Living Costs in the Dominican Republic

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DMV123

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Mar 31, 2010
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3) If the basket for the poorest income group includes everything that is "needed" (to stay alive and healthy?), then would I be right in assuming that all the additional expenditure in the other four income groups is on things that are not really "needed" but are desirable extras, and, in the case of the most affliuent group, would include some extravagant luxuries?


To look at question # 3 - what is "necessity" to the poorest here is not on the radar for those in the wealthier groups. And vice versa. AND no one said anything about the word "healthy" IN fact the poorest are not healthy they exist.

Middle and upper class would NEVER live like the poor. They have electricity and appliances, homes, vehicles etc. It is the same as where you are - the middle class do not live like the poor.AND they do not consider those luxuries - a vacation is a luxury, 24 /7 electricity and a car are not. A top of the line mercedes is a luxury, a decent car is not.
 
M

mountainannie

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Dec 11, 2003
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DMV123 said:
3) If the basket for the poorest income group includes everything that is "needed" (to stay alive and healthy?), then would I be right in assuming that all the additional expenditure in the other four income groups is on things that are not really "needed" but are desirable extras, and, in the case of the most affliuent group, would include some extravagant luxuries? [/
To look at question # 3 - what is "necessity" to the poorest here is not on the radar for those in the wealthier groups. And vice versa. AND no one said anything about the word "healthy" IN fact the poorest are not healthy they exist.

Middle and upper class would NEVER live like the poor. They have electricity and appliances, homes, vehicles etc. It is the same as where you are - the middle class do not live like the poor.AND they do not consider those luxuries - a vacation is a luxury, 24 /7 electricity and a car are not. A top of the line mercedes is a luxury, a decent car is not.
Click to expand...


As I understand it the basket items are fixed categories... the different levels given are for how much each group spends on them.

The press coverage on the labor talks has been publicizing that the basic wage does not cover the canasta at the poorest level.
This is also an issue being raised with the folks behind the 4% for education.. that a teacher has to work two sessions, or 8 to 9 hours of class room time. in order to make the second level of canasta basic.
 
D

DMV123

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Mar 31, 2010
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mountainannie said:
As I understand it the basket items are fixed categories... the different levels given are for how much each group spends on them.

The press coverage on the labor talks has been publicizing that the basic wage does not cover the canasta at the poorest level.
This is also an issue being raised with the folks behind the 4% for education.. that a teacher has to work two sessions, or 8 to 9 hours of class room time. in order to make the second level of canasta basic.
Click to expand...

Exactly the basket is set up based on the levels as it should be.

As to teachers - how can 2 sessions = 8 or 9 hours of class time? I've read how the average student gets 2 hours and 20 minutes a day of class time! So 8 hours would be more then 3 sessions! But I don't want to digress from the thread.....

Suffice to say most professionals are underpaid. It will be interesting to see what happens with the wage talks.
 
Robert

Robert

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Jan 2, 1999
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Just to remind everyone, this thread is about Living Costs in the Dominican Republic.

Yanandu, I suggest you engage brain before you post again, as it could well be your last.
 
D

DMV123

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Mar 31, 2010
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Back to topic - living costs will vary depending on how you CHOOSE to live. the higher the standard the higher the costs. For an expat lifestyle it will get expensive.
 
Y

yanandu

Banned
Jan 23, 2011
472
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Yes, good expat lifestyle starts at 400$ a month.
Keeping a 50' yacht in DR is very economical.
Yanandu
 
Y

yanandu

Banned
Jan 23, 2011
472
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I don't have up to date information. Mostly my friends moor and hire a watchman. This costs 250$ a month. Watchman will also assist with maintenance and live on board.
Someone I met had bought 60' mooring in a nice project and paid 98,000 for the slip and a similar amount for the apartment.
If you have alarms etc. then many places you can moor and pay very little.
DR tends to attract adventurous types.
Yanandu
 
Y

yanandu

Banned
Jan 23, 2011
472
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Yes, Yachtsmen I know would not dream of paying $700 a month for 50'.
The place is good for a couple of days but then move on.
Luperon is good for sure also Samana.
Yanandu.
 
M

mountainannie

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Dec 11, 2003
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http://www.dr1.com/forums/living/11...oming-whats-ahead-12-months-3.html#post965792

There were some discussions in another thread on cost of living.. with the table of living costs which I found interesting.. so I thought I would move it over here.

I agree that coming here and expecting to MAKE a living here is tricky unless you have an internet based business or experience in a particular field and capital to open up your own place. BUT for retirement on a fixed income, I do think that you can have a much better life here than in the States.

Now I live in the Capital which is not everyone's choice but I am a NYer by birth and upraising and an urban being...I like knowing that theater and ballet and concerts and conferences are there, even if I do not go!

The local food is very good and very fresh with a great variety thanks to the fact that many veggies are grown for export. (I have been on a snow pea binge recently!)

And the one thing that you can get here that you cannot get in the States at any sort of a modest income is help with the housekeeping.. that is a great luxury there but very common here. Only the wealthy in the States have any sort of household help. But for a retiree, this creates a true retirement...wonderful... NO HOUSEWORK.. Amazing

So there are intangibles.. honestly, when I crawl in between clean sheets that SOMEONE ELSE washed and made up .. it is like going to a luxury hotel.

If I need any little thing.. like a Coke or a liter of milk.. I call the colmado and the guy is at my door in a couple of minutes (this is perhaps just a luxury in the city... not yet in the coast, as I understand it) Ditto the pharmacy.

I buy my groceries.. and the guy from the grocery store walks the cart home and hauls it all up the three flights .. for a small tip..... WOWOWOW

I do not have a car .. only rent one on occassion.. but am in a neighborhood where I can walk to everything .. like the pool, the library, the grocery, the pharmacy... If I need transport, I call a cab.. which comes to my door within three minutes and takes me wherever I need to go for a fixed rate under $5.. no matter how long we sit in traffic. Very much like having a chauffer.

The pool next door is outside,, no crowding into lanes in the one or two hours allotted for lap swims at the indoor pool at the Y!!

I have been lucky to be able to continue journalism here.. which keeps my brain active and gets me out and about... and I teach English pro bono at an NGO.. but there are lots and lots of opportunities to be of service here which are very rewarding and fulfilling.

Plus, my apartment is rent controlled which gives me a great sense of security.. even more than I had when I owned since there were always so many things to take care of, maintenance and upgrades (I know that if I owned the place I would be ripping out the bathroom, redoing the kitchen.. all the stuff I did on the houses that I owned)

And.. there is a wonderful sense of adventure that I would never get if I had stayed home. Yesterday, I covered a story up near Bonao and ended up having lunch at this Parador with a balcony which overlooked a panorama like something out of National Geographic. ... sipping my fresh orange juice ... WHAT a privilege!

I came home with a trunk full of potted flowers and plant for my balcony.. cost of $27....Afternoons, I swing in my hammock on the balcony.. look up at the pelicans in the sky... ahhhhhh

Then there is the great brain expanding thing of learning to live in a new language.. when all of a sudden you realize that you have made a joke, or understood a joke..


It is not just about the cost of living.. it is also about the fact that you can do and see things here that you will never find back home ..

Plus, for me, the weather is perfect.. well,, ok.. August is too hot.. but ONE month .. as opposed to the 9 months of winter that I had to endure.. YEEKS Sante Fe is 5 degrees centigrade this AM Santa Fe, New Mexico (87501) Conditions & Forecast : Weather Underground


And now I have a Kindle.. so the one thing that was a sacrifice. the fact that shipping books was half the purchase price.. is gone.


tomorrow I go to the beach.. with the Shihtzu... (cause I am such an American and if you rent the car for four days it is the same price as for a week so really, what is the point of just keeping it for three days when you could go to the beach WITH the dog?)

life is good.....
 
cobraboy

cobraboy

Pro-Bono Demolition Hobbyist
Jul 24, 2004
40,975
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MA, great post.

The DR isn't about the cost of living, it's about the quality of living.

I feel so much freer here than the states it's hard to explain.

To some life=money. To me life=freedom.

And one can increase the quality of their life...unless "quality" is synonymous with material thingies...for =/- $$$ than the states.

It would take a major family tragedy to get me toleave Jarabacoa. I've become to find the First World to almost be the Third World. When I go back I feel an oppression I don't feel here.
 
Y

yanandu

Banned
Jan 23, 2011
472
9
0
Great and creative post!
Many of the posts are negative - but are these people so sure life in Trump Towers in NY is better?

Just take care of the World's resources and it's people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_Tower_(New_York)

Yanandu




mountainannie said:
http://www.dr1.com/forums/living/11...oming-whats-ahead-12-months-3.html#post965792

There were some discussions in another thread on cost of living.. with the table of living costs which I found interesting.. so I thought I would move it over here.

I agree that coming here and expecting to MAKE a living here is tricky unless you have an internet based business or experience in a particular field and capital to open up your own place. BUT for retirement on a fixed income, I do think that you can have a much better life here than in the States.

Now I live in the Capital which is not everyone's choice but I am a NYer by birth and upraising and an urban being...I like knowing that theater and ballet and concerts and conferences are there, even if I do not go!

The local food is very good and very fresh with a great variety thanks to the fact that many veggies are grown for export. (I have been on a snow pea binge recently!)

And the one thing that you can get here that you cannot get in the States at any sort of a modest income is help with the housekeeping.. that is a great luxury there but very common here. Only the wealthy in the States have any sort of household help. But for a retiree, this creates a true retirement...wonderful... NO HOUSEWORK.. Amazing

So there are intangibles.. honestly, when I crawl in between clean sheets that SOMEONE ELSE washed and made up .. it is like going to a luxury hotel.

If I need any little thing.. like a Coke or a liter of milk.. I call the colmado and the guy is at my door in a couple of minutes (this is perhaps just a luxury in the city... not yet in the coast, as I understand it) Ditto the pharmacy.

I buy my groceries.. and the guy from the grocery store walks the cart home and hauls it all up the three flights .. for a small tip..... WOWOWOW

I do not have a car .. only rent one on occassion.. but am in a neighborhood where I can walk to everything .. like the pool, the library, the grocery, the pharmacy... If I need transport, I call a cab.. which comes to my door within three minutes and takes me wherever I need to go for a fixed rate under $5.. no matter how long we sit in traffic. Very much like having a chauffer.

The pool next door is outside,, no crowding into lanes in the one or two hours allotted for lap swims at the indoor pool at the Y!!

I have been lucky to be able to continue journalism here.. which keeps my brain active and gets me out and about... and I teach English pro bono at an NGO.. but there are lots and lots of opportunities to be of service here which are very rewarding and fulfilling.

Plus, my apartment is rent controlled which gives me a great sense of security.. even more than I had when I owned since there were always so many things to take care of, maintenance and upgrades (I know that if I owned the place I would be ripping out the bathroom, redoing the kitchen.. all the stuff I did on the houses that I owned)

And.. there is a wonderful sense of adventure that I would never get if I had stayed home. Yesterday, I covered a story up near Bonao and ended up having lunch at this Parador with a balcony which overlooked a panorama like something out of National Geographic. ... sipping my fresh orange juice ... WHAT a privilege!

I came home with a trunk full of potted flowers and plant for my balcony.. cost of $27....Afternoons, I swing in my hammock on the balcony.. look up at the pelicans in the sky... ahhhhhh

Then there is the great brain expanding thing of learning to live in a new language.. when all of a sudden you realize that you have made a joke, or understood a joke..


It is not just about the cost of living.. it is also about the fact that you can do and see things here that you will never find back home ..

Plus, for me, the weather is perfect.. well,, ok.. August is too hot.. but ONE month .. as opposed to the 9 months of winter that I had to endure.. YEEKS Sante Fe is 5 degrees centigrade this AM Santa Fe, New Mexico (87501) Conditions & Forecast : Weather Underground


And now I have a Kindle.. so the one thing that was a sacrifice. the fact that shipping books was half the purchase price.. is gone.


tomorrow I go to the beach.. with the Shihtzu... (cause I am such an American and if you rent the car for four days it is the same price as for a week so really, what is the point of just keeping it for three days when you could go to the beach WITH the dog?)

life is good.....
Click to expand...
 
M

mountainannie

Platinum
Dec 11, 2003
16,350
1,358
113
elizabetheames.blogspot.com
cobraboy said:
It would take a major family tragedy to get me toleave Jarabacoa. I've become to find the First World to almost be the Third World. When I go back I feel an oppression I don't feel here.
Click to expand...


I agree 100% ... When I got off the plane to visit family in DC a couple of years ago I went into a sorta state of shock with the constant "the terror alert is at orange... the terror alert is at orange..." Everyone was just walking about normally.. not diving for cover (which was my first instinct). And there is just a sense of hustle... and bustle... which I just never feel here (except perhaps driving in SD which I try to avoid except on weekends.

There is sorta underlying singing that is going on here.

and it is certainly a more pleasing tune than what I am used to...
 
Z

zarathustra

New member
May 4, 2011
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I will be living in the DR for two months in June and July. I will be volunteering there. My housing will be taken care of, but I will need to buy my own food and cover any other expenses. I am a single female, mid 30's. I am not a club person and I don't drink, but on the weekends I would like to be able to tour Santo Domingo and surrounding areas.

Can someone tell me realistically what I am looking at budget wise for daily food expenses and the occasional museum/sightseeing expedition on the weekends.

I don't need luxury either. I am okay eating where the locals eat and tend to lean more toward a vegetarian diet anyway.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!
 
M

mountainannie

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Dec 11, 2003
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I would say that $500 a month will get you fed with local sightseeing Others are going to post that you can do it for much less. which you can.. assuming that you have local folks with you to get you on the carros publicos .. otherwise you will need to take taxis..

note that if you want to travel about, a decent hotel is around $30 .. inter city travel is modest ..less than $10 from here to about anywhere..... you really should go down to Pedernales.. up to Samana.. and to Jarabacoa.. then you will really have seen the country
 
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