I finally got hold of my friend who lived in SD for four years. She went to UNIBE.
She told me they lived in Gazcue and that is a very good neighborhood for kids, safe and secure. What do you think?
Her unfurnished three bedroom apartment with a one year lease was $700 a month. Do you think $1,000-1,200 a month for a three month lease, fully furnished, two bedroom at least, with a generator and security, is realistic in that area?
She said her maid/nanny, living six days a week in her house was $250 a month. I'm not interested in having help like that, but I really want a tutor for the boys (2 boys) to help us homeschooling. I would like somebody coming to help (specially laundry, since I hate it and it doesn't seem washers in the house are that common over there) maybe once a week, Is that doable? How much do you think it would be?
She said that in house help is not a luxury over there, as it is in the US, but more of a living style, many poor ladies from the "campo" come to the city to work and part of being a maid is living in the house, I would feel awkward living like that :/ (I'm the kind of person that, the very few times I've had somebody to clean the house, actually cleans before she comes!)
Also, she mentioned that SD is expensive, specially food. Our monthly budget in the US is $6,000, that's for necessary expenses, living comfortable, but no luxuries (a big chunk of that is food and gas) living in DR we would still have mortgage and basic bills to pay over here, so we can't spend that much money over there.
What would you say a family of 6 (4 kids included) with an apartment, no car (using taxis mostly, once comfortable public trans.) speaking fluent Spanish (that's my native language) so can buy basic food from locals(hopefully, anyways) with a pretty much latin diet (beans, rice, stews, roast pork, etc), so no need to buy foreign products as often (except for cereal which she said is ridiculously expensive so might have the boys eating eggs for a while) would spend a month approximately.
Oh, I forgot, what about credit cards? I know you can't use them in small places like "el colmado" but what about big supermarkets, pharmacies (big chains) etc?
Our cellphones won't work over there (T mobile) but I read that buying a SIM card there would. What about pre paid phones bought n the States (my dad would add minutes from here as needed) would they work? Is that a better alternative than buying a SIM card there (well, in that case my dad would be paying for the minutes, so I guess it would be a better deal for us, lol)
She also mentioned that she used to travel to Miami every 4 months and go back with ham, cheese, beef (she says beef is not that good over there?), cereal, etc. Can you really take those stuff through customs? Everytime we travel to Europe we can't take any fresh stuff home!
I'm sorry for all the questions, and thank you for any advice you can give us.
She told me they lived in Gazcue and that is a very good neighborhood for kids, safe and secure. What do you think?
Her unfurnished three bedroom apartment with a one year lease was $700 a month. Do you think $1,000-1,200 a month for a three month lease, fully furnished, two bedroom at least, with a generator and security, is realistic in that area?
She said her maid/nanny, living six days a week in her house was $250 a month. I'm not interested in having help like that, but I really want a tutor for the boys (2 boys) to help us homeschooling. I would like somebody coming to help (specially laundry, since I hate it and it doesn't seem washers in the house are that common over there) maybe once a week, Is that doable? How much do you think it would be?
She said that in house help is not a luxury over there, as it is in the US, but more of a living style, many poor ladies from the "campo" come to the city to work and part of being a maid is living in the house, I would feel awkward living like that :/ (I'm the kind of person that, the very few times I've had somebody to clean the house, actually cleans before she comes!)
Also, she mentioned that SD is expensive, specially food. Our monthly budget in the US is $6,000, that's for necessary expenses, living comfortable, but no luxuries (a big chunk of that is food and gas) living in DR we would still have mortgage and basic bills to pay over here, so we can't spend that much money over there.
What would you say a family of 6 (4 kids included) with an apartment, no car (using taxis mostly, once comfortable public trans.) speaking fluent Spanish (that's my native language) so can buy basic food from locals(hopefully, anyways) with a pretty much latin diet (beans, rice, stews, roast pork, etc), so no need to buy foreign products as often (except for cereal which she said is ridiculously expensive so might have the boys eating eggs for a while) would spend a month approximately.
Oh, I forgot, what about credit cards? I know you can't use them in small places like "el colmado" but what about big supermarkets, pharmacies (big chains) etc?
Our cellphones won't work over there (T mobile) but I read that buying a SIM card there would. What about pre paid phones bought n the States (my dad would add minutes from here as needed) would they work? Is that a better alternative than buying a SIM card there (well, in that case my dad would be paying for the minutes, so I guess it would be a better deal for us, lol)
She also mentioned that she used to travel to Miami every 4 months and go back with ham, cheese, beef (she says beef is not that good over there?), cereal, etc. Can you really take those stuff through customs? Everytime we travel to Europe we can't take any fresh stuff home!
I'm sorry for all the questions, and thank you for any advice you can give us.