dmu

It's rare in my area, too. I have a Butagaz tank buried in the garden, for hot water and c.h., which is horribly expensive when it's time to fill it. In fact my electricity/gas combined is about 3 times the OP's figure, but Butagaz was much cheaper when we installed it and it seemed a good idea at the time...
As said, many aspects of "cost of living" are subjective and depend on one's life-style...

lambchops

Can I just re-iterate at the start of this thread I said "We have looked at a number internet resources for p.a. averages (euros) so here goes (may have missed some)" so thank you ET for pointing out, there are some missing.

As we don't live in France (yet), we have been wholly reliant to-date on internet resources to identify everything you might need to consider as an outgoing hence why I think forums can be a great help in that respect and for the avoidance of doubt I will re-phrase my initial 'budget planner' remark and use 'expected regular costs' and to an earlier comment, we are 'not hard up' so this thread was not about how to do France on the cheap.

As my final comment on this thread, as a relative newbie to this part of the forum, at times this particular thread has felt less than helpful and at points very critical of our research / approach and assumptions to-date which of course may not have been intentional (or may have been) but as former owner of a Cyprus forum by contrast we/forumees did everything we could to positively support people and set them right on their assumptions rather than being made to feel stupid' which I can assure you, we are are most definitely not. Those who have contributed/read to other threads I have posted may have read, we do have significant experience of starting out in a new country so are not walking into this blindly but many many thanks to everyone though who provided valuable / advice guidance - you know who you are

Lambs

EuroTrash

With respect, and please don't bite my head off, but Cyprus is relatively tiny with a total population of around 1 million. France is relatively vast with a population of around 26 million. Obviously Cyprus has variations between tourist areas / non tourist areas, Greek / Turkish, etc but overall I imagine that if you live on Cyprus you can answer questions about living there with a reasonable degree of certainty on behalf of the island. That's not the case in France. I can tell you about living in suburban Normandy but I know for sure that if you move to Dordogne, or Ile de France, or the south or the east, a lot of what I've told you will be wrong because the lifestyle is completely different. I've worked in Gard and honestly it felt like a different country to northern France. The landscape is different. the climate is different. The food is different - I'm not just talking local specialities, but what people eat on a daily basis. Local land use and economic policies are different. Customs are different. Even national regulations are sometimes/often interpreted differently. There are also the extremes of living in the depths of the countryside with an hour's drive along twisty mountain roads to the nearest big town, and living in Paris which in itself has a population double that of Cyprus. So I think perhaps the questions you are asking us on here, are harder for us to answer than you realise.
When you have a specific area in mind, you will get more satisfactory replies I'm sure..

scrubbedexpat056

Eurotrash, in hindsight your last reply should probably have been the first.
As someone who has benefited greatly from this forum I would say that some answers are, if not rude exactly, sometimes dismissive. I'm sure there are many people on here who have answered the same questions and countered the same mistaken ideas of what is and is not easily feasible in France so many times they are a little tired of it. Add brexit to the mix and anyone's future plans are going to rely heavily on guesswork.
These huge steps take knowledge and enthusiasm. The knowledge comes from here (and other sources), but I think it doesn't need to come at the cost of knocking the OP's enthusiasm and spirit.
I said on another thread that our attitude was work out what the worst thing that could happen with our plans would be and if we thought it was worth the risk, go for it. No doubt some will disagree, but it has worked for us.

KJMW

Living in France is cheaper than living in Britain, full stop. Breaking it down , as you have, helps but inevitably you will arrive at the same conclusion. The one high cost I have is heating. Then again I use gas (citern), wood (cheminee) and petrol (parafin) Yes, I like to keep warm!

As long as you live the same lifestyle (cost wise) it will be cheaper. This means, of course, that you can 'splash out' occasionally!!!

KJMW

I suppose it depends where in France you will live. Paris must be much more expensive than where I live in the Pays Basque for example. What I do know for absolute certainty that living here is considerably cheaper than living in the south of England. You are right and responsible to do the maths before you move, however I would say without knowing where you are going to live that France will almost certainly be cheaper if you live a similar lifestyle.

cyrian

It also depends where you live in the UK.
The OP lives in Edinburgh.
I live between Scotland and France (no not England) and I have found the cost of living has risen more in France than in the UK over the last 10 years.
Since the financial crash the GBP has dropped a lot against the €. and therefore the relative cost has increased greatly.
If your income is in GBP then you will always think about the relative cost.
Consider the Brit pensioners who moved to France before the crash and who basically lost 30% of their purchasing power after 2008.
TBH I do not find a great difference overall between the UK and France.
Certain things are more expensive in the UK and certain things are more expensive.
I posted a link in post #7 which allows you to compare the cost of living between cities of your choice.
Yes the South of England is expensive but is it vastly different from the ile de France?
It is certainly much more expensive than much of France or the UK for that matter.

petitefrancaise

I agree with Cyrian here - if you move to a country with similar standards of education/healthcare/infrastructure etc then living costs are going to be pretty much the same. At the end of the day, it all has to be paid for.
Some items will be cheaper, others more expensive. I'm going back to food costs because this wasn't just my experience but also my friends' - I found food to be as expensive as the UK for my family. No savings there and that is usually the single biggest item in a family budget after housing.
Don't forget to put money aside for trips back home as well.
Have a decent margin for currency fluctuations - could you have coped if you'd moved in 2015?
https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/cx25...d-sterling-gbp - click on 5 year history.

Moses2013

Agree and even when I compare with Ireland, there is not always a huge price difference. No doubt that alcohol and especially wine is way cheaper, but we often stop on the way back from Spain and other things are the same. Lidl is always a good example.

KJMW

It does depend where a person lives at the moment and where they propose to live which will determine relative costs. As I said, cost of living in the south of England compared to where I live is very expensive. As we don't know where the OP is going to live it's impossible to give an accurate estimate. I moved out here when the exchange rate was €1.56 to the pound so I know about value loss and that was considerably more than ten years ago. The bottom line has to be that you do the maths, allow a good margin of error, as we did, and then decide. Believe it or not we did allow for a hefty drop in exchange rates when we moved out here twenty years ago. In addition it has to be said that pensions do increase also; Not as much as inflation perhaps but the increases do offset it and should be taken into consideration.
I still believe that generally speaking the cost of living in France, given British salaries and pensions, is cheaper than living in Britain but, as many have found out, not doing the maths and allowing for fluctuations in exchange rates is stupid.

petitefrancaise

really?
Take housing out of the equation and what else is considerably cheaper in France?
Food? nope - already covered that one
Petrol ? slightly cheaper in the UK (1.47 eur average compared to 1.50 eu in france average)
Heating?
phone bills?
eating out? that really depends doesn't it? I was in various parts of the UK recently and even pub grub was at least 10 quid for a plate of something fried with chips.
Council tax/taxes foncieres?

KJMW

Take. housing out of the equation, you must be joking!!!!!! Where are they going to live, in a tent? As for all the question marks; they answer nothing. Let me help: Food at several the inter-markets is cheaper. Petrol, well I cross into Spain so I'm cheating there I suppose!! Heating, depends where you live doesn't it. I would suggest that apart from the Alps it is warmer almost anywhere than Scotland! Phone bills, anyone stupid enough to have these new iPhones can afford to live anywhere! Eating out: You said it, I didn't!! Even pub grub in the U.K. is too expensive compared to France. As for council tax etc. I think it is cheaper in France.

Now put back in housing!!!!! Of course it is cheaper over here.

cyrian

Well I guess that this proves nothing to the OP.
If you buy your house then you only have the running costs to budget for.
Heating may be lower in the summer but if you have an old stone house then it can be a real bu55er to heat.
The cost of aircon in the summer?
@Lambs It just shows that the answer to your question depends on your lifestyle (and whether you have an iphone or not ).

EuroTrash

KJMW Have you taken healthcare costs into account?

KJMW

Yes