There are several aspects of our money management that I will feature in the next few installments. This one will be about the costs of travel in Mexico as a full-timer in the van.
The costs of living on the road can vary greatly depending on your style. We have determined that living in Mexico allows our monthly income (Mikes retirement) to stretch much further. Our costs include groceries, restaurants, dog food, gas, RV parks and misc purchases. As I develop this post I will reference the costs using the US Dollar (usd) as a pricing reference. But remember that things here are priced in Mexican Pesos and right now the Peso=Dollar rate is about 1=14 which is pretty good for American travelers.
Groceries can vary widely depending on the size of town we stop in. A small town that has to truck in their products from far away will have much higher prices than a large city. But we cannot always wait for a large city to shop in, so we often pay the higher price at a small tienda- calculating that as our contribution to the local economy.
Restaurant food can also vary. On the mainland of Mexico it was rare to pay more than $15usd for a meal for two people. But we have discovered that Baja is more like American pricing.
Dog food is an interesting thing here. There is always dry dog food at the grocery stores here in Baja. We did not always find it on mainland Mexico in grocery stores. Here, it may be a 20lb bag of Purina brands or it may be a clear plastic baggie of unknown brands, which has been subdivided from a larger bag. Fortunately our dogs are not picky so we buy whatever is available. We also purchase them raw meat scraps and bones every few days. I usually add meat, or yogurt or leftovers to their meals to supplement the dry food. They look healthy, they act healthy and they poop healthy so I guess this diet works for them. Plus they pick up and eat delicious beach detritus such as dried stingrays and dehydrated triggerfish!
Gas distribution in Mexico is managed by a government branch and sold under the brand name Pemex. (Pay-mex is seriously how it is pronounced) This means that the Mexican government sets the prices and the local vendor just follows that guideline.
The cost of RV parks in Baja has been interesting. Every RV Park charges a different rate for parking and the rates vary widely. We always ask for the tent/dry camp/no hookups price. That is generally $10usd. However, some parks charge the same price for any RV-, which can vary between $15usd and $25usd. In La Paz we found an RV park that charged $30usd for one night. And in smaller towns we have paid as little as $5usd. When we boondock or beach camp we generally pay nothing. The beaches are considered public domain in Mexico. Landowners may have fences or walls to control the access, but they cannot stop the use of the beach. We have found that if we drive a little further through a town or down a dirt side road, we usually find an open access area that has no homes around. As I write this, we are about 2 miles down the road from an RV park. They wanted $15usd for dry camping, ½ mile from the beach with flush toilets and hot showers. We found a beachfront spot with the surf outside the door for FREE. The more nights we spend for FREE, the further our money goes.
Miscellaneous purchases are easy to total up. One of those is water. We fill the tank in the van (it holds 20 gallons) and our spare water jug (5 gallons) every 4 to 6 days from a water store. We NEVER put local water in our personal use systems, so that means buying water from a purification station. These are located in nearly every town, but often hard to find. Sometimes we just buy a bunch of 5 gallon water cooler style bottles to dump in the tank. Since we have never used up all of our water, a typical fill is about 10 gallons which costs us less than $4usd regardless of how we get it done. A related purchase is ice. We are currently using a Canyon Cooler brand ice chest.
Another purchase that we enjoy is laundry service. Once a week we drop off a bag of laundry at a lavamatica or lavanderia to have it washed, dried and folded. We pick it up later at a cost of about $4usd.
Our favorite miscellaneous purchase is local food items. The warm flour tortillas in a tienda are always delicious. A roadside home with a hand-lettered sign selling burritos is sure to be a winner. And of course, you must stop and buy anything that is being sold out of the back of a VW Van!
I hope this post has been informative to you. It is probably the only post I have ever prepared without a bunch of photos.