Can you live on $20,000RDP per month? I?m not sure, but there are a lot of Dominican family?s who make it on less. A good example is my novia in La Romana. She lives with her sister and her 11mo. old little girl. When I first met her, she and her sister were making around $1,500RDP per week or $6,500RDP per month, combined income. They were both working 12hr days, 6 days per week. This is about the average wage for a non-skilled worker in La Romana. In fact most of the 10,000 workers in the Free Zone and at the CR Sugar Factory make less and work about the same number of hours. The lucky locals who work at Casa de Campo and other resorts will do a little better and some may make as much as $2,300 per week.
Based on the $6,500RDP income Tonya, Sonya and the baby are able to maintain an apartment, 2 rooms, 10X10 each w/elect. and cable TV. They share a single seat toilet with 6 other families and have no hot water for showers in the 6X6 shower stall, which has no light. Rent $1,500 per month.
They prepare 2 meals per day (2pm & 8pm) consisting of mostly beans and rice on a 2 burner propane stove, and normally buy their ingredients no more than an hour before they are prepared. Staple items such as cooking oil, tomato paste, spices, spaghetti, and drinking water are purchased from little mom & pop stores set up in the front end of their residences. Occasionally they will purchase meats such as chicken or goat. Each day you see the women bring home small baggies of food supplies, just purchased for that meal. Many families only eat one meal per day. Average daily food cost for the 3 of them is around $75RDP.
The use of taxies and motoconchos is a luxury and most of the time they will walk to the Dr. office or to purchase other needed supplies. Most neighborhoods in La Romano are very self-sufficient and almost anything you need is within walking distance.
Pampers and other baby related items drive up the budget but somehow they survive.
Could I live on $20,000RDP per month? I guess if I had to, but I am too first world to even consider it. Hopefully the money I send to my novia each month helps some what.