Last week, I posted in a fit of pique after checking my bank account online and being horrified at how much we'd spent during our two months in England. Then I saw someone bleating in an expat group that they were selling up because they couldn't afford to live in Spain any more. Dear readers, if I'd responded to that post, I would have been booted out of the group, and possibly arrested for hate crimes against moaning expats, so I did the sensible thing and rattled off a blog post.If you missed it, it's here, and you might want to check it out before you read on.
And it seems to have struck a chord, because over the weekend, it's pulled in over 3,000 views, and lots of comments and messages. Unusually for one of my posts that are written on a rant, not one of the commenters has disagreed with me. On the contrary, I've been flooded with anecdotes and examples of just how much cheaper it is to live in Spain. Some of these stories are amazing, and they deserve to be shared, to counterpoint the hype perpetrated by the Daily Fail and others, who seem to choose their interviewees almost exclusively from the pool of disgruntled expats who either never gave Spain a chance, or took a chance on an illegal build which didn't work out.
In our first year in Spain - from March 2008 to March 2009, I worked out our expenditure on our apartment. I included the usual suspects - utilities, insurance, bottled gas for extra heating in the winter, logs - if you're reading this, Iain Duncan-Smith, it's cold here in winter! - IBI on the apartment, community fees, and solicitor's fees relating to the property. It came out at the equivalent of £1,500 - which coincidentally, was the exact amount we paid for gas and electric in our final year in Plymouth. The Council Tax was another £1,500, water was about £400, and house insurance was around £200. Even the most mathematically challenged - and I include myself in that group - can see that the basic bills in our last year in England were more than double what we paid in our first year in Spain.
Since then, prices have gone up, here in Spain and over most of Europe, because we've all lived through Le Crisis, and it's more expensive to live here than it was in 2008, but it's still a lot cheaper than living in England. We've got ourselves pretty well organised, and we keep one account for regular bills, and another for stuff like shopping and entertainment. By adding up all our bills for the year - now including the car insurance and car tax, because it's a regular one - we've arrived at a figure of €3,800 for the year. That's around £2,800 at today's exchange rates, and it's what we've been putting away for the last three or four years. At the end of each month, €320 goes into Banco Santander, and when the biggies come - car insurance in March, community fees in June, Solicitor's fees and IBI for the apartment in September - there's enough to cover it, without adding any extra.
The modest €320 also covers the bank fees. That - plus the solicitor fees - is the only thing we pay here that we didn't pay in England. However, if you've been paying attention - or even if you haven't, but you can add up - you'll see we're still way under the amount we were paying in England in 2007, and I haven't included car insurance and tax in that figure.
Okay, not everything is cheaper here. Electricity is more expensive, and the bank charges, even without an overdraft, are fairly high. Then there's the solicitor's fees for submitting our fiscal returns each year. Okay, we could do that ourselves, but I'd rather pay them to do it, and know we're not going to get a huge bill because we didn't cut through every bit of red tape in the right way. And car insurance is more expensive, but then I haven't got the hassle of adding extra drivers. Furniture tends to be pricey here too, but it's not something you buy every week, or even every month, is it?
Don't take my word for it though. Let's take a look at what some of my readers have said in their comments and emails. People like Steve, who is planning to move out here, and Jake, who is already in Spain, are amazed by how much healthier they feel in Spain, and put it down to the good food, the fresh air and the lack of stress. Jake pays around the same amount of IBI per year as he was paying in Council Tax per month in the UK, where he couldn't afford to eat out, except on special occasions.
Rob from Devon was paying £600 per month rent in Devon, and with other bills, it was costing £900 a month just to 'exist.' £900 is around €1200 at today's rates - that's almost four times my monthly outgoings, and Rob wasn't living in a huge house in Devon. He reckoned his capital would have run out within 10 years - which is not good news if you're not even retirement age. Like Steve and Jake, he has health problems which are much improved since he's moved to Spain.
Even Alan, who is on a reduced pension because he didn't have enough contributions and would be around £100 a week better off if he returned to the UK, recognises that his money wouldn't go so far, and that he wouldn't enjoy the lifestyle he has in Spain.
It's not just pensioners who find it cheaper to live here though, or enjoy a better quality of life. I was talking to a local bar owner a couple of days ago, and she was telling me that back in England, they could only dream of running their own business. Here in Spain, after around 18 months here with their young family, they are in a position to expand the business, and they get to spend quality time with the children too.
Obviously, every situation is different, but it's clear that, for the majority, the true cost of living in Spain is indecently lower than in England. Coupled with the quality of life and the pretty much wall to wall sunshine, you have to wonder why anybody would even contemplate moving back to England because they can't afford to stay in Spain. The only explanation I can think of is that they must have villas in the coastal resorts, do all their shopping in Iceland, and frequent the steak houses when they eat out. Given my own experience, and that of others, nothing else makes sense.
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