It’s early days but so far we’ve been pleasantly surprised by the cost of living in Paraguay. Here at adirtcheaplife.com we love a bargain. To be honest, when we thought about a name for this blog we didn’t choose ‘dirt cheap’ because we want to be stingy. At the time we were forwarding thinking about the direction that we will be going down as we progress. We intend to experiment with various building methods, including dirt. So we thought, hey, a dirt cheap life.
But, we do love a bargain!
Living costs vary, we all know that. But when you’re on the road nothing is constant. Suffice to say, our travels from Guatemala to Paraguay have made our heads spin in terms of what we should be paying for groceries, travel etc. We do acknowledge however, everything is relative. The average wage in Paraguay is around $23 K NZD / $13.5 K USD.
Paraguay is Relatively Cheap to Live in…
Much to our delight we and so far, we have found so far Paraguay is relatively cheap and the local currency is guarani. No USD’s here! We’ve only been here for a few weeks so this isn’t an exhaustive analysis by any means, but here’s a few things that we’ve notice in terms of cost of living.
Transport
We haven’t yet acquired a vehicle so we’ve been getting around on Paraguay’s version of Uber, namely Bolt. Bolt works pretty much the same as Uber. Perhaps not quite as polished, but it gets the job done. Uber is also available in Paraguay.
Recently, the four of us travelled 12 kilometers with Bolt. The fee was $7.40 NZD / $4.40 USD. Compare this to New Zealand, where (based on data that I could find online) the same trip in NZ would cost $17.50 NZD / $10.40 USD.
Food and Alcohol
Two of our favorite things. Again, this isn’t definitive, but just a rough gauge, the fruit, vegies, three cans of tuna, bread and a bottle of Argentinian wine below set us back $23 NZD / $13.70 USD. We are also in San Lorenzo which is essentially part of Asuncion the capital of Paraguay. Apparently this price is on the higher end of what you would normally pay.
There are numerous supermarkets here – there is actually competition in the market – unlike NZ which is a total duopoly. The range of goods is also far greater than in Central America as much of it is either local or imported from nearby South American countries like Argentina. In both Guatemala & Nicaragua most of the “western” products were imported from the USA and outrageously expensive!
The very first supermarket we went to in Villa Morra, Asuncion was Superseis – it was like walking in to a lolly shop after spending nearly a year travelling in Nicaragua & Guatemala. So many products to choose from. Superseis also has a great cafe/dining area, there are numerous hot & cold dishes/salads available throughout the day including schnitzel’s and empanada’s. It’s a great low cost meal – especially for a family of four! Superseis is only in Asuncion and the outlying suburbs.
We’ll be posting more about how we’re finding the cost of living in Paraguay, but so far so good.
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