How Moving to Merida, Mexico Saved Us Thousands (2025)

If you’re dreaming of all the ways you can save money by moving to Merida, Mexico, I got you! From healthcare and childcare to utilities and gym memberships, this article is all about how moving to Merida, Mexico drastically slashed our household finances.

Since our family of 3 moved to the Yucatan capital in 2022, we’ve literally saved tens of thousands of dollars. Which is phenomenal since saving money was at the top of our Move to Mexico Wish List. Winning!

Just like I assume you’re doing if you’re reading this article, we did our research to get some rough estimates about exactly how much money we could expect to save, and on exactly what expenses. So we knew moving to Merida, Mexico would be cheaper than living in the States. But it wasn’t until we had our boots on the ground that we realized how significantly the lower the cost of living in Merida would give our finances some breathing room and beef up our savings. 

With the current 2025 political climate, inflation at a ridiculous high and the stock market a mess, it’s no wonder so many Americans are wondering where and how to make their dollar go further. Even though prices for some things were lower when we moved here 3 years ago, Merida is still a top Mexico destination for anyone looking to save money. Especially if you’re planning to move from a high cost of living (HCOL) city in the States, like we did (shout out Los Angeles!). While the cost of living in Merida, Mexico has risen, it’s nowhere near the cost of living in most major U.S. cities.

My goal with this guide is to detail the different types of expenses you can expect to save money on by moving to Merida, Mexico. So let’s get on with all the ways you can expect to save!

Cost of Living in Merida, Mexico

Before I break down how our move to Merida, Mexico saved us thousands, I thought I’d share a handy little infographic I whipped up to fill you in on the cost of living here. Many factors like lifestyle, where you choose to live, whether or not you have children or pets, if you own or rent, etc. will play into your budget once you arrive in Merida. I suggest using these cost of living ranges as a ballpark starting point.

Click here to embed this nifty infographic on your website!

Moving to Merida, Mexico
Expenses & Savings

🏡 Shelter

Rent was by far our biggest spend in Los Angeles.

We considered ourselves lucky to pay “only” $3,500 a month for a 2-bedroom, 1500-square foot slice of the LA dream in a great neighborhood within a top-rated school district. This luck was reinforced when a 1,000-square foot, remodeled house across the street sold for $1.2 million dollars. That’s a $7,200 mortgage payment with today’s eye-watering interest rates. 

I mean, why own when you can rent?!

According to Numbeo, the average cost of renting a home in Merida swings between $9000 MXN ($450 USD) to $20,500 MXN ($1,030 USD).

You can also pay significantly more than this depending on where and how you live. Many expats like living in vibrant, walkable and culturally-rich Merida Centro, where it’s possible to find homes within this range. You’ll also find homes that cost significantly more because of their desirable location and slick remodeling upgrades. Other expats with young children like me, who value things like community, large green spaces and backyards where kids can play, prefer living in the gated communities in the north of the city. You’ll have a hard time finding anything here at the lower end of this price range.

But even though we pay above the average Merida rent, we still save over $1,200 USD per month on shelter. And with that comes significantly more for less. A 3,000-square foot house with 4 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, a pool, solar panels, beautiful landscaping, and top-of-the-line appliances. Our gated community has 24/7 security, and the entire home came furnished.

If you’re paying rent or have a mortgage that was anything near what we were paying in Los Angeles, then moving to Merida, Mexico will absolutely save you cash on shelter.

💰 THE MATH | Moving to Merida saved us approximately $14,400 USD a year on rent, and we have more house for less.

🏥 Health Care

As a self-employed couple living in a HCOL city, my husband and I spent an obscene amount of money on healthcare. Our income exceeded the threshold to qualify for subsidized insurance premiums under the Affordable Care Act, and obviously we didn’t have employers to share costs. 

We covered 100% of our own healthcare expenses. Health, dental and vision insurance, all medications and co-pays. The whole kit n’ caboodle. 

Our last year living in the States, we paid $1,224 per month for Blue Shield of California PPO Silver coverage. That works out to $14,688 a year. Utter madness!

While my husband and son have 20/20 vision, unfortunately, I’m blind as a bat, so I needed vision insurance. I paid $15.16 per month, or $181.92 annually.

Dental insurance was $59 per month, or $708 annually. My husband hated paying for it because he thinks dental insurance is a scam. Looking at these numbers now, I tend to agree.

In Mexico, health insurance isn’t mandated. In fact, you can visit any public and private hospitals and doctors without the need to have or show any proof of insurance. That’s because insurance works differently here. It’s designed to work in the event of an emergency, and not as a barrier to medical care.

For example, say my son gets a bad cut on his leg. We go to Urgent Care at Faro del Mayab, a local state-of-the-art hospital in Merida, and they clean and bandage him up for roughly $40 USD out-of-pocket. Now, say he breaks his leg, which requires surgery. That’s when insurance would kick in. Depending on what’s contracted with your insurance company, you pay a certain percentage of the cost of surgery and insurance covers the rest. And major medical procedures like surgeries cost significantly less in Mexico than they do in the States.

In Mexico, we have private health insurance through a company called Mapfre. We have the “Alta Proteccion,” or high coverage plan. I’d peg it as equivalent to a Blue Shield “Gold” plan in terms of financial and procedural coverage. So we pay less in Mexico for a higher level of insurance coverage than what we had in the States. And our plan covers medical and dental care for our whole family. Hoo-rah!

Annually, our plan costs $37,169.10 MXN. Which means in Mexico our family of 3 only pays $2,225.72 USD for health insurance per year. And remember, we choose to have insurance. It isn’t state or federally mandated.

💰 THE MATH | Moving to Merida, Mexico saved us $13,352.20 USD a year on health insurance, and we have better coverage for less.

🛒 Groceries

Anywhere you live and eat in 2025, groceries are going to be expensive. Back in 2022, $200 was my weekly average for groceries for 3 people in Los Angeles. Sometimes slightly more or less, depending on if pantry staples needed to be replenished. Then there was the monthly Costco run. Without counting wildcard impulse buys like a Ninja or lawn chairs, I’d spend roughly $250 – $300 on goods like frozen foods, paper towels, toilet paper, laundry detergent, dish soap, etc. 

Groceries in Merida aren’t cheap. After discussing it with several friends who have been here longer than me, most guesstimate that food prices in Merida have increased about 40% since the pandemic. Even so my expat friends still save on groceries, with bills that average between 75 – 80% of what they were in the States. The same is true for me as well.

I do most of my shopping at a large chain supermarket called Chedraui. Some call it the “Whole Foods” of Merida, although Whole Foods is definitely more expensive. I also shop at Costco for things like paper and canned goods, and I have a few local shops where I grab fresh bread and organic produce.

In Merida, I spend about $160 per week on groceries for a family of 3. At Costco, I average $150 every two weeks. That’s a savings of $110 a month on groceries.

Since I’m writing this during the egg crisis, I thought you’d be curious to know about the price of eggs in Merida. I pay about $4 for an organic carton of 18 eggs at Costco.

If you avoid grocery stores and shop at local markets like the famous mercado in Merida Centro, Lucas de Galvez, you’ll probably pay much less for groceries than we do.

💰 THE MATH | Moving to Merida, Mexico saved us approximately $1,320 USD a year on groceries. 

📲 Cell Phone Service

In the States, we paid $206/month for two mobile phone lines with T-mobile. Both were 5G with unlimited data, free calls and roaming throughout the U.S. One line included a $36.99 monthly charge for my husband’s upgraded Iphone. Both lines included Iphone insurance for something like $11 each per month. Without those additional fees, the cost of service for both lines was $147.01.

After moving to Merida, Mexico, we now have cell phone service with Telcel, one of the country’s largest mobile phone service providers. Our 5G plan comes with 14 GB of data. So not unlimited like the States, but still a sizable chunk. Our plans include unlimited national calls and SMS throughout Mexico and all of North America. 

In Merida, each of our mobile phone lines cost $699 MXN a month, or $35 USD. Times two, our cell phone service is $70 USD per month.

💰 THE MATH | Moving to Merida, Mexico saved us $759 USD annually on cell phone service.

💡 Utilities

In Los Angeles and here in Merida, water is paid for by landlords. So the only utilities we pay for in Merida are electricity and gas.

Electricity is expensive in Mexico and bills fluctuate wildly in Merida depending on the season. In the winter we never run the air conditioning. And although it gets cooler, there’s no need in Merida for a heater. But in the summer it’s often a broiling 100 degrees-plus, so we keep the air on and fans going 24/7.  

Our solar panels in Merida shave loads off of our electricity costs. When you move here, I highly recommend finding a home with solar panels. With several months of scorching heat, electricity costs in Merida can go through the roof from running your air conditioning.

During the hottest months of the year – May through October – our Merida electricity bill averages about $3,000 MXN, or $150 USD a month. If you can live with open windows or fans (we’ve tried — not even an option), or if you’re not home running the air during the day, your bill should be less.

Our electricity bill drops dramatically during the rest of the year, to about $400 MXN, or $20 USD, per month.

Gas works a little differently here. Every home in Merida has a large, individual metal tank on its roof filled with gas that fuels the needs of the house. The tanks are equipped with gages so when you’re running low, you just call the gas company and a little gas truck comes by to fill it up. We fill our home’s gas tank 3 times a year at a cost of $2,000 MXN ($100 USD) a pop.

In LA, we paid $300 for 4 months during summer for electricity. The rest of the year it was $80 a month. Our gas bill averaged $70 per month. So our total annual utilities in the U.S. were $2,680 USD.  

💰 THE MATH | Moving to Merida, Mexico saved us $1,060 annually on utilities.

💻 Wi-Fi

I hated paying our Wi-Fi bill in the States. And not just because our provider, Spectrum, billed us an insane $178 a month. My reasons were personal, too. My husband spent years working for Spectrum without so much as the teensiest discount. Would’ve been nice to shave a little something off that hefty $2,136 a year!

Now living in Merida, we’re finally saving on internet. We have an unlimited internet plan through a provider called Telmex. It comes with the perks of free Paramount Plus and HBO Max. Our internet in Merida costs us $649 MXN a month. People. That’s $33 USD!

💰 THE MATH | Moving to Merida, Mexico saved us $1,677.46 USD a year on internet.

👩‍🏫 School Tuition & Extracurriculars

We moved to Mexico when my son was in kindergarten. At the time, his tuition cost us $1,375 per month. Believe it or not we were elated to pay this because it was less than the $1,500 we paid for daycare.

In Merida, my son attends one of the city’s best private international schools. His tuition is now $10,400 MXN a month, or $622.94 USD. This means my son’s elementary school costs less than half of what his tuition was in the United States.

In Los Angeles, my son played soccer with a local youth academy that set us back $250 a month for 3 days of practice per week. The training was excellent and my son really blossomed on the field, so It was definitely money well spent.

In Merida, my son’s soccer training is 4 days per week and costs us $250 USD per year. That’s what we paid monthly in Los Angeles.

💰 THE MATH | Moving to Merida, Mexico saved us a staggering $10,000 USD annually between school tuition and extracurricular fees. (My calculations are based on a 10-month school year).

🍽️ Dining Out

We spend so much less dining out in Merida than we did in Los Angeles. An average month eating out in SoCal would easily cost about $450 USD. This estimate is for 2 brunches, 1 date night including cocktails, and grabbing something fast casual 3 times per month. Insane, right?!

In Merida, brunch for 3 with a tip (usually between 10% – 15%) runs about $35 – $50 USD. At brunch this morning, we ordered 4 plates, 1 espresso, 1 cappuccino, and 2 bottled waters. We spent $48 USD, including a 15% tip, at Merci, a delicious and popular restaurant. But there are plenty of other wonderful restaurants here where 3 people can absolutely dine for less.

For date night in Merida, we can usually get away with spending $60 – $70 USD at a very upscale restaurant, including desert and wine or cocktails. Ordering takeout for 3 rarely costs more than $30 USD. In fact, it’s often less.

So the most we’d ever spend dining out in Merida is $270 USD per month. But even spending that much here is pretty rare.

💰 THE MATH | Moving to Merida, Mexico saved us roughly $180 a month on dining out. That’s $2,160 USD per year! Mas tequila, por favor!

👨‍👩‍👦 Childcare

If you’re looking for an above board grift, get a babysitting gig in Los Angeles.

No, really. Childcare was one of my most dreaded stateside expenses. Shelling out $25 an hour (yep, that’s what LA sitters are charging) for someone to Netflix-and-chill on my couch while my kid is asleep, on top of the $150 we’re already dropping on date night (see above), sucked all the joy out of going out in the first place. 

In contrast, childcare in Merida, Mexico is crazy affordable. In fact, it’s so affordable that many families here have live-in nannies and other domestic help.

While a live-in isn’t for me, I do have 2 awesome niñeras, or nannies, who rotate between watching my son when we go out. One charges $105 MXN an hour while the other costs slightly more, $120 MXN. That, my friends, works out to childcare that costs between $5 – $6 USD per hour.

In Merida, we can afford date night every night! If only we had the energy… lol.

💰 THE MATH | Moving to Merida, Mexico saved us $1,368 USD per year on childcare. (That’s 6-hours of babysitting for a monthly “date night” at a cost of $25 USD per hour in LA vs. $6 USD per hour in Merida).

🧘‍♀️ Fitness

One of the things I miss most about Los Angeles is the awesome yoga community. I miss my phenomenal teachers, my amazing yogi friends, the sheer abundance of studios, and the ridiculous variety of yoga styles and offerings.

What I don’t miss are the eye-watering prices. $30 drop-in yoga classes. $175 monthly studio memberships. And it’s even worse if you’re into pilates. Many studios charge $300 for 10 classes a month! Only in LA does reaching nirvana require going broke. 

In Merida, I’d have to splurge on a 40-pack of classes at my pilates studio to come anywhere close to paying $300. And even if I did, I’d still only be paying $7.50 USD per class.

Since dropping that kind of dough at a fitness studio is a little rich for my blood, I generally snag a package of 12 classes for $1800 MXN, or $90 USD. Again, that’s $7.50 per class vs. the $30 I paid for most pilates and yoga classes in Los Angeles. That’s less than a third of the price!

💰 THE MATH | Moving to Merida, Mexico saved me approximately $68 a month on fitness, or $816 a year. Namaste!

Moving to Merida, Mexico
Expenses FAQs

How much money do I need to move to Merida, Mexico

This is an impossible question to answer. Everyone’s finances, expenses, budgets, and lifestyle choices are a million degrees different. Only you know how your money works for you at home, so only you know how to make it work for you abroad. Hopefully this article has given you some good parameters to help you figure it out.

What I can tell you is that if you think Merida, Mexico is some gringolandia for rock bottom prices, those days are long gone. Inflation exists in Mexico just like it does in the U.S. and the rest of the world. And since Merida has exploded in popularity, the cost of living is more expensive across the board. Merida isn’t just a haven for American and Canadian expats, but Mexicans from around the country and other Latin Americans have been flocking to Merida in droves as well.

While we pay more for things now than we did when we moved to Mexico in 2022, we still pay considerably less here than we would in the States.

The takeaway here is that your money will go further in Merida, Mexico, but it’s not immune to wide economic dips and shifts.

Is it cheaper to live in Mexico or the USA?

For us, living in Merida, Mexico is definitely cheaper than living in the USA.

We moved to Merida from Los Angeles – one of the top ten highest cost of living cities in the States. So without running a single number, we knew that moving to Merida – or pretty much anywhere in Mexico –  was going to be more affordable for us. 

For financial context, my husband and I are professionals with a middle class standard of living (whatever that happens to mean these days). We’ve comfortably maintained our lifestyle since moving to Mexico. We don’t take for granted the privilege that our child goes to private school, that we’re able to travel and that we can afford to pay a little extra for imported goods or organic products.

In Los Angeles, we struggled to achieve some of this quality of life. In Merida, we just don’t struggle anymore.

Expenses I didn’t include

You’ll notice I didn’t include expenses like gas and car payments, subscription services like Netflix or cable TV, or beauty and upkeep items like haircuts or manicures.

In Mexico, most expats usually buy used cars for cash because financing vehicles isn’t possible for non-permanent Mexico residents. Since we went from financing two cars in California to outright purchasing a single vehicle here, it didn’t make sense to do a comparison. Sure, I’m not making 2 hefty car payments, but a large chunk of change is definitely missing from my savings account.

I opted not to list subscription services or cable TV because costs vary wildly depending on what and how many of these you subscribe to. And honestly, we had so many random subscriptions in the States that I don’t remember what I was even paying for.

I do save a ton of money on nail and hair care in Merida. But these are such unique and subjective expenses that I chose not to list them. I mean, I’m at the hairdresser every 6 – 8 weeks getting highlights for nearly waist-length hair. This won’t matter to you if you if you’ve got a pixie cut.

The Wrap

As you can see, no hyperbole here. Moving to Merida, Mexico has literally saved us thousands of dollars. If you move here, you could potentially save thousands, too!

It’s my hope that sharing these numbers motivates you to make the move, and gives you some insider perspective on where you can expect to start saving once you’re here. Hopefully moving to Merida will help you afford the peace of mind and financial stability that’s getting harder and harder to come by in the United States these days. Being able to sock ducats away for things like college, retirement, or travels while still living well is one of the most empowering things you can do!

If you’re dying for more move to Mexico inspo, check out my article on all the things that inspired our move to Merida. If you’re a mom like me, here’s a helpful article about how to make mom friends abroad, and another about what it’s really like raising kids in Merida.

If you have any questions or concerns about moving to Merida, Mexico shoot me an email or give me a shout in the comments below.

Inspired travels Friend! 💜

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