BritBull

Hello from a fellow ex Cheshire boy

1200 per month, you would be struggling in Marbella & surrounding.
But that's Marbella for you.

One thing which shocked the hell out of me when I arrived was the ridiculously high price of electricity here.
We have a 2 bed 2 bath apartment with air con which we tend to use sparingly and our monthly bill is approximately é100.
Bit of a step up from the £30 per month we were paying back in blighty.
In fact water rates & telephone bills are also far higher than I have ever paid.

Cost of living in coastal Southern Spain cheaper than that of the UK?
Supermarket food & drink aside, I tend to disagree.

big wheels

funny enough..
Just been doing some sums tonight actually, and we have decided that the two of us can live very well on E200 per week including all bills.
Our last electricity bill (estimated way over actual usage) for 2 months was E46.43

Mind you. That is in inland Sevilla. Not Marbella.

regards
BW.

jdr

You`re being ripped off britbull ;-)
Two bed apartment just above Fuengirola 50 to 60 € for 2 month bill with sevilla endesa for electric
Around 22, € for 3 month water bill, 37cub mtrs water @0.601.= 22,24 €

And dont forget he`s got no rent to pay out

ScotinSpain

You must have one heck of a lifestyle BritBull, or are you living in the tourist bars?

I did some sums last year for a 4 floor, 3 bedroom townhouse 100m from the beach down towards Estepona. Here are the annual figures for three of us living here:

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€. Holidays, entertainment, non medical emergencies etc. will cost extra, but I have included food, drink, cigarettes and running one car.

As has been said, the biggest surprise is the cost of electricity, so I installed a wood burning fire for the winter and ceiling fans in the lounge and bedroom for the summer; this saves a great deal on air-con/CH electricity.

The coast is not as expensive as you would think, but you will save a lot off the coast........... if your Spanish is up to it!

Best of luch jonesa80 whatever you do.

jonesa80

thanks very much for your replies and support.

not sure what we are going to do. didnt realize Spain could be so expensive plus we will have a £40,000 mortgage i expect.

I want to save £30000 in the bank to pay a deposit on cheap 2 bedroom apartment on the south coast ideally. To start with I can go part-time as work long haul cabin crew in UK But this is going to barley cover repayments and living costs by the sound of it. My future wife will be working and has good spanish but we also want to start a family within the next 5yrs. Life is complicated, isnt it?!

All I know I want to escape England for a better life style.

But where to I begin?
Also am worried about this property crash thats happening in spSpaint the moment. How do you know when to buy?

Any hints would be greatly apappreciated|_
Andy

maryg

Hi there Graham,
We own a house inland Murcia, no mortgage to worry about. It's not too far from town but a bit off the beaten track. I'd love to say we had a foolproof, 100% sure fire winner of a way to make a fortune, or even that we had a little job lined up to make ends meet.....but we haven't. My husband is a welder and is about to be made redundant...LDV.
I am a holistic therapist and already have a few Spanish ladies waiting for me to pamper their feet, hopefully I can make a few euros from that side of things. The company I work for here in UK are allowing me to return to work for 12 weeks a year for the next 5 years and do temporary work should I want or need to......'every little helps'
No one knows what lies ahead in life. We have learned not to take things for granted and to live life positively....we are not worrying about 'what if's' and such.....life's too short for that.
I have budgeted around 900 euros per month which I reckon is more than ample for the two of us to live on. I reckon we could manage well on less, provided we don't live the 'tourist' lifestyle...time will tell......
Mary

BritBull

Living in tourist bars? I wish!
The only bar I frequent is one where my mate works behined it, hence cheap or free drinks

I have been aware for some time that the complex in which we live is very expensive and we plan to move somewhere cheaper later in 2006.
San Pedro or Estepona are looking favorable.

I guess it doesn't help from an electircity usage point of view when I listen to music, whilst watching the TV, with the dishwasher and washing machine on and stick on the aircon for good measure....hmmm I must be a dream come true for these companies

Until the move I will work to pay the extortionate bills and chill in the sun....when it decides to return, not seen the sun for days

BritBull

You just love to cheer me up, don't you

jdr

Sorrrrrry Fuengerola, or just above as I am, aint too bad a place now is it

BritBull

Personally i'd rather pay to stop here

Gray C

Mary

Thanks for your reply. I hope that things work out for you both. Would you recommend that we look at the Murcia region to live? We are similar to you in that we prefer to live in a rural area. We would like to find a country property like a cortijio or finca with enough land for a pool and a nice secluded garden.

You say you think that you can live quite comfortably on 900 Euros a month. Add on a 14 year old girl and I reckon that we may bo looking at approximately 1200 Euros a month as a minimum.

We were looking to boost our income by approximately 300 Euros a month and we have been thinking about looking after villas, gardens etc for UK based owners. Do you think that this is feasible? We only want to work part time and do not wish to go into this sort of work full time.

Any other part time income generating ideas would be gratefully received.

Wishing you all a happy Christmas and a prosperous new year.

Graham & Pauline