I’ve had a lot of people ask me about the cost of living in the Dominican Republic recently, and beings as I recently remodeled and furnished an apartment, I’ve decided to blog it all out for those of you who may find it useful.

Setting Up Shop
Since there are few already furnished houses and apartments, most people have to buy everything to set-up their place as they want it. For a one bedroom, one bath, dwelling it will cost around $61,050 pesos ($1,695.83 US) to equip it with the basics.
Here’s an expense breakdown based on what I spent:

• Fridge $15,000
• Oven/Stove $10,000
• Cutlery $2,000
• Dishes $850 (four place set)
• Glass Set $250
• Bathroom Items $1,000
• Double Bed $3,500
• Desk $1,500
• Bookshelf $1,000
• Sheets $1,500
• Blankets $700 each
• Pillows $250 each
• Living Room Set $10,000
• Dining Table Set $8,000
• Washing Machine $7,000

Since it is an island, everything that is imported is more expensive, so anything that you can bring as far as electro-domestics would be recommended. Radios, computers, and other such items are much more expensive here than they would be anywhere else, and are generally of lesser quality since developing nations generally get sent irregular or imperfect items.

This may sound a bit odd, but buy your bed sheets before you come. (more…)

The Traveling Market
All across the Dominican Republic there are Haitian Markets that travel from place to place, selling items that are donated to the Haitian Government as foreign aid. These wares consist of excess clothing, shoes, toiletries, and other articles that are sold in massive bundles to individuals.

When to Go
The Haitian Open Market, or the Pulga (Flea Market) as it is known in Spanish, in Santiago is a great place to go and shop for retro clothing and other items. I love it for the clothes myself, since I always find something unique as I dig through the piles of colorful fabric that line the streets every Thursday.

The market starts at about 7:00am. If you are going to get nicer items or clothing, early is the best time to go, since no one has picked through everything yet. Dominican shop owners get there early too in order to buy “American brand clothing” in their little boutiques. So, if you wait too long there isn’t much left to choose from.

If you don’t care about the clothes or are just looking for random items, then going around 11am is good because they start to lower prices to sell off as much as they can before they have to pack back up and go to the next town. You’ll hear, “Diez pesos, todo a diez! (Ten pesos, everything for ten pesos!). I always go about then for household items because they are much less expensive.
(more…)

If you’re thinking of either moving to the Dominican Republic or staying long term, you are probably interested in what you might find in the way of larger chain stores. The DR is not all comados (small family owned stores). When you get into some of the larger cities you will find a large selection of Stores we are more familiar with in the United States.
(more…)

Here in the Dominican Republic there are many things that you aren’t always used to. One of these things that we are not always used to is the fruit stands.

Now, there are some fruit stands in the U.S. and probably in other places too, but I doubt that they are like the fruit stands in the Dominican Republic. To start off, a quick description of the stands here, they are made of anything that you could think of, a lot of them being on the side of a house or in a house. But to make it even more different, (more…)