# Current Cost of Living



## walker07 (Jun 23, 2008)

My wife and I are due to move to the Costa Blanca South area late July. We have bought a nice three bedroomed detached house, do not smoke and live moderate lives. We intend to eat out twice a week taking advantage of the menu del dias. I have a car which will need to be insured and will be on Spanish plates (Audi A3) have use of a community pool so no running costs of a private one, and will install a log burner for heat efficiency.What would our likely outgoing expenses be per month? I am in my mid fifties, my wife (who will kill me for writing this) is approaching fifty and we will eventually need private health care.
I currently have a public service pension of 1700 euros per month and work in the middle-east, which I want to give up sooner rather then later. Being canny Scots we have also built up a rainy day fund. I know things are getting more expensive but the benefits of moving to Spain seem to outweigh the negatives, if there are any.
Oh, freesat and internet would also need to be installed, and a mobile phone contract set up. 
Does anyone know how to block soaps on the tellie?


----------



## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

walker07 said:


> My wife and I are due to move to the Costa Blanca South area late July. We have bought a nice three bedroomed detached house, do not smoke and live moderate lives. We intend to eat out twice a week taking advantage of the menu del dias. I have a car which will need to be insured and will be on Spanish plates (Audi A3) have use of a community pool so no running costs of a private one, and will install a log burner for heat efficiency.What would our likely outgoing expenses be per month? I am in my mid fifties, my wife (who will kill me for writing this) is approaching fifty and we will eventually need private health care.
> I currently have a public service pension of 1700 euros per month and work in the middle-east, which I want to give up sooner rather then later. Being canny Scots we have also built up a rainy day fund. I know things are getting more expensive but the benefits of moving to Spain seem to outweigh the negatives, if there are any.
> Oh, freesat and internet would also need to be installed, and a mobile phone contract set up.
> Does anyone know how to block soaps on the tellie?




it's ever so easy to block the soaps.... just don't get English TV!!

what are your outgoings a month in the UK??? They won't be very much different overall here - a bit cheaper - but not a whole lot, although you'll probably eat out more often than you would in the UK - but if you want to 'buy British' foodwise, rather than local products, then you'll quite possibly spend more here than in the UK

you will *have to* have private healthcare if you aren't covered under the S1 from the UK, so factor that in too

the specific answers to your questions can be found by using the search facility - there have been threads about phones, satellite TV etc etc in teh past few weeks - & in our 'forms, education etc etc ........ ' sticky thread above you'll find a link to one called 'cost of living'


----------



## bob_bob (Jan 5, 2011)

Its about the same as the UK for day to day living so if you can live OK on £1300 a month in the UK you'll be fine in Spain. Internet seems more expensive in Spain and generally slower than the UK, no idea about mobile contracts though.


----------



## Seb* (Mar 22, 2009)

Food shopping is usually slightly cheaper than uk, if you stick with the basic products in the spanish supermarkets (Mercadona, Lidl, Aldi etc.). If you like the "better stuff" and the odd UK product, you will dish out more. Prices will keep rising though, especially with the VAT rise in 2013.

Running a car feels cheaper here (especially tax, insurance is similar but I'd say slightly cheaper, fuel is still cheaper but the difference seems to be closing fast, diesel was 0.88 EUR / liter when we came over in 2009, now it's 1.38 EUR). Utilities are more or less the same now after the latest hikes in prices. Internet, mobiles and telephone is clearly more expensive. Council tax (IBI) is in most cases relatively cheap (depending on cadastral value and area)

You will have to cover some upfront costs like car transfer, sat dish installation and the odds bits and bobs.

Private health care is expensive, do not go with one of the UK companies (like BUPA), get insurance with a Spanish company like Sanitas (there are lots more so shop around).


So with 1700 EUR and no mortgage or rent to pay you should be fine. It won't enable you to live the high life, but you should be able to get along quite well. I guess your income is in GBP? Don't forget that the exchange rate is 1.25 EUR to the pound at the moment, keep in mind, that this can change in the future. Shortly after we arrived the pound went down to 1:1 to the EURO and a lot of pensioners suddenly had some serious money problems.


----------



## Solwriter (Jan 10, 2012)

xabiachica said:


> it's ever so easy to block the soaps.... just don't get English TV!!


And watch all those Spanish and Mexican soaps instead....

All joking aside, when we first moved here, we picked up a lot of Spanish language and particularly useful phrases from the soaps (not the Mexican ones though) and the adverts too.

*Walker*, 
you say that you will be installing a log burner for heat efficiency.

A log burner is only as efficient as the fuel it uses.
If you have local access to cheap fuel which burns well, then there should be no problem.
But beware of locals selling cheap wood from olive trees - it is cheap and plentiful, but doesn't burn well at all.
Likewise, packs of wood from supermarkets and DIY centres - either actual cut logs or bricks of wood chips - are extremely expensive.

We have actually given up running our log burning stove and returned to electric heating (with panel heaters) because, in our area, we could not find decent, cheap wood (plenty of rubbish, but nothing decent). And bolstering this with supermarket bought wood was much too expensive.
We still pay a fortune for our heating, but the log burner (although it looks nice ) was really a bad move for us.


----------



## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

Err ... Spanish health care is cheap compared to the UK.
Its probably a little more now but we paid €1100 a year for the two of us when we came here which was with Sanitas Espana (Seguro de salud - Seguros - Seguro dental - Seguros médicos - Seguro médico online - Residencias - médicos - hospitales). In the UK I was paying nearly £300 a month.

I'm not sure about general cost of living in Southern Closta Blanca as we are in the Northern part but certainly around here its cheaper to live than the UK. Thats before you take into account the lower "council tax" here (we saved £1300 a year approx), car tax (€100 pa here).

Internet (2mb) and telephone with free landline calls to the UK and Spain is €29.99 a month & diesel

We keep to Spanish food and buy very little UK imported stuff. We shop and Aldi for as much as we can get, and then Mercadonna. We gave up on Carrefour years ago because of cost and places like Mas y mas and Consum are more pricey too.

So basically if the costs are about the same in Southern CB ( they are higher in the CDS) then you will get by fine


----------



## gus-lopez (Jan 4, 2010)

Our fuel has been falling for the last six weeks . Diesel is at 1,31 at most places but where I fill up normally it is usually 8cents cheaper. Only 7c yesterday though ! 
Still more than the 62c when we arrived ! They say that if the Greeks exit the euro the oil barrel price will drop between 5 & 10 dollars ?


----------



## walker07 (Jun 23, 2008)

Thank you all for your replies, it's good to know that after many years of scrimping and hard work it might well pay off in the end. It's also good to learn from other people's personal experiences (thanks Solwriter re logburner!) and avoid making mistakes which may cost us dearly in the future. I'll be packing the thick woolly jumpers and Granny's hand knitted socks just in case though! We shop efficiently (frugally!) here in the UK so won't change these habits and I suppose at the end of the day every little helps. Any advice is always gratefull received. Thanks


----------

