SmartiesUK

Electricity, Council Tax?, and water rates per month, oh and community fees. I appreciate everyones circumstances are different. I am trying to build a spreadsheet to see if life in spain is affordable and am missing these key points. Any info appreciated ie post what you would suggest is the average for each of theses please

Thanks all

Lionda

I can't help as we are not there yet but I am interested in watching this thread.

derek500

Electricity, we're billed every two months last six bills:

103.25€
67.89€
92.63€
95.71€
91.06€
113.89€ Total 564.43€ for the year. We heat with electricity.

Gas, currently 11.80€ per 13kg bottle. We use about 2 a year for the hob and and fortnightly for hot water. So 28 x 11.80€, 330.40€

Water is on a meter and paid quarterly. Last four bills total 379.23€

Council Tax 197.59€
Rubbish Collection 122.00€
Car Tax (paid to council) 47.71€

jdr

I think it will be hard to work out, as every situation is different.
Where we rent the urbanization has its own water supply, they have brought out a minimum charge of 15€`s a quarter and we have only gone over this twice, yes we do bathe and shower lol.
Our electric is around 60 to 70 €`s in the winter and less in the summer.
We cook and heat by bottled gas 12€`s a bottle, summertime a bottle lasts about 4 weeks and depending how cold it gets possibly 1 bottle every two weeks for heating for a couple of the winter months. If its below 15c its cold to us lol.

jood

I, too, will be watching this thread as we're thinking about moving from cold and snowy Canada to Spain. Although you've kindly provided figures, you don't say how big your house/apartment is....how many bedrooms? Is there a separate dining room, living room, kitchen etc. Also the figures for Council Tax, rubbish collection and car tax - is this monthly, quarterly?

derek500

4 bed detached, living/dining room, kitchen, and study. 8x4m pool.

Taxes are annual.

spain

our bills (all approx)

phone 80€ per month which includes adsl
water 60€ every 2 months
elec 1100€ per year
council tax 350€ per year
rubbish 60€ per year
car tax 70€ per year

3 bed town house with usual appliances dishwasher, washing machine, hot/cold air con and gas fire is only form of heating

jood

Thank you both, derek500 and spain - very informative and helpful.

SmartiesUK

Thanks for the responses much appreciated

onlineamiga

And lets compare to the UK:

Phone 42€ per month includes ADSL before calls.
water 56€ every 2 months
elec 1008€ per year
council tax €1680 per year
rubbish 0€ per year (at the moment)
car tax 140€ per year.

for 2 bed semi detached

so ur total in spain is 1720€ and in UK €2920
Nice to see a 1200€ saving by living in spain.

Im suprised your electric is so high though, you shouldnt need lights on as much with longer daylight hours and the fact its generally brighter down there even when cloudy. on a gloomy winter day in the UK you need ur lights on during the day.
You shouldnt need to heat the place as much, maybe just need to cool it down instead!
and with the weather being dryer, you shouldnt need a clothes dryer.

spain

mmmmm use tumble dryer Im afraid

also have electric blankets on in the winter - also use air con to heat

It gets very cold in the winter and is often colder inside than out as has been commented on before

jood

Hi spain - what do you call cold?

Big Pete

yep i agree with this. Is it that you have such hot summers it makes u a bit namby pamby when it goes cooler ? So no way on earth would i expect to run Tumble Dryers , Electric heaters and stuff that often !!

Big Pete

If its colder outside than inside then simply open the windows at night and let the heat in ? simple isnt it ...

spain

at night no the windows are open in the day if its warmer outside than in

I for one didnt expect it to be as cold as it is here sometimes - but then who thinks about winter in Spain

of course its not as cold as in UK but like you say you probably acclimatize to the warmer weather so feel a lot colder when the temp drops a bit

dont forget all the floors are tiled and a lot dont have central heating and the houses are not built to retain any heat

Im sure this will all be clearer once you move over