January Overview –
January started off like every year recently has, with one or both of us being sick. This time it was Lorne. After enjoying our anniversary lunch on December 29, Lorne ended up with Norovirus, and spent the first two weeks of January suffering through all the symptoms. Somehow, I didn’t get it, but I did end up with the flu later in the month.
It seems like a lot of people end up sick in January, most likely from being in close contact with others throughout the holiday season. For us here, we also end up contracting various respiratory illnesses from the high volume of visitors that arrive here for the winter season. And because we were both sick in January, we didn’t do too much, other than work and rest.
No more water issues to report regarding our sink or dishwasher, as both drain perfectly now. And no more leaks from our water tank on the roof. Fingers crossed it remains this way as that was three months of crazy we never want to repeat.
Lorne was excited to finally arrange delivery for our “garrafón de agua”, the 20-liter (5 gallon) water bottles we use in our water dispenser. We go through on average two bottles per week, and each bottle weighs roughly 45lbs and poor Lorne must carry them up the stairs to the third floor. Now we simply put out our two empty bottles Friday morning, and the Coco-Cola delivery driver has the privilege of carrying our two bottles up to the third floor for us. Of course, Lorne gives him a nice tip for doing so. The cost to purchase these refills in the store vs delivery is the same ($3.75CAD / $2.80USD per bottle) so it’s only the cost of the tip that is extra, but it’s a small price to pay to save Lorne from having to do it.
Our January temperatures were on the cooler side, most days with a high of 25C (77F). Around mid-January our highs only reached 23C (73F) for a few days and quite chilly at 13C (55F) overnight. We spent most days in long pants and hoodies, with extra blankets on the bed and windows closed at night. We were enjoying the cooler weather right up until January 28, when suddenly out of nowhere, our temperatures shot up to 30C (86F), then January 29, it was 31C (88F) and then January 30, it was 32C (90F). We have no idea where this mini heat wave came from, but boy, did we feel the difference. It took all week for the temperatures to finally cool down to around 26C (78F) again.
Reflections
Like many, we find the New Year is a great time to reflect on what was accomplished in the previous year and focus on what we want to achieve going forward.
We have a framed sign on our living room wall that says – “Our goal was to create a life we didn’t need a vacation from” and living in Mexico we have done exactly that. Someone suggested to us that since we have achieved this goal, we now need a new goal to strive for.
But do we?
At our age, lofty goals don’t seem necessary now. We no longer need to figure out a five or ten-year plan of things we need to achieve. The closest we come is knowing that in a few years Lorne will retire. But that’s not specifically a goal, it’s just something that will happen.
Instead of setting goals, we feel our life would be better served by simply working on ways to tweak our existence, so we can live our best life possible right now. And for the past couple of years we have been doing this by choosing a focus word to guide us through the year.
Our “focus word” for 2023 was Intentional. We wanted to intentionally take a closer look at our life, to see if we had everything here set up properly, if there were ways we could save money, and what we could improve in our life.
Here are a few things we intentionally tweaked to make our lives better in 2023:
- We reviewed all our monthly and annual payments to determine if we were getting the most for our money. Of course, some things are fixed amounts that we have no control over (HOA fees, property tax, etc.) but there are other variable expenses that we could shop around for. This included our cell phone plans, medical insurance, condo insurance and auto insurance where we made sure we got the best deals possible for what we needed.
- We also looked for ways to make the most of loyalty rewards to make our money go further. We changed our Costco membership from the basic Gold Star Membership ($500 MXN / $40 CAD) to the Executive Membership ($1,100 MXN / $85 CAD) when our membership needed renewal in 2021. This membership gives you an annual reward of 2% on all our purchases, which now for the past two years has more than paid for the membership renewal and then some. We signed up for our local grocery store loyalty card, which earns points that convert to pesos, that adds up to enough to pay for a full cart of groceries twice per year. We also use our Royal Bank (WestJet) credit card for most of our daily purchases and now have more than enough points for us to fly home, in case of emergency.
- We also decided to intentionally eat better, focusing on more whole foods, and changing our schedule to two meals per day. We continue to do our weekly meal plan (something we started doing back in 2010 when we were trying to climb out of a mountain of debt), and we shop for what is planned. This has resulted in so much less spending as well as so much less waste by eating what we buy and not buying more than what we need. Sure, if things are on sale we will stock up to keep the freezer full, but by the end of each week our fridge is almost empty and everything we bought was consumed.
- Saving time is sometimes as important as saving money, and we have adopted the time-saving trick of utilizing the “cook once, eat twice” plan. This has been a game changer to lessen the days we need to essentially cook. On Fridays we make something that can be repurposed or reheated for an easy Sunday night dinner. On Monday we typically prepare a huge meal sized salad and prepare enough to have on Tuesday as well. On Wednesdays we make a big pot of soup that feeds us for dinner that night, as well as on Thursday, which is super easy to simply reheat when we get home from grocery shopping.
We are quite happy with the intentional changes we made during 2023, and all of them will continue with us into 2024.
And speaking of 2024, after much consideration, we have decided our focus word for the upcoming year will be Immerse…
This word is our inspiration and motivation for this new year. Our focus is to immerse ourselves in community, creativity, health, and happiness. And by doing so, we are certain it will help us live the best life possible and enjoy all that this life has to offer.
January in Review
New Year Celebration
Día de Reyes (King’s Day or Epiphany) is celebrated on January 6 with gift giving and delicious treats. Traditionally, family and friends gather to drink Mexican hot chocolate and eat the Rosca de Reyes, a delicious cake shaped like a ring, topped with dried fruits and sugar glaze to resemble a crown encrusted with jewels. Within the cake, a little plastic baby figurine is hidden. According to Mexican tradition, whoever finds the baby in their piece of cake must invite all those present to a meal of tamales on Candlemas Day (February 2) which celebrates the Virgin Mary.
Whale Watching
The Humpback whales and gray whales have returned to Los Cabos. They spend their summers up north feeding in Alaska and British Columbia, and then their winters down south along the southern Baja Peninsula mating and giving birth. January is when most of the baby whales are born and by early February the baby whales become more active, and we often see mom and baby playing in the water and frequently come within 50 feet of the shore. The whales are very friendly as well as curious and are known to be very interested in boats, sometimes going right up close just to peek. And these whales are huge – they can grow to 50 feet in length and the calves measure around 10-15 feet at birth.
Residency Qualifications
Mexico’s minimum daily wage increased by 20% in January 2024 and with that, the financial requirements to qualify for residency in Mexico have also increased. There are four different ways a person can financially qualify for residency in Mexico: 1) regular income of at least CAD$5,900 (US$4,350) per month, every month for the past six months; 2) savings/investments showing a balance totalling at least CAD$99,200 (US$73,200) over the last 12 months; 3) owing residential property in Mexico with a minimum market value of CAD$795,000 (US$586,000); 4) making a capital investment into Mexico of at least CAD$397,000 (US$293,000). We are so happy we qualified and received our residency back in 2020 when the Mexican minimum wage was much lower, as the minimum financial requirements will only get higher and higher each coming year.
ps… Don’t forget to check out the latest Snippets!
