Living In Spain

updated april 2024

The cost of living in Spain is in general much lower than that of the UK and thats why so many Brits decide to move to Spain  but just what do things cost in Spain on a daily basis? Below I will show a few daily and monthly costs of living in Spain and just what I personally pay here now.

Like any country, some major cities are more expensive than others to live in  – although wages often are above the national averages the cost of living can be a bit higher.

San Sebastian is one of the most expensive with others like  Barcelona, Madrid and Sevilla just behind. Smaller coastal towns and villages inland can be very much cheaper and sometimes crazy cheap like a small village of Finana where i stay now and then just up the coast from Almeria.

Notice the price of the food below, Tapas are all free here in Almeria.

Read why the Tapas are FREE IN Almeria here

My wife and i normally go out for a drink and tapas about twice a week here. we normally only have 2 drinks and tapas each in the week but at the week end we may have a few more. If we have 4 drinks each and 4 small plates of food each that costs us around 20 euros total.

Its just as cheap to go out for tapas as to stay in and cook.

Cost Of Living In Spain

A few essential average running costs, to know:
• Your morning cappuccino: €1.20
• Post-work beer (0.5l): €2.20  And The TAPAS FREE here in Almeria
• Litre of petrol: Almeria €1.33 just filled up last night.
• Taxi fare per km: €1.60 (plus €3 setup charge)
• Cinema ticket €7.40
the bus into town €0.85 but now many areas its free.

Long distance bus travel is now all FREE. ask at your ticket office you may need to pay 10 euros deposit that you get back at end of year.

Mid distance train travel is also FREE upto 300 km

• City centre, one-bedroom apartment rent per month: €5;0, in a smaller towns from €300. I have seen near me in Almeria 285 a month.
• My Gym membership €60 a month.last year,

• Utility bills per month (gas, electric, water, Wi-Fi, waste collection) for 3 bed apartment: €120

My new 4 bedroom house we now pay around 90 a month for electric and rubbish collection is 70 a month. we have no collection as we have vacuum system under street so its taken away instantly.

bottle wine in our suppermarket is around 1.50. or 2.25 for good make.

Cave sparkling white is 2.95

We buy beer at same place and its around 1. euro a bottle.

This week i bought some shoes, trainers for work and they cost 15 euros T shirts i pay 3 euros each plain white

My shirts i buy at Massimo Dutti and pay a little more as they are good quality at 49. euros.

We dont eat out as much now but here tapas are free with every beer or wine so great value at around 2.80 a drink including a plate of free food that you can order fresh off a menu. menu of the day here in Almeria starts at around 8.00 for a 3 course basic meal but when its 12 euros you get a great meal and all places must now offer this here.

Bottle of nice wine rioja in the supermarket  €3.

Fruit and veg at our local Sunday market is 1 euro a kg all mix just put it in a bag they weigh it and thats it.

Having air conditioning fitted.

Last week we had a new aircon unit fitted in our lounge. it was 285 euros for a basic model, and the fitting cost was 300 . this was a basic model that works well with 2 year guarantee

You can rent a 2 bed apartment just outside Almeria city from 550 a month in town a little more. possibly double. A nice 2 bed apartment near the beach is around 585 a month. plus bills.

We now have fibre optic wifi and that is 68 euros a month including land line phone and 2 mobiles 2 iphones. plus a small TV cinema package. they do starter packages cheaper.

I have sold my 3 bed apartment here and the community fees there were 70 euros a month including pool and garden maintenance.

I also rented an extra garage parking space in the building for 50 euros A MONTH.
Council tax <for rubish and street cleaning>or as its called in the uk..*POLL TAX *.. we pay here in Almeria around €280. a year and for that they clean our street every 2 days and take away the rubbish every night at midnight. Yes every night. not like uk once a week if you are lucky.
TV licence 0 yes its free in Spain.

Hair cut last week 12 euros in the village is 5 euros.

ITV or MOT for the car. around €48. for a 1600 cc car. depends on size of engine

For my motor bike *BELOW* i just paid the road tax of €20. for the year.

Thats cheap no?

Remember if you register your car tax in a small village as we did at my wifes home town then you pay a lot less than in major towns or cities.

My car insurance for a 1600 Citroen car was 280 a year. with direct line.

I have a discounts page my members can also get these prices on insurance health cover and car insurance here,, Discounts page.

I recently had a new will drawn up and it cost €58.
Our weekly food shopping for 2 adults in our local supermarket is around €90. to 110. This is including  all toiletries and alcohol.
you can live really cheaply here if needed. but remember that the wages are normally lower too.

Electric is NOT expensive in Spain unless you dont shop around.

My new 4 bed 435sm house with pool we pay 2.20 a day for electric and thats because we changed to a new supplier , total monthly cost of around 90 now a month now its gone up. here you can do that a lot to get the costs down. see proof of my bills here.

Our electric has gone up this month to 90 ai will post the bill later

Anyone can ask for same deal i got . some other members in the group are getting the same or better.

Cheap electric in Spain

Expats in Spain. Discounts on Health, car insurance, Electric bills and more.

water rates are 60 for 3 months on my 4 bed 3 bathroom house with pool.

Cost Of Living In Spain

Property is also cheaper here at the moment but things are going up as more Brits move here but in my town of Almeria you can buy a 1 bed apartment from €65.000  a 2 bed  normally runs around €95.000 nearer the
beach you will pay more but still way cheaper than UK prices.
A check up at the dentist last week cost me €58 but thats at a private dentist.
Medicines here are also way cheaper than in the Uk.

Cars.

Some say cars are expensive in Spain but it can be a mine filed buying a car in any country. Here in Spain i have bought several cars new and second hand and you need to shop around a lot and if your Spanish is poor take a friend with you as the prices are often inflated for none Spanish speakers. Also ex demo cars are available in most main dealers at great prices with all the guarantees and remember even the banks now sell cars starting at just 125 a month for a new car.

Buying second hand here now everyone has a 6 month guarantee by law even private sales. Spanish cars hold their value here and if you shop were the spanish shop you will get some deals and never pay the full asking price as the Spanish never do. i have bought a 4 x 4 truck 5 years old for 6800 that was in great condition and an ex demo seat ibiza that was 2500 off new price and in perfect condition. A 5 year old van i bought here was 1800 and did me well for 7 years till i upgraded it. new cars are expensive in most countries but main dealers are open to deals if you push them and rates are all negotiable and rates over terms that suit you.

Buying and selling is a bit expensive and you need to add about 12 to 15 % on top of the purches price to cover costs. If buying a house for 100,000  it will end up costing you about 115,000 after taxes and all fees.

Remember all this depends on where you live. in my wifes village in the mountains near Granada its very cheap but like most places in bigger towns it gets more expensive.

Dentists

I go to a private dentist thats very near my house.

A check up and clean this week was 60 euros and 1 filling was 65 euros. this was a very nice private dentists with no waiting times.

Now it all depends where you are in Spain as well.

I have built my new house in a very nice part of Almeria and the expenses are a lot higher and costs have gone up a lot but my bills and daily costs still pretty much the same.

If this has been helpful please comment or like here

Whats the costs like where you live?

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