Our cost of living in Spain

Ted. A few friends of ours have been intrigued by the idea of an extended stay in Spain so I thought I’d share what we've seen of the prices. Bear in mind that some cities (like Barcelona) are more popular, and thus more expensive than little Cádiz. Also, some prices increase in the summertime. 1 euro is currently worth about $1.25 but that goes up and down over time. Lastly, we don’t think of ourselves as “on vacation,” we are just living. We lead the same, fairly frugal life we led before we hit the road – no fancy hotels with room service and no tablecloths in the restaurants we frequent.

Travel

We usually just walk around town but there are buses everywhere and the cost is about $1.30/ride. Taxis are probably around $5 or $6. A train from here in Cádiz to Seville (about 70 miles) is around $13 ea with our senior citizen discount. Buses to nearby towns not served by rail are cheaper. We will fly RyanAir from Seville to Marseille (about 600 miles) and cost $140 one way per person (including extra fees like baggage).

Accommodations

Our modern, roomy one bedroom apartment in the old part of town costs $62/night with the monthly discount (it would be more with just a weekly discount). There is full kitchen (no dishwasher), a clothes washer (and line on the patio) and very good wifi.

Groceries

We usually fix a simple breakfast and evening snack at home. 

Serrano ham and olive oil on toasted baguette

We eat lunch (our big meal of the day) in an inexpensive restaurant a couple of times per week and cook lunch the rest of the time. Here are some typical costs at the grocery or market (by the way, sales tax is included):

Wine - $5.00/bottle (decent local red wine or manzanilla sherry)

Baguette - $1.00 ea

Olive oil - $5.00/liter

Olives - $4.00/liter jar

Almonds - $8.00/lb

Cheese - $9.00/lb

Serrano ham - $9.00/lb

Dark chocolate - $3.50/195g bar

Fresh swordfish - $9.00/lb

Fresh mussels - $1.70/lb

Whole chicken - $1.00/lb

Eggs - $1.80/doz

Rice - $1.00/lb

Potatoes - $0.75/lb

Garlic - $0.60/bulb

Green pepper - $0.30 ea

Onion - $0.20 ea

Strawberries – $1.70/lb

Oranges - $0.90/lb

Yoghurt - $2.50/liter

Milk - $1.00/liter

Eating out

Lunch at an inexpensive restaurant (with wine) runs around $30 for two.

We often stop for a coffee, beer or wine when wandering around. A coffee is usually about $1.50 and a beer or wine maybe $3.00 or $4.00. A little pastry or tapa might be about $3.00. And remember, tax & tip are included.

Summary

We spent about $112/day in February for living expenses for the two of us. That works out to $3,360 for a normal 30 day month. Here’s the breakdown:

$  62  Apartment  

    13  Groceries

    15  Eating out

    13  Local travel (includes the ferry to Morocco - $91 RT ea)

      4  Entertainment (museums, etc)

      5  Misc (gifts, yoga, etc)

$112 Total per day for 2 people

Feel free to email us with questions at losingshore@gmail.com.