Each of us gets an automatic update on rising consumer prices every time we go grocery shopping. No one has to read the news. No matter if your lifestyle is humble or grand, rising grocery and gasoline prices give you the headline.

The last few years, grocery bills have become swoon-worthy in the US and even worse for those who seek high-quality, healthy prepared meals and the convenience of pre-cut produce. During my last trip to Virginia when I wasn’t cooking, I found myself going to the grocery store every other day rather than seeing the high receipts for a week’s worth of low-prep meals.

Prices have gone up in Mexico too, but are still considerably less than at home. Eating very well with no meals out, I spend about $500 a month on groceries. That includes almost no prepared foods and no junk foods (I’m no saint, but if I want a brownie, I’ll walk along the beach to a good bakery)

One thing that helps your budget in Mexico is that the price of certain foods and items such as tortillas, beans, aspirin, and razor blades) are controlled. Food prices have traditionally had a political impact in Mexico, just like they’ve recently had in the U.S. In 2008, Mexicans took their ire a little further by taking to the streets to protest the rise in tortilla prices (the Tortilla Rebellion). 

Tortillas constitute more than half of the daily calories and protein of Mexico’s poor. As a result, the Mexican government imposed price controls on over 150 basic foodstuffs including eggs, oil, milk, meat and sugar. The selection of foods and items in the Canasta Basica differs a bit by region.

Eating also costs less due to greater simplicity in cooking. When I cook in the US, I invariably throw away more bits of produce and half bottles of secondary ingredients that I only used now and then so go rancid. Using the same ingredients in many recipes, which you learn to do in Mexico, is great for your wallet.

I could save more money by shopping at local open air mercados duplicated in some fashion in every Mexican town rather than the Mexican chain stores. Organic markets are becoming increasingly common as well. Walmarts are very popular grocery stores for expats but unlike at home, prices are higher at Walmart than at Mexican national chain grocery stores such as Soriana or Casa Ley.

Higher end, Wholefood-style grocery stores (such as Freska) have popped up in large cities and those with heavy expat populations. They offer dreamy bakeries, produce and meat/fish sections. (It’s the secondary ingredient you’ll often still have to go without).

Are they as good asWhole Foods? Absolutely not. But they’re a development that has many an expat dancing in the streets.

It’s common to need need to goto more than one store for any extensive grocery list, for example a local open market for certain spices and then a large supermarket, even if you’ve culled hard-to-find items out of your recipes. Certain ingredients we use more than Mexicans do (fresh parmesan cheese for example) that you can’t count on finding in every Mexican chain grocery store.

Cooking has been one of the more interesting experiences of living in Mexico. The challenges of eating healthy here drove me to write a cookbook. The Lazy Expat: Healthy Recipes That Translate to Mexico. It focuses on using the most common, widely available ingredients. By using it, I make far fewer second trips and work in a variety of healthy ingredients into my diet. (Don’t neglect to check out pictures of the dishes on this website.)

Meal planning in Mexico

Although you do pay less for food in Mexico, you’ll have to adjust your expectations a bit. Milk, butter, hamburger, sugar, brown sugar, sour cream for example might taste different due to processing differences. Mexico has its own delicious cheeses (The Lazy Expat tells you how to use them). I’ve found the differences in flavor has little effect on the overall outcome of a dish (with the exception of brown sugar.)

Some expat communities have had an enterprising and restless retiree who has put together a local cookbook. They are reminiscent of the cookbooks I grew up with in rural Oklahoma compiled by farmers’ co-ops and civic women’s clubs in that they are recipes compiled by local cooks rather than produced by professional publishing houses. One interesting aside regarding cookbooks is that I found it near impossible to prepare recipes from famous Mexican cuisine cookbooks (a la Rick Bayless) while actually in Mexico.

[picture: Lower-right. Calabacitas with pork, from The Lazy Expat: Healthy Recipes That Translate in Mexico}

If you’re a practiced cook, In considering what cookbooks or cooking magazines to bring with you, really old cookbooks use more ingredients than the newly published ones, which seem to try to outdo each other hard on exotic ingredients. I am aware of A.I. and it has come in handy, (“Find me a recipe with a lime, a sweet potato and green beans” when that’s all I have in the refrigerator).

Cooking like a native

Mexican cuisine pre-dates the Spanish conquistadors, and its cooking includes some ingredients exotic to us.

My contributor to The Lazy Expat shares in the cookbook that traditional pozole includes a pig's head “for a special flavor.”

 But once you’re here and cooking, you will uncover previously unexplored opportunities in low-cost items such as fresh pineapple, mangoes, avocados, and pork.

Fruits and vegetables are picked riper, a real pleasure. Having it all ripe at once affects your meal planning and how often you have to shop. I have to order my weekly menu plan by how long each produce item keeps.

Until you get the hang of cooking in a foreign culture (or buy my cookbook), remember: You can stuff almost anything into a fresh, skillet-fried tortilla.

About the Author: Kerry Baker

Hola, I am a partner with Ventanas Mexico, which provides advice and resources to those considering exploring full or part-time expat-life in Mexico.  

In addition to the cookbook,  check out "If Only I Had a Place" a book on renting for less, luxuriously in Mexico," and  includes a list of rental concierges in all the places you'd consider to live in Mexico.

“The Mexico Solution:  Saving your sanity, money and quality of life through part-time life in Mexico ” is a game plan for moving and adapting to life in Mexico.  Most recently she wrote The Lazy Expat: Healthy Recipes That Translate in Mexico.