amideislas

Honestly, we've found the (southeast) UK to be far more expensive than here for just about everything except curry sauce and peanut butter.

Plus the quality of fruit & veg is better here for a fraction of the price. And its available everywhere.

Quite satisfying 3-course dining for two with wine in lovely local restaurants starting at about €20. That's not much more than a small takeaway pizza in the UK.

Neptuno

As I live in Murcia, I would be interested to know where you can get a Menu del Dia for 6 euros. What does it consist of?
Most MDD consist of salad ,which varies in quality. From lettuce , grated carrot, tomato, onions and olives to the same plus tuna, hard boiled eggs
Starter is often meatballs, soup , lentils.
Main course is often pork or chicken bashed with the tenderiser to look like an insole, fish plus chips.
Don't expect much in the way of fresh veg, though.

Pudding is unimaginative with limited choice, such as flan, ice cream, cold rice pudding, cheesecake,
Still, can be good value

johnnyone

I do not wish to start a UK/Spain debate but you are wrong. Fresh UK veg is far better, prices are not dearer as you suggest apart from alcohol.

We can all make examples of items that cheaper eg "fresh milk" half the price in the UK.

UK restaurants are more varied and offer a as good a value as Spanish.

The cost of a decent spanish restaurant is as much if not more than its British counterpart.

Sorry but I eat and drink regularly in both countries and do not see how you can make such statements.

stuboy

I agree, the veg in the UK is better and cheaper. Spain sends all its good stuff for export and sends the rest to its domestic market.

amideislas

Well it may be more expensive in your area, but I am not wrong.

At any of the cheap or posh supermarkets in the UK, prices per kilo of fruit & veg are double what they cost here. Using nectarines for example, the ones you get in the UK are small and dry, but we buy huge, juicy nectarines here for half the price. Most other fruits and veg are similar.

I need not mention wine or other drinks.

Housing; for what you pay a half million pounds for around most metropolitan areas in the UK, you can buy double, triple, or quadruple here.

Petrol.. I need not point out.

Plenty of other thing cheaper here too.

chrisjolly

Everyone spends differently but we use Lidls mostly for the bulk of our shopping and local market for some fruit and veg. Our average monthly bill for two is about 200€. We eat in our village where a meal costs about 6€ and beer and a wine is 1€ each. It is so much cheaper than UK for everything especially our rates which are 86€ a year instead of £1200 a year in Devon!

Neptuno

Chrisjolly- you are extremely fortunate that your rates are far cheaper than the UK, but for some here there is not much difference if you live in an urbanisation and pay community fees as well
I live in Murcia, and have never seen a meal for 6 euros, unless you are only counting 1 course.
I agree with stuboy about the superiority and choice of veg in UK supermarkets. Prices are not double, and there are always good offers
Remember, when you add up how much cheaper things are in Spain ( and it most certainly does NOT include electricity, despite what some say,) people forget trips back to the UK; no silly air fares now, price of transport to the airport,not to mention the overspend while you are at home, spoiling grandkids
etc. Any savings on rates are wiped out.
Then there is the costs of accountants, interpreters, translators, as few are fluent enough to cope with a consultant's interview.
There seems to be a rosy bubble in Spain, in which some people live, impervious to reality!

HBG

I suspect most of the expats who actually live in Spain permanently depend on an income from the UK to sustain them. I do.

I'm not going to google it, I don't think it's necessary to be that accurate, but some eight to ten years ago the pound Sterling lost a third of its value against the Euro, which meant my income was cut by a third, almost overnight.

It got to the stage where I had to estimate at which level I would need to return home, and my combined UK income is at a decent level, my Spanish house having been purchased in the early nineties for a sum in Pesetas which means I could easily walk away from it (I don't intend to, it will turn into a holiday home for my family when I leave).

I therefore find it impossible to calculate the cost of living in Spain, it depends entirely on the currency exchange rate, but at current levels I feel well off.

amideislas

You can still get a decent meal for €6 here, but most places are €8 or €9 for 3 courses. Less than half that of the UK. Unless of course you eat at a beach restaurant in a British tourist resort, where it will be similar or more than in the UK.

I've never paid so little in property / council tax in my entire life - and that includes Germany.

Every market in every town here has top quality fruit and veg for pennies / kilo.

If you have chosen to settle in a British expat zone, then it's the profiteering that you have to live with is expectable. But the stuff can be bought for less.

cricketman

You guys are mental

Obviously many years of eating in the UK has destroyed your taste buds!

johnnyone

That's funny, I went out for a restaurant meal on Saturday in London. Better than any meal I have ever had in Spain.

Of course I have had good meals in Spain and poor ones in England but overall I do think for choice and quality the Uk is best.

Also why is it that when my wife cooks me a meal in the Uk, it tastes better than the same meal cooked in Spain?

You really must take your rose tinted specs. off occasionally and recognise that not everything in Spain is better than the UK.

Neptuno

😀 Hear hear!

cricketman

You obviously go to wrong places

I lived in London for 5 years. Food is average for expensive prices

Food in expat areas in Spain is awful. In the rest of Spain it is superb

Moses2013

You'll also find housing expensive in metropolitan areas of Spain. Based on wages, housing is not more expensive in the UK.

cricketman

With the exception of London. That is at Madrid/Barcelona pre-crash levels