Ok boys and girls,how much?

nyc dad

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Jul 28, 2011
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How much for the basic services...? Cable,internet,phone,also cell phones,do they use contracts? It seems that when I was DR,everyone was buying a 200$rd card every five minutes lol.Which are the most reliable cell companies down there and give you more bang for the buck(free nites and weekends),service in most parts of the country.Going back to the basics,here I spend about 200$us every two weeks at the supermarket,am I really gonna pay 7400$rd in DR?cable,I just want the basic(don't care for premiums)and kid's channel,I definitely need it with three boys lol.Also,I noticed some members complaint about the internet service...is it unreliable? Last but not least,car insurance,how much? Someone told me that full coverage does not exist in DR,is it true? If your vehicle is stolen,you get a oh well from the insurance company?...Thanks in advanced
 

jrjrth

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Mar 24, 2011
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How much for the basic services...? Cable,internet,phone,also cell phones,do they use contracts? It seems that when I was DR,everyone was buying a 200$rd card every five minutes lol.Which are the most reliable cell companies down there and give you more bang for the buck(free nites and weekends),service in most parts of the country.Going back to the basics,here I spend about 200$us every two weeks at the supermarket,am I really gonna pay 7400$rd in DR?cable,I just want the basic(don't care for premiums)and kid's channel,I definitely need it with three boys lol.Also,I noticed some members complaint about the internet service...is it unreliable? Last but not least,car insurance,how much? Someone told me that full coverage does not exist in DR,is it true? If your vehicle is stolen,you get a oh well from the insurance company?...Thanks in advanced

~Ok just call me curious, however with three boys, how are you getting away with only spending $200US dollars every two week for food??? I raised three boys and that is far less then what I spent weekly, every week...
 

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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i cannot answer all questions but:
car insurance: we pay about 25k pesos a year for toyota highlander and about 20k for honda capa. both insurances are full. however, it only works for a certain time, you cannot fully insure car that is older than whatever, 10 years, i think? maybe 6? in any case there is a time limit.
cable: we have sky which is about 1k pesos a month. not premium but we have kids and movies channels. and sport. i never watch any of that :)
food: you and 3 kids? it is gonna cost you... we pay about 100 dollars a week for two. mind you, we eat imported stuff, nicer hams, cheeses, breads. so a dude with 3 hunry growing up kids? 200 bucks a week, if you want to eat nicely. and that's just supermarket, dude.
internet: we have it from claro. it is bearable. 2k pesos a month, or so (phone included).
cell phones: again, claro, also knows as oscuro :) i have no idea how much since miesposo has a flota, several phones for family and friends, at a business rate. works fine for me. it is a contract phone with a certain limit of minutes. minutes can be transfered between the flota phones so if i do not use them i can give them to someone else. after my minutes are used up i can load some minutes by buying a tarjeta.
 

nyc dad

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Jul 28, 2011
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i cannot answer all questions but:
car insurance: we pay about 25k pesos a year for toyota highlander and about 20k for honda capa. both insurances are full. however, it only works for a certain time, you cannot fully insure car that is older than whatever, 10 years, i think? maybe 6? in any case there is a time limit.
cable: we have sky which is about 1k pesos a month. not premium but we have kids and movies channels. and sport. i never watch any of that :)
food: you and 3 kids? it is gonna cost you... we pay about 100 dollars a week for two. mind you, we eat imported stuff, nicer hams, cheeses, breads. so a dude with 3 hunry growing up kids? 200 bucks a week, if you want to eat nicely. and that's just supermarket, dude.
internet: we have it from claro. it is bearable. 2k pesos a month, or so (phone included).
cell phones: again, claro, also knows as oscuro :) i have no idea how much since miesposo has a flota, several phones for family and friends, at a business rate. works fine for me. it is a contract phone with a certain limit of minutes. minutes can be transfered between the flota phones so if i do not use them i can give them to someone else. after my minutes are used up i can load some minutes by buying a tarjeta.

Lol,well,if I spend 200$us every two,I'm happy,I know you always gotta get something from el colmado in between those two weeks.thanks for being so detailed...is that monthly for the car insurance ?
 

nyc dad

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Jul 28, 2011
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~Ok just call me curious, however with three boys, how are you getting away with only spending $200US dollars every two week for food??? I raised three boys and that is far less then what I spent weekly, every week...

Well,they are little,4,3 and 1 month old,I'm sure when they are tennagers,I will be broke and selling iced tea right outside las Americas...lol
 

nyc dad

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Jul 28, 2011
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Lol,well,if I spend 200$us every two,I'm happy,I know you always gotta get something from el colmado in between those two weeks.thanks for being so detailed...is that monthly for the car insurance ?

Ok,yearly,sorry I missed that
 

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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car insurance is per year :)
i see the kids are very small. if they are on a formula beware that it is expensive. large enfamil in powder will cost 600 pesos or so and last for a week or so.
also, i assume that kids like their stuff: pizza, burgers, chocolate, cookies. it does not come cheap either.
 

Chip

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Jul 25, 2007
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Santiago
Food is very cheap here if you eat the locally produced goods. We are a family of 5 living off of less than US1500 a month and two of my daughters attend private school. I don't have a house or car payment but I do have business expenses. There is a thread started about the cost of things here. We could never live on what I am making in the States and for a family of 5 we are well below the US poverty line.
 

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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i must say here, there are two schools of DR survival:
local, as presented by chip and
global, as presented by dv8.

it is true that by eating and living dominican style you can do well and spend less. no doubt about it. "local" school says to buy what dominicans buy, live where dominicans live and do what dominicans do. in other words: get absorbed into dominican life, be aplatanado.

i present "global" approach: i live mostly among gringos because it is quiet and safe. miesposo (dominican) loves it. i did live in a barrio for a year so i know how it goes, i would not like to go back. we eat lots of imported stuff, miespos says that he will never be stingy on food or health. so if i fancy german bread at 300 pesos i buy one. if i want watepan de agua at 50 pesos for a huge bag i buy that. "global" approach is about no limitations. i eat lots of dominican stuff, i often have a lunch of mangu and salami but sometimes i want to have a langosta - and i buy it. i use some cosmetics from DR but i buy most, by bulk, in europe or USA, sometimes over the internet.

i assume that OP comes from america and his kids are used to certain things. say, they like pizza hut. cheap over there but expensive in DR. before the family will make a transition to dominican life they WILL spend a lot. it is hard to live on mangu and paco fish from day one. normally people crave foods from their country - we have numerous threads on this. and that, my dears, cost LOTS of money.
 

Chip

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Jul 25, 2007
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Santiago
We don't live in a barrio here in Santiago but a subdivision where the average cost of a house is RD5,000,000 with some at around RD8,000,000. It has been very quiet and safe over the last 5+ years.

I admit I miss some "comfort" foods but honestly I can't justify the expenditure. That being said I have enough for beer, rum, dijon mustard, smoked Dominican sausage, kalamata olives, Dominican tostitos and salsa, tacos, all the fixings for ham sandwiches, Dominican gouda cheese, homemade pizza, coca cola, chocolate and decaf coffee. What else do I need????? :)
 

Acira

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Sep 20, 2009
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i must say here, there are two schools of DR survival:
local, as presented by chip and
global, as presented by dv8.

it is true that by eating and living dominican style you can do well and spend less. no doubt about it. "local" school says to buy what dominicans buy, live where dominicans live and do what dominicans do. in other words: get absorbed into dominican life, be aplatanado.

i present "global" approach: i live mostly among gringos because it is quiet and safe. miesposo (dominican) loves it. i did live in a barrio for a year so i know how it goes, i would not like to go back. we eat lots of imported stuff, miespos says that he will never be stingy on food or health. so if i fancy german bread at 300 pesos i buy one. if i want watepan de agua at 50 pesos for a huge bag i buy that. "global" approach is about no limitations. i eat lots of dominican stuff, i often have a lunch of mangu and salami but sometimes i want to have a langosta - and i buy it. i use some cosmetics from DR but i buy most, by bulk, in europe or USA, sometimes over the internet.

i assume that OP comes from america and his kids are used to certain things. say, they like pizza hut. cheap over there but expensive in DR. before the family will make a transition to dominican life they WILL spend a lot. it is hard to live on mangu and paco fish from day one. normally people crave foods from their country - we have numerous threads on this. and that, my dears, cost LOTS of money.


Nice presentation :)
 

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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:) here, chip, is the clash of local vs global. i do buy dominican cheese but i also buy wensleydale with cranberries at 150 pesos per portion fit for one sandwich. i do eat longaniza but i also buy german sausages. i make my own pizza but i also go out and eat pizza in a restaurant. "i fancy that" justifies spending more on food :)
 

Chip

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Jul 25, 2007
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Santiago
Actually if I did away with so many "niceties" and got rid of my business expenses we could live off of RD35k or less easily. Again I don't have a car nor a house payment nor a house but I still by fuel for the moto and yipeta.
 

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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i think if i had to pay for that i would never fit in our budget :(
like chip, we own the house we live in so no rent, just bills. we tank for free, it would kill our budget to actually pay for fuel.
 

JuanDolioLiving

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Sep 7, 2010
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I would say on the car I just bought a 2007 toyota corolla and got full coverage insurance from Mapfre same family as BHD bank for 30K a year that would pay me back the full amount of what the car is insured incase the car gets stolen in an accident were the car cannot be repaired. It is good the best and more trusted it in the country. You may get a triple play package from Claro for around 3000.00 pesos a month that would give you high speed internete, cable and a phone with about 700 minutes to call anywhere in the country for free except cells phones and you may also use those minutes to call the USA for free like if it were a local local. good luck
 

nyc dad

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Jul 28, 2011
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car insurance is per year :)
i see the kids are very small. if they are on a formula beware that it is expensive. large enfamil in powder will cost 600 pesos or so and last for a week or so.
also, i assume that kids like their stuff: pizza, burgers, chocolate, cookies. it does not come cheap either.
well,only one is on formula and the other stuff.Luckily for me ,my boys love rice and beans,and I taught them that the rest is garbage,of course I'm flexible and they do have that once in a blue
 

Chip

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Jul 25, 2007
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Santiago
Come to think of it with Obama matching GW's deficit increase in 8 years in only 3 I think we are going to have to get used to living on less - again. Prospects in the construction sector in Florida are still weak with no good news in site. Where in rayos did all that stimulus money go?

In fact I'm looking to sell my house to get rid of all of my debt and build a smaller house to have some money in the bank and have cheaper bills and also get a masters from the local university so in 2 years if Obama has imploded us completely at least I will have a steady income as a professor. :)
 

nyc dad

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Jul 28, 2011
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alright,so the pic is coming together now.Made the adjustments as you see fit.I believe that our rent will range from 37000 to 44000$rd,somewhere decent en el centro,near schools,parks and all that good stuff(I hope)now claro package or a mash up of services with "sky"3000$rd,car insurance 25000$rd divided by 12 is 2083$rd per month.food will be 14800$rd monthly based on two trips to the super a month at 200$ us,gas with a suv(hopefully mine from here)probably 10000$rd....I'm missing numbers on gas,electricity...so let's rounded up to 80000$rd a month...is that close enough?All input and insight more than welcome...oh,how much is a maid?
 

bob saunders

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Jan 1, 2002
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Come to think of it with Obama matching GW's deficit increase in 8 years in only 3 I think we are going to have to get used to living on less - again. Prospects in the construction sector in Florida are still weak with no good news in site. Where in rayos did all that stimulus money go?

In fact I'm looking to sell my house to get rid of all of my debt and build a smaller house to have some money in the bank and have cheaper bills and also get a masters from the local university so in 2 years if Obama has imploded us completely at least I will have a steady income as a professor. :)

Lots of construction work in western Canada