Chile Forum

While our permanent situation will be much different (no rent, etc.) our current expenses for two here in Futa (where somethings can be more expensive, some less, i.e. gasoline) here is the run-down now for monthly expenses in CLP's...

Rent 70,000 (two bedroom bungalow)
Phone and Internet 30,000
Electric 8-10,000
Water 2,000
For firewood - see Charles' post above
Food 120,000 I might be underestimating by not including the beer trips I make.
Sending letters to people who never write back 20,000

This would not include bus fare to Chaiten, or Argentina for business, or fun. Direct TV, which we don't have is about 40,000 to install, and 12,000 per month. Now, we own our own vehicle, purchased new here, which turned out to be a big surprise because of the vehicle tax which we have to pay 4 times a year at a whopping 140,000 pesos per quarter!!!!!

So that's it for Region X. Gas is right up there around $5USD a gallon. I can't remember the CLP per liter, probably it was too traumatic an experience to recall the whole gas-trip episode!

admin wrote:I might add, being in Temuco wood is the most common way to heat a house. Total for the year for about 10 meters of wood, dry, split, and stacked ran us 180,000 CLP. I would not split 10 meters of wood for 180,000 CLP.

A Chilean friend tells us of a place where we can get wood for 24,000 CLP per cubic meter. Does anyone know of a better deal in the Viña/Concon area? We're thinking of buying now hoping prices are going to be cheaper than three months from now during the winter.

Also, we're buying a backup generator just in case we get rolling blackouts in the months to come. Better safe than sorry.

ouch. Not lot of trees in the central region, and most of them are pine. You don't want to burn them.

Yea, I would not be surprised to see prices around Temuco hit $25,000 to 30,000 a meter this winter or more. Much will depend on how cold it is. The central region, I would be surprised if you hit 50,000 as they start really trucking it in with high gas prices.

It will not be long before they out law burning wood where you are at.

If you need basic energy backup, go with solar panels. Save your generator for firing up the things in long term black outs such as the fridge.

I was thinking about trying to mount one on my roof in Temuco as an emergency backup source for my servers, and potentially to help take some of the sting out of my power bill. For now a UPS will do the trick. The Chilean power grid is in fairly good shape. Even when the system works in the States as normal, I was having a lot more black outs every year. Still 6 blackouts this year is a lot for Chile.

We bought a 2200w generator to keep the fridge and laptops/routers up and running for up to 12 hours I think in case of black out. We're renting so I'm not sure solar panels are an attractive option for us. Looks like we should buy a couple cubic meters of wood at 24K CPL while we can.

admin wrote:Yea, I would not be surprised to see prices around Temuco hit $25,000 to 30,000 a meter this winter or more. Much will depend on how cold it is. The central region, I would be surprised if you hit 50,000 as they start really trucking it in with high gas prices.

yikes!.. i'll have to see if the F.I.L (father-in-law) has some wood for us!.. since ive been here we have spent about 60mil pesos on wood... love the family... and the bosca!!!

on the blackout from got a notice in the mail today we'll have a power outage from 7am - 2pm 30th March.. luckily its a Sunday morning so i dont think it will affect us much.. makes for a good excuse to have breakfast in the city centre (hope they electricity).. pretty good to get told when the power will be out!

Hello everyone!
I just joined a few minutes ago as a new member. Nice website! My husband received a job offer for Santiago de Chile and I am trying to figure out the cost of living in that area. I read through all your posts and I was wondering if anyone is living in one of the suburbs in Santiago and if you could give us tips as to where to look, good neighborhoods and of course how much we should expect to pay for rent, etc. We currently live in San Francisco, CA ( Bay Area) and pay $ 2200.00 for rent for a 2 bed / 2 bath townhouse. Also, does anyone know how if there is a way to import our motorcycle to Chile? Every website I went to says it is not allowed to bring used motorcycles into the country.
take care,
Anne

You'll find much information throughout the 'site on all these concerns, Anne (well, not so much about the 'cycle, but a fair amount about bring automobiles into the country). You might wish to try a few searches, then ask more pointed questions.

Good luck to you and your family. You'll enjoy Chile, I think.

I was hoping someone in the central region could fill me in on some blank spots on my budget. I'll be moving to Viña in 25 days (not that I'm counting) and I'm trying to lay out my estimated expenses. I was hoping someone could tell me whether or not my estimates seem accurate.

These will be for 2 people living in a 40 sq mt apartment in los ponientes, generally seeking to conserve as much energy as possible, quick showers, preparing food mainly from scratch:

Luz - 16.000
Agua - 16.000
phone/internet/cable - 50.000 (basic on all 3) (can anyone suggest between VTR & Telefonica?)
Food - 80.000 (obviously this would be hard to judge, but basically 2 people eating well, but not extravagantly, cooking from scratch)

I guess other expenses vary too much person-to-person, but any insight on the above would be appreciated.

Dunno about you guys but I've been getting 27,500 peso water bills this summer. Thankfully they ease off during the "wetter" months but $61 a month for water seems steep even for the US. I haven't been to the house (v region, near El Tabo) in a while and it's all landscape watering. My neighbour (2 doors up) gets the same sort of bills so it's not just me. When I move down there, I can see a revision in plantings to more drought resistant flora coming!

this is a basic run down of our general monthly costs for two in Concepcion:

Rent: 160,000 for a 3 bedroom house in a fairly quiet neighbourhood.
Luz: 10,000 - 15,000
Agua: 5,000 - 10,000 (not being conservative at all in shower times)
Gas: 10,000
TV/Phone/Internet : 45,000 (tv with 60 channels, Phone with 350 minutes free call in the region, 4Mb Connection)
Cell Phones: 25,000
Transport: 40,000
Food: 120,000 (I tend to buy a lot of imported stuff which is very expensive)
Car Rental (one weekend a month) = 65,000 car + 35,000 fuel

*We're moving to Temuco which will eliminate a lot of the costs especially the car rentals (we go see the in-laws once a month) but that's our average cost per month to live here in Concepcion

Is Viña significantly more expensive than Concepcion? Any opinions on a percentage?

Vina will in general be about 2 to 100 times more expensive depending on how you live, where, and time of year. It is a high rent district, high tourism zone, with lots of second weekend vacation apartments/condos for the wealthy from Santiago to get away. It would be kind of be like comparing Beverly Hills to some Midwest town/city in the United States.

Okay I see. But do my estimations above seem reasonable for 2 people in a small apartment living a simple lifestyle?

V Region > Provincia de San Antonio


12 months of gastos in a roomy 3 bedroom, 2 bath, conserge staffed complex, dpto with a view


Gastos Comunes - 35.858, 32.315, 36.108, 34.656, 33.123, 32.954, 33.853, 30.093, 32.639, 31.212, 32.110, 31.673

NOTES: More evidence of inflation.


Telephone/ADSL (Telefonica) — 34.352, 31.853, 31.732, 35.070, 30.063, 31.522, 31.339, 32.108, 31.815, 32.520, 32.585, 34.444, 34.205

NOTES: Recently found I was paying 1.440 a month for long distance service that was never contracted (slammed by telephone vendor). Always use Skype for landline domestic and international calls. Try to limit calls to Chile cell phones via your landline during the evening, weekend, holiday rate hours.


Water (EsVal) — 15.228, 18.188, 18.976, 16.212, 9.525, 12.146, 11.796, 11.657, 7.644, 10.827, 9.036, 12.408

NOTES: Rate increase this year. Main influencing factors: washing machine use, length of showers, dishwashing sessions, guests.


Electric (ChilQuinta) — 14.400, 16.290, 15.650, 14.970, 8.640, 12.760, 11.270, 11.160, 8.640, 11.840, 10.460, 10.430

NOTES: Rate increases the past year. Main influencing factors: guests and entertaining guests, I'm a night owl, Christmas lights.


Gas (Abastible) — 13.700, 18.200, 18.450, 16.900, 21.400, 17.050, 18.500, 11.450, 17.950, 24.400, 9.300, 17.000

NOTES: Gas from centralized tanks located on the apartment complex grounds. When I lived in Santiago was on gas directo (connected to the natural gas grid) and prices were significantly cheaper by a third or more. If you do a lot of cooking, especially the oven, this can add up. Other influencing factors: length of showers, dishwashing sessions, guests. Always set the califont to a less than max setting for the most efficiency depending on what you are doing (if you have to turn on the cold water tap to adjust temp, the setting is too high).


Food, household, personal care items — I budget 2.572/day or around 18.000/week for within Chile. Every year though, I bring in a year's supply of spices, condiments, personal care items, nutritional supplements, etc. that I cannot get in Chile or is very expensive in Chile. I shop at the once a week feria down the road for my vegetables and fruits (part of the average weekly budget - average spend is around 2.000-3.000/week).

We are living in the ponientes in Vina in a 2.5 bed 90 sq mt apartment.

Monthy costs are about:

Luz - 23,000 (125 kWh)
Gas - 13,000
Internet/Cable - 30,000
Condo Fees - 50,000

Condo Fees will vary building to building but water is covered. Cable is the most basic. I have a prepay cell phone and use Skype for most landline calls in Chile and to USA.

Weekly costs:

Food - 5000 at the farmer's market, about 25,000 more for supermarket (sampling Chilean wines)
Transportation - 3000 using micros/collectivos

The ponientes are expensive and I sometimes find price differences with supermercados in the orientes. Sadly the Guiness is always expensive.

In reference to Skype, on my last trip to the states I picked up a Netgear SPH200D phone with a transformer from Radio Shack. I must say that even though it does have a cheap feel, being able to have an actual phone to make calls back to my family and not being attached to the laptop is really nice. The verdict in forums is mixed on the phone but so far this is one of my recent best purchases.

The other costs would be gym and eating out which is not cheap.

I also expect gas and luz costs to increase in the coming months in response to heating. Most apartments do not have central heating and so you will need to either heat electrically or by gas. I know a building where the advertised radiant floor heating. The building designers did not add in recirc system and so all the hot water going to the floor eventually goes to drain. The people living there said they turned it on once and the water heater stayed on three days non stop and they got a 80,000 gas bill that month. In short bring warm clothes and hope your apartment does not face south.

I am currently living with the belt loose and could easly tighten it up a bit. Vina is going to be more expenxive than a lot of other places in Chile but it is worth it.