Gill Stevens

We are hoping to go to live in Spain earlier than anticipated maybe end of 2006 as we cannot wait until 2008 when we had originally planned, but would only have 300 euros a week to live on for 8 years until we both get our full state pensions.

We will have a 3 bed duplex in Costa Blanca. Our expenses will be electricity, a mixture of gas bottles and hot air con in the winter months, cold air con in the summer months, private healthcare, food for two people, phone bill, internet, sky tv, car tax and insurance, petrol, dental costs, hairdressing costs every 2 or 3 months, buildings and contents insurance, pay as you go mobile phones (not a huge usage) and going out for a meal once a week and a drink maybe twice a week - not huge drinkers.

Can anyone give me an idea of whether 300 euros will be enough as I cannot seem to find out what some of the costs are going to be once we are there. We don't want to go early and find we haven't enough to live on and have to deplete our savings as the interest from those will then mean our 300 euros a week will be even less.

Any advice please??

dougie V

well i will try to give you an idea based on my experiences.

me and my girlfriend eat mostly indoors and our weekly shop is about 80 euros (thats not including any booze!!) but we do eat well, all fresh produce, none of the packaged foods.

depending on where you eat (i.e. more touristy places as in right on the beach are more expensive) on avarage a good meal and a bottle of vino sets us back no more than 40 euros for 2 people, but like i say, obviously that depends on where you go

gas is 9 euros a bottle and that will last the 2 of us about 2 weeks, which is used for cooking and hot water (showers).

electricity for the last 3 months was 145 euros, but that is in the winter, and we have had the rads on full blast all the time.

can't say about the water at the mo, as i haven't seen the latest bill, but i think you should allow 30 euros per month (maybe someone else can advise on that).

phone - check out www.direct-telecom.es ...... it will save you loads if you want to phone overseas.

mobiles - expensive just like anywhere else, try to only use for local calls and as a contact number.

house insurance - sorry but i don't know

health cover - sorry but i don't know

haircut - 10 euros

petrol - well i won't state the obviouse, but it is 80 something cence a litre so alot cheaper than the uk

car insurance is alot cheaper, but you will have to get a qoute

so what have we got from what i know about
u have 1200 euros a month
320 shopping
160 restaurant
30 water
18 gas
40 euros electric (cheaper in the summer)
17 sky tv (where i am)
34 broadband internet

so far we are up to 619 euros a month

well theres a start for you, hopefully someone can help you with what i don't know about


i hope some of that helps, personaly i think u will do just fine on 300 euros a week.

Gill Stevens

Thanks for the reply. I am really surprised at the water costs. We only pay £13 a month here so 30 euros is high.

When we say gas bottle, we mean like a push around calor gas heater just to supplement the hot air con. Is that what you mean? We will be all electric and won't have any radiators other than a stand alone electric oil filled rad which we will use, maybe one in the bedroom or landing. Maybe it would be cheaper to have calor gas heaters everywhere?? We are hoping we will only need them on from about November to March???

We have been quoted about £40 a month for sky tv as we want Sky+ when we get there.

By hairdressing costs, I am talking about colours, cut and blow drys for women so probably can ring an english hairdresser in the area and ask them for an idea.

I have spoken to a UK company for household insurance in Spain and they are really expensive, something like £380 pa. We only pay £220 here for buildings and contents. Maybe someone can give me a website I can try for a quote for car and household insurance in Spain.

Actually the amount we will have is slightly higher - 350 euros a week. Slight miscalculation on my part. Your food bill is high. We only pay about £60 a week here and that includes expensive Sainsbury's ready meals and organic butter, eggs, milk, fruit etc. packet lettuces, packet vegs etc., We are looking forward to going to the markets and buying all fresh stuff.

Thanks

XXPEBXX

Hola

Whenever I visit Spain I seem to spend 300 euro per week just in food, drink ,meals, bus fares ,mobile phone top up etc excluding running costs for our flat

I would allow 400 to 450 per week

Remember you will alway need more than you think and need to buy those little extras for the home - the table / extra bedding / plants for the garden / tools / paint /- all the usual that you would buy in the UK

If resident in Spain will you be paying Spanish tax ? Will this be more than in the UK ? Check it out

You will need to pay Wealth Tax yearly on on your property

Health Insurance is expensive

Yes House Insurance looks high - I use Catalana Occidente see www.catalaoccidente.com or e-mail [email protected]

Will you be taking Spanish language lessons ? These can be quite expensive

If your house is part of a Community then there will extra charges -? I pay 400 euro per year - guess this will not apply to you

regards

ScotinSpain

Hi Gill,


There have been two or three threads in the past on andalucia.com Message Board about the cost of retiring out here for a couple and the general consensus was that £12,000 net per annum was about right. We are in our mid 50s without children to support and no mortgage and live on the Costa del Sol near Estepona. We run one car but do have a full sky TV package, ADSL 24/7 broadband Internet access and a BUPA derivative medical insurance, called SANITAS, (you will need private medical insurance out here as you are not in receipt of a UK age related pension thus not eligible for full Spanish medical support, although this is changing slowly). We also drink and smoke, which is much cheaper than UK particularly with Duty Free in Gibraltar, but you may save some here if you don't drink much or smoke.

You could remove some of these (internet ADSL, etc.) to reduce the cost and the Costa Blanca will be a little cheaper than the Costa del Sol, where eating out and other entertainment attracts a 'tourist' mark-up!

As an indication these are our annual bills:

Electricity 1,500€ (No gas)
Health Ins (inc. Dental) 1,650€
Town Hall 'Rates' 765€
Urb. Fees 1,500€
Telephone 900€ (inc 480€ Internet ADSL)
Sky TV 720€
Car Insurance 410€
House & Contents ins. 300€
'Wealth' Tax 535€
Water (metered here) 175€
Car Tax 45€
Food, Drink, Petrol etc. 7,000€

As you can see this comes to about 15,500€ which equals about £10,500 at current rates leaving £1,500 for entertainment, emergencies, holidays etc.

This is obviously only a guide but you can make adjustments. I estimate living out here saves about 30% on living in UK, the weather, people, friendliness are so much better. Inflation is about 2 2/1 - 3 % annually so a reasonable pension should keep up with this in due course.

There will be those who will pick holes in any estimate of the cost of living out here, particularly those who have given up and moved elsewhere, but this will give you a feel for it.

Hope this helps. We've been here 2 1/2 years and NEVER looked back!

Best regards,

John M

Gill Stevens

I don't think that you can take holiday spends as normal everyday living. We would only go out one or twice a week for a couple of drinks. We would not be liable to any tax until we retire and have our pensions aswell as interest on savings. We would not be liable to wealth tax as this is only if you are not living there and the Spanish authorities assume you are renting your property out. We are buying brand new including all of our furniture, appliances etc. We will have a very low maintenance garden. Obviously when you are living in Spain you use your landline and mobiles only occasionally when out and about.

I would expect to live like really well on 450 euros a week. That's nearly 3/4 of what we have here and we pay a mortgage of £715 a month plus expensive council tax etc etc. and already pay private health insurance.

We won't have a mortgage over there plus no tv licence, no work expenses etc. lower petrol, lower car tax, only 35 euros a month service charge on our duplex. We only spend £55 ish a week on food here and we eat well! I think 450 euros is over the top.

Thanks for taking the time to reply anway.

Gill Stevens

Many thanks for your reply. This seems to be a very good indication for us. We will have about £4,500 in a lump sum which we will take with us and keep in a separate savings account for holidays for a few years until we actually get our £200 per week state pension so will not need to take much out of our 350 euros a week for that. It seems as if 350 euros will give us about £12,800 p.a. so it looks as if we will be going earlier than planned - yippee!!!!

ScotinSpain

Hi Gill,

You should be fine on this, and I was quoting Costa del Sol prices which are more expensive than up country (campo) and most other Costas in Andalucia.

All the very best of luck in your venture, most never look back.

John M

coralsoft

Good luck on getting out sooner - it's a great feeling beating your target date

If you do want to be very careful with your budgeting, a good place to pick up ideas is the Financial Website, The Motley Fool. Amongst a host of other interesting boards (including a Property Investment-Overseas one), there is a Living Below Your Means board. Obviously it's very UK oriented on some posts, but there's a lot of useful general advice, too:
http://boards.fool.co.uk/Messages.asp?bid=50074