How Inflation and Low Wages Make Life Impossible in Venezuela

Bing AI

Hello dear and loyal readers of my blog, I welcome you to another episode.

This time, I’ll be talking to you about the cost of living in my country.

This is an extremely important topic, especially for people like me who are independent and whose income depends solely on the rewards we get for the work we do.

In my particular case, I stopped working for other people many years ago—around the year 2000—so I can say I’ve been working for myself, being my own boss, for about 25 years now.

My situation is quite exceptional. The singularity lies in the fact that I live in Venezuela, a country that perhaps has the most severe financial crisis in Latin American history.

Here, the cost of living is extremely high due to such savage inflation that we can even say the U.S. dollar itself has devalued, with two different exchange rates.

The official dollar rate is much lower than the alternative or parallel dollar rate.

Of course, merchants often make under-the-table transactions at the parallel dollar rate, even though it’s penalized and fined by authorities.

Transactions are usually calculated at the parallel dollar rate when it comes to businesses, but they are forced to sell products at the official dollar rate.

Bing AI

This causes huge losses because, often, to get physical dollars in cash, they have to pay the parallel rate. And now, digital dollars have become much harder to obtain.

To give you an idea, my current cost of living here can be broken down as follows: I spend about $5 daily on just one meal.

Let’s say breakfast costs $3-4, lunch $5, a snack $1—that’s $3 + $5 = $8, plus the snack ($1) = $9, plus dinner ($3), totaling around $12 per day on food.

Multiplying that by 30, I’d spend $360 a month just on food—and that’s already expensive. Adding basic services like rent ($15) and internet ($30), that’s $45 more, bringing the total to $405 monthly just for food and essentials.

If we include health expenses and personal care items—soap, shampoo, nail files, cologne, or skin perfumes—that’s another $25, easily reaching $430 a month.

Considering that the minimum wage here is less than $2 a month, and a single person like me (no kids, no partner) spends around $430, I might even be underestimating.

These calculations assume I buy prepared food delivered to me. If I had to buy groceries and cook myself, the cost would easily double to $800.

With the official minimum wage at $2, surviving here is nearly impossible.

I’ve always believed that if I moved to another country, my quality of life would improve—access to water (which is scarce here), decent public healthcare (which is poor here, while private care is unaffordable).

Bing AI

Treating my diabetes and diabetic foot wounds requires daily bandages, creams, pills, and vegetables (which are expensive).

Just the bandages cost me $7 a day—$210 a month. Adding the $430 from before, that’s $640 monthly, an impossible sum when I barely earn $60-80 a month.

I can’t even afford home repairs (broken toilet, shower, sink) because food comes first.

Fixing my bed frame costs $25—that’s almost half my monthly income.

I know life would be better in Colombia or elsewhere, but I can’t leave: no savings, no health to endure the trip, no way to start over.

I’m stuck here unless people help me—fix my shower, toilet, or donate so I can afford repairs and medicine.

If I earned more hive rewards online, life would be easier.

This is the harsh reality of living in Venezuela.