We have been considering moving to Goa but part of the family recommend we move to Spain/Portugal as it would be easier/cheaper to travel back to UK to visit children instead of keeping a base here. We would appreciate some idea with regards to cost of living, roughly how much would you say utility bills, food etc would cost (no eating out/takeaways/parties etc.) - just basic living costs. Appreciate any advise on quiet peaceful areas too. Our needs are simple, we don't want to be near beaches or any tourist areas.
Many thanks
Libby

Well I'm moving to Oliva (Valencia prov.) in September and I've just come back from 2 weeks there. As an exercise we decided to live more or less as we would when we were living there rather than as on holiday and see how much we spent.

Bear in mind that we didn't go to the cheapest places for groceries etc etc. We shopped at Carrefour and when living there we will use the markets more. We went out for a meal once a week, and we went out for a drink every other night, normally just a couple of bottles of beer each. We shopped twice at Carrefour for groceries and we filled the car up twice with petrol.

What we spent, projected out to a 12 month period, was EUR 14300

Its a difficult question to answer. I know we will be able to save on that by buying food from markets and when you live there for a while you'll learn the best places to buy. I doubt we'd go out for a drink every other night when living there and you're not always going to go out for a meal every week.

Area by area will differ also as I believe the cost of living in rural areas will be less than cities and main tourist areas.

Hope that helps a little. Its a question I wanted to answer for myself before we went to live there as its a question regularly asked on forums. Of course the above does not include mortgage, property tax, utilities etc etc. My water bill is 11 - 20 EUR a quarter.

Hi Libby,

Below is a post I added to a MB at the end of last year. Some will reply saying they can live a lot cheaper mainly up in them thar hills, but it will give you some idea:


There have been two or three threads recently on various 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 Coast 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. We also drink and smoke, which is much cheaper than UK particularly with Duty Free in Gibraltar, but you may save some here.

You could remove some of these (internet, Sky TV etc.) to reduce the cost and living in the Campo will be a lot cheaper than the coast where eating out and other entertainment attracts a 'tourist' mark-up!

As an indication these are our annual bills:

Electricity 1,500€
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 £10,300 at current rates leaving £1,700 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 3 2/1 - 4 % annually.

Best of luck with your plans

Jock

Mitzyboy / Jock thank you both so much for a prompt response.
This information will definitely give us a guideline. My husband is nearly 64 and I'm 50 both non smokers, don't go to pubs/clubs, pursue our hobbies, like long walks and like a quiet life. Would you be able to suggest any places in Spain that may be ideal for us? I know it's asking a lot but any suggestions/advise would be great.

We're supposed to be flying out to Goa on 18th May to look for properties but with pressure from family we're now having to reconsider where we retire. 18 months ago we tried living in Goa for 2 weeks to get an idea of what life would be like there. I have never been to Spain so would definitely like to have a trial run. Unfortunately, there'll be a penalty to pay if we cancel our flights to Goa. But that's something we'll have to live with.

Thanks once again for your response.
Libby

Hi mitzyboy,

It's Michelle here, we are moving to Oliva in about 2 months, renting first until we find somewhere to buy.

Can I ask what attracted you to Oliva, and do you personally think its a family area....good for a young family ?

Hope your well

Take care

Mich x

AKA Mrs Eddie ..

It appears to depend on the area you choose, for instance, we do not have community fee's so take that out of the equation, also our yearly rates are far from 700 euro's ours are less than 140 euros and we have a fair size house with 1000sq mtr "garden". Tax for the car also seems to depend on the area, our last road tax for a 2500cc diesel discovery was 55 euro's.

Really seems to depend on the type of house you want, on a complex or not, more rural Spain or more built up etc etc.
A recent post, well last year reckoned 12000 euro's and that was with health insurance and included entertainment. That is possibly nearer to our costs, Having been here three years we have found the cost of living in our area is far less then in UK.

Having said all that where we are is not for everyone as there are very few expats here. But we all get on (thankfully).

Well ...........

We didn't feel surrounded by British people
We found excellent blue flag beaches stretching for miles which weren't packed even during major holidays
We found lots of facilities in easy reach. Valencia & Gandia for shopping both within easy reach and Denia for nights out.
The inland countryside is lovely, with local national parks & good golf courses
The people are very friendly
The place is covered with Orange groves and the smell can be wonderful
The property prices were more reasonable
Its only 40 mins from the airport at Valencia

As regards the family aspect, well as I say the beaches are wonderful. There are always loads and loads of children playing in the paseo area in the "new" town most evenings and it does seem a very family orientated town.

Just a few of the reasons.
If you want any help on the area or want to meet up once you get out there then let us know. We'll be there for good in September sometime - we're in Tossal Gros (Fon't d'en Carros) up on the hills.



Cheers
Jon

I can second all of the reasons listed although I still haven't managed to get to Gandia for shopping spree! Will definitely do that when I visit in the summer.

nice to see someone else budgets, but let me ask how do you all that on 500 a month? A tank a week alone would ad up to 200 a month alone and that leaves only 300 or 75 a week for anything else. Just the wife and I and we spend more than a month on food alone not counting eating out or petrol. Spain is somewhat cheaper than Germany but not that much.

Hi Pat
Just wanted to say thanks a million for your help and advise it's been really invaluable.
Regards
Libby

Hi i have found this very helpfull it was something that i was going to ask myself, the only thing is we have 2 children and i was wondering if anyone out there is in the same position as us. I'm sure that the basic costs will be the same but it would be nice to have another familys view on costs.

We are looking to move to Almeria area of spain so someone from around that area would be great.

Many thanks


Beverley

Hi Tim,
'tis easy. Re petrol in particular - we fill up about once a month, if that, but we live on the Costa near Estepona, so everything is available within a few Kms. We also use Gibraltar (yes I know it tatty ) especially now cigarettes and petrol are going up here in Spain so that saves a lot. We have 15 restaurants and bar/cafes within walking distance and, using the Spanish ones, is very cheap. We don't eat out much in August as the prices creep up . One concern is the rising cost of electricity, but we have installed a woodburner for the winter and ceiling fans (60W - a lot cheaper then air con) in the lounge and bedrooms.

I still estimate we save 30% on living in UK; prices here are rising, but have you visited UK recently....Ugh!

Hope this helps to put living on the Costa in perspective. If you are not acting like a tourist, it's not nearly as expensive as many think .