One of the things we wanted to understand when we arrived in Paraguay was the everyday cost of living.
We noticed as we lived & travelled through Guatemala, El Salvador & Nicaragua that there seems to be unique pricing variations! When you are in a “third world” country (the globalists are now calling them ‘developing countries’) you would assume that everything is cheap, that is not the case. You would also assume that being in Central America, what is expensive in Guatemala would also be expensive in Nicaragua, that’s not true either. There are numerous factors at play but sadly high concentrations of expats and countries that accept the US dollar as currency seem to have some crazy pricing bubbles going on. That’s just our take on it.
In this post we are going to share the numbers that we have collated so far for the basics needed to live here. This is going to be a ‘perpetual post’ in that we will keep updating it as we gather more intel.
What Do the Basics Cost in Paraguay?
We have found Paraguay to be a good combination of price & quality compared to what we found living in Central America. There are street markets, small shops and massive supermarkets. No supermarket duopoly here like in NZ!
The supermarkets are amazing and have a good variation of products. Many products are imported from neighboring countries like Argentina, Ecuador & Chile. We love Superseis as it has a slightly larger range of products. Each supermarket generally has a loyalty card and they offer big discounts. For example Salemma supermarket has 30 – 50% discount on certain products every Fri, Sat & Sun.
Paraguay is a meat eaters heaven as an asado (grilling meat/chicken/pork over charcoal) is a integral part of their culture and they love it. Consequently the meat, chicken and pork quality is very high.
Food & Grocery Items
These items are in Guarani so you can covert them to your currency with this converter xe.com. At the moment (Oct 2023) the midmarket rate is 1 Euro = 7,801 PY, 1 USD = 7,398 PY, 1 AUD = 4,699 PY, 1 NZD = 4,345. This isn’t an exact science. It’s designed to give an idea of how much groceries cost here. Paraguay is metric so everything is in litre’s, grams & kilograms.
These are some of our everyday purchases (a family of four with two teenagers) but if you have a certain item in mind, contact us and we can find out for you. You do need to read labels here as some products have a lot of added sugar or aspartame in them.
| ITEM | SIZE | PRICE = GUARANIES | |
| Grocery items | |||
| Peanut Butter | 200g | 12,600 | |
| Hamburger Buns | 6 pack | 5,400 | |
| Bread – sandwich | 500g | 6,200 | |
| Dried Pasta – Spaghetti | pkt | 4,000 | |
| Tortilla wraps | 10 pack | 12,500 | |
| Canned Tuna | 140 gram | 15,750 | |
| GF Rice crackers | 85g | 8,500 | |
| GF Tostada crackers | 110g | 9,500 | |
| Olive oil | 1 litre | 45,000 | |
| Tomato Sauce | 340g | 8,800 | |
| Tomato Puree | 1030g | 13,500 | |
| Eggs | 12 | 12,800 | |
| Orange/Peach juice | 1 litre | 10,000 | |
| Red Wine – Cab Sav – Chile | bottle | 25,900 | |
| Rubbish bags – large | 10 pkt | 3,300 | |
| Toilet paper | 4 pack | 11,300 | |
| Laundry washing powder | kg | 12,850 | |
| Fruit & Veges | |||
| Oranges | per kg | 4,400 | |
| Green peppers | per kg | 10,800 | |
| Potatoes | per kg | 6,400 | |
| Tomatoes | per kg | 8,700 | |
| Avocado – imported | per kg | 10,450 | |
| Mandarin – imported | per kg | 7,550 | |
| Pineapple – small | each | 4,171 | |
| Onions | per kg | 4,900 | |
| Lettuce – hydroponic | each | 2,850 | |
| Carrots | per kg | 7,200 | |
| Meat, Chicken & Dairy | |||
| Yoghurt | 1 litre | 6,200 | |
| Sour cream | 350g | 11,300 | |
| Lactose free milk | 1 litre | 7,200 | |
| Milk | 1 litre | 7,100 | |
| Beef mince – premium | per kg | 51,400 | |
| Beef fillets (stir fry, schnitzel) | per kg | 52,449 | |
| Salami | per kg | 110,738 | |
| Whole chicken | per kg | 11,500 | |
| Chicken breast fillet | per kg | 37,899 | |
| Hard cheese – Goya | per kg | 122,350 | |
| Blue cheese | per kg | 121,200 |
As we become more familiar with our surroundings we will seek out local stalls and vendors as much as possible. If you want to get an idea of pricing/products you can also check out some supermarkets online. Salemma & Superseis. There is also another supermarket that is only in Asuncion (3 stores) that has an amazing range of imported products. It’s the place to go when you can’t find what you are looking for! It’s called Casa Rica. We found aluminum free deodorant here.
Fuel & Car’s
As yet we don’t have a car! But when we do we will write a post about purchasing a car in Paraguay. You can purchase a car in Paraguay even if you don’t have a cedula. You can also drive on your licence from your home country while you are on a tourist visa or if you have applied for a temp residency. Once you have a cedula you must apply for a Paraguayan driver’s licence.
If you want to check out the price of car’s then FB Marketplace & Clasipar
will give you an idea. Our Paraguayan friends told us that basically one litre of petrol is around 1 USD, as you can see from the pic that’s about right. Nafta means petrol.
Renting & Buying Houses
Now that we are feeling settled (check out our post on finding our feet in Paraguay) We are starting to look around at renting a property in Caacupe and potentially buying some land on the outskirts of Caacupe or the Piribebuy/Paraguari area.
There doesn’t seem to be a shortage of rentals in Paraguay. Just to give you an idea you can rent a 2/3 bedroom, basic, unfurnished house with a small pool in Caacupe for around 1,400,000 Guarani per month. For a fully furnished apartment you would be looking upwards of 3,000,0000 Guarani dependent on location. These are Caacupe prices so of course your location would be a big influence.
A good way to find rentals is through expat groups Expats in Paraguay & Digital Nomads and Expats in Asuncion, Paraguay, FB Marketplace or even websites like Clarispar.
Utilities
Mobile Phone
There are three mobile phone providers in Paraguay – Tigo, Claro & Personal. I discovered this great website Phone Travel Wiz that pretty much tells you everything you need to know. You will need a passport or cedula to buy your SIM in Paraguay. Prepay top up locations are everywhere – just look for the signs.
Internet & Electricity
So far we have only stayed in “all inclusive” accommodation. We will update this information as it comes to hand. There is free wifi at most cafes, shopping malls etc.
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