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[i]”A basket of carrots, sweet potatoes, watermelon, tomatoes, onions and peppers costs about $2.00″.[/i]
Now, I know that veggies are inexpensive here, but $2 for a basketful! Where, can one purchase them at this price, may I ask?Since she clearly doesn’t specify the weight or size of the basket we can’t make a judgement on how accurate her prices might be …
Therefore, without knowing the facts there’s not much to “discuss” here so this will be deleted in a few hours.
For my part, I live in Costa Rica, and whatever size those baskets are, I’d really like to know where she shops, because I haven’t see those kinds of prices here for a year that I’ve been living here. Life is expensive here, the only cheap things are property taxes, laborers, papaya, pineapple and bananas.
Well, mollie-o, if that’s all you can find that’s inexpensive, you haven’t been looking in the right places. There’s plenty more that’s inexpensive, and the quality of life here, on which no price can be put, more than makes up for the shortcomings.
That said, if Dr. Judith is buying all she says for c1,000, she either has a very small basket or very light fingers.
[quote=”mollie-o”]”the only cheap things are property taxes, laborers, papaya, pineapple and bananas.”[/quote]
And healthcare is expensive here? You can get a mammogram in the US for under $100? As we have featured in recent days in this Discussion Forum?
And home insurance is expensive in Costa Rica? Is it?
And car insurance is expensive in Costa Rica? Is it?
I know people who are saving $25,000 per year just in health and home insurance living in Costa Rica compared to where they were in Florida!
The same couple pay a FRACTION of what they paid in property taxes in the U.S.
And you think taxes are going down in the U.S. in the future?
In total they are saving way more than $30,000 per year compared to living in Florida….
That’s more than $2,500 per month they are saving!
So when you say “life is expensive here” mollie-o what does that mean to you exactly?
Please help me to understand how exactly because the vast majority of Ticos aren’t even earning $1,000 per month.
Scott
The way I say it is [i]”It may not be inexpensive to live here, but it certainly is less expensive to live here.”[/i]
[quote=”Scott”][quote=”mollie-o”]”the only cheap things are property taxes, laborers, papaya, pineapple and bananas.”[/quote]
And healthcare is expensive here? You can get a mammogram in the US for under $100? As we have featured in recent days in this Discussion Forum?
And home insurance is expensive in Costa Rica? Is it?
And car insurance is expensive in Costa Rica? Is it?
I know people who are saving $25,000 per year just in health and home insurance living in Costa Rica compared to where they were in Florida!
The same couple pay a FRACTION of what they paid in property taxes in the U.S.
And you think taxes are going down in the U.S. in the future?
In total they are saving way more than $30,000 per year compared to living in Florida….
That’s more than $2,500 per month they are saving!
So when you say “life is expensive here” mollie-o what does that mean to you exactly?
Please help me to understand how exactly because the vast majority of Ticos aren’t even earning $1,000 per month.
Scott
[/quote]Americans always assume everybody is from the US. My comparison is with prices in Canada, not the country you consider the belly-button of the world, the great US of A…. And yes, I find car insurance expensive here, it is the same as in Canada.
I spend the same amount of money to live here as I did in Canada. You make it sound good that Ticos live on less than $1000 a month, you should open your eyes and examine how little they have and how they eat on less than $1000 a month. Do you see many Ticos buy fruit? Do you see many Ticos buying fruit? No, and why is that? Do you think they can afford fruit? Not on less than $1000 a month, they can’t.
One more thing, I would bet anything that you people writing about how cheap life is here have very substantial incomes, live in or around San Jose, in gated communities perhaps? Go out into the real Costa Rica and see how you like that Costa Rica, see how the other half lives. You know so many people who save $25,000 or more per year living here, I know lots of people who live on that much. You are only talking to and about a certain category of people, rich Americans.
The good Doctor needs to study the current information on diet as published in the China Study and in dietary books by Dr. Joel Fuhrman MD., Eat To Live and Eat for Health.
The Beans and Rice diet is too heavy on processed grain (the rice). Beans and barley are a better balance. Meat can be entirely eliminated from the diet if sufficient high nutrient vegetables are eaten (kale, bok-choy or spinach) as well as nuts (almonds, walnuts. . .). If the necessary variety of vegetables and supplements are not available then some fish can be added to the diet. In Costa Rica the farm grown talapia are a good source of missing nutrients.
Probably the most important part of a healthy vegetarian diet is variety. Variety supplies micro nutriants and phyto nutriants that have many known and many yet to be determined benefits. Variety also reduces dietary boredom.
Pico de Gallo, a type of Salsa popular in Costa Rica is not just a “condiment” it is a source of vitamins and beneficial hot pepper. It is best when made with salt substitute.
When we cook our beans (a mix of every type), the basis of our vegetarian diet, we add sweet green peppers, onions, garlic, celery, kale or spinach (depending on availability), serrano (medium hot peppers), chili powder (hot pepper, oregano. . . mix), powdered cloves, black pepper, celery seed,d mustard AND barley – for protein balance. Sometimes we add mushrooms or use the bright colored sweet
We normally add home made salsa to the beans to add even more flavor.
The beans above can be used to make stuffed peppers or mushrooms for variety. I’ve blended them to make “gravy” to go with mashed potatoes but often just eat them on top of baked sweet potatoes (no added oil or sugar).
Costa Rican farmers grow a vast variety of fruits vegetables including many hot peppers used more for export than in local dishes. Its this variety that is more important in a healthy diet than just beans and rice.
The traditional diet is not necessarily the best. A beans and rice diet can result in malnutrition. Yes, it is all there to enjoy a long healthy life in Costa Rica but it requires nutritional knowledge.
As to cost of living – we manage to get by on less than $15K/year in the US and have two cars and all the expense that implies – our house is paid for. We could do it on $1000/month in CR but it would be tough.
Why I questioned this article mentioning the low cost, it really sends an incorrect message that one can purchase these items for ‘next to nothing’.
Hopefully the doctor can fill us in or at least answer our question.
We moved here from Canada over 11 years ago, and even then, we couldn’t purchase ‘a basketful of produce’ for this price.[quote=”costaricafinca”]Why I questioned this article mentioning the low cost, it really sends an incorrect message that one can purchase these items for ‘next to nothing’.
Hopefully the doctor can fill us in or at least answer our question.
We moved here from Canada over 11 years ago, and even then, we couldn’t purchase ‘a basketful of produce’ for this price.[/quote]As you probably know, only a small percentage of our VIP Members actually post in the forum but I’ll email the link to her to see if she can comment…
Meanwhile it’s always good to remember that in living in Costa Rica one person’s experience may be completely different from another’s…
i just did my weekly grocery shopping at the feria in san ramon. i spent under $30 for which i got:
4 pieces of boneless chicken legs for my dogs
2 tilapia filets
4 plantains
6 bananas
1 large papaya
4 mangos
1/2 kilo of green beans
6 carrots (organic)
1/2 kilo of black beans (organic)
1 pineapple
4 large tomatoes (organic)
2 bunches of cilantro
3 onions
1 head broccoli (organic)
2 yellow peppers (organic)
1/4 watermelon slice
4 sweet potatoes
1 kilo regular potatoes
1 slice of squash
2 liters of raw milk
that is my whole week’s worth of food staples. the watermelon was expensive – C1000 – but just about every other fruit or vegetable i bought was C500 or about $1.00 for each item. the milk was C1200 but it is the most delicious milk i have ever tasted with a good 5″ of cream on top. now that i have a car, i have upped my budget to $900 a month, and i STILL have money left over out of that every month. i don’t have a housepayment though.
there are flaws in the china study and one of them is the use of artificial salt.
[quote=”maravilla”]i just did my weekly grocery shopping at the feria in san ramon.
4 pieces of boneless chicken legs for my dogs [/quote]It appears to me that your dogs are underfed!
underfed? they eat better than most people! and those are actually boneless leg/thigh pieces so they are quite large, and those get cooked with sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, lentils, a little rice, and green beans. and that stew only lasts about 4 days!!
[/quote]
And healthcare is expensive here? You can get a mammogram in the US for under $100? As we have featured in recent days in this Discussion Forum?
[/quote]Well, I initiated the other thread regarding cost of mammogram in C.R. on behalf of my wife to whom it was suggested by her physician that she get one down(we’re in SO. CA.). I was surprised that the cost in CR was $40 – $80 roughly. Coincidentally, I asked her yesterday if she looked into the cost of the procedure here locally and she actually had it done yesterday morning. Cost: $89.00
For some reason, I was expecting cost to be way….way…more than that.
[quote=”maravilla”]underfed? they eat better than most people! and those are actually boneless leg/thigh pieces so they are quite large, and those get cooked with sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, lentils, a little rice, and green beans. and that stew only lasts about 4 days!!
[/quote]
I’m right there with you Marvilla. We make our dogs food with oats, pollo molido (ground chicken) the ends of our broccoli and kale, carrots and we bring down nutritional yeast, lecithin, and sea kelp from the States. We make it every four days or so, and if anyone is around when we are cooking it they always think we’re cooking for ourselves. It’s more expensive then using the local crappy dry food, but way cheaper and WAY better then the canned food which I “wouldn’t even give to a dog” where ever that line ever came from.
Just to add my two centavos, if anyone plans to move down here for the cheap water mellon, TURN BACK NOW! It’s one of those ploys that they try to lure you with, it’s not true! But I did just eat a whole bowl of Mangosteens bought at the ferria in Quepos,I think they are still illegal to import into the States, or cost a few buck each. Ummm, mangosteen juice running down my chin.
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