Cost of Living: Malta vs Spain (Malaga)
Our cost of living difference between Malta and Malaga has definitely surprised me. Previously, l had done a smack down difference between Malta and our Houston expenses. There was of course a huge difference, which was to be expected. I had done my research after all. I also did an apples to apples comparison based on C’s post over at the Romania experience website. I compared prices of everyday items and veggies.
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Our costs here in Malaga have been quite the eye opener. I assumed our cost of living would be more than in Malta, but l find that we barely break €1000 per month for the both of us, all in. The main reason is that l am spoiled ..absolutely frigging spoiled. I am married to an Italian guy who can cook 🙂 . His mom does that for a living, and she taught all three of her kids well. The dad was also a great cook, and l miss him dearly, he was just the sweetest guy who was always feeding me..lol! We tend to stay home for our meals.
Once in a while, we go out for tapas or go eat a fancy restaurant. His food is so much better than what we get out there, and fresh as he makes things at the moment. For meat, we go to the local butcher, get the best cut and splurge on some great wine, which can be had for like €6. We get our vegetables from the little store that is over at the next building. Andalucia is big on organic farming, so there are fresh veggies and fruit to be had at really low prices.
There are a bunch of grocery stores around us. We frequent one called Mercadona, which is the largest chain in Spain. Their prices are really good. We also go to one called Dia, which is even cheaper as they just sell their own branded things.
Here is the Malta cost of living versus Spain cost of living breakdown of the monthly expenses:
Living in Malta:
Our time in Malta came to an end after almost a year and a half. We definitely liked life on the island. Ultimately it was the small size that led to our leaving. We felt we had seen and done everything we could possibly do and felt the need for new excitement. I think Malta is a perfect place for older people who just want to stay put.
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Granted, our flat in Malta was better than this one, thanks to the view, which l miss a lot, and hope to rectify in our next apartment. I am willing to pay a bit more for a nice view. Hopefully, we will find everything on my wish list. It’s easy enough to find the view, what’s not to easy is a dog friendly place with a big enough terrace for the dogs. One thing that is much higher here in Spain is the electricity cost.
Water in included in our rent here so that amount is strictly for electricity. Of course, it includes a whopping 21% tax!!! Considering that our cost of living is even lower here in Spain, we should be able to take more holidays! Hurray!!!
Living in Malaga:
I mentioned that we cook at home a lot and that indeed is one of the driving forces of our cost in Spain being lower. If you don’t cook and eat out a lot, you can expect a much higher amount. This is something that we tend to notice with a lot of expats. Most don’t cook but go out daily for the fixed menu )menu al dia) at the restaurants. It might seems little, but day in day out, it certainly adds up.
My suggestion? Take up cooking as a hobby and save the going out for drinks like the Spanish do. Look around and you will see that most locals will nurse a drink or two for hours just people watching and chatting with friends or be on the phone. Most are not actually eating. Wonderful way to save since the cafes won’t kick you out. Some of my favourite home cooked meals:
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My pictures don’t do these justice to the food as l am usually in a rush to eat 🙂 . You get an idea why we don’t really care much for eating out.
Overall thoughts on cost of living Spain vs Malta difference:
It’s obvious from the chart that living in Spain cheaply is doable. The good thing is that both Malta and Spain both have reasonable cost of living so you can’t really go wrong. Malta or Spain to live would ultimately be your decision to make and hopefully this real life comparison as opposed to numbeo prices helps.
For us the decision to move to Spain was based not just on the cost of living, but the ease to travel to other places as well as the fact that Spain being such a huge diverse country, gives us plenty of opportunity to travel and explore within the country. In Malta, Gozo was really the only other place we could go. We haven’t regretted our decision.
Update:
Even though we started out in Malaga, we ended up staying just seven months as we did not really love the city. We found our apartment search with the dogs very stressful and we left after seven months. Our next stop was Seville, a city we loved and stayed in for two years (the heat did us in!) before moving on to Valencia where we are now, and plan to stay after purchasing a flat. You can find a comprehensive living cost in Spain on this post for comparison.
What about you? Are you trying to decide between Malta or Spain to live? How do these costs compare to where you are now?
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That’s great your cost of living went down! I would love to find a man who cooks! I don’t mind cleaning but I hate cooking. I think I might know where I’m planning my next vacation. 🙂
I’m very happy it went down. I do the cleaning, l hate that too, but it’s a nice trade off. You know you’ve always had an open invitation 🙂
Okay…you rock!!! I went to Malta for 2 weeks last year and stayed 8 months. Ended up coming back to the US but heading to Spain next month, 1 way!! LOL – I am excited to read additional information from you….You made sense, I am very appreciative! Just wanted to say Thank you!!!
What an absolutely wonderful comment to wake up to! Thank you very much for making my day. I cracked up at your 2 weeks turning into 8 months..haha!!! You must have really liked it. Spain is pretty cool. I’m not sure which area you’re headed, but check out the cost of living in Seville and also one for Valencia too in case you haven’t seen them. I’m sure the only adjustment you would need is the rent which might differ based on where you live. Grocery prices at Mercadona in Barcelona were pretty much the same prices last time we were there. I hope you enjoy Spain and l really thank you for your comment. It’s a tiny blog so l love when people find us somehow :-).
A hubby who’s a great cook – how lucky! … the food pics have me drooling …
I do this little dance at meal times while singing “sono molto fortunata”. He gets a kick out of it. I totally acknowledge the fact that l am lucky!!!
I was looking forward this post and I can’t wait for the next one. I am still surprised to see that cost of living can be so low in Spain and to me, personally, it’s really an eye opener, proving that you can live a great life in Europe without having to spend tons, as I initially imagined. Thanks for this article!
I know. I was kind of shocked as well. The funny thing is l think we are overpaying for this apartment. Walking around the neighborhood , we see similar places that rent for €430-500 which seems to be the norm. I was reading an article yesterday that says prices have remained flat and in most cases lower in Italy for 8 years, and here for about 4 years. I think the crisis is still being felt. Good for people moving in, not so much for the local people. I’m happy with the prices..lol 🙂
Any chance you want to rent a room in your house out to a family of three? The food looks amazing and the prices sound awesome. 🙂
Hah hah! Only if you promise to bring some Thai food, and dog sit! 🙂 . I will email you..
Hahah 🙂 sounds good to me!
Wow, Kemkem! I wish we could live so cheaply here in L.A.!! Sometimes Jave and I think about ditching everything here and going to live in Jamaica or someplace in the Caribbean for really cheap. When I launch my business and it takes off in the new year, that just may be a possibility. So yeah…does the offer to visit you guys in Malaga still stand?! With homecooked meals like that, we’re looking forward to a future visit. 🙂
That would be awesome if you guys can pull it off next year. Fingers crossed that all goes well with the business ventures. I remember the costs in L.A only too well..yikes..don’t miss it at all. Of course the offer stands. We would love to gave you, and l would get to taste Jave’s cooking too!!! 🙂
First and foremost my FAV part of the post is, of course, that you kept your dogs as a priority in the big picture. That put a BIG SMILE on my face! Second, this post needed to come with a warning “DO NOT READ ON AN EMPTY STOMACH!!” LOL. Lordy, all of those dishes look absolutely out of this world delicious! I am shocked at your low monthly costs there. You also have me very curious about Berlin and the difficulties there would be. I’ve thought a few times as what it would be like to move there. So, do you guys have a guest room/house…I would be happy to move in for those low costs and that view. AND the eating! I can pay for groceries. All in jest Kemkem but my goodness what an awesome post to read my dear! Have a great day! 🙂
Hah hah! Have you ever seen that Twilight Zone snout nose episode where they say “there’s always room for one more, honey”? Well, there’s always room for you! 🙂 . Oh yeah, it’s all about the dogs, wouldn’t have it any other way 🙂 . They are family. I know l am super lucky with the food, thank God he enjoys it. I should write a post about why we decided against Berlin at some point. Thanks for the compliment.
Wow! Yes, I remember that episode! I’ve watched a couple of T.Z. marathons. Gawd, I love the reruns of that show – guilty pleasure tv show 🙂
Certainly much better than the crap on TV today!!!! I’ve seen a few episodes as well 🙂 . My absolute favorite is the “time” one, with the old man in the library always wishing for more time in the basement so as to read all the books. Then when he gets all the time, his glasses break. It made me cry.. 🙁 .
omg, those meals look AMAZING! kudos to you for having a hubby who can cook! haha, i’m still a beginner in that area, so we end up spending way too much eating out…but thanks to some cookbooks and a whole lotta patience, I’m slowly learning;-)
Yep! I hit a home run there!!! 🙂 . He loves to cook, but hates to clean up. I would rather do the latter, so it works. You have patience, lucky.. I don’t, besides if l learn, then l have to cook..hah hah! I used to eat out 2-3 times a day before l met him..
I am so jealous your man can cook! My husband is amazing in many ways….but he cannot wrap his head around cooking for some reason =/ Lucky girl!
I know it’s quite unusual, and yep.. I am lucky indeed. His brother is also a very good one too. Lucky me indeed! 🙂
I love this comparison but I’m not in the least surprised that Spain has turned out to be so much cheaper than Malta. I mean with Mario standing guard. It has to be! I’m not going to mess with him any time soon. I’ll stand right down sir! What did surprise me is that the quality of food in restaurant is not as good as you expected, especially when so many Spaniards eat out!
Mario can cook. You lucky girl. I have the same. A husband who loves, and can cook. Hurrah!
Yes, the marito can cook! Me and you so lucky 🙂 . I find husband food better than restaurants, not just here, but in Malta and Houston for the most part. Part of the reason is that he does it at the moment, be it soup, sauce etc..I also think if one ate at the higher end places all the time, l might change my mind. Highly doubtful though.. 🙂
Hi! I am amazed at the low cost of living in Málaga. I had thought that since it is a large town right on the coast
it would be quite expensive. We live in the Barcelona area where everything is more expensive. Are your utilities
still under 100 euros a month? And what is a gas canister? As we are both in our 60s the cost of health insurance is much higher – 225 Euros a month. Maybe since we are US expats, our cost is much higher. Looks like Mario serves
high-end restaurant quality food! No wonder you like it better than at a restaurant. Lucky you!
Hello! It is amazing how much lower it is than say Barcelona or Madrid. We considered Madrid, but eventually decided on Malaga. Yes, our highest electric bill has been €75 for the month. We usually hover around €60-63. We have gas for our hot water, the canister is that Bombero orange thingies from the gas companies that they sell off the truck. One full canister usually lasts about 50 days. It’s great as you get instant hot water, not the electric water heater that takes a while to heat up, increasing your monthly bill. I only wish we had gas for the stove as well. The water is included in our rent. Yes, l am very lucky indeed :-). I do get restaurant quality food every day, makes me love his mother even more.. :-). Is your health coverage from a Spanish company or one of those Expat type ones?
Thinking of moving to Malta, any advice?
We and Chris from NY (USA).
What do you need advice on? Feel free to send me an email at nextbiteoflife at gmail.com with any questions and will do my best to answer :-).
Great site. Very informative. I am from malta and i am considering moving to spain. 650 for a flat in Malta is cheap. Unfotunately rental prices have been climbing steeply here. Doubt you ‘ll be able to find a 2 bedroom appartment for that price. More a studio flat in marsascala. Definitely not st julians.
Thanks Adrian. I can’t believe the prices have gone up that much in Malta. I guess we were there at the right time then. We probably wouldn’t be able to afford it now, unless we moved to Gozo outskirts maybe. It always happens when people discover good places. Things are kind of creeping up around here too, so it’s probably just a matter of time. We are currently paying 650 for our 3bd/1.5 bath flat close to the center, but that will get you a house in the suburbs but it’s changing. Good luck with the decision. Spain is great if you have a good job, but sucks if you need to find a traditional job.