rachel9

I am going to be living in Seville for 3 months for an internship. My accomodation is provided, and I have no bills or other expenses to worry about.

The only thing I have to worry about is food, drink, travel and toiletries etc. I have a budget of 400 euros per month. Will this be enough, how careful will I have to be?

I plan to be on as tight of a budget as possible and only eat out once a week maximum. The rest of the time I will eat from home.

I know if I have to get a bus twice a day it will cost 7 euros per week with a Tarjeta Multiviaje card, but as for the other stuff I have searched the internet to find conflicting reports and not a clear verdict. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot

Moses2013

To be honest, I wouldn't look at any internet reports and it's down to each individual how they want to live and prices change daily. If you know where you are living, look at google maps to see what supermarkets you have in the area. You can check the current offers online and these are just a few example
https://www.aldi.es/especiales-semana/ofertas-semana/
https://www.lidl.es/es/index.htm
Even the weekly brochures are online for certain supermarkets and when it comes to eating out, most restaurants pubs have their menu online too.
Folletos y catálogos de ofertas - Carrefour España

Loafing Along

A couple of sites will give you a basic guide :

https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/seville

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Sevilla

Numbeo quotes a single person COL as : €565,15 without rent

rachel9

Thankyou both much appreciated.

That is true. For example on numbeo website the €565.15 quote for a single person without rent is rather high imo, or at least I hope it is.

When I was a student in London the student loan didn't go very far and for the exact same things (food, drink, toiletries, travel) I'd say I managed to do it on less than £200 per month. And one would assume that London prices are a lot more than Seville?

And if I had to do the exact same thing I'm doing in Seville in any UK city I would be confident I could easily do it no problem. It's just the unfamiliarity with what exactly is in Spanish supermarkets compared to back home and add into the mix I'm an extremely fussy eater which is causing me some doubt.

I believe I'll be in the Macarena district and apparently there is a Lidl close by. I'm unfamiliar with the British Lidl though to be honest, is there a Spanish version of Tesco/Asda?

Loafing Along

Look for Mercadona or SuperSol

Reycobos

Yes. They are Alcampo/Auchan, Carrefour or Mercadona. Mercadona and Alcampo are the cheapest. Also, there are fruits shop where you can only buy fruits and vegetables, some of them can be really cheap as well.

I lived in Sevilla between 2008-2010 and the life was really cheap. If you are going to eat at home, you can spend less than 150€ I guess.

If you are in the center of the old town ( casco viejo o casco histórico) be aware of the women offering rosemary leafs for luck. If you take one, they will ask you for money afterwards (1 euro)

rachel9

Thankyou. Yes I plan to eat at home. That is €150 per month right? Have prices changed much since then?

In the UK right now I can do all of my food shopping for about £100 per month if I make an effort (115 euros) so I'm hoping if Seville is at least the same price, or cheaper then I should be okay.

This might be a stupid question but are frozen vegetables popular in Seville? I eat a lot of veg and they are cheap frozen in the UK and this saves a lot of money

Reycobos

Yes, per month. But if you can eat for £100 in UK, then you can manage to eat for £85 in Spain or less!. I thought that you eat more.

No...I don't think that frozen vegetables are popular in any place in Spain. I think that you will find them in the big stores like Alcampo, Mercadona, etc, but there is nothing like Iceland groceries. The only popular frozen vegetables are garden peas.

If you eat vegetables, I recall that the small shops in the street have the best prices, at least in Vigo (Galicia, northwest). Therefore, I think that it should be the same or even better in the south where mainly all the vegetables come from.

Also, you can check Alcampo . es website and you'll have an idea about prices. (you can choose the store on the right of the search box). I can't publish the link because I haven't got enough post here

carrots. 0,59€/kg
broccoli 1,49€/kg
for give you an example.

Dondurma

I think that is unfair.

I AM one of the leaf sellers and we have various packages available not just the 1 leaf for 1 Euro deal
Currently we offer a 50 leaf family package for only Euro 39.99 and we offer a yearly subscription deal of 20 leafs per month for an amazing Euro 120 a year
We offer zero % credit on all leaf deals over Euro 40 and accept both Visa and Mastercard

Check out our leaf specials online or view our Leaf channel on Sky Channel 148

rachel9

Thankyou very much.

I've also been on youtube and searched "mercadona spain" and found several videos where people go shopping around this particular supermarket. I've skipped through quite a lot of videos to get an idea of products available, and prices and it has definitely reassured me. It does indeed look as cheap, if not cheaper than UK stores.

I know that in all of the videos none of them are Seville specifically but I am guessing that it doesn't matter? Tesco in Liverpool will cost the same as Tesco in Newcastle etc

bfg69bug

no tesco or asda in spain, but as you said, look on youtube and search for "supermarket in spain" and theres videos in lidls etc.

I would hope that i could. 35 euro a week would be ok for one person, if you buy in "bulk" ie: 5kg of potatoes at a time etc

Every spanish supermarket has an isle of frozen veg, and its very cheap. you could fill a freezer for 20€.

I´ve gotta disagree with that, theres a massive selection in every supermarket i´ve ever been to.

It is pretty cheap to live here. Prices in mercadonas can differ, but it wont be by much.

Loafing Along

SuperSol and Mercadona are two good options with Lidl as a third choice as their stocking policy seems to be quite haphazard.
Both SuperSol and Mercadona have online listings so you can easily scan through and check prices. We shop Mercadona for most things and then specific items at SuperSol and Lidl

bfg69bug

Loafing Along - We are the same, only because Mercadona is only a stones throw from my parents house where I´ve spent the last 10 years - we now have a small DIA in town, or Carrefour, Mercadona, DIA Maxi and LIDL only 10 minutes drive away in the next town. There is no supersol in our town, it closed down when Mercadona opened.

We have started using LIDL alot more, since it opened in Alhaurin de la Torre, and we drive past it every day, sometimes the offers are too good to resist!!!

criodain

Mercadona is your friend. Lidl too.