'Hope to move to Uruguay' Montevideo

Hope to move to Uruguay

such as cost of living, how to find a good school and a nice place to live near by what about finding work, health insurance etc, ..

The cost of living question when asked generally seems to agitate some people here and I can understand their view point. It is hard for someone to tell someone else how much it will cost them to live. I do think if you have specific questions about various costs people will be helpful.

For example, I've never seen anyone post about what the cost for electricity is. Cost per kilowatt hour that is. I've just seem general statements that it might be $50 or $100 per month.

speaking about the cost of living in Uruguay is a quiye difficult matter for everybody. It always depend on the "needs" you have. Uruguayans can live with an electricity bill of USD 50. For expats this would be impossible and to give a figure of what the electricity bill would be is also very difficult. You have a basic charge, a charge with a price for the first 200 KW, a higher price for the next 100 KW, and so on. There are also some special meters where if you have the main use during the night you pay less. It is impossible to state this fact.

The same applies for what you are used to eat. Uruguayans do not earn so much money and many of them have a very small budget to eat. So their main food could be noodles, rice or something else. How often do you eat meat, which quantity, which meat cuts? How often do you eat fish, cheese, etc? There are also different qualities of products. It is not easy to state what somebody would need to live in Uruguay. Think that the main average income for a Uruguayan family is not more than USD 500 and they live on that. Would you live in their neighborhood and eat every day what they eat? My guess is: NO. Would you give up the comfort of a car to move yourself around, to go to the supermarket? Would you not go to eat outside? Not having cable TV?

Before this question is made, you should supply the information on how you are expecting to live, what appliances you would have in your house, what kind of house you would like to have what kind of a car, what you are used to eat every day, how many times you would like to eat outside, how many people live in your household, etc. It is not easy to establish a rule.

Regards,

that is msotly the income of a couple. May be a very little bit more. But no expat would live like they do in a foreign country, where even the language is different.

The government states that the average income in Uruguay (all working population throughout the country) is of about USD 850 a month. But this is statistics.

My estimate for a reasonable good living is to have over USD 1300 a month. In this budget can a car be included if you don't have to pay rent and live on a very cheap basis.

I also made during these hours some research. A single expat living alone and not being the whole day at his home, with a gas kitchen (just for the case he wants to cook himself something) has an almost USD 50 monthly electricity bill. He lives in a small apartment (one bedroom). Personally at my home (4 persons), switching off everything except the fridge during the day when we are not at home and using the washing machine just once a week and having a gas kitchen have an electricity bill of USD 80 a month.

Regards,

Peter Stross

Remeber, $ = pesos here, and about 23.2 pesos to the dollar today.

"Cargo Pot. Contratada"

5.5 kW x 1M x $31.74 = $172.57

"Facuracion de consumo"

100 kWh ($2.252) = $225.16

342 kWh ($3.257) = $1113.97

Cargo Fijo = $93.75

"Otros Conceptos"

Multa = $96.10

Recar = $3.51

I.V.A. = $375.55

Ajuste Redondeo = $.39

Total = $2.083.00

In short that means I used 442 kWh of electricity and paid 2.252 pesos (9.7 us cents) each for the first 100 kilowatt hours and 3.257 pesos (14 us cents) each for the next 342 kilowatt hours.

To be fair in the kilowatt hour price you should add on the IVA (sales tax) of 22%... so the first 100 were 11.83 cents us, and the next just over 17 cents.

The multa was because I was a bad boy and paid last months bill late.

There was also a price change in the middle of the month and those figures are some kind of average but the receipt is printed over the calculations so I can't make them out.

I believe the NEW RATES are a bit lower at 2.286 pesos for the first 100 and 3.307 after that.

Watch out for places with electric heat. You will often be told that 1) its not very expensive and 2) there is a special lower rate at night.

1) I think often it is not very expensive because often it is not used. 2) I would be happy to sleep in an unheated apartment... but would some warmth during the day.

Now that might be a cultural difference between the US and Uruguay... or part of the answer of why examining the average income of an Uruguayan and how they live on that income may be interesting, but not particularly useful for an expat's budget plans.

7.896 cents per kilowatt hour plus distribution charge of 3.547 per kilowatt hour plus two other charges totaling .6833 cents per kilowatt hour... so the actual consumer cost is 12.1263 cents per kilowatt hour.

The 14 cents Uruguay charges is really not that high. Though, I doubt the sales tax (if any) on electricity in Michigan is close to 22%.

• DTE Energy Rates

• Electricity Rates (in Spanish)

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