After a month–okay, 4 weeks–in Mexico City, we took our talents to Puebla. Puebla was a definite change of pace from the capital, but the food and experience remained solid. I enjoyed Puebla so much that there was a time or two I considered adding Puebla to our list of potential home bases.

Read related: Big City, Little Prices: How Much It Costs To Live In Mexico City In 2021 and Paradise in Mexico: Cost of Living in Puerto Vallarta

Disclaimer: I stopped being lazy (!) and actually cleaned things up to reflect Puebla cost of living expenses only. Whereas with Mexico City I shared a rollup of June expenses (which included a few days and nights in Puebla), the following reflects Puebla expenses only. I will show the actual numbers from our 4 weeks / 28 nights in Puebla as well as an extrapolated number based on a full 30-night month. 

tl;dr: if it says per month (I have extrapolated/multiplied our actual 28-night spend by ~1.07; 30/28)

Skip to Actual Cost of Living 

Forecasted Cost of Living in Puebla

Forecasted* total monthly costs (on a per couple basis): $2,500

Forecasted accommodation: $1,350

Forecasted food & alcohol: $900

Forecasted transportation: $200

Forecasted “activities”: $0

Forecast miscellaneous: $50

If you read or recall my Mexico City Cost of Living post, you might notice two changes to my above forecast. I have further reduced forecasted transportation (by $150) and shifted it to food & alcohol. 

The reason for this is I finished buying all of our airfare and long-distance buses for the year. Our average transportation spend across the 6-7 months we will be in Mexico comes out to ~$172/month. $200 gives us wiggle room for Ubers (average $3-6) and bus fare for day trips (average ~$5 each way). 

I mentioned this previously, but transportation costs will be lower while in Mexico than later on due to relying almost solely on inter-city bus travel. In the future when we are traveling between countries (and continents), this forecasted figure will need to move back to (at least) $450 per month.

Reallocating the transportation budget to food & alcohol was simple: we want to eat and drink more.

Actual Cost of Living in Puebla

Total living costs: $1,633.50 (for two for 28 days & nights)

or $816.75 per person

or $29.17 per person per day 

Categorical breakdown of spend/expenses:

Accommodation: $698.00 for two (28 nights) or $747.86 per month

Unlike our experience in Mexico City (increasing accommodation expenses by ~16% compared to PV), we drastically saved on accommodation in Puebla. Our rent was less than 50% what we spent in Mexico City ($698 vs $1,419; each for 28 night periods). 

I can’t totally wrap my head around why Airbnb prices in Puebla are so deflated. Yes, Puebla is a much smaller city than Mexico City, but our Puebla rent (spoiler alert!) is by far the lowest during our ~6 month stay in Mexico. As opposed to other cities, Puebla seems to have a strong supply of quality places to stay with (what I can only imagine) is deflated demand. 

Our Airbnb in Puebla, like Mexico City, was a studio. While it wasn’t large, it provided ample space for the two of us to live and work, and it boasted a very large bathroom.

If you’d like to see a walkthrough of our accommodation, its amenities (hint: rooftop gym and lounge!), and the surrounding area, here’s my Airbnb tour on YouTube:

Food & Alcohol: $880.11 for two (or $15.72/person/day)

Skip to Eating Out

Skip to Bars

Skip to Alcohol

Two interesting facts from Puebla: 1) our food & alcohol spend was within $1/person/day of our spend in Mexico City; 2) our food & alcohol spend was actually higher than in Mexico City. 

You wouldn’t be wrong to assume eating out would be cheaper in Puebla than the Mexican Capital. While food/restaurants (and just about everything) is cheaper in Puebla, we managed to spend more on food here. I can attribute this to the majority of our meals out at higher-end spots and more wine and cocktails at said meals. 

Groceries & Eating In: $102.52 for two

Our grocery spend came in quite low at about $100. This was roughly only 70% of our grocery spend in Mexico City. The only real change I can think of is that we bought less tequila in Puebla compared to Mexico City. Additionally, I think a good amount of the beer I purchased wound up under the miscellaneous category during our time in Puebla versus groceries/food & alcohol.

For those that are interested, my breakfast of choice remained breakfast tacos (really just scrambled eggs in a warm, flour tortilla and habanero hot sauce).

If you’re interested what a Mexican grocery store looks like or curious what common grocery items cost, here’s my “Grocery Haul” video:

Restaurants & Eating Out: $666.02 for two

This was about 14% higher than spend in Mexico City ($583.59). This had much more to do with frequency of eating out and quality of restaurants than it had to do with Puebla’s food prices. 

Coffee: $8.41 for two 

Brunch: $100.95 for two; cheapest: $3.49 (3 pastries) + most expensive: $22.07 

Lunch: $165.71 for two; cheapest: $5.57 + most expensive: $78.49

Din: $399.36 for two; cheapest: $4.70 (tacos) + most expensive: $64.37 

First thing to notice is unlike during our time in Mexico City, our meals skewed heavily to one meal: dinner. Roughly 60% of our Puebla food & alcohol spend came during dinner. 

Above, I also replaced average costs of meals to minimum and maximum spend to give a better idea of the range. The outlier meal of our trip (meal breakdown and pictures) was a lunch at Intro (https://introrestaurant.com/) where we celebrated our 4-year anniversary over cocktails and several courses.

Bars: $103.16 for two

Our bar spending was actually lower (about ⅔ as much) than Mexico City. I think this came down to Puebla bar prices being lower and the fact that we drank more with meals (at restaurants) than at bars.

Standout bar of our time in Puebla was Profetica: a bookstore turned cafe & bar. During our four weeks, we went five times (you can check it out in the below or above YouTube links). 

Alcohol: $306.05 for two 

Our alcohol spend was very similar to that of Mexico City. While our grocery spend and bar spend was lower in Puebla, that must mean we compensated by spending more money on alcohol during meals at restaurants. 

Beer prices at grocery and convenience stores were identical in Puebla and Mexico City. Beers at bars and restaurants were a touch cheaper in Puebla, while cocktails on average seemed to be considerably cheaper. 

Transportation: $26.62 per couple

Transportation getting to and within Puebla was fairly straight forward. No need to talk about flights because we were already in Mexico. 

Our transportation broke down to: Ubers ($10.96), two bus tickets to Puebla ($14.66), and two bus tickets to Cholula ($1). We later found that there is a free (!) train to and from Cholula. 

Miscellaneous: $28.77 per couple (28 nights) or $30.83 per month

Similar to our time in Mexico City, miscellaneous mostly comprised ad hoc trips to Oxxo (or other convenience stores) for things like water, beer, and ice. 

Activities: $0 

Activities continued to be “free” and mainly consisted of eating, drinking, and exploring. We took two day trips to Cholula, which cost a total of $1 to get to for both of us (before discovering the free train). 

Otherwise, eating and drinking activities were accounted for under–you guessed it–food & alcohol.   

Where and how we reduced our cost of living in Puebla

We reduced our cost of living and saved money in Puebla similarly to Mexico City (groceries/eating in and walking a lot). The one major way we saved in Puebla was rent. Rent being less than 50% of what we spent in Mexico City drastically brought down our cost of living.

Places we could further reduce?

Booze, namely cocktails at dinners. Eating less high-end places or less frequently. Coming in at 70% of the forecasted budget, we are unlikely to do either of those. It is, however, good to know where we could trim if the need arose. 

Final Thoughts & Puebla Tabled Expenses

		Forecasted	28 Days Actual	30 Days*
Total		$2,500	$1,633.50	$1,750.18
Accommodation		$1,350	$698.00	$747.86
Food & Alcohol		$900	$880.11	$942.98
	Groceries		$102.52
	Restaurants		$666.02
	Bars		$103.16
	Alcohol		$306.05
	Coffee		$8.41
	Brunch		$100.95
	Lunch		$165.71
	Dinner		$399.36
Misc.		$50	$28.77	$30.83
Transport		$200	$26.62	$28.52

Food & Alcohol = groceries + restaurants + bars + coffee; restaurants = brunch + lunch + dinner

Unlike my Mexico City post, I cleaned the numbers up to purely reflect Puebla costs (yay for you!). Already in Mexico so no fussing over whether to include flights or not. I *did* include all flights in my total transportation costs and to use as an average for the revised forecast budget. 

During our time in Puebla, we had friends visit: one for two nights (hi Greg) and two for one day (hi Carli & Dylan). Because of the relatively short visits, this didn’t drastically increase spending. As more friends visit for longer periods of time I expect costs to go up. We will preemptively save/budget accordingly (so that people will continue to visit us).  

Puebla will probably end up being the cheapest city during this Mexico trip (largely due to rent savings). Lastly, I think Puebla is super underrated and can’t wait to visit again (Cholula, too!). 

Please let me know if you have any questions or need clarification in the comments below!  

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