Simple Life on Less than $1,000 a Month
A Season in Boquete
“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.”
~ Henry David Thoreau
Over the past 8 months while moving through Central America I have had plenty of time to write. Time flows much more slowly up on a mountaintop surrounded by only nature. I have spent much of this time curating my writings from travels over the past 5 years.
Recently, I had an article published in International Living. You can enjoy the published article here or continue reading below.
Five years ago I was quietly living in a small 1100 square-foot home just outside my native hometown of Austin, Texas. I was doing my utmost to live simply in contrast the rapidly increasing consumer culture of America. The mortgage on my simple Zen home was $1100 per month.
Two years later I purged around 70% of my possessions and downsized to a 450 square-foot apartment in the center of Austin for the same $1100 monthly. That was the first step toward a simpler way of life. Now all my utilities and internet were included in that $1100 and I no longer carried the added burden of a yard to maintain and all of the additional responsibilities of home ownership as well as the endless list of things that could go wrong on an 80-year old home. I still owned a car, which ran me $425 per month before insurance and gas, equaling roughly half of my housing expense.
In 2019, I took a mindful leap into the greater unexplored world by moving to Kyoto, Japan for a year to fully immerse myself into Japanese culture. I serendipitously found a tiny Japanese house for rent on Craigslist for $650 per month, all utilities included, just a couple of narrow cobblestone blocks away from Kyoto’s lush Imperial Gardens, the original ancient capital and center of all Japan. There was no need for a car, as I could easily walk or bike everywhere in Kyoto. If inspired, I could catch a train just around the corner from my small house and be in Tokyo for dinner if I left first thing in the morning. That year, I walked over 600 miles, covering every back alley and side street of Kyoto. I had taken another step in further simplifying my life and had even further reduced my budget while living the most epic and transformational year of my life in the ancient spiritual city, where I studied tea ceremony, Zen Meditation, Japanese calligraphy and painting, and was on a quest to find the most delicious ramen in Kyoto.
When I returned to the U.S. in 2020, I was met head on with the pandemic and what would become the worst year in history for many of us in our lifetimes. For 15 long months I spent my days tirelessly trying to plug myself back into the “American way” of doing things. Seeking meaningful work became my full-time job, as well as searching for a very small and simple place to live in a city that had seen a 43% rise in housing prices in one year. It became abundantly clear that this was a recipe for living that would no longer work for me and the simple way of life I had now grow deeply accustomed to.
In another stroke of serendipity and good fortune, I was offered an opportunity to spend 3 months in Costa Rica managing eight Airbnb rentals for friends along the beautiful Guanacasta coast during the quiet rainy season. It was a beautiful season of simplicity and recovery after such a disorienting year in America.
When my 90-day visa was up in Costa Rica, it was time to re-locate. I was already very clear that the pace and way of life in the U.S. would no longer work for me, so the familiar road behind me was now closed and fading into the not so distant past. Whether by choice or by fate, I had now officially become a nomad and an expat.
About this time, I happened upon a place called Boquete, Panama, perhaps again in another stroke of fate. I have written about this previously in another article here. I was most interested in exploring Boquete as it seemed to meet almost all of the elements I had distilled down over the years for a livable place where I could live simply. I made my plan and hopped on a bus for $15 from Costa Rica to explore Boquete for one month then return. It has now been 5 months. I have lived in Boquete for a season, and am currently under my visa which is good for 6 months.
During this season, I have discovered a place where one can live on less than $1,000 monthly with some lifestyle and comfort adjustments along with the underlying desire to live a much simpler way of life.
Here are some ways I have done just that:
Live on a mountaintop in a simple casa for $450 per month. After living in town for the first month after my arrival, I knew I needed quieter surroundings, away from traffic and could also immerse myself in nature. I discovered the place where I now live atop a mountain for $450 per month. It is fully furnished, all utilities and internet included, surrounded by all variety of native flowers, coffee plants and citrus trees. I also live surrounded by the beautiful indigenous Ngábe Bugle peoples of Panama and I am less than 1km from the entrance to Volcan National Park, which offers scenic hiking and birdwatching. As I write this article, I am looking out my window where a late afternoon rainbow extends across the valley of Boquete. Heating the house for a month with a propane tank will run $5.67. Renting an apartment in town, one can find fully furnished options with utilities included, for $350 per month.
Live without a car. Boquete is a very walkable city surrounded by numerous hikes and walking paths and trails. Groceries, restaurants, library, coffee shops can be accessed easily on foot. Recently, I sold my car in the U.S. which was costing me the equivalent of what I now pay in rent for a month in Boquete. Living without a car is not for everyone, but if you are seeking a much simpler and healthier lifestyle as well as less impact on the environment, this can easily be done in Boquete.
Cook your own food. When I was living in the U.S., my monthly food budget was equal to what I am now spending for my monthly rent. I was surrounded by easy access restaurants, most of which were not healthy. Since I live on a mountain, I have mostly enjoyed learning to prepare my own food. Recently, I acquired a 50 lb bag of vegetables for $10 and prepared enough soup to last me for months.
Embrace Nature as your entertainment. Living in Boquete, those of us from modern cultures are removed from most forms of “entertainment” as we have come to know it. In Boquete, long walks, hikes in nature, waterfalls, watching birds and rainbows over the valley serve as daily entertainment and are absolutely free. Plenty of time to read, write, watch birds and contemplate the clouds drifting across the mountains.
Exercise among the natural elements. While living in both Kyoto and Costa Rica I had no access to a modern gym and therefore had to become very mindfully creative in my forms of exercise, utilizing whatever was around me, often only my own body. Fortunately, there are infinite forms of exercise one can do such as bodyweight exercises, Yoga, Tai chi, Qigong, and walking became my routines to maintain a healthy way of life without need for a fancy gym membership. In Costa Rica, I got my daily exercise through my 5-mile walks on the beach, using the elements in nature such as tree logs, bamboo sticks and stones for various exercises. In Boquete, nature is abundant and always surrounding you. There are infinite forms of exercise to be had through hiking, walking, picking coffee, planting a garden, strength training with logs and stones, yoga, qigong, tai chi and a variety of other methods to stay in the best shape of your life at no cost. So long Gold’s Gym membership.
Grow and process your own coffee. When I came to Boquete, I discovered that I was now living in one of the most ideal coffee growing climates in the world. Boquete is world famous for its quality of coffee, notwithstanding its highly sought after Geisha variety. On the mountain where I live, I am surrounded by endless coffee farms as well as coffee trees just outside my door on the property. As such, one of my hobbies has become processing my own coffee. As I slowly enjoy my morning cup, there is the added richness and reward of knowing I have personally taken that coffee all the way from the tree to my cup, all for free.
One can easily see that with a strong desire to embrace a much simpler way of life, one that is more in alignment with nature and its rhythms, that one can live and create a beautiful way of life in Boquete on less than $1,000 per month.
“My greatest skill has been to want little.”
~ Henry David Thoreau
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