Colombia Forum

fecherklyn
Joined 2015
Posts: 1390

4 years ago

I am now a millionnaire

4 years ago

Many newcomers to this forum ask about the cost of living in Colombia and I try to provide some input to this matter by stating what I pay as an example. Whether or not I am a representative example is another matter as the following utility costs are for our 3 bedroom house in Poblado, Medellin and three occupents, plus occasional pets , garden, etc.

The following costs were billed by EPM Medellin and TIGO (Une) for the 32 day period 21/06/2019 to 23/07/2019:

COP 93,162 for Acueducto – Including Contribucion rate @ 60%
COP 78,956 for Alcantarillado – Contribucion rate 60%
COP 526,109 for Energia (Electricity) – Contribucion rate 20%
COP 16,778 for Gas – Contribucion rate 20%
COP 58,886 for Emvarias – Contribucion rate 99%
COP 773,891 Total EPM Invoice

COP 52,937 for Telefonia
COP 125,878 for Television
COP 66,527 for Internet
COP 245,342 Total TIGO Invoice

COP 1,019,233 for combined utilities.

This is the first time our combined bill has exceeded a million, but it has been coming rapidly recently. In particular, our bill has been hit hard by the extra fans/AC we put in over the last couple of months to cope with the present heat wave. We also have perhaps more than the average electronic equipment.

A few more statistics:

Our combined utility costs when we arrived in Jan 2003 was COP 411,000 (Now COP 1,019,233)
The cost sector that has increased the most is Energia which cost COP 103,000 in Jan 2003 and now costs COP 543,000.

Of course, this is Colombia, not the US, or Europe – but newcomers need to know their living costs are probably going to increase faster here, than where they came from.

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