In this post I will share with you a picture of our expenses for our cost of living in Colombia 2024! We have absolutely loved every minute of our time in Bucaramanga, Colombia but immigration dictates 180 days per year so we are out of here in a few short days.
Six months in Bucaramanga really let us get a good feel for our monthly budget. We tracked every expense (peso) in a spreadsheet & posted those to our budget sheet every few days so we always knew where we were on the budget.
What were our actual costs to live in Bucaramanga, Colombia for six months in 2024? Just for comparison I’ve put all our expenses in a percentage of our budget so you can compare to your own expenses – get your calculator app out to see how the calculation compares to your available monthly budgeted percentage. I think that makes sense but lets jump ahead…
How Much is 100,000 pesos in Colombia?
Before we jump into the budget someone asked me how much is 100,000 pesos in Colombia? Well I’m going to tell you as of the date of this article 100,000 pesos (100,000 COP) was equal to $23.18 USD. Since I quoted some of the prices below I thought it only fair that I give you a peek at the current conversion rate. Now lets go look at that budget!
Breakdown of Cost of Living in Colombia
We realized early on in our international travels that somewhere in South America, possibly Colombia, may just be the sweet spot for us – not for an ‘extended vacation’ but as a place we could actually spend the rest of our lives. Saying that was easy but we really needed to track expenses to see if the actual cost of living in Colombia would benefit us & fall within our already created travel budget? Six months is a good starter! So I listed absolutely every expense we had but you should walk away with a good comparison to what YOUR expenses would be in the USA. Is international travel a fit for you?
Rent Cost in Bucaramanga
Our monthly average rent for the six months in Bucaramanga was 17% of the allotted 26% of our household budget so UNDER BUDGET! YES! Housing is one of our biggest monthly expenses, but housing in Bucaramanga, Colombia included all our utilities, such as water, gas, electric, cable & internet service. Compared to U.S. with house payment and utilities such as the above plus property taxes, maintenance, etc – renting an apartment in Bucaramanga was a no brainer! House rentals in the US are crazy high for the average person not including any utilities & that is for a ‘normal’ house in a relatively safe neighborhood. Plus, in the U.S. there are four seasons which means utilities could easily sky rocket year round with the extreme variances between hot & cold seasons. In Bucamaranga or any city for that matter, renting an Airbnb (one that fits your budget) that covers all those expenses in one economical charge per month is again – a win win.
Grocery Expense in Bucaramanga, Colombia
We budget 11% of our household income for groceries, however we didn’t have to compromise in order to achieve spending less than the 11% allocated in our budget. Grocery expenses in Bucaramanga included visits to open fruit/vegetable markets on Sundays as well as the local grocery stores. If we ate breakfast, it was in the apartment but lunches &/or dinners went between cooking in or going out, depending on plans for that day.
Certain ‘inter-national’ grocery items can run a little higher; for ex. a bottle of Heinz relish was $8 USD (how much is it in your grocery store?); same with name brand shampoo or body wash but still we are talking international brands so… For the most part, prices are economical for us. For ex: 30 fresh x-large eggs at open market on Sunday mornings was 18,000 COP. Smaller eggs could be bought at grocer for 14,000 COP but I prefer larger eggs. What do you pay?
I just want to clarify that our grocery expense includes EVERYTHING along with several non-food items, such as laundry & dish-washing soaps, mops, trash bags, etc. Depending on what you desire in your budget you could separate this out into two units?
Dining Out in Bucaramanga
Our budget for dining out is 4%. We went over budget, HOWEVER this balanced out with under budget for grocery shopping, so to me that is a win-win. Dining out expenses included almuerzos (lunch specials) delivered to the door! In the U.S. when we would go out for a lunch even for a salad & drink each, it could total over $40 USD. Here in Bucaramanga a great filling lunch (below) cost you anywhere from 12,000 – 14,000 COP each! Depending on the neighborhood you live in I could see that price might rise just a little but I’m guessing?!
This particular kitchen charges 24,000 COP for two of us! The food is great & if you are not into eating ‘international’ crap like McDonald’s, you can save a few pesos & be healthy! There were a few restaurants that we really liked the food & service had great lunch specials at economically friendly prices!
Coffee at local cafes were basically a daily must for me. Coffee frappe at my favorite coffee shop Cafe 21 ran 12,000 COP. Same drink at Starbucks would easily run over $7 or higher stateside.
Medical/Pharmacy Care
Our medical/pharmacy care allotted at 15% of household budget came in Under Budget! Since Colombia is ranked 22nd in the world for healthcare & personally fantastic we felt comfortable using their healthcare services. We are both fine but there was a slight pause that was reason enough to travel to Foscal Int’l Hospital for a checkup. Our cost for complete consult, blood lab workup & a full abdomen sonogram was less than $50 USD.
Most medicines can easily be refilled at numerous local pharmacies at a VERY reasonable price. I needed B/P to be refilled & took box in, walked out with a few months prescriptions. We have found vitamins to be about the same price as the United States costing about 89,090 COP for a 60 day supply, but they are a part of our daily regimen so counted as a necessity in budget. Our U.S. based health insurance that we still pay every month (but at some point will cancel) uses the majority of the above budgeted amount & doesn’t even cover us outside the United States after 60 days. .. Yes that is a sore subject & at some point we will see about canceling that but until then… We also pay yearly for an international health insurance plan, but it is only a small amount of that actually goes toward this percentage.
We have actually used the medical care system in two of the four different cities of Colombia that we visited or lived. The quality and cost of the medical care was equally outstanding. In Bucaramanga, Colombia we went to Foscal International Hospital and was assigned a personal language translator who escorted us thru the medical hospital and arranged for all the various tests. {Again, we are both fine, just a general check-up}. All fees were quoted to us up front & we paid in COP. No nickel & diming you to death for months afterwards.
Local Transportation/Travel Costs
We allot 19% of our monthly income for transportation! In the U.S. this budget item included our car payment, mandatory car insurance, gas & maintenance & totaled about 20% monthly. We were extremely under budget in Bucaramanga. We used Uber as our main form of transportation during our six months and used about 2% of our allotted monthly transportation budget. Just a side note; any required Visa fees would be included in our Transportation allotment. For ex: to renew our initial 90 day visa for an additional 90 days it cost us $50 USD each.
Normally, we walk a lot but if needed an Uber is our choice. (Just for comparison we learned that a recent twelve mile trip using Uber in Austin, TX cost $40 USD.) – the same trip in Bucaramanga using an Uber would costs about $2-$5 USD depending on the time of day. We have used taxis, but the Big Guy is skeptical about getting from point A to point B in a taxi. When using Uber we automatically notify a third party about our movements. Buses are also available, but currently we follow the the U.S. government security advisory and avoid this type of public transportation.
Do we miss not owning a vehicle? HECK NO!
Entertainment
We were far below our 4% allotted amount in budget! Our idea of entertainment probably varies from yours – an occasional road trip, mountain walks, playing board games with the neighbors, a special meal or simply fresh juice with friends. Entertainment will probably be readdressed in our 2025 budget & combined with Dining Out? For now, it is what it is!
Telephone Service Outside the US
Telephone monthly service fell far below our budget allotment of 4%. This covers 12 GB data, WhatsApp, F/B for thirty days for our two phones. The only thing you have to remember is the day your month expires you could find yourself with no service & doing a quick walk to the nearest Claro to get a recharge. So easy on the budget! Our five year old unlocked cell phones (with E-Sim) still take great pictures & videos. Currently, we don’t see the need to upgrade as we do try to take care of our phones, they are still supported with updates & we recently replaced our batteries.
Personal Expenses
Personal expenses averaged out to be under the 4% allotted budget amount. This expense really can vary from month to month with expenses of clothes, shoes, etc. The necessary monthly personal expenses for us includes nail salons (45,000 COP), my hair wash/dry/styled (45,000 COP) as well as barber shave for The Big Guy at 50,000 COP which he swears is HIGHER here than in the U.S.
Since we have been accepted into the local community, which means being part of a walking group & going on three to four hour Sunday pilgrimages into the mountains we have both lost weight & our clothing sizes dropped drastically, so our personal budget was needed to replace the oversized clothing items. (Its great too that some stores give us ‘pensioner’ (old people) discounts!) Although some int’l clothing stores are a tad higher, there are some great other stores/prices to find so I really have no complaint right now.
Misc/Other Expenses
Miscellaneous expenses had a 3% allotted amount in our budget which for this post was under budget. This allotment covers a mixture of just stuff, for example items that we particularly desired for our Airbnb or tips for services above & beyond, etc.
Savings finishes up our monthly budget. I hope this can guide you to your dream of being a senior international traveling! Below is a quick breakdown comparison of our budgeted expenses versus actual spending in Texas & Bucaramanga. As is all too common for many Americans, our combined income proved insufficient to cover our cost of living in Texas. This resulted in us relying heavily on credit card usage to bridge the gap between our budget and our actual expenditures.
A recap of our actual expenses for six months in Bucaramanga!
| Budget Allotted Monthly | Colombia Actual Expense | U.S. Expense |
| Rent 26% | 17% | 42% |
| Grocery 15% | 11% | 13% |
| Dining out 4% | 9% | 22% |
| Medical 15% | 2% | 9% |
| Transportation 19% Entertainment 4% | 1.5% 3% | 24% 5% |
| Telephone 4% | .37% | 3% |
| Personal 3% | 7% | 7% |
| Misc 3% | 2.5% | 5% |
| Other 7% |
- The ‘Other’ which I did not detail above covered things personal to us. For you it could be savings, emergency fund, repayment of loans, etc. Again, your budget will be different based on your travel funds/monthly income but by sticking with our budget it has enabled us to live a better life style UNDER BUDGET in Bucaramanga.
- In Closing, the cost of living in Colombia has been a mind blower!
Economically it is a good fit for us! Looking quickly at our U.S. expenses above, it just made sense to us, economically, to venture outside the states to search for our piece of paradise. Now spending a short amount of time in ANY country will give you a peek at the economy but realistically the longer stay will give you a more realistic view. We knew on our first short trips to Colombia a few years ago that there was a lot to like, thus our return for six months
Colombia has such a rich history & culture with a wide range of ecosystems but the country has faced challenges in the past (drugs, cartels, etc) & is trying to move forward to improve its economy. Although it is trying to move forward it still is considered a “Level 3 – Reconsider Travel” by the U.S. Dept of State. What does that mean? Well, “Reconsider travel due to crime and terrorism. Exercise increased caution due to civil unrest and kidnapping. Some areas have increased risk.” There are still cities in this country that are basically ‘no go’ areas for locals as well as definitely tourists.
Bucaramanga is considered one of the safest cities & the locals are proud of that. Now having said that, Colombia has made significant advancement on crime rates but even in Bucaramanga there are areas that we were told to stay away from. We have been told by many Colombians the easiest target is that of cellular phones for robberies so you must be aware of your surroundings & as The Big Guy says ‘don’t put yourself in a position to be a victim of crime’. Again, know your surroundings.
Economically speaking Bucaramanga, Colombia is a perfect fit for our lifestyle & budget. We are still searching for our little piece of paradise, but Colombia has once again put another city at the top of our the list of our possible piece of paradise!
