Cost of Living in Lima Peru
Posted on | August 14, 2012 | 14 Comments
This question comes up over and over and over – and it’s got a million and one answers – what’s the cost of living in Lima, Peru? Why do so many people have so many different answers to the same question? If you asked a construction worker from the Bronx and a high powered doctor or broker from Manhattan about their cost of living, don’t you think you’d get different responses? It’s the same thing here in Lima.
I have been in the position of living in a lower class neighborhood and am now living in a upscale neighborhood, so I think I’m in a pretty good position to give you a good idea on the cost of living. My family is far from rich, but we live pretty comfortably – certainly in the “1%” by Peruvian standards. By US standards, I’d say that we were firmly entrenched in the middle class. I’m going to list out some of the most common costs of living items, give you an idea what we paid for them in Surquillo, what we pay in Miraflores, and when possible, what some other people pay.
At the time of writing this post, the exchange rate was about 2.64 soles to 1 dollar.
Rent: This is usually one of the biggest expenditures.
- Our first rental in Surquillo cost us $350/month, and that price included water and electricity services. It was a 3-bedroom, one bath home, with a nice sized kitchen and a small back patio. We had to pay about 20 soles/month in arbitrios (municipal taxes) and also chip in for the neighborhood watchman.
- In Miraflores, we’re paying $800/monthly, and it doesn’t include anything else. It’s a 3 bedroom/2bath house with an attached mini apartment that includes two rooms with a private bath. The house has a very large kitchen, lots of space and a back yard garden that’s big enough for dogs and kids to play. The arbitrios are about 50 soles/month, but include the neighborhood watchman, nice roads and lots of area landscaping.
- You can find rentals in price ranges from around $300 month to over $2000, depending upon location and furnishings. Rentals in districts like Lince, Jesus Maria, San Miguel, Surquillo, and Magdalena can be much less expensive, but those districts have some nice areas and some not so nice areas, so due diligence is necessary when apartment/home shopping.
Grocery shopping:
- Groceries cost us about 300 soles per person per month. I shop at a combination of grocery stores and local markets; the local markets are generally cheaper, but I don’t care what anyone says, I don’t think the quality is as good. The market is great if you’re shopping for things you will use quickly, but if you’re like me and like to buy a week at a time, you’ll probably prefer the grocery store. I find that fruits and vegetables from the market tend to go bad more quickly, probably because they aren’t refrigerated. (I fully expect someone to eventually post here and tell me I’m full of crap and don’t know what I’m talking about – whatevs, I’m talking about my experience, not theirs)
I do save some money by shopping at Plaza Vea; I have a “Visa Vea” credit card through Interbank, which not only allows me to get special instore discounts, but also offers me bonus coupons depending on how much I spend. I’ve carefully compared prices, and find that I can shop at Plaza Vea for as cheaply as I can at the market for most items.
If you like to eat a lot of comfort foods from home, expect to see that reflected in higher costs on your grocery bill.
Utilities:
- In Surquillo, our water and electric were covered with the rent; I know people in Surquillo, however, who pay as little as $15/month for water and about $25-30 for power.
- In Miraflores, the costs are higher. With a washing machine and a backyard that has to be watered, (plus 5-6 people showering regularly!) our water bill costs as much as $45/month. Electric is much higher – around $100/month – that includes 2 computers that are on most of the time, refrigerator, washer, hot water heater + one electric “on demand” water heater in the separate bath. In the winter, the electric goes up by about $20 because we run heaters occasionally; we’ve just purchased a new clothes dryer, I’ll let you know how the power bill reacts!
Telephone/Internet/Cable
- There’s no need to compare for location, the prices are the same where ever you are. I recommend Claro for communications – their customer service is head and shoulders above that of the competition, Telefonica. We have a “Triple Play” that includes 172 channels of TV, 6000kbps internet (with wifi), and 1000 minutes of telephone calls from a landline. The nice thing about the landline phone – I can call to the US (and quite a few other countries) with no extra long distance charge, it just uses my regular minutes. The price for all this is at about $100/month at the current exchange rate.
School:
- We spend 350 soles a month to send the kid to a private school. It’s an awesome school with a very strong emphasis on maths and science, and my kid loves it and is doing way better than he has ever done in school before. And we’re talking classes like trigonometry, geometry, physics, chemistry etc, for a 13 year old kid. You can spend a whole hell of a lot more on school, or you can spend zero. It all depends on what works for your family and your kids. I wrote a whole post on schools costs and finding a good one here >>>Schools in Lima.
Transportation:
- I can’t really give you a monthly transportation cost – it depends on how much you move around! But cars are expensive (a new Toyota Camry is running $36000, 5 years used is at about $15000). Gas costs about $4.50/gallon. Fortunately, buses and taxis are cheap and plentiful. Buses can get you anywhere in the city for generally under a dollar. Taxi prices are negotiated before you get in the taxi; expect to pay 5-10 soles for travel within one district or to the next district; trips from the center parts of town to the airport or outer parts can run from 15 to 40 soles in a generic street cab, prices go up when you call for a nice car with professional, uniformed drivers. You can also get a car and driver for the day for anywhere from 25 soles/hour to $20/hour, depending again on the level of service and type of car.
Domestic Help
- We have a maid that comes twice a week – we pay her 40 soles per day, she works from 9-4pm. You can get a live-in maid or nanny for as little as 200 soles/week. Remember that if you plan on doing things correctly (i.e. legally), you’ll also pay double monthly salary for the months of July and December.
Keep in mind – this is what my family pays. If you like to go out a lot, if you eat take out food or go to restaurants or need a short term fully furnished apartment, you may end up paying a lot more than me! If you’re a single dude just looking for a cheap place to retire, you can pay a lot less than me. It all depends on what it takes to make you happy.
If you have questions on any other type of cost of living question, put it in the comments – I’ll try to find out answers and keep this updated. If this post was helpful to you, don’t forget to share! Give it a tweet, a like or a Google +1!
PS – If you’re looking for a way to earn money from blogging, check out this post > The Joy of Blogging
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14 Responses to “Cost of Living in Lima Peru”
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I got tired of life happening while I made other plans, so I quit my job and came to Peru. I live here with my Peruvian husband, two sons, three dogs and various other family members, depending on the weather.
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August 14th, 2012 @ 20:56
We just returned from a month’s vacation in Peru. While in Lima we stayed in San Magil with Kelly and Cristian (Peru Road Trip.com). We visited many of the districts and shopped Plaza Vea, Metro, Wongs, Tottus and several markets. I agree with everything you have said based on what we saw and experianced. I will say, Lima is a great city. The longer we were there the more I liked it. What diversity there is with suprizes around every corner
August 15th, 2012 @ 00:45
I’ve traveled a pretty good amount, and can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be.
August 15th, 2012 @ 04:15
Thank you very much for post Kelly, I’m moving to Lima from Moscow, Russia in 3 months and this information is actually what I was looking for, although my husband is peruvian, it’s been 5 years now that he left Peru and as far as we know the prices have changed quite a lot since then.
August 15th, 2012 @ 06:36
Very good information. I would suggest you add the exchange rate of 2.64 (today) since you have mixed the cost of Soles and Dollars throughout the post. Most people I talk with here in the U.S. have no idea that 20 Soles is only $7.58. We look forward to seeing you in about 7 weeks.
August 15th, 2012 @ 11:25
Absolutely – there has been quite a bit of inflation. Food is quite a bit more expensive that it was just a few years ago. I know when I first came to Peru a kilo of eggs cost about 3 soles, now it’s 5-6, depending on where you buy – that’s a big jump. Bread is more expensive too.
As James mentions in the next comment, the exchange rate has really fluctuated, also – about 3.50 soles to the dollar when I moved here, it’s only about 2.64 right now – last month it was 2.68, so it’s not done, either.
August 15th, 2012 @ 11:25
Good point James, thanks for mentioning it!
August 16th, 2012 @ 10:12
As usual, good advice and thorough.
September 6th, 2012 @ 11:03
hi there,
Why do you say you’re in the 1% if you’re apparently in the lower middle class? I would’ve thought that people in the 1% spend about 6 times what you do in school tuition, have one or two live-in maids, go to Wong instead of Metro, don’t pay rent but own a house, etc.
Nice site btw!
September 7th, 2012 @ 12:00
Thanks – I appreciate it! To answer your question, I say that based on comparing our income and standard of living to the vast majority of Peruvians. I believe economic status is based much more on income rather than on how you choose to spend it. I’d also go so far as to say that those who live the lifestyle that you describe are far less than the top 1%.
September 11th, 2012 @ 11:36
WOW!!!! No humility in Anna’s comment. Just an FYI Anna. Wong is owned by Metro. Just a testiment that it takes what you refer to the lower middle class keeping the upper 1% out of bankrupcy.
September 12th, 2012 @ 15:47
I shop at whichever store is convenient and has what I need. Wong is near my house, I like their bread best and they have more imported foods. But the majority of my shopping is at Plaza Vea; I used to live near the store and I like it. The idea that I would purposely spend more money to make myself fit in with a pre-conceived notion of the “upper class” is kind of silly.
September 12th, 2012 @ 18:23
I’ve been living in Lima for almost 15 years now. When I first came here I also lived in Miraflores. My rent was about $600/month for a 2 bedroom apartment (15 years ago) Now I own a house. My kidd’ tuiition is $650/month each. We have one live-in maid and one nanny. It’s true that Wong and Metro are own by the same people, but there’s a reason why one is called Wong and the other one Metro, it’s because one is more upscale than the other one. I do not consider myself part of the 1% so I don’t know how the author of this blog does. I’m going to have to agree with Anna. @Abe it’s not about humility, these are facts.
September 16th, 2012 @ 11:41
Hi Nathan – we may not be literally in the 1%, but are probably pretty darned close. My intention is not to say that I’m part of a better social class – I’m talking about income and the standard of living that we can afford compared to the vast majority of Peruvians. You make enough money to pay for a school that would cover the monthly salary of 3 or 4 Peruvians in the provinces. You and I have incomes and lifestyles that a huge percentage of Peruvians can only dream of.
My reason for saying it the way I did is this: Many people who think of coming to Peru hear that Peruvians live comfortably on $400 or $500 dollars a month, without realizing everything that the people earning those incomes do without.
For instance – I know a Peruvian family that has 4 adults working in their household – the 2 parents and 2 adult children. They had never been able to afford to buy a washing machine or a refrigerator. That’s four full time incomes, just to get by in a small house. I compare myself to that, where my husband and I are fortunate enough to not even have to work full time, yet make many times what her family’s monthly income is. And she is not even considered “poor” by Peruvian standards, because she’s at least got running water and a bathroom in her home.
I base the “!%” statement on income and what I could do with it, rather than on whether I shop at Wong or Metro. I’m talking about earned wages – not about how I spend it.
September 17th, 2012 @ 23:37
It seems as though this conversation may have gone in directions unintended. I completally understad the facts Nathan pointed out. I never could grasp what has been told to me regarding such facts until my last trip to Lima a month ago. While there I spent time with people from all the districts. I was a guest in their homes. I saw the way they related to their help (Maids and Nanny’s), the type of car they would drive and yes where they bought their groceries.
Then I spent equal time the Junin province doing the same thing. I was astonished to see simalarities in many life style attributes just on a greatly reduced to very little income. I found that even though their income was limited they too had a dream.
The facts I fail to grasp are why do most people in Lima turn away from the situation their fellow Peruvians are faced with. Why is it so important where someone buy’s their groceries or if they pay far more for an education then their childern will ever appreciate. Here I have read about live in Maids and Nanny’s that may or may not certify if you are in the top 1%. When just ten minutes south of Lima are large camps of your fellow Peruvians who live with no water and little protection from the elements.
I am one of those people that used to think we could live comfortably in Peru on very little money. I now know to do so it would come with great sacrifice compared to the lifestyle I am used to living.