Author: Rae

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Jewelry Organization in an RV

I don’t wear a lot of jewelry, but I go through phases in life where I’m really into earrings. I’ve been in in one of those phases for over a year now and been frustrated by my lack of a satisfactory earring organization system. You just have different considerations when you live in an RV and don’t have a dresser or much surface space! I certainly didn’t want a box where they would get all jumbled and that I’d have to store in a cabinet. I also wanted something very portable.

I researched ‘travel jewelry organizer’ for a bit and finally decided that a hanging pocket organizer that can be rolled up might be just the ticket. They’re meant to be hung over a door, but glancing around the rig a few weeks ago, I realised that I have an ideal spot next to my vanity if I hang the organizer from my shower wall!

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The hanging jewelry organizer I bought has 80 pockets (40 on each side), so each earring can have its own little pouch and not get tangled with the others:

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I ending up buying my organizer on eBay because I got a better deal to Canada, but it’s the exact same one Amazon sells. I primarily picked it because it had the most pockets, but I also liked the neutral cream colour. I found a green one that would have looked nice here, but would have clashed with the green in my Isla bathroom, plus it had a lot fewer pockets. The bottom pockets on this one are larger than the top pockets, so there’s room for big pieces, too.

I like that I’l be able to fold or roll up the organizer, throw it in a suitcase, and have it available at a hotel.

It’s amazing how long I’ve lived in this RV and I’m still finding ways to maximize my space!

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Verdict On the Truck

I took my truck in today to Kal Tire to have it inspected before heading to Mexico next month. What I learned boils down to I’ll be somewhere between Gillette and Cheyenne Wyoming in it this time next month. 🙂

The news was excellent. Yes, the rust is bad and it’s not worth, say, putting a new engine into this body, but it’s still totally worth doing basic maintenance on it. I was rather embarrassed to learn that I had a flat I hadn’t noticed and was told that I really should consider replacing two of my tires before getting many more miles under me. I also have leaking rear axle seals that will need to be looked at but are not something that need immediate attention.

The only bad news is that my clutch is on the way out and I’ve got a 50/50 chance of getting to Isla with it. The mechanic I spoke to today asked me if I have a mechanic I trust at the other end of the journey and I replied in the affirmative. “The guy who did your brake work recently?” Yes… “If I was you, I’d take the gamble that I was going to make it and have him do the work as soon as I arrive.”

So did you hear the good news in that? The mechanic on Isla did a superb job on my brakes. 🙂

The bad news is that a clutch job on a Ranger is about 1,000CAD. If I get to MX, it’ll be a fraction of the price, but if my clutch goes out on me while I’m in the States, I’ll be stranded until my October money lands. I’ll cross that bridge if it ever materializes. 🙂

If I choose to buy my tires here, which I likely will because I just won’t have time to deal with them en route, I’m looking at about $250 to put into my truck before departure, a cost that I can easily absorb, on top of the $76 I spent today on the inspection and the flat tire change.

Soon as I get my November payment for the October work, I’ll head to my Isla mechanic to schedule not just the clutch repair (because I am going to get to him!), but also the AC repair!

I can’t stop staring at the inspection report. Everything is green except for my tires, my wheel alignment (not dire), and my air and fuel filters, which are yellow. The only ‘red’ items aren’t on their checklist, the rear axle seals and the clutch. I was certain that my truck is reasonably mechanically sound and I was right. Ah, peace of mind is a lovely thing!

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One-Month Countdown

I’m leaving for Mexico a month from tomorrow! Where did the summer go?!

Last year’s departure felt very scattered and rushed because I was waiting on a cheque that took ages to arrive. Packing was hard because I didn’t know what I’d need and if I’d need it again before I left. Outdoor things, like tarping Miranda, got left to the last minute. I ran out of food and turned my fridge off too early. And I almost left without my pillows.

This year, I really hope it’s going to be different. I had thought I’d get my October payment for September hours for the proofreading gig promptly at the beginning of October, but that client has made it clear that they pay at their convenience, not their staff’s, and that I can’t count on getting a payment by any particular date. So I’m scrambling to rearrange the budget to make sure that I can leave with what I have in the bank right now and what I can count on my other clients to pay me by October 23rd. It’ll be tighter than I’d like, but not so much to make leaving on October 23rd a risky move… except for the truck being a huge wildcard. I know that it’s fine mechanically, but I’m worried about rust on major components, like the suspension.

I’m going to get a safety inspection done on the truck  tomorrow afternoon (only $40!) and hopefully will get an okay to go. If not, departure will have to be delayed until the October payment comes in so I can buy a ‘new’ car. If that happens, I am not making a huge deal out of it. There is a guy in Assiniboia who has reliable cheap cars and I’m going to basically buy the cheapest thing on his lot. My branch here has said that based on what I’ve told them about my financial situation, they would loan me a small amount for a vehicle purchase, but I’d rather delay departure and pay cash rather than increase my debt. Anyway, I’ll cross that bridge if I get there.

I’m paying attention to the weather and scheduled tarping Miranda for this Friday. I haven’t had any more leaks, even in heavy rainfall, so perhaps my roof sealant has finally cured, but I’m not taking a chance with snowmelt. The tarp I have makes it undesirable to tarp ahead of time because it blocks windows and roof vents, as well as the front door, but I’m giving myself more time this year so that I can do a better job of it and some folding so that I can avoid those negatives. Caroline and Charles have tons of baling twine and told me to get some from them rather than buy any, so I’ll take them up on that offer. Other exterior chores, like winterizing the water system, can absolutely be left to the last minute as it only takes an hour or so. I’ll plan to do that the afternoon before I leave, unless the weather forecast for that day is dismal.

As for packing, I’ve been keeping a list since last winter, when I was still in Mexico. It basically boils down to bring more kitchen stuff and bring fewer clothes. I even plan on bringing my folding table so I have extra surface/storage space in the kitchen. It took me a full month last year to set up my kitchen properly and I don’t plan to wait that long this year. Caroline gave me a bunch of kitchen stuff that came with her new-to-her RV that will mean I don’t have to bring all my own ‘good’ stuff with me, thankfully. I just keep imagining things getting confiscated at a border or being destroyed in an accident. I had the same things in an RV, but it’s amazing how they look more suspicious packed up in a truck. This is why I keep waffling on whether or not to bring my good computer chair with me. I’m sure the crappy chair I bought last year will still be there, but, well, it was crappy. 🙂

I don’t intend to sleep in the truck at all this time around, so I’ll be able to better pack my vehicle so it’s easier for customs to get go through and I have less in the cab with me. Of course, this will change if I end up driving down in a subcompact… That will be determined tomorrow. I really hope the truck is fine to go since it is so comfortable to drive and I’m doing a marathon run that would leave me sore if I was in a car. Once I know, I’ll be able to buy packing containers. Packing last year was pretty much a disaster in that I used a few totes, some suitcases and the rest were bags, which didn’t keep things together well at all. This year, it’s all going to be nearly all totes! I am packing one small suitcase since I do plan to fly to Mérida and it’ll contain the clothes I need to get me to Nogales, at which point I will repack it with warm weather clothes.

There hasn’t been much going on socially this summer, so I’m a bit starved for flirting with cute waiters at beachside restaurants and going out in the evenings to listen to music. Unfortunately, my friend Dale is absolutely not returning to Maz, but perhaps I’ll find another single friend to hang out with. And, of course, there should still be horseback riding this winter, as long as my group can shift riding day to Mondays or Fridays.

I’m getting pretty excited about the thought of heading out!

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Beautiful Saturday

I’m slowly adjusting to having regular weekends and surprised by how long the days seem sometime. Take today, it’s not even 3:00 yet as I start this post and it’s been quite full!

I woke up around 6:00ish and read for about an hour in bed before getting up and making a particularly good cup of coffee, then breakfast. Then, I spent some time online reading fun blogs and catching up on emails. I caught up on some bookkeeping tasks before getting up to go do a deep clean of the kitchen proper in anticipation of leaving next month.

Around 11:00, I headed to C&C’s. I’d asked Charles, our local pest control officer, to prepare some mouse poison for me since I have active ones in the RV and the cabin and Caroline told me last night, over an impromptu glass of wine, to come by today at some point to get tomatoes. I came home just shy of noon and distributed the poison, then went in to turn the very ripe tomatoes into a fresh sauce, glad that I had remembered to buy both a ‘new’ garlic press from the Salvation Army and some dried basil at the grocery store when I was in town Thursday.

It was 1:00 by the time lunch was done and I decided to head to the thrift store in Willow Bunch. It was just too lovely a day not to go for a drive! I checked the oil in the truck before going out, then headed east.

The store was quite busy today, but there wasn’t much new stuff. I did a circuit and was about to leave empty-handed when something told me to check the coats again. There, I finally found a nice raincoat! It’s a tad big on me, but a definite improvement over my now humongous orange raincoat that I’d bought for the Chilkoot. It was only $3!

Coming out, I decided to see if the grocery store was still open as I was told it’s closing at the end of this month. Indeed, but they were having a going out of business sale with everything but meat and milk being 50% off. I was torn between being excited at the deals and sad at the loss of this vital Willow Bunch business.

Mindful that I’m leaving in a month, I still came out of there with $60 worth of groceries for $30, including two tins of coffee. They actually had the bigger containers of the dark roast that are better value than the little ones, but I’d rather pay a little more and not open up a huge amount of coffee at one time to keep it somewhat fresh. I also caved and bought some flour and a giant bag of chocolate chips to use up the rest of my bananas since we are heading out of frozen dessert weather… but I also couldn’t resist a $4 tub of Breyer’s cookies and cream ice cream! My favourite Hawaiian pizzas were available, too, so I got a couple, and I had fun fitting them and the ice cream in the freezer when I got home! I may also have come home with three jars of ‘hot dog relish’ (mustard mixed with relish) to bring down to Mexico with me… 🙂

I’m not sure what I’ll do with the rest of my day. But with it being so sunny and lovely and warm, I think there’s a swing and a good book in my future!

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Making Sense of New Mexican Visa Rules

Where I am right now in my life plan is that I want to go Mexico full-time next winter (although I am prepared to defer that one additional year if need be). So that gives me a year to get everything sorted out, including navigating all the new visa rules. It’s really hard to get advice right now because so many ‘old timers’ are used to the old system and really don’t know anything about the reformed immigration system. Another thing is that Mexico is getting more and more computerized, so a lot of these people just aren’t cognizant of just how strictly you need to follow the rules now compared to the old days.

This is going to be the first in what will likely be a series of posts as I figure out what I need to know to get to myself to Mexico permanently.

Here are a few of the things I need to consider:

Visas

The most pressing thing I need to figure out is how do I get to stay in Mexico for longer than 180 days and begin the path to citizenship? I’ve been getting a lot of conflicting info on that and false hope that I can get citizenship within about five years. Last night, I finally managed to sort it all out.

I read in several places that if I am self-employed with clients outside Mexico and can prove that I make a minimum amount per month, I can apply to be residente permanente (permanent resident), just as a retiree would, and be eligible after four years to apply for citizenship. This is false.

The visa I need to apply for is residente temporal (temporary resident). This isn’t as scary as it sounds. If you get it, you are allowed to stay in Mexico for a full year and then reapply for up to an additional three years. At the end of the three years (four total), you either leave Mexico or convert to a residente permanente visa, and then begin to the path to naturalization.

While the residente temporal path will take me a lot longer to get through, it will actually make it easier for me to get my foot in the door because the income requirements are so much lower and you only need to prove them for the past six months, not a full year. I am now making more than the minimum for both schemes, and, in fact, average at least twice the minimum for the residente temporal requirements. If I can show them a year’s worth of statements, not just the six months they ask for, I’m sure that will give me an edge.

I am also planning to do my interview in Spanish since I can answer the questions easily even without having researched certain terms ahead of time. Some of the questions I need to answer could be why do I want to move to Mexico and how will I support myself?

These visas can only be applied from at your home consulate, which, in my case, is in Calgary. So I need to plan to go there next fall. All this visit gives you is permission to apply for temporary residence when you get to the border. You can still get turned away.

Financial and Tax Matters

I really need to find myself a tax accountant who deals with people in my situation. Google is being surprisingly non-helpful in this regard. If anyone reading this has a tax account who deals with Canadians who move to Mexico, please send me their info!

It’s really unclear at this point what my tax obligation will be when I move to Mexico permanently beyond the fact that I won’t have to pay Mexican taxes. I may be able to be deemed a non-resident for tax purposes in Canada if I cut all my ties here, but I plan to keep my property, so I may not be able to. Needless to say, my next step really is to find an accountant.

I have some debts here that I need to pay off. It’s not realistic to think that I can pay them all off within the next year, but I can make a big enough dent to make a difference. So that’s going to be a priority for me as soon as I get to the lower Mexican cost of living in November.

Vehicle

I need to see if I can keep a legal vehicle here and my SK driver’s license while on residente temporal status or if I should get my Mexican driver’s license and have it be good here.

It is really difficult to bring a non-Mexican plated vehicle into Mexico and nearly impossible right now to have it converted into a Mexican vehicle. I wanted to buy myself a ‘new’ car next spring, but am revising that plan. You can’t have a non-Mexican vehicle on a residente permanente visa anyway, so I think I’m better off not even bothering bringing a vehicle into Mexico and buying one when I get there.

Housing

I’m planning to fly to Mérida this winter to check it out as my possible initial home base for my new life in Mexico, if only to have a comparison point to Mazatlán. I really like the idea of being down in the Yucatán with all the history, Mérida is a colonial city like Maz, it is easier to get to from Montreal, it is one of the lower cost ex-pat destinations (compared to, say, San Miguel de Allende or Lake Chapala), and it has enough of an ex-pat population that immigration services are nearby (no having to drive two hours to get a visa stamped).

Part of the trip will be to look at the rental market and possibly pick out my landing place for the next winter so I have a Mexican address for my visa application. This would involve a much more formal arrangement than what I have in Maz, with a 12-month rental contract and deposit. It will be a gamble to take if I don’t get my temporary resident status approved, but, worst case, I’d still get to use most of the 180 days I’d have as a visitor, so it wouldn’t be a total loss. If I go ahead and sign a contract, I’d probably aim to have it start January 1st of 2017. If I manage to get to Mérida sooner, I could take a short-term rental.

Household Goods

I’m allowed to import so much ‘stuff’ when I move to Mexico permanently, but that amount will be seriously limited if I decide to fly rather than drive in. The truth is that at this point, I can pretty much carry with me everything that I need to start over in life and the rest is just stuff that can easily be purchased anywhere. Yes, some things are more expensive in Mexico, but it’s really not worth the effort to me to pack up a U-Haul with my dishwasher, tools, and washing machine, especially when I would still need them while here. I’m convinced that I can get it all on a plane by paying for excess luggage, a much cheaper option than having anything shipped.

Healthcare

Under a temporary resident visa, I would be eligible for Mexican government healthcare, just like I am eligible in SK. This is basic emergency care and I would also have the option of paying out of pocket for access to private clinics. I will have better access to both regular and emergency care in Mexico than I have ever had in Canada, so I’m not too worried about this part of the moving to Mexico plan.

Name

I’ve been thinking of changing my first name name legally to Rae for several years now and the more I dig into the Mexican bureaucracy and see how much paperwork I’d have to fill out, the more I’m convinced that changing my name before I apply for anything would be really helpful since my legal name on my passport and birth certificate is about a billion miles long and I don’t want to have to keep needing to spell it. Its accent and hyphen also keep causing me grief. This would, of course, delay applying for the visa.

I’m absolutely serious about going to Bulgaria next summer and think that I could start the name change process upon coming back and then apply for my new birth certificate and passport, which I’d need anyway since my current one expires in early spring 2017. This would mean delaying my visa request into the winter, so moving to a short-term rental in Calgary while I sort out everything could be the neatest solution to covering this gap.

A name change request for someone born anywhere in Canada but Quebec is easy. For a Quebecer, it is very difficult and just about impossible if you’re a resident of the province. I’ve spent a lot of time researching this and believe I may have found the path of least resistance in the red tape, so this might not be the impossible plan it seemed a few years ago.

Conclusion

My ‘I want to move to Mexico!’ plan is firming up as I collect more information. It’s no longer something I’m just talking about and researching, but rather actually making concrete steps in implementing. The idea of taking nine or ten years to become a citizen is a bit daunting, but I have to live somewhere, so why not there? It’s not like I’d be a prisoner of Mexico and unable to leave for holidays elsewhere (I’d just need to pay attention to the rules of how much I can be out of Mexico in a certain period of time to not lose my residency status). I’d also have a whole big country to explore and could plan to move to a different city every couple of years!