What's the overall cost of living in Granada, Nicaragua?

The overall cost for living in Granada, Nicaragua depends on exactly how you want to live. Do you want a nice simple life with not too many amenities like a swimming pool, daily cleaning service, your own private cook, your own driver, a car, etc.?  If this is the case, a couple could easily live on US $2,000 a month or less. If you want all the extras and a bit to travel here and there, you could live "high on the hog" for about $3,000 a month.  Of course,...

The overall cost for living in Granada, Nicaragua depends on exactly how you want to live. Do you want a nice simple life with not too many amenities like a swimming pool, daily cleaning service, your own private cook, your own driver, a car, etc.?  If this is the case, a couple could easily live on US $2,000 a month or less. If you want all the extras and a bit to travel here and there, you could live "high on the hog" for about $3,000 a month.  Of course, the bigger the family the more your expenses will be but, I guarantee, it is still less than you will pay in the United States or Canada.

How much it costs to live in Granada, Nicaragua is a rather open-ended question in many respects.  Let’s narrow it down with an example.
 
For a long-term rental (6 months or more), you could rent a nice, one bedroom apartment to American standards in a safe area in Granada for US $500 - $600 a month.  A nice two-bedroom apartment may rent for $700 a month.  If you’re a single person, without a car, you could probably live on maybe $1,200 - $1,300 a...

How much it costs to live in Granada, Nicaragua is a rather open-ended question in many respects.  Let’s narrow it down with an example.
 
For a long-term rental (6 months or more), you could rent a nice, one bedroom apartment to American standards in a safe area in Granada for US $500 - $600 a month.  A nice two-bedroom apartment may rent for $700 a month.  If you’re a single person, without a car, you could probably live on maybe $1,200 - $1,300 a month.  For a couple, the monthly cost to live in Granada would be around $1,700 - $1,800 a month.  All these figures include Internet service, cable, etc.  If you add a car, your monthly expenses (not including the price of the buying the car itself) would increase about $300 a month. 
 
The prices on anything that’s imported are perhaps a little bit higher in Granada than they are in the US.  However, a lot of the local food products like fruits and vegetables are quite inexpensive, and are available pretty much year round.  In the end, if you continue to buy the same brands you buy in the US (which have to be imported to Nicaragua, so they cost more) and combine those items with the local Nicaraguan products, the cost for food in Granada, Nicaragua is about the same as the cost for food in the US.  If you stick to the Nicaraguan products, you could reduce your food costs 30% - 40% from what they were in the US.
 
Overall, you can compare the cost for a single person to live in the Los Angeles, California area of about $5,000 per month to the cost in Granada, Nicaragua of about $1,200 - $1,600 per month.

How much it costs to live in Granada, Nicaragua depends on where you live and how you want to live.
 
In Nicaragua, the average monthly budget is from US $300 - $600 per month.
 
There are families here in Nicaragua who can live on $600 per month, but who have a very simple life.  For example, they cannot travel, but they can live. 
 
As another example, in my personal life, I have two children and a wife who’s still in school, and I can easily...

How much it costs to live in Granada, Nicaragua depends on where you live and how you want to live.
 
In Nicaragua, the average monthly budget is from US $300 - $600 per month.
 
There are families here in Nicaragua who can live on $600 per month, but who have a very simple life.  For example, they cannot travel, but they can live. 
 
As another example, in my personal life, I have two children and a wife who’s still in school, and I can easily live on $1,200 per month, including my car expenses and house payments.  My house, which 1,300 feet, three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms, has a loan on it of $47,000, so my payments are $410 per month.  In my circumstance, the remaining $790 per month is enough for us to live.
 
If you’re a single pensionado (an expat retired person living in Nicaragua), you could live on $1,000 per month.  This would include renting a house in Granada and having enough left over for utilities, food and transportation, etc.
 
A typical North American couple could live in Granada on $1,600 per month.  This would include rent of $800 for an American-standard 2,200 square foot, 3 bedroom, two bathroom house in a good neighborhood.  It would also include electrical, water, food, gas for the car (but no car payments), Internet, cable, basic healthcare (assuming paying for insurance but no out of the ordinary expenses), clothing and going out to dinner every once in a while.

The cost of living question will greatly depend on your needs and if you are renting or purchased a home. 

 

We shop for groceries in the Masaya farmers' market where we find spices, vegetables, fruits, and large pots to be used on our fire pit, pottery etc. We never leave here spending more than US$20, except for the large 24-30 inch pots that added US$35.

 

As it relates to rents, it all depends if you desire to live in Granada or...

The cost of living question will greatly depend on your needs and if you are renting or purchased a home. 

 

We shop for groceries in the Masaya farmers' market where we find spices, vegetables, fruits, and large pots to be used on our fire pit, pottery etc. We never leave here spending more than US$20, except for the large 24-30 inch pots that added US$35.

 

As it relates to rents, it all depends if you desire to live in Granada or outside in the smaller communities. In Granada, rents are higher as you get closer to the Calzada or as we also call this, the entertainment district - music, food and many vendors. 

 

If you are near the Calzada you will also have the constant traffic and noise, and lots of tourists. Here for a 2 bedroom you are looking at US $1,000 - $1,400 and you need to add utilities with a small pool. Friends of ours found a US$400 per month rental without a pool 5 blocks from the Calzada and no air conditioning but did have ceiling fans.

 

We live in a small farm/bedroom community and here you would spend US $200 to $400 for a home. The question will be condition, and what you will need to fix to make it to your liking. 

 

Electric costs can be a killer, especially if you use the air conditioning. This can add quickly US $200 per month to your rent. Water is fairly cheap US $20 max per month. We do not use air conditioning in any rooms of our home.  We only use fans, and we use lots of office equipment and our monthly electric bill is between US $60 to the highest when we had welding work to be done, US $150.

 

We have Claro internet/cable and phone package that runs US$100 per month.

 

If you have no car, a taxi around town will cost you per person maybe US $2 per day. Busses between town are fairly cheap, maybe US $1- $2, depending on distance traveled.

 

We bought our home. All bills are running us approx US $,1000 max per month, which includes 3 helpers, and of course businesses expenses. If I take business and staff out we are living here on less than US $500 a month.

 

We like most people do not carry medical insurance or home insurance. The costs outweigh the benefit and so far we have been ok on medical, with limited to no costs, except dental cleaning US $25 and other medical bills of US $70 for doctor visits to the home. Medicine is cheaper here with most meds coming out of Mexico and Canada, I save 75% by buying my meds here.