Many women in Cayman are struggling to navigate the drastically increased cost of living.
Some others, looking at the continuing challenges on the horizon, have decided that the better choice is actually to leave the islands completely.
Carina Ecclefield, a long-term resident who moved to the island in 2011, shared her journey and insights in an interview about her decision to leave the place she has come to call home.
In 2020, amidst the pandemic, Ecclefield and her partner devised a five-year plan to evaluate their future. However, a pivotal moment arrived following a 2022 trip to Romania when she visited her fiancée’s family.
After returning to the island, the couple went out to a local restaurant to grab some tacos and drinks for breakfast.
At the end of what they considered to be a relatively conservative meal, they were faced with a $110 bill.
“I was so angry at that bill,” she recalled. “I don’t know why it hit me so hard that day… I saw the quality of life and options for us really decreasing.”
That very day she decided to expedite their departure.
“I asked him, why was it a five-year plan? With the way the cost of living and everything else is going… let’s go, let’s get out of here,” she said.
What was initially a five-year plan became a one-year countdown, with September and October set as their departure window.
Ecclefield had been coming to Cayman since she was 4 years old. After a chance visit one year, when her family wasn’t able to go home to Barbados for the holidays, they brought their daughter to Cayman. From then on, they returned every year until she and her brother were grown.
As a child, she cried every time she had to leave. After she graduated from college with a degree in business, she immediately moved to Cayman to take a job as a bartender that would enable her to be on the beach every day. Her parents were not happy with the underuse of her college degree.
However, after seeing their daughter move here and the life she created, they too decided to settle in Cayman and join her for their retirement. That was eight years ago.
She fondly remembers the old Outback Steakhouse, Calico Jack’s, and Royal Palms. She describes it as a time when locals and visitors alike could regularly commune over a cheap beer right on Seven Mile Beach.
As social hubs like those have disappeared over the years, replaced by luxury hotels and condominiums outside of the price range for the general public, she mourns the loss of this culture.
She said the current rising cost of living has produced a feeling of guilt for indulging in simple activities, like occasionally eating breakfast at a restaurant.
When the topic of finding ways to save arose in the Women in Cayman Facebook group, Ecclefield transparently posted her entire monthly budget.
It came to more than $3,500 per month, “not including any mishaps, emergencies or fun! [Not including] car insurance/owning a car, medications and doctor visits, eating out once or twice, alcohol, or fun”, she added, “It’s insane!!!”
She earns approximately 30% more than the median average salary for the population.
She owns her apartment and has mortgage payments that she believes are less than most people’s rent. Her parents cover any nicer evenings out that she might share with them and, since she now lives soberly, she does not need to include any costs for liquor.
Nevertheless, given the cost of living, she now lives paycheque to paycheque and says, “I don’t understand how people are having money to pay [their] rent.”
Accelerated move
This, in addition to the construction trends, has pushed Ecclefield to accelerate her departure plans. “We really had no [other] reason to leave,” she said. Nevertheless, a lack of affordability, coupled with the loss of the lifestyle she had cultivated with her friends and family growing up, fuelled her decision.
The departure also weighs heavily on Ecclefield due to her strong ties to the island. She expressed the heartache of leaving friends and the community that had become her family, as well as her parents. She emphasised the dilemma for those without a place to return to, as leaving requires significant effort and change.
Despite the bittersweet departure, she also recognises the gains from this decision. She anticipates a more spacious and affordable lifestyle. Modest desires like enough space for her pets to run in a backyard. The ability to travel freely in a more affordable way; a newfound financial flexibility to explore beyond the confines of the island without the associated expenses.
She does not anticipate that she will be able to afford to return to Cayman as even a visitor for the next few years. She has already begun to make plans to stay in Romania for the first set of holidays and reunite with her family in a cheaper location after that.
Anecdotally, Ecclefield’s story is becoming increasingly common, with more expats and Caymanians alike considering moving to places where they believe they will have the chance to afford a better life.
- Have you emigrated from Cayman or are you considering leaving the island for somewhere more affordable? Send your stories to Liz Charles on [email protected].
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$110 for breakfast. Must have been the Kimpton and $75 was probably booze