General living costs

Yes.

Thank you 

Yes. No problem xx

remember if you live here you will pay tax on that amount

Hi everyone. I'm thinking of making Spain my home. In October I'll have a pension of €1200. Will this be enough? I'm assuming rent of €400 per month plus bills to be taken from this

Absolutely! The key is in managing. More than enough if you know how to manage your money. Most Spaniards live with a lot less & still enjoy quality life everyday like none other I've seen!!! Best wishes!!!

Yes to both you and Lorelei.  The most expensive thing is likely to be electricity, but get recommendations for the provider you go with - I'm with Iberdrola and have their "Choose 8 Hours" plan, which means I can select any 8 hours (not needed to be contiguous and doesn't need to be the same every day) per day where I have my cheap rate.  My bill for June was 60,36€ and that's two people, running Airconditioners etc.

Internet - I use Digi Fibre.  I pay 30€ per month for 1 GB/s internet and an additional 12€ for two mobile numbers that each have 20 GB data per month (that rolls over if unused) and unlimited national calls. (6€ each)

Water is around 38€ every two months.

Food.  Food is reasonably cheap - certainly cheaper than UK if recent visitors from UK I have hosted are correct (and I have no reason to doubt they are)  I can't give you an accurate idea of how much you'll pay in food as it will depend entirely on what you eat and drink ... but neither of us like shopping so we go shopping and do a *Big* shop once every 6 to 8 weeks and stock up the freezer / larder / cupboards etc and that's usually around 550€.  We probably spend an extra 50€ to 100€ per month on Milk, Bread, Drink (Beer / Wine / Port etc etc etc) and other consumables.

You can get everything you need in Mercadona / Lidl / Dia etc, although if you cannot manage without "the taste of home", then there is Icelands who stock Waitrose / Jacks brand goods (and Sainsbury's if memory serves), but the prices reflect the fact that it is a niche product with a captive market .... I'll say no more than that.

You can also get a lot of English products at SuperTurre in Turre, and they do tend to be cheaper than Icelands.

Depending on where you want to live, and what you want to live in, 400€ is a reasonable rent and properties can still be found within that price range.  The closer you are to the beach though, the higher the prices.  I'm in a third floor apartment in Vera Playa, 63 Sq Metres but barely two minutes walk from the beach.  I can see the sea and beach from my roof terrace and that costs me 450€ per month.  Take into account many landlords will slap "Basura" on top of the rent - rubbish collection - and that is around an extra 12€ per month.

Eating out isn't too expensive - again, depending on what you want and where you go.  The Wok in Vera is one of my favourites (YES!! I Admit it!!) and for 11,50€ you get an all you can eat buffet and can get your food cooked fresh right in front of you.  Plenty of places do a reasonably priced Menu del Dia which is always worth investigating.  Just be sure to find out whether or not bread is complimentary or extra ... a little thing I know, but can push the price of the meal up.

Drinks ... well for coffee, you can expect to pay around 1,20€ a cup.  No idea about beer / wines / spirits as I buy my own :-D

Depending on your lifestyle, 1200€ to 1600€ should see you quite nicely.  If you are driving, don't forget to budget for yearly insurance, ITV, Servicing etc etc (yes, yes, I know - you already know how to budget, but it bears mentioning when you are trying to allocate your monthly funds)  Diesel is currently at around 1,80€ a litre but there is a government mandated 0,20c discount of the pump price, so in reality you are paying around 1,60€ a litre for diesel .... sorry, no idea of the petrol price.

This isn't meant to be a definitive guide, but should hopefully help settle your mind(s) that 1200€ and 1600€ is definitely enough to live here.  Maybe not like a King, but most certainly comfortably.

EDIT:  just seen when original posts was put up - well over a year ago, so this response is more aimed at Lorelei

Hi

Just to add to the above that if you are going to have to obtain a non lucrative visa for Spain then the Spanish authorities will want evidence that you have circa 28,000 euros available.

Kind regards

Peter

To obtain the visa, yes, but that is separate from how much it actually costs month-to-month to live here