blankletmusic Posted October 23, 2017 Report Share Posted October 23, 2017 I see the peso today is 19.07 to the USD. When I lived there (2006) we only got about 10.5 pesos per USD . How much purchasing power do you have now with 19.07 vs. the 10.5 pesos /USD then( as I know what I paid for a lot of things in 2006 but really don't know how the prices have increased since then). This question is for the people that have lived there since at least 2006 BTW. Do you have more buying power now (as the peso conversion rate is nearly double) or have the price increases in the past 11 years negated a good deal of the higher exchange rate? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yo1 Posted October 23, 2017 Report Share Posted October 23, 2017 Of course our purchasing power is greater now but Mexican inflation has eaten into that a bit. Officially, the inflation rate is around 4% a year but not many statistics from this govt. are to be believed. The staples like beans, rice, milk, tortillas and oil have risen much faster in the last 10 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickS Posted October 23, 2017 Report Share Posted October 23, 2017 Gasoline is a ton more but most people don't use much of that commodity. Wonder what a certain steak was then at Ajijic Tango? Pete may remember the cost of electricity then... Pete? Propane is definitely higher now. Maybe some can remember what they paid their help.... gardener and maid. Cellphones weren't even available then so that's out. I do remember that a movie was $2.00 on Wednesdays. Impossible (for me) to remember what groceries cost then vs now but obviously more. I suspect that private Medical Ins and car insurance has risen quite a bit. Bus was 3-4 pesos. Tequila MUCH more now. Taxes on a home.... well I won't even go there since it is such a bargain comparatively. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puro guero Posted October 23, 2017 Report Share Posted October 23, 2017 Difficult to do a cost of living comparison using a single derived average (purchasing power) Example: My property taxes are 100 USD in Mexico vs. 10,000 USD in the US, 99% cheaper here. Gasoline, howeer, costs 3.34 USD per gallon here vs. 1.91 in the US, 74% more expensive here. If you don't own your house, or drive a car, neither of those comparisons are relevant. Better to use a calculator that compares today's costs for individual items in both locations, like Numbeo. This website compares costs in Illinois to Ajijic; as submitted by people who live in those 2 locations. https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=United+States&country2=Mexico&city1=Des+Plaines%2C+IL&city2=Ajijic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrm30655 Posted October 23, 2017 Report Share Posted October 23, 2017 When I came here in 2008, American cigarettes were 26P a pack and the exchange was about 10/1 Now, 50P a pack and 19/1 exchange Basically, no change Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blankletmusic Posted October 24, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2017 Thanks for your feedback. Can any more of the oldtimers on the board offer their opinions? BTW, I remember gas (Magna) being very close to the $3/gal. mark back then. I could be wrong, though. Didn't really matter as we didn't drive very much. Just out of curiosity, one of our go-to meals back then was 1/2 chicken, a stack of corn tortillas, a salad similar to coleslaw( but with less mayo than the US version) with elbow macaroni and cucumbers marinated in lime juice that we bought on the carreterra in Ajijic (or Hidalgo in Chapala) for 30 pesos. Cheap, delicious and healthy eating! What does this meal cost now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mudgirl Posted October 24, 2017 Report Share Posted October 24, 2017 A whole rotisserie chicken with rice and salsa that I used to buy for 50 pesos 10 years ago is now 95. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Natasha Posted October 24, 2017 Report Share Posted October 24, 2017 Nineteen years, and to me the purchasing power is relatively the same, due to natural cost increases across the board. Depends a lot on your lifestyle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferret Posted October 24, 2017 Report Share Posted October 24, 2017 21 years and yes, prices have gone up. Then again, they've gone up everywhere including Canada and the U.S. and it's still cheaper to live in Mexico. Here, in central Mexico at this altitude, the savings on heating and cooling alone are astronomical. Property taxes are still dirt cheap too. Less driving to do so I make an effort to squeeze 500 pesos worth of gas into my car about every six weeks. Fresher vegetables and fruits. All in all, a better healthier more laidback style of living for less money. Who cares what prices were 10 years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floradude Posted October 24, 2017 Report Share Posted October 24, 2017 I have been here since 2003. Cost of gas, imported goods (Superlake, etc.), food, restaurants, have all increased a lot. If the peso ever does rebound significantly and stays strong then we will really feel the bite into our pesos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blankletmusic Posted October 24, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2017 It seems to me after reading these very informative replies that the whole thing is pretty simple: The exchange rate has basically doubled since 2006 (10 pesos to the USD vs. 19 now) and a lot of prices (not all) have also doubled since then. Take the rotisserie chicken, tortillas and salad. 50 pesos about 10 yrs. ago, 95 pesos now. It seems to me that it's pretty much a wash. Your buying power now is pretty much the same as it was then which is great, actually. But it's only because of the weakened peso vs. the dollar. If it were still 10 to the dollar Lakeside would be on par pricewise with much of the overpriced US. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Saltos Posted October 24, 2017 Report Share Posted October 24, 2017 Not that simple. e.g. my property taxes are still ~$2500 Pesos since 2006. So today they're nearly half the amount in $US. My Telmex bill is still $499 Pesos. I could go on but suffice to say we have more purchasing power today than 12 years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xena Posted October 24, 2017 Report Share Posted October 24, 2017 19 hours ago, jrm30655 said: When I came here in 2008, American cigarettes were 26P a pack and the exchange was about 10/1 Now, 50P a pack and 19/1 exchange Basically, no change No change if you are American whose income is in dollars. If you are a Mexican earning pesos your income has not doubled so there is a change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islander Posted October 24, 2017 Report Share Posted October 24, 2017 Purchasing power of Canadian $ between 2006 and 2017 is a wash. We are getting almost twice as much pesos for a C$ now but pretty well everything is twice as much expensive. Even if the labour around Ajijic is still reasonable (in comparison where we live in summer) it too has more than doubled. Used to pay for maid $20 pesos now is 50-60 pesos. I am talking from a renter's point of view. We do not own a house Lakeside so I cannot comment on saving on taxes, heating/cooling etc ....just consumables, gas, transportation, services.....all that doubled or more. In addition there is a gringo premium on many things if one does not speak Spanish and does not know what and how things work in Mexico.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomgates Posted October 24, 2017 Report Share Posted October 24, 2017 It is a net positive by a considerable amount. Wages of gardeners, maids, pool guys, laborers, taxes, water, restaurants, utilities, etc. Here are some prices in US$ from early 2008: Ziplock sandwich (2 x 125) $5.70 Charmin (40 x 400sheet) $13.00 Bounty towels (8 x 78 sheets) $10.34 Ziplock gallon (2 x 38) $7.34 Dawn liquid dish deter (1.5 lt) $4.86 Chuck roast (Tony's) $3.16 # 3-pk Romaine $1.48 Sm lettuce mix $1.33 Qt cherry tomatoes $1.21 Doz veg eggs $1.19 Lg Herdez salsa $.97 1 k strawberries $1.11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Natasha Posted October 25, 2017 Report Share Posted October 25, 2017 Have very detailed records on spending over many years. If always converted to USD at corresponding rate of exchange per time period, we are spending just a little more now than we did in 2009. That said, we now have 2 vehicles rather than one, and rent just a slightly more expensive house than before. Also feeding more pets. Use MUCH less propane (landlord installed solar hot water). Don't patronize expensive restaurants. Very careful with electric consumption. Budget-minded in all purchases, and fluent Spanish plus well embedded in Mexican barrio, so don't feel a "gringo" pricing effect such as suggested by Islander. Minimal shopping at SuperLake. Never at Sam's or Costco. Every two months at Abastos. Everyone has their own priorities, and that goes a long way in figuring out the "correct" answer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrm30655 Posted October 25, 2017 Report Share Posted October 25, 2017 7 hours ago, Xena said: No change if you are American whose income is in dollars. If you are a Mexican earning pesos your income has not doubled so there is a change. Actually, I pay my housekeeper about twice what I did 10 years ago. Most of the things I buy are up quite a bit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xena Posted October 25, 2017 Report Share Posted October 25, 2017 2 hours ago, jrm30655 said: Actually, I pay my housekeeper about twice what I did 10 years ago. Most of the things I buy are up quite a bit Please reread my post and the one to which I was responding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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