How much does it cost to live in Spain?

The cost of living in Spain

The cost of living in Spain, like any other country, obviously depends on what kind of lifestyle you want to live. If you want a luxurious, millionaire lifestyle then believe it or not, you're going to need millions. For us, the move to Spain wasn't to make a lot of money and have luxurious things but to earn enough to get by, put a roof over our heads and fund a few activities or hobbies every now and then. The cost of living in Spain is lower than other European cities. Minimum wage is considerably less than it is in the U.K but the cheaper cost of living seems to make it even out.

You have to take in to consideration that Madrid and Barcelona will have a higher cost of living than the likes of Valencia and Seville. However according to Expatica it is 42% cheaper to live in Madrid than it is London.

 I can confidently say that it is cheaper to live in Spain and your wage will get you a lot further than it would in the U.K. As an example, we earn half of what we did in England, yet we seem to do twice as many things here. We are able to eat out rather frequently, pay our rent, visit new places, buy new clothes, pay gym memberships, have private health and lastly go out with our friends... a lot.

So, what are the actual prices?

Rent - We currently pay €450 for a 3 bedroom apartment that is pretty close to the city centre, has a balcony, is furnished and fairly modern, well, as far as modern goes in Spain. There are much cheaper places available to find but since there are two of us living together we find it manageable. If you came here alone you would probably want to find something a bit cheaper and it would be possible. You should expect to pay somewhere between €300 and €500 for a decent apartment. There is always the option of renting a room which would be even less.

Bills - These are another reason we are comfortable paying what we do for our apartment. If you make the move here then you can say bye to the monthly council tax, high water bills and electricity. The only added costs we have on top of our rent are electricity, which is around €50 euros per month, water, which is €55 every 3 months and then WiFi which you can get anywhere from €30 euros per month. Yes the WiFi is a lot more expensive than the U.K but the difference here is that you can sit on your balcony in the sun and access it from there, so it's not all that bad.

Food - It's difficult to tell you how much this is going to cost you per month because I don't really know what you like getting stuck into every night. However, with that aside we tend to do a weekly shop from Mercadona which costs us about €35 and to be honest when it comes to food we don't really search for the cheaper options so you could easily spend less.

Getting around - While Ally is riding on the "sometimes overly crowded tram" (especially in the summer) I decided to go and buy myself a moped... and then another one. The motorbike was relatively cheap and it costs about €5 a week to fill it up and I use it everyday to commute to work and for leisure at the weekends. Everything else vehicle related costs considerably less than it did in the U.K. As for the tram, you can buy a card from the main tram stops for  €2. With that it will cost you 87 cent per journey - which isn't bad at all when you compare that to back home.

So, when you add it all up, I would say we spend about €400 each per month on the necessities. This leaves us with a fair bit of pocket money (or beer tokens) for the rest of the month and once you settle into the lifestyle you find little tricks to save some extra money here and there. 

If you have read this post and aren't quite sure about something or would like to hear more about the cost of living don't be scared to leave a comment and ask us anything. We are very open and just want to give people information they might want to know if they are considering making the move. 

Joey.