Cost of Living Part 3 - San Pedro 2009

Part 3 of our assessment of *our* cost of living in Costa Rica...

To Restate for emphasis :-D... An assessment of the cost of living is meaningless unless you know *how* we lived.

In San Pedro, our most representative month was February/March, 2009. We were renting a 2 bedroom, 1 bath, furnished apartment in a University neighborhood of the capital city. We had no car, and no cable TV (no TV, for that matter). We had a land line phone with high-speed internet (in the landlady's name), and a post office box. We still had our 2 cell phones. We ate out at restaurants an average of 2 meals per week - quite a bit less than before, but an average meal was more expensive than our previous cities - often between $5 - $10 each. We shopped at the local supermarkets, and went to the feria regularly. We still went without a housekeeper, but took our laundry to a lavanderia. We were still using only Caja for insurance. But we also go to private doctors occasionally, and pay as we go. Our total for the month, including averaged one-time-only purchases was $1,224.

Here is the breakdown of costs:

2/21/2009 through 3/22/2009 (in U.S. Dollars)

Item - Dollars - Averaged One-time
-----------------------------------------
Dining Out - $102
Groceries - $373
Rent - $400
CCSS (Caja) - $61
Doctors - $0 - $32
Medicine - $0 - $34
Local Travel (bus, taxi) - $18
Internet - $20
Electric - $25
Cellular Phones - $35
Long Distance - $10
Local Telephone - $5
Internet installation - $0 - $2
Water - $10
Laundry - $14
Entertainment - $18
PO box - $0 - $3
Miscellaneous - $0 - $3
Subscriptions, dues, gifts - $0 - $9
Clothing - $0 - $1
Legal Costs - $0 - $8
Spanish School - $0 - $41

Total => $1,091 + $133 = $1,224

Part 1 is our cost of living in Orosí in May 2007, and part 2 is our cost of living in Alajuela in January 2008.