lambchops

Hi Lambs again,

Interested in folks thoughts about cost of living in France - appreciate this will depend on the type of lifestyle you want or can afford but we are pulling together a budget planner for the basics e.g. SS (8% of total joint income?), Mutelle, Food, Utilities inc mobile/internet, Property taxes, Car/Fuel. Keen to get and idea if our figures are way under or way over-estimated.

We have looked at a few internet resources for p.a. averages (euros) so here goes (may have missed some)

Home insurance 175
Tax d'habitation 301
Tax fonciereT 0 (understand this is being phased out by 2020?)
Mutelle 2000
TV License 118
Water 171
Waste 100
Gas / Electricity 1200
Internet 600
Mobile x 2 500
Food 2400
Entertainment 2400
Car insurance/breakdown cover 500
Road Tax 0
Fuel 1000

Over to you my helpful forumees!
Lambs

dmu

Hi, I'd have to look at bills and DDs over the year to comment on most of your estimations, but my home insurance and Taxe F. are way higher than your figures. It's the Taxe d'Hab which is gradually being phased out, and I paid nothing last year, but about 1000€ the previous years.
I would question 2400€ for food. This works out at less than 7€ per day for the two of you!
I checked an official site - the TV license is 138€
What would come under "Entertainment"?
Others will come along with their own figures, sorry I can't look through my files right now for the rest of mine....

petitefrancaise

well, using "prix de ....... en france" in google gets you most of your information,
Your fuel cost - I assume you mean petrol? Is very, very low. Current average cost in france for unleaded is 1.5 euros so your budget would get you 650 miles per year. Unless you're planning on basically living without a car, that needs to be changed dramatically.
mobile phone service - free mobile runs from 10 -15 euros per month, so that needs to go down. Using Whatsapp/ Skype to call outside EU to UK ( just rubbing that one in) will help to avoid large cell phone bills.
Food - I can't comment too much on that because as a family of 5, when we lived in France our food bills were eye-watering. Anyway, I can't see your food bill being much different to UK.

lambchops

Thanks DMU for correction around Tax fonciere v d'habitation and TV license figure.

£2400 food is day to day food - we mostly cook all our own food and I bake a lot - is it cheaper to shop in local shops / markets than s/market? The other £2400 is for eating out.

Thanks
Lambs

lambchops

Hi PetiteFrancaise

Fuel - I do mean petrol. We will also have a motorhome so we have a separate budget for this so overall fuel budget is 1000e but we can increase and will both have e-bikes
Mobile - we both use Messenger / WA to make calls when abroad when we have free WifI -this figure was based on a link elsewhere in the forum on current mobile deals
Food - we average £60 weekly in food but spend way more going out / lunches

Many Thanks
Lambs

EuroTrash

My taxe foncière is well above your "average" and that's for a small terrace house.
But "average" is a bit meaningless for tdh, it varies so much from one commune to another.
My home insurance is significantly more too.
Why is internet so high? There are plenty of 30€ a month deals around, and cheaper ones too.

Not sure what SS 8% of total income means, is SS social security and in view of what you've said in another post about OH and his business ideas, is this assuming no business?

cyrian

There is a neat link in the sticky "if you are a tad hard up" thread for cost comparisons.

Here

lambchops

Tax fonciere - so looks like I need to bump that up quite a bit rather assume it will be around that figure
Home insurance - sure this was based on a quote for a multi-risques insurance
Internet - some good news, will reduce that to 30e
SS - yes, Social Security and assuming there is no business

Lambs

Nand

Taking a quick look at your budget I would say your food estimation and electricity are both too low.

Food prices in France are surprisingly high. I found things that are usually inexpensive food staples were costly n comparison to North America and other European countries. Having said that, food taste and quality is for the most part better here in France than other places we've lived.

Best wishes on your research!

lambchops

Thanks - have doubled both.

Lambs

dmu

... and double the "entertainments", too. You won't be eating out all that often on that budget, for the two of you! If you think you'll have a lot of visitors (non-paying family and friends), you should increase the food and entertainment figures even more.
(Don't forget to budget for household necessities and the inevitable repairs or replacements,)

Novocastrian

As many others have saidyour budget estimates are very flawed. I think you should tackle this from the other end. What is your joint anticipated annual income and how large are your savings (ball park)?

lambchops

@Novcastrian

I said at the start of this thread, the figures I presented were averages from internet research but they do not reflect what 'we' think the cost of living actually is, so presenting these numbers is our way of validating with folks who live in France as to whether these are valid or not. The intention of the thread was to get a real handle on day to day living costs rather than just some random numbers and very fortunately for us, moving to France is not a question of budget/affordability but it would be good to know the expected outlay regardless of our financial position and I am sure this info would definitely help others where this is very much a consideration.

Lambs

Novocastrian

The cost of living depends on how you live. Averages and other peoples' experiences are irrelevant.

EuroTrash

I agree with that.
Many of these costs can be controlled by you either completely or up to a point. A few of them you don't have much control over, eg taxe foncière you can control to the extent that you can choose a property with a low tax fonciere.. But if you buy a property whose TF is currently say 800€, and next year the tax office bumps it up to 1 200€, there is nothing you can do about that.
Two final thoughts:.
The list says Gas/Electricity. I presume this is meant to cover heating costs. However in my area of France very few places have town gas. Heating is usually either fioul or wood.
I see no mention of "social contributions" ie CSG/CRDS (as opposed to "heathcare contributions").