some car repairs on our 1996 Toyota 4-Runner […]
By Paul & Gloria in Blog October was an unusual month for us as far as our Costa Rica expenses are concerned. We only spent two days out of the entire month actually in Costa Rica. But we’ll do our best to explain things, below. Part 1: Las Vegas We spent the first five days of November traveling to and […]
By Gloria in Blog I was thinking recently about why we choose to track our spending in such detail and to share it with our readers every month. When we moved to Costa Rica back in April 2009, we had Paul’s Social Security of only $922.00 USD. We knew that we couldn’t live on just $922 per month […]
By Paul & Gloria in Blog The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual report on consumer expenditures shows the “average” American household (AAHh) spent $57,311 in 2016. Note, $74,664 is the “average” income and $57,311 is the average spent after taxes. I decided to compare the expense published against what I spend in Costa Rica, but I see a problem with […]
By Paul & Gloria in Blog by Tammy (Originally published by Viva Tropical. Used with permission.) Photos, links, and notes by RFLCR & updated on June 8, 2016. Costa Rica has been an increasingly popular destination among tourists and expats for several decades. And, while it stands out heads above the rest for its abundance of untamed nature and […]
By Gloria in Blog January was a transition month for us. After living in Oaxaca, Mexico for six months, we started out the new year with a trip to Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico, before returning to Costa Rica on January 8th. Obviously, that increased our expenses for the month. Our total spending was $2,617.17. Here’s the breakdown of our vacation […]