British Expats - Cost of living

Quote:

Originally Posted by labus (Post 8855092)

Thanks a lot everybody for the contribution.

Could you mention please the city you live in that makes the 1300 euros affordable?
I am aware that Madrid, Barcelona and other big ones are not going to fit.

And can I dare to ask the break down of the costs for:
-food 400euro @ month max
-car insurance (I noticed as tourist that lots of cars have dents, scratches)400euro a year - depending on vehicle
-house insurance250euro a year - depending on property location/size etc
-property taxes100euro a year depending on location
-electricity35euro a month depending on usage
-heating (gas) 12.50 a month for cooking & hot water
-airconditioning Don't have/need/like it
-home insuranceIncluded in the house insurance figure above
-internet and telephone combined about 65euro a month
-telephone

We are early retired without a pension for the next 10 years (but self-sufficient) and I was wondering if anybody in the same situation is voluntarely contributing to the spanish health care system, if possible.

All the above figures are obviously location/usage dependent, but in addition we spent probably 250euro a year on logs for the wood burner which heats the radiators around the house, about 1200euro a year on medical insurance, about 80euro a month on fuel for a small car (we live in the mountains).

We survive quite nicely here (our Spansih neighbours are brilliant and always leave bags of fresh veg/salad by our gate), having moved up from the Costa Blanca where the prices were (we found) horrendous (our Community Fee alone for belonging to a community of owners was nearly 1000euro a year!), the building was made of the lightweight/air brick and was roasting hot in the summer (so needed aircon) and freezing cold in the winter (so needed lots of heating) - here in Las Alpujarras there are no such problems.