Prior to moving out to Spain, one of the most useful blogs I used to read was from a lady who used to write about the cost of living over here.
With this in mind, I have created our version – I hope you find it useful.
Typical Basic Shopping costs
| Wine from the local bodega (Red / White) 5 Litres | 5.00 |
| Beer San Miguel x 6 cans | 2.65 |
| Coffee | 5.25 |
| Fanta Limon x 8 | 3.52 |
| Eggs x 24 | 2.29 |
| Bread (stick) | .75 |
| Butter | 1.15 |
| Orange juice | .59 |
| Milk cartons x 6 | 3.48 |
| Tins of tomatoes x 536 kg | 1.28 |
| Iceberg lettuce | .85 |
| Minced meat 500 grams approx | 4.50 |
Other bills
| House Insurance (Pay annually approx. 180 euros with Bank) | 15 |
| Gas bottle approx. 12 euro each / 2 per month | 24 |
| Water (mains agriculture) | 11 |
| Electric (Pay 95 every 2 months) | 50 |
| Dog Scalibur collars to protect them from Ticks and Mosquitos (4 dogs annual 150) | 13 |
| Internet | 33 |
| Wood for woodburner (Pay annually 170 – 2 tonne) | 14 |
| Oil for central heating (Pay annually approx 250 euros) | 20 |
| Mobile phone contract x 2 | 20 |
| Clothes approx budget | 15 |
Suma’s / Taxes
| Recogida Residuos Solidos Urba – Bins (Pay annually March) 58.00 | 4.83 |
| Cuotas Y Derramas – Water (pay annually March) 85.00 | 7.08 |
| IMPTO Bienes Inmuebles Rustica – council tax (Pay annually Sept) 18.84 | 1.57 |
| IMPTO Bienes Inmeubles Urbana – council tax (Pay annually Sept) 159.92 | 13.32 |
Car Costs
| Car x 4×4 (pay annually March) 79.13 | 6.60 |
| Car x Cactus (pay annually March) 37.49 | 3.12 |
| Car insurance x New car (Pay annually) 451 | 37.58 |
| Car insurance x Old car (Pay annually) 395 | 29.91 |
| ITV Spanish version of a MOT (Pay annually 108.17) per car | 9.01 |
| Diesel approx. 1.15 litre | na |
Self employed costs including / paying into the Spanish system
Self-employed – Social security (includes pension, health care for the family) are staggered over the first 19 months to help new businesses.
| Month 1 – 6 | 50 |
| Month 7 – 12 | 120 |
| Month 13 – 18 | 200 |
| Month 19 – 24 | 270 |
| Business insurance policy (75 euros for the year) | 6.25 |
| Monthly accountant fee | 65 |
Eating out is relatively cheap
Coffee in the local café’s 1.20
Menu Del Dia start from 10 euros per person
Pint varies – approx. 2 euros
A few things to bear in mind when thinking about the above figures,
• We are a family of 3 who doesn’t eat out much – we enjoy home cooking and we have to budget ourselves carefully
• We live in a 3 bedroom house in the campo with 2700 sq metres of land and a large pool
• We have no rent or mortgage payments to allow for
• We have a Reverse Osmosis so we don’t have to pay for drinking water at the shop
• One of the cars is an old Nissan Terrano 4×4 – 16 years old
• Of course we have to budget for ongoing car maintenance for the old car
• The other car is a new Cactus – very economical and cheaper on the car tax (Suma)
• The pool pump is on 12 months a year however ad hoc in the winter to keep it ticking over and 3 x 1 hr intervals in the summer.
• There is no TV license in Spain but if you want UK TV there will be some sort of cost whether it’s to purchase a kodi box or pay a monthly / annual fee to stream TV
• Vet fees are much cheaper in Spain
• The bank charges approx. 30 euros every quarter if you are a non-resident (we are residents so we no longer pay it)
• 2nd Hand cars in Spain are more expensive than in the UK – New cars seem cheaper
• Although running cars in Spain is cheaper, here in the campo we do more miles than we did in the UK – for example, the school run is 8 x 7 minute journeys a day which adds up to over 45 minutes a day. Example –
9am drop Olivia off – return home = 2 journeys
12.30 Pick Olivia up at lunch and return home = 2 journeys
3.30 Drop Olivia off at school and return home = 2 journeys
5pm Pick Olivia up and return home = 2 journeys
We heat the house by the following methods
• Gas bottles = hot water / shower
• Electricity = pool, house sockets, lights, dishwasher, washing machine etc.
• Wood burner = heat the front room
• Oil central heating = used from November to March – 30 mins morning / 30 mins night
• The gas bottle depends on whether we have guests over or not – for a family of 3 it usually last 3 weeks – with guest approx 2 weeks.
• Our weekly shopping budget including cleaning detergents, dog & cat food etc is approx. 100 euros a week
All in all, we need to earn approximately 1000 – 1100 euros a month without a rent / mortgage payment but this will increase over the year as the social security payments rise.
I hope those that are thinking about moving to Spain.
Regards
Lee
