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Living costs

Living costs

Postby andysport » Tue Mar 20, 2018 11:50 am

Hi all,
We’ve been reading for ages but have now decided to post.

I know it’s easy to say living costs are low etc but we need some more specific reassurance.
We have a longtime before we get our pensions.
We are able to buy a house outright
1. How much will we need a year to get by without feeling broke ?
Getting by for us is, being able to socialize, a couple of glasses, maybe lunch out twice a week and dinner once. We are not shoppers.
2. Is my understanding correct ? If I work part time a couple of months a year that is sufficient to sustain state medical
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Re: Living costs

Postby GrahamR » Tue Mar 20, 2018 3:20 pm

I am sure everybody would have a different answer. Overall, I believe it is cheaper to live in Spain, but you still need regular money to live. You have still got regular costs like Electricity, water and possibly gas. You have to pay fees for sewage, rubbish removal, community charge (probably), car tax, car repairs, the MOT equivalent, fuel, food, medical costs etc. You also have to consider maintenance costs for the house and have money for when the washing machine etc breaks down. Then you have your socialising costs.
We don't live out in as Spain all year, so my finger in the air answer would be that if you presently need £20,000 a year to live the way you want to live in the UK, maybe you might need £15,000 in Spain.
I think the big saving in Spain is on the social side. You can buy small cans of beer in the supermarkets for between 25 and 45 cents. Cheap wine can cost a Euro a bottle. A Chinese meal can be had for 15 euros for two people including a bottle of wine. A very nice three course meal with wine in other restaurants can cost as little as 30 Euros for two. To enjoy that, you have to have disposable income.
On another note, I do not know how easy it would be to get part time employment, bearing in mind the jobs market in Spain.
This is just my own thoughts. Others will know much more. If you are keen to do it, your determination might make it work regardless, but you should do the math.
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Re: Living costs

Postby marcliff » Tue Mar 20, 2018 4:17 pm

If you have no rent or medical insurance to pay then you can live quite well here on about a thousand euro a month.
Of course, it all depends on your lifestyle and if you can't forego the British stuff then it could work out more expensive.
Prices are going up in Spain but nowhere near as high as UK. What does affect us a lot is the exchange rate. For example, my 1300 quid a month was paying 1900 euro just a couple of years ago but now struggles to make 1500. And, as we convert the costs to our own currency, something that cost 10 euro just a couple of years ago was £7 is now £9.
The big things like car tax, council tax and so on are extremely cheap compared to UK (my council tax has just gone up to 242 euro a year). However, we pay things like community charges which we don't in UK and these can vary from a couple of hundred euro a year to a couple of thousand euro a year so make sure you find out those costs first.
We don't do a big weekly shop like we did in UK. With all this time on our hands we shop little but often and use the large amount of supermarkets, small shops, bakers, butchers and so on several times a week.
Eating out is incredibly cheap with loads and loads of reasonably priced restaurants in Quesada. 3 course meals at anything from 9 to 15 euro although there are posher (and therefore more expensive) places. During the summer we tend to eat out at least 3 times a week but in the winter probably just once.
Petrol is getting around the same price as UK (because of the exchange rate) whilst diesel is much cheaper.
Unleaded petrol around £1.10 a litre and diesel can be bought for 96p a litre. Car tax for my large SUV 1.6 is €42 a year.
Fruit and veg is plentiful and cheap especially if you get the stuff from the markets.
White goods are coming down in price but are still more expensive that UK as is furniture but there is much more choice here now than there used to be and competition is bringing the prices down. Fortunately these are one off items so don't really affect the day to day living.
If you like exotic imported foods like Heinz beans and tomato ketchup, corned beef, Ginsters pasties and Melton Mowbray pork pies then you will end up paying more. Local produce like serrano ham, Spanish cheeses, huge tasty tomatoes and at least a dozen different type of bean will be much cheaper.
Not sure about a part time job a couple of times a year giving you medical cover. You need a work contract and a social security number and be paying into the system to get that. Even self employed have to pay over 250 a month, every month, to get medical cover whether they earn any income or not. I think it would be difficult to get part time work with a contract which means the employer has to pay the lion's share of the social security costs.
Anyway, best of luck. We started off here over 15 years ago now and moved here permanently 6 years ago. No, we would not go back to UK but we do have the means to manage even with the plunging pound which has varied from 1.50 to 1.05 to 1.40 and back to 1.10 in that time.
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Re: Living costs

Postby Quesadasteve » Tue Mar 20, 2018 6:03 pm

Remember if your not of pension age and not working and want residency you must have private health care to get residency which is about €60 a month per person ....you also have to prove you get an income from a private pension or savings of around €600 a month ...this figure may not be exactly correct but it's in that range
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Re: Living costs

Postby marcliff » Tue Mar 20, 2018 6:19 pm

Quesadasteve wrote:Remember if your not of pension age and not working and want residency you must have private health care to get residency which is about €60 a month per person ....you also have to prove you get an income from a private pension or savings of around €600 a month ...this figure may not be exactly correct but it's in that range



I think it's gone up to over €800 now. The minimum wage in Spain has been increased to €858.60.
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Re: Living costs

Postby Quesadasteve » Tue Mar 20, 2018 6:21 pm

marcliff wrote:
Quesadasteve wrote:Remember if your not of pension age and not working and want residency you must have private health care to get residency which is about €60 a month per person ....you also have to prove you get an income from a private pension or savings of around €600 a month ...this figure may not be exactly correct but it's in that range



I think it's gone up to over €800 now. The minimum wage in Spain has been increased to €858.60.



Is that per person or per household??
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Re: Living costs

Postby marcliff » Tue Mar 20, 2018 6:36 pm

According to Tax Lawyers and Accountants it's it's per person. However, that seems rather high and they do say it will be up to the person assessing your application to decide if you have sufficient funds so as not to become a burden on the state. I would think someone paying rent or having a mortgage would be assessed higher than someone who owned their home outright.
The sum quoted for 2015 was €6,000 a year per person (or 500 euro a month per person) and the minimum wage that year was set at €756 a month so there doesn't appear to be any hard and fast calculation for EU citizens.
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Re: Living costs

Postby Quesadasteve » Tue Mar 20, 2018 6:40 pm

Ok thanks ....we made a tentative enquiry and was told about €600 as we don't have a mortgage or rent to pay ...but didn't realise it was per person ....
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Re: Living costs

Postby marcliff » Tue Mar 20, 2018 7:14 pm

Last time I went with someone, about 2 years ago, they didn't really seem that interested but speaking to someone the other day who has recently done it and the 800 was per couple. However, one thing that had changed at Elche was that that was the amount that had to be put into a Spanish bank for a minimum of 3 months before applying.
Everything changes (or seems to) so it would be best to check with them direct and you may get a straight answer.
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Re: Living costs

Postby Quesadasteve » Tue Mar 20, 2018 8:37 pm

Yes every area seems to have its own rules be it for residency , ITV , car tax rates etc etc etc ....crazy

Sorry to original poster for stealing your thread but some comments may help you as well
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