# Cost of living in Southern Spain



## BillisDead (Oct 19, 2018)

How far would a £1000 per month get you living in or around Cadiz? Could a single person manage on that if say £500 was taken on rent bills etc?


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

BillisDead said:


> How far would a £1000 per month get you living in or around Cadiz? Could a single person manage on that if say £500 was taken on rent bills etc?


Do you mean pounds, or euros? (Not that there's such a huge difference, these days

€1,000 with no rent to pay would be doable. But €1,000 per month, shrinking to €500 per month after rent, would not, in my opinion. You would have to buy all food, electricity, water (occasionally water bills are included in the rent but by no means always), internet, phone, transport, any dentistry or optician needs, entertainment and replacement of clothing and other personal items out of that. What will you be doing about health cover? If you are retired and in receipt of a UK state pension, you can get an S1 which will cover you for Spanish state health care, but otherwise you would need to pay for private health insurance in order to be able to register as a resident here.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

I think the OP is saying he will have €500 (or GBP500, not much difference these days) after rent and bills have been paid. So that's basically €100 a week to live on. It's possible, millions of Spaniards do it, but he would have to live a pretty frugal life and it doesn't leave anything for extras or emergencies. Hopefully he would have some sort of savings put by for these.


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## Megsmum (Sep 9, 2012)

Rent and bills. 500€. Is that doable

We are off grid and therefore no bills. Certainly couldn’t live on that. Is there a car involved. Or. Travelling costs , what about extras. IE healthcare, dentistry etc etc 

I often wonder when people say we live of x amount do thy really include everything 

Cars and or transport
Insurances 
Healthcare medication 
Food
Breakables
Unexpected bills


Etc etc wtc


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Megsmum said:


> Rent and bills. 500€. Is that doable
> 
> We are off grid and therefore no bills. Certainly couldn’t live on that. Is there a car involved. Or. Travelling costs , what about extras. IE healthcare, dentistry etc etc
> 
> ...


I also think whether that would be as much as you would ever have to live off makes a difference. It's possible to do it for a few years (the first year we came to Spain, the two of us lived on 7k pounds - although there was more money in the bank if we'd needed it, it was a kind of experiment to see how little we could live off if we really had to). Thereafter we lived on €1,000 per month until our pensions came on stream, but we always knew we'd have substantially more in the future. And we owned our own home, no rent to pay or worries about a landlord wanting to increase rent at the end of a contract. We paid for private medical insurance for the two of us (after the first two years) out of that, and house insurance, but have never needed to run a car as we have excellent public transport where we live.

The old adage that two can live as cheaply as one is not so far off the mark, things like utility bills are almost the same for a single person household because of the standing charges.


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## BillisDead (Oct 19, 2018)

Lynn R said:


> Do you mean pounds, or euros? (Not that there's such a huge difference, these days
> 
> €1,000 with no rent to pay would be doable. But €1,000 per month, shrinking to €500 per month after rent, would not, in my opinion. You would have to buy all food, electricity, water (occasionally water bills are included in the rent but by no means always), internet, phone, transport, any dentistry or optician needs, entertainment and replacement of clothing and other personal items out of that. What will you be doing about health cover? If you are retired and in receipt of a UK state pension, you can get an S1 which will cover you for Spanish state health care, but otherwise you would need to pay for private health insurance in order to be able to register as a resident here.


I'm planning to stay for a year and I'm in my 40's. I've not thought about health cover as I have a EHIC card. Is that not good enough? I plan to go back to he UK every 2 months so would I still need to apply for residency? It appears £1500 will b needed per month then. Thanks


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## davexf (Jan 26, 2009)

Hola 

Just a point; health insurance is about to become free due to an EU directive as I understand it - the convenio especial has been stopped because of this I believe 

Davexf


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

davexf said:


> Hola
> 
> Just a point; health insurance is about to become free due to an EU directive as I understand it - the convenio especial has been stopped because of this I believe
> 
> Davexf


Yes, but on the other hand, the requirements to register as resident (which include having private health insurance with no co-payments for anyone who does not have an S1 form) have not been changed. The new Health Decree refers to those who are legally resident in Spain and not having any other recourse to healthcare as being entitled to cover, hence it is a Catch 22 situation and you still need private insurance in order to become legally resident.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

BillisDead said:


> I'm planning to stay for a year and I'm in my 40's. I've not thought about health cover as I have a EHIC card. Is that not good enough? I plan to go back to he UK every 2 months so would I still need to apply for residency? It appears £1500 will b needed per month then. Thanks


If you go back to the UK every 2 months, then no, you wouldn't need to become resident and you probably could use your EHIC (provided they still exist after Brexit, it appears that the UK would try to reach a new reciprocal agreement even if there was a no deal Brexit as a Bill to that effect was recently introduced).

Although Brexit (if there is no deal and therefore no transition period) might affect that, as currently non EU citizens can only spend 90 days out of 180 here without obtaining a visa.

If you can up your budget to €1,500 per month then you should be perfectly fine and would have a much more enjoyable time during your year here.


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## BillisDead (Oct 19, 2018)

Lynn R said:


> If you go back to the UK every 2 months, then no, you wouldn't need to become resident and you probably could use your EHIC (provided they still exist after Brexit, it appears that the UK would try to reach a new reciprocal agreement even if there was a no deal Brexit as a Bill to that effect was recently introduced).
> 
> Although Brexit (if there is no deal and therefore no transition period) might affect that, as currently non EU citizens can only spend 90 days out of 180 here without obtaining a visa.
> 
> If you can up your budget to €1,500 per month then you should be perfectly fine and would have a much more enjoyable time during your year here.


Great! I'll get my granny to sell more of her Jewellery. Would the residency thing be an issue when renting for 12 months?


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

BillisDead said:


> Great! I'll get my granny to sell more of her Jewellery. Would the residency thing be an issue when renting for 12 months?




I don't think renting would be a problem, we had friends who rented full time but were not resident and spent periods back in the UK before they returned due to an elderly relative's ill health.


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## BillisDead (Oct 19, 2018)

Lynn R said:


> I don't think renting would be a problem, we had friends who rented full time but were not resident and spent periods back in the UK before they returned due to an elderly relative's ill health.


Thanks everyone.


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