Black Sea in evening
The country of Georgia offers visitors from many countries the ability to stay 365 days on a passport & medical travel insurance that covers their stay while in Georgia. After traveling to countries that only were allowing us 30, 60, 90 & even 180 day stays on our U.S. passport, we were excited about traveling to Georgia. We figured with 365 days we could actually get a feel for the country’s culture & the real cost of living.
Two seniors traveling international on a small retirement pension may sound a little crazy to well, most of you. No, I’m not talking about the travel sounding crazy, I am talking about life on a strict monthly budget. Traveling from country to country requires a certain amount of financial sacrifices that is not for the weak at heart.
This article will dive into a discussion about some of those financial sacrifices or choices we are forced to make to maintain our lifestyle! Let me get back to our decision to travel to the country of Georgia in Eastern Europe. Our research showed that the country of Georgia used their own currency called the GEL or Lari, which allowed us to have a little greater spending power with the U.S. dollar. We compared in our research the cost of living between the coastal city of Batumi & the capital city of Tbilisi. The smaller city of Batumi would be 15% more economical than living in Tbilisi in working class neighborhoods. Since we had never been to Eastern European, we were excited to know how our small pension & strict budget would perform in an Eastern European country. Has it delivered? You be the judge! Here is how our budget worked out for us!
The average monthly Batumi housing in off-season (Oct to Mar) can cost between $350-$900, depending on number of bedrooms & how close you are to the beach. Batumi’s tourist season explodes from April – September & rent can increase by an average of 40%. We budget 27% of our pension for housing, therefore the off-season prices were well within our Budget.
The Big Guy & I work as a team with our financial matters. We discuss our wants, needs & budget regarding any travel or housing. I am in charge of housing arrangements & the Big Guy handles international travel. I stay out of his lane & he stays out of mine. With that being said…Finding economical housing during off-season can be done, but there are challenges. Many places will not include utilities & essentials like bathroom supplies, kitchen ware for cooking, etc.
There are also risk involved with paying cash & personally I don’t like those headaches. I could have found more economical housing but I pay extra for the convenience of of knowing if it is as advertised & “if not” I can get my money back to go somewhere else. We have certain things we want when we rent a place to stay, such as working hot water & working heat or A/C, so as long as it is within budget, I look at Airbnb’s, which I realize are more expensive than renting directly from an owner or real estate agent. I have dealt with direct rentals from online websites, owners & real estate agents. I am offered lower rentals, but utilities & sometimes maintenance fees are separate payments. Bottom line those low rent prices may come with sometimes hidden fees that actually make the rental equal to or greater than paying for an Airbnb. You do you!
We prefer to stay in working neighborhoods such as this for an example. The exterior aesthetics of houses/apartments may not be what many middle class westerners are accustomed to seeing. Our ‘adapt and improvise’ may not fit your desires at first glance on the outside, most used as Airbnbs are beautifully renovated inside. We personally loved walking the streets wondering what these houses would say if they could talk. Although Batumi is booming with new apartment high rises on it seems every corner, there is just something magical in the older homes. What I a am saying ‘you cannot always judge a book by its cover’!
The average monthly grocery expense in Batumi, Georgia for us came in right at budget every month. Based on what we needed some months were much lower than others while other months were right at the tip of the budget. Shopping in an open-air market for locally grown fruits, vegetables & meats cost considerably less than shopping at the major super markets like Carrefour or Goodwill where you can buy specialty imported brands. We stayed within our budgeted amount by cooking at home a majority of the time & shopping at the open air market for our fruits or vegetables as needed.
Grocery shopping in Batumi is a hit or miss experience, both when it comes to finding some of the fresh vegetables that we like to use when cooking & especially when it comes to “customer service.” We used two major supermarkets, Carrefour (Black Sea Mall location the best) & Agrohub (best for fruits/vegetables) when we were not shopping at open markets. Each store carried items the other did not so we used both about the same. Street vendor offer the best selections of fruits & vegetable at are big savings from the Super markets stores.
During mandarin season supermarkets charge about 5 Lari a kilo, while the open air markets charge about 3 lari a kilo. We saw cherries ranging from 7 Lari per kilo to 15 Lari on the same day but in different neighborhoods of the city.
The average cost for us to dine out at a simple local restaurant in Batumi was about $7-$9 USD. A fast food lunch or occasional dinner out for the two of us about $20-25 USD but those were maybe two or three times per month. You could easily spend more at the tourist specialty restaurants. We don’t dine out that often & during our six months in Batumi we stayed under the 5% we budgeted for dining out.
Now I included dining out & coffee shops together. Honestly, we spent most of our budgeted amount going to coffee shops which sometimes might include a breakfast, snack or small meal with friends. Prices ranged depending whether you were in tourist area or local neighborhood. Our favorite coffee shop had to be Greejeens, because the Big Guy is a coffee snob & they had his favorite selection of coffee beans!
Our Average monthly cellular service including added phone storage was 3% of our budget which included two phone plans for us. Since Magticom (Magti) seemed to have the most reliable & extensive network it was our choice for a Georgian number. (Silknet [Geocell] & Cellfie mobile are both budget-friendly). Magti was easy & we added to our Bank of Georgia card for auto payment of $34 USD for the two of us for the last six months we were in Georgia.
At the beginning of the year we had started using Mint Mobile for our stateside cell phone service, but their international service coverage fees are unreasonable for our budget. Luckily we were able to take advantage of their special sign-up offer of $15 USD a month per line for unlimited service. Combining Magti & Mint packages that makes our total cellular service per month $68 USD coming under our budgeted amount.
Next to housing, medical insurance is one of our biggest & necessary expenses with a budget of 17%. There are two entries under this heading – Travel/Medical insurance & Medicare. With both programs it still came under the Budget Allotment of 17%.
The country of Georgia recently passed a law requiring all foreigners to have medical coverage prior to entering the country that must be valid through their stay in the country. Remember when I told you that the Big Guy was responsible for travel, well insurance is also in his lane. The Big Guy is all about ensuring that we contribute to small businesses in the local economy. When we arrived in Georgia, we had coverage for international travel medical insurance from a major insurer within the United States. Prior to that policy lapsing, the Big Guy renewed our medical Insurance through a local Georgia company that provided the required amounts including legal & translation coverages while in country. (Don’t ask me the reason he felt we needed legal services). The savings we got in purchasing a local travel medical insurance helped to keep us under our budgeted 17%.
Second part is Medicare insurance for U.S.
Thankfully, both of us are keen on keeping up with our health. While traveling outside the United States our Medicare does not cover routine or emergency medical care which does suck. If needed, you will generally be required to pay 100% of your international medical bills out-of-pocket & then make a claim against your Travel/Medical above. We have had to do that & it worked just fine. This is what irritates me – we are required to pay our monthly Medicare insurance at a rate of $202.90 USD. We are paying $405.80 per month for insurance that is worthless outside the U.S. At some point, I see us settling down in our peace of paradise & dispensing with the Medicare!
Let me be clear that we do walk a lot & Batumi is a walkable city. I might even dare say you could walk from one end of the city to the other but if you aren’t a walker you have a choice in transportation. City Bus, Mini Bus, Yandex, Bolt, Taxi, Maxim are modes of transportation in Batumi but we used Bolt. Using the City Bus was very easy & inexpensive to use with our Yellow Plus card. It uses a one on/one off price of .70 GEL which is equal to .26 USD per person. Now that’s a bargain! Only con is that it took us on our longest ride an hour & 18 stops to get to our destination but if you aren’t in a hurry…go for it. Most of the City Buses are clean & electric with a/c! The 4% allotted to Transportation was more than enough & under budget!
We attempted to use the taxi & asked for a price to our destination. He looked at us & said 10 GEL which equaled to $3.77 USD – we said ‘no thank you’. Ordered a mid size Bolt & the cost was 4.70 GEL or $1.77 USD. We also think that Bolt is much safer than the local taxi service for several reason that I will discuss in another article, Needless to say we stick to Bolt here in Georgia. We have discussed using Vanilla Sky, the Georgian Train or the Georgian Bus for our move to Kutaisi but unsure at this point. They all seem reasonable for us.
Russian manicures cost me $35 USD & was the best manicure! Gel didn’t chip & my nails have never been in better shape! I don’t think I will ever be happy again with an American manicure! This salon was in ‘tourist’ area so the price reflects that.
Fresh Georgian bread out of the oven from street vendor cost $1.13 USD (3 GEL for two huge pieces)! We usually ended up munching on the warm bread while walking home. OH, and I was told by baker how I was to carry them – no dropping them in my shopping bag. Ha!
Fresh fruits/vegetables from street vendors can save a ton on groceries.
Parks, Boardwalk, Sunning on beach, Plane Spotting – Free entertainment!
Beauty Salons are on every block. Keeping my white roots blond (including trim, blowout & a cappuchino) cost me $77 USD every 6-8 weeks. This entry is covered under our Personal Allotment of 4%. Other expenses might be shaves for The Big Guy, mani/pedis, misc clothing, etc.
Batumi was pretty good to us. Beautiful country but I think Batumi is a little touristic for my blood during the summer months. Is it worth a return trip for us? Definitely! For now, we are continuing our fascination with Georgia for a visit to Kutaisi for a couple months & then possibly Tbilisi.
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