Sarah asked about living costs in El Salvador....so here it is!

This is a Salvadoran Colon...it is the national currency, but it was phased out when we went to the Dollar in 2001. 1 USD = 8.75 SVC


Minimum salary has just been increased from $ 5.28 per day to $ 5.81 per day (yes, that is not a typo, it’s $5.81 PER DAY or about $175/month! – pretax!), -- this means my salary is about 4.8 times a minimum salary…We pay nanny $175, no discounts….the other maids in the neighborhood hate her because she only works Mon-Fri, from 9am until I come home from work, and gets holidays off! (a typical “full time” maid stays in your house, works from 6am through 8pm and, gets 1.5 days off every two weeks!...making anywhere from $100-$200/month, depending on the neighborhood!)

The textile industry minimum salary went from $5.04 per day to $5.24 per day.
Agricultural worker’s minimum salary went from $ 2.47 to $ 2.72. Coffee pickers were making $3.57 and now will be earning $3.93 per day.

If you earn more than $225/month, taxes are discounted monthly from your salary and paid directly by our employers to the Government – 10% to 20%, depending on your salary….I pay 20%. At the beginning of the next fiscal year, we submit our tax report to see whether we get a refund of whether we get to pay more!...as a salaried person, I can deduct up to $571/year for medical expenses and up to $571/year/family for schooling!...(if you have 1 child, you can deduct $571, if you have 10 children, you get to deduct the same $571!)...that's about all I can deduct...If you are in sales and are not given a company car, you can deduct gas and car-maintenance expenses...Different deductions apply for business owners or independent professionals, depending on their line of work...

Value Added Tax is paid on all services and/or goods, and the rate is 13%, by law, prices have to be posted including taxes (which is why I get surprised in the US when the total amount to be paid is always higher than what I have calculated...I always forget to add the tax!)

We speak of “collective transportation” rather than public transportation because the government gives special permits to different transport (bus) companies to operate specific routes. Inter-urban bus fare is $0.25 --payable every time you board a bus …that means if you are lucky and only need to take 1 bus to go to your job, you pay $0.50/day on transport….There is an initiative to force all buses over 25 years to be eliminated. To this effect the Government gave all bus owners very low-interest long-term credits, + $5,000 per unit delivered as “downpayment”….believe it or not, some bus owners still didn’t take advantage of it and some really old buses are still running ….the government has said it will not renew permits for such units, so, as the permits expire, bus owners are forced to change the units, relinquish the permits to other bus owners with newer units…The next phase of this project contemplates elimination of buses over 15 years ….but this is opposed at the National Assembly (mainly by some “diputados” –congressmen—who are bus owners!)….There have been many accidents in the past few years that involved old buses that were not properly serviced!...That’s why, provided you have the means to buy yourself even a small, old car, you will sacrifice to do so instead of using the buses!...gas prices are $3.04 for premium and $2.80 for regular right now….

As for housing costs, it all depends of course on the area of town in which you want to live…a small house in a lower-middle class neighborhood might cost you $75-$100 if rented and between $100-$125 if owned (monthly mortgage payments)…if you want an upper middle class neighborhood, you’ll pay anywhere between $300-$700 rent for that same house or, if you want a nicer house, $700- $1,500 rent…to buy a house in an upper-middle class neighborhood, you need a combined household income of $2,000 - $5,000 per month, and 10% of the house’s price as a downpayment…

We rent in an upper middle class neighborhood…the smaller houses in the area, and we pay $315/month between my sister and I….there are real mansions in our area, too, going for $1,200 a month –rent….we live near the American Embassy and the newest shopping malls….we could afford a larger house in another neighborhood, but, living near the American Embassy means security is VERY good!...and we are willing to pay for it!...

Houses in ES do NOT have warm water as a “standard” feature…nor clothes washers and dryers…dishwashers are almost unheard of….but, then, almost anyone has a maid….coming at least a few times a week… in houses where there are no clothes washers, the maids do the laundry by hand….so every house has a “lavadero”, or a place to wash!...(we use it to wash mops, and to bathe Fiona, mostly!)…we do have a clothes washer at home…my family has had one for as long as I can remember…(my mother’s family was wealthy, but in typical fashion, 1 generation made the money, the next one managed to keep it and the third one –my mom and her siblings—managed to spend it all!)…. I was surprised the other day to learn that the most common fuel used in El Salvador was still wood…but, thinking about the composition of the population, it makes sense….people in rural areas still use wood stoves and most have no electricity or water in their houses…Even in the cities, you’ll find places with little or no access to water…

Public schools in ES are for the very poor…anyone making 2 minimum salaries or more will try to pay for a private school for their children, or at least a parochial school….costs for education can go anywhere from $15/month to $600/month for Kindergarten (think parochial school vs the poshest bilingual school!)….The poorest public schools don’t even have bathrooms, or even chairs and tables for the children… Sis sent her children to a school that does not offer the best education, but offers you the best possible “connections” outside the bilingual school circle and paid $125/month for her daughter….I chose to send Ale to a bilingual school, I still don’t know how good the overall education is, but their English program is VERY good and am paying $137/month….figure it’s worth it if I don’t have to pay any additional English lessons!... My unit at work has chosen to sponsor a public school as our community development program…we raised money to replace the roof (children had to move their desks around during rainy season so as to sit in dry spots and not under leaks!!) and fix the bathrooms…we also repainted the classrooms…we are also teaching English to the top 5 students in the 8th and 9th grades and, have decided to start a scholarship program for the top 2 students in the 9th grade, so they can continue with their high school studies… The school principal is very active and has managed to get a computer center built and furnished, as well as equipped through the Ministry of Education and other private institutions…so the outlook for our little school is good….If you want to learn more about it go to: http://tacasdg.blankenstein.info

If we talk about groceries, the cost varies depending on where you buy (market vs supermarket), but, eggs are $2.75 a carton of 30, beans are $0.57/lb, rice is .40/lb, a loaf of bread is $1.27, tomatoes are $0.67/lb….these are supermarket prices, you might be able to find slightly lower prices at the market…I buy most of my groceries at the supermarket and go to the market only for the veggies, fruit and fresh cheese…chicken is cheaper at the market, but, it sits on an un-refrigerated counter most of the day (they only put it in the fridge for storing during the night), so I’d rather not risk it….likewise with the meat!...Meat at the supermarket is about $2-$3 per lb, depending on the meat you buy, chicken is about $1.70-$2/lb and fish is $4.40/lb…a 400gm bag of powdered milk costs $2.32…a lb of ham is $2.74-$4, depending on the ham you like… a can of soda is $0.40…shampoo is about $2.35- $6.00, again, depending on the brand…a 1.5Kg of detergent is $2.60-$5.00—local brands…a gallon of water is $0.63, but, if you buy the 5 gallon bottle you pay only $1.25-$1.60… a lb of unrefined iodized salt is $0.07... combined expenses for groceries, including toiletries and cleaning supplies for our house is about $340/month (we are working on it!)…As you can imagine, most Salvadorans do not eat much beef or fish (except for coastal towns or villages near lakes and rivers!)….and for some even chicken is a luxury!... We are meat eaters at our house...

We pay about $10 for water (there is a subsidy if you spend less than X of m2 per month), and about $40 for electricity…. We also pay $9/month on municipal taxes (includes garbage disposal and a “sweeper” – there’s a nice old man and a younger woman in our neighborhood, that come to sweep the streets 3x a week!)…technically, we don’t live in San Salvador, but in Antiguo Cuscatlan…the mayoress has been elected for 7 successive periods or something like that….Antiguo Cuscatlan is the wealthiest municipality in the country…In contrast, a friend who lives in San Salvador (in one of the poshest neighborhoods, too!) says she pays about $23/month in municipal taxes and the garbage collector comes only 1 a week….and she has to sweep her own street!....

Telephone service is billed as follows: you pay a flat rate of $9.82 just to have a line, and that includes 100 “free” local minutes….any additional use is charged according to where you are calling….our typical phone bill is about $30/month….and we do not make international phone calls!...we are working on this, too…but we have a teenager in the house!...You can get a cellphone for about $29 (currently there's a special, you can get a Sagem for $15!) and depending on the company, you pay anywhere from $0.10-$0.25 per minute...a lot of people in ES own cellphones...even some of the people that sell at the marketplace own cellphones!...you don't pay for incoming calls, just for outgoing ones!...I have managed to maintain an average expense of $12/month for cellphone use this year!

We pay $30/month for internet service…if we wanted to add cable TV we would pay about $16 more per month….cost/benefit ratio says it would be ridiculous to do this!...sis, niece and myself have about 2 hours max time to watch TV everyday…so Ale would be the only one with enough time to watch tv and really take advantage of it....since I am more than happy that Ale doesn’t really like watching TV all that much….makes no sense to pay for cable….especially not with our current financial situation!

Interest on personal loans is anywhere between 7-13%/year, depending on your credit history and, most banks will require a co-signor (unless you get paid via direct deposit at the bank from which you borrow!)...credit cards charge anywhere between 25-47%/year interest...savings accounts pay about 2-3% per year (my company coop pays 4%!)...