Comparing Costs – Update
As mentioned in previous posts, we originally set out to spread our wings and have fun traveling for the first few years of our new life, and we are still enjoying it. As a quick recap, after leaving Vancouver we spent the first year in PV Mexico, then 6 months in Barbados, and are now living on the island of Grenada for one year. We leave Grenada at the end of March.
For the past 9 months, we have become well versed in local life and culture here in Grenada and we therefore thought it might be time to update our cost of living comparisons. In addition, we are starting to plan the next leg of our adventure and so have found the need to start gathering and updating Grenada costs for use in other comparisons down the road.
Our latest research indicates that, since we left Vancouver almost 2.5 years ago and started enjoying vacation time, the price of renting apartments in that great white north city has has certainly increased significantly (up about 50% or more since 2015). So much so, that we would be hard pressed to find a place to live anywhere near downtown Vancouver, let alone a suburb close to the city. So we won't be going there.
We are still living our lives using the things that we can fit into our four suitcases, and don't have room to buy and collect things to take with us, so we don't. We just focus on daily needs and go about our shopping for consumables. Since we arrived here in Grenada, our grocery shopping costs have reduced as we have become smarter shoppers and have found some cost savings.
These are changes we have made to our shopping / expenses since we last posted cost comparisons on April 11, 2017:
We don't eat beef steaks here as they are very expensive (about $35 Can per pound) and so we eat tuna steaks instead at $4 Can per pound... they are more healthy anyway.
We buy products that originate from USA and Trinidad (and a few from UK too) rather than the familiar brands that we used to buy in the great white north, and we have found that we like some of them more (milk, bread, cookies, etc).
We buy vegetables when we need them and only buy what we need (we don't buy in bulk anymore). They seem to go bad so quickly here.
IGA brand canned foods are available here and cost much less here than big name brands like Campbell, Ragu, Green Giant, Delmote or Prego.
We buy local spices rather than the imports – we feel they are far better to cook with anyway.
And, we have found that wine is somewhat more expensive, rum is somewhat less expensive.
In previous posts we said grocery costs in Vancouver are generally the same in Grenada for the same basket of goods. Now with smarter shopping we have found Grenada to be about 3/4 the cost of Vancouver for groceries that we need here. Money back in our pockets.
There is still a big difference in the cost of groceries between all four places we have lived for the same "basket of goods" list. But then you also need to consider everything else like pantry items, electronics, furniture, appliances, cars, gas, ...almost all consumables... and they are much more expensive here on these little islands in the sun.
Eating out in Grenada can be more expensive than in Vancouver, should you chose to venture out to some of those hoity toity places. We go there once in a while but generally have learned to join the locals in their tasty lunch stops and have found plenty of beach restaurants (not attached to big hotels) that have reasonable food fare. As an example, the Country Kitchen in downtown St Georges offers a large plate of stewed lamb or chicken, with rice and black-eyed peas (covered in stewing sauce!), plantain, fried banana and vegetables, all very delicious, for EC$10 (about Can$5). Beer is extra (Can$2.50). Another great place is called Graps at the SE corner of the market by Market Hill. You only find these places when you stay for a while... We have a long list of non-tourist stops in our daily arsenal along with our favourite touristy places too - can you say Esther's?...
Barbados remains very expensive – way more than Vancouver – for everything.
It has been a real learning experience to learn to shop differently and to use more local foods. We found it was somewhat difficult to shed our north american consumer mentality but we feel we have expanded our horizons by doing so.
For those people who are seeking to get away from it all and leave the great white north behind to stay long term in Grenada, we have prepared (Jan 2018) an approximate monthly cost breakdown as a minimal budget to live in Grenada without a car:
In EC dollars:
$2000.00 Rent ("nice" one bedroom - could be more depending on you)*
$ 150.00 Electricity (one bedroom – very little use of a/c)**
$ 150.00 Internet / Cable
$ 150.00 Local cell phone
$1500.00 Groceries (two people including daily rum)
$1500.00 Eating out / fun (allowance)
$ 400.00 Doctor / Meds (allowance – pay as you go)
$ 150.00 Bus / taxi (we mostly walk everywhere)
$ 200.00 Misc.
$6200.00 Total EC dollars
* close to beach, shopping, and bank
** We have become acclimatized such that during our stay here in Grenada we only used a/c for a few nights in Aug / Sep to cool the bedroom a bit before sleeping with no cover sheets.
For minimal budgeting for a long term stay in Barbados – add another EC$2000.00 to the bottom line.
It's difficult to imagine how Grenadian citizens can live on minimum wage incomes. Grenada's minimum wage is set for various categories of workers. For example, domestic workers are paid a minimum of EC $4.50 per hour and security guards are paid EC $9.00 per hour (Can$2.25 per hour and Can$4.50 per hour). Grenada's minimum wage was last changed three years ago. The average annual household salary in Grenada West Indies is approximately EC$30K or about Can$15K.
Our current adventure planning will likely mean exploring even more places where we can find adventure to expand our horizons and it will be interesting to see what happens when we get there too. We are still having fun with our “slow motion travel” (see January 19, 2017) and look forward to carrying on.
Cheers from the Caribbean!
