paintermujer

Just been doing some maths.

In the UK just to pay our housing costs plus council tax is £1200.

Water not included.

In Spain our rent will be £595 variable(700 euros).

Agricultural water not sure of cost.

Renting - no council tax.

Internet connection - probably the make or break of it.

But wow!! what a saving.

Love to hear other good things.

missbad

I just hope mine will be cheaper in Spain xx

Mitzyboy

Careful buying is the key
We used to go to Carrefour for everything. When the rates of exchange went haywire we started going to Aldo or Lidl first to get what we could there (choice is limited) and then finish off at Mercadonna. We cut our monthly grocery bills considerably.

Dont use British based traders unless you have compared them to Spanish ones. The quotes are often ridiculously different.

Shop around, and if you are buying electrical stuff for instance dont be embarrassed to haggle

missbad

Hi

So in a electrical shop i could haggle as comet always tell me to whistle off lol x

lynnxa

I haggled in Carrefour for my pushbike - it had a tiny dent on the front mudguard


I got 50 euros off

bil

Well, we used to reckon that our rent was about a grand a month for a 4 bedroom, the council tax was 250 a month and then there was water, electric and heating which probably took it to a total of 1.5 K a month.

In Spain we have noticed the electric has doubled, which is a pain, but we don't pay rent there, the council is cheap, we don't pay TV tax so we are a lot better off.

frigilianafreddy

apart from fish and shell fish i think food is more expensive.

Mitzyboy

Not here it aint, and the quality is far superior to the UK also!
More flavour & seemingly fresher

Jaques2go

[QUOTE=paintermujer;7854257]Just been doing some maths.

In the UK just to pay our housing costs plus council tax is £1200.

............my council tax alone is £1,500 a year


Water not included.............we are on a meter and its around £400 a yr.


Internet connection - probably the make or break of it...........

...........im on Tiscali, £22 a month including landline, broadband, unlimited landline and calls abroad

But wow!! what a saving.....................yes living in spain for me would be much cheaper

leckytech

Anyone like to hazard a guess at/know the cost of electricity per KWh. Im interested to know in advance how much my lecky bill's gonna be!

steviedeluxe

The trick is to buy local produce and make your own food. It doesn't have to be elaborate - a lentils dish spiced up with a couple of chunks of chorizo can be quite filling for example. Or make use of the local range of beans and pulses - ok so you'll have to remember to soak them the night before but the range and quality of beans in Spain is quite something. Costs will soar if you insist on buying imported brands from the UK like baked beans (I realise this may be necessary with say tea or curry spices).
There must be an opening for a book on how to cook economically in Spain, written in English. Perhaps a good e-book would be popular?

What's people's opinion on the best supermarket? I always thought Carrefour (who are the continent's version of Tesco; in fact they are bigger than Tesco) were pretty good.

Rosebush

When we do our 3mt stay in Spain, we use Lidl for a lot of goods, & what we cannot get in there we get from Mas/Merc..much to our surprise we found veg from local market, more expensive than s/markets..and at least in store i can pick & choose.

steviedeluxe

Newspapers and books tend to be expensive in Spain. There again you can always read the paper free in many bars or use the internet!

bil

Common sense rules, or it damn well should.

Shop around, don't spurn shops like Lidl, and go out for tapas rather than meals, as we find meals are all too often expensive for what you get.

Wine and beer, very cheap compared to the UK.

One important concept. Do all you can to keep the house cool during the day,and keep the sun and hot air OUT. That will reduce the need for air con.

Set up some kind of solar heat collection to heat water. Even a crude one will yield a lot of hot water, and heating water is the most expensive use of electricity I can think of.

For the more advanced DIYers, setting up a simple savonius rotor and instead of using it to generate power that is stored in expensive batteries, use it to heat water.

busters mum

Just been to the market in the village (4 stalls)
1 iceberg lettuce
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
4 tomatoes
1 aubergene
1 corgette

total 2.78euro