Updated:
As promised, l have now compiled our cost of living in our Seville suburb, and will compare it to our cost in Malaga. As both cities are in Andalusia, you would expect the prices to be similar. It is for the most part. In Malaga, even though we were in the city, it was more of a working class neighborhood. Grocery stores were plenty, as were people, and lots and lots of apartment buildings which l found stifling to say the least.
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In Malta, we had that wonderful harbor view. In Malaga, we had a view of the next apartment building. Our suburb in Seville is closer to what we had in Houston. The houses are spread out, there is a lovely pool, much needed yard for the dogs, and it’s oh..so quiet. I’m getting old l guess :-).
Spain (Seville) Cost of Living:
As big as this house is, it seems to be the smallest one in the immediate area! For instance, one of the neighbors has a gardener who spends 3 hours mowing his lawn. Three hours!!! I know this because we have timed it, as it is annoying… from 6-9 pm every Tuesday. I do think it could be done in less time for sure, but l have a feeling that the people around here are well to do, so the prices the workers quote are inflated, and so to make it look good, they work really, really slowly.
Our current yard is about 1/4 of the one in Houston, and the same gardener quoted us €60 to mow the lawn! I had to laugh, l don’t think we paid more than $30 in Houston, and Federico loves shaving the grass as he calls it, and had a mower.. We’ve had it mowed only once at this house, and even though it was €30, we considered it too high a price..
I watched him from the office. It was actually quite interesting. He did not use the lawn mower, as he would have been done in like 10 minutes tops. Instead, he parked the mower to the side, and started cutting the grass with the edger.. :-). He cut the whole thing with the edger, so he was able to stretch it to almost 2 hours while his son pretended to bag the grass. When it came time to pay him, he tried adding another hour to the time, and wanted €45!
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I so gently reminded him it was not quite 2 and paid him the €30. I always love it when people think that just because you are foreigners, you have money to burn, or are somehow stupid :-(. This happens everywhere, not just Spain. The same thing happened in Malta, in Houston, even L.A. I am sure everyone who travels experience it. It doesn’t bother me that they try, as long as it doesn’t bother them that “it ain’t gonna happen” :-).
Monthly Expenses:
Oops.. I forgot to add in €80 for the pool guy, so the grand total is actually €1402 ($1565) monthly. What is also missing from the report is car insurance and registration as we have not switched over to Spanish plates yet. I expect it to add maybe another €50 or less monthly. The electricity costs might also go up in the summer, with the air conditioner and fan being operated.
Overall, the cost of living is a bit higher in Seville, about the same as in Malta, and definitely much lower than in the U.S!. The quality of life is also better. I love the space as we are homebodies. We spend little on gas as we tend to walk to the local tapas places, fruit market, bakery and church. My Spanish still sucks though, but people are pretty patient. :-).
The health insurance costs are much higher because we switched to a plan that has no copay. It also covers us across the board, in all E.U countries. With the former, l took out travel insurance for our flights. This works out cheaper overall for travel within the European Union. The premium is also higher because l hit the big 5-0, which bumps me..ahem..to another tier.
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What is different is the quality of meat between Malaga and Seville. The meat products here suck big time :-(. We shop at the same grocery chain called Mercadona. The hamburger meat is terrible compared to the one in Malaga . I just don’t get it! I swear it seems like everything beef here is mixed with pork. Here, the meat is all prepacked, not like there where it’s fresh and the butcher cuts it for you. Perhaps they add preservatives :-(.
We find ourselves eating a lot more sea food, and really good quality Jamon Iberico (completely worth the €21 plus per kilo). For sure, l am skipping hamburgers around here. Thank God the dog food is still the same though, at least l think so, they haven’t complained.
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I am quite happy with the cost of living in Seville. There are lots of stores to shop in the city, but we are so over shopping for clothes that we don’t need. We wear so little of what we have now! We prefer to spend excess money on travel, and since we are still under budget, we can indulge in that love. We intend on doing more of that. I hope this cost of living helps anyone in need of firm figures, and is thinking of moving or settling in Andalusia.
What do you think about this cost of living in Spain (Sevilla) comparison? Is it anyway close to your expenses if you live in Spain? How does it compare to your neck of the woods wherever that is?
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I always love reading about the cost of living in other places, as you probably know already. It seems strange to hear that the hamburgers taste different in the same country, at the same chain… this really makes no sense, but probably they prepare them in different areas. Still sucks, though…
You have a much better placed compared to Malaga and I believe it’s worth every extra Euro that you’re paying, and it doesn’t seem to be that expensive, though. Are there the costs for eating out included (or visits to a pub/something) or they’re based on a month of eating at home exclusively? We do eat at home most of the time and would do so anywhere we’d go, but I’m just curious to see if there are some other costs that might influence the monthly budget.
I am puzzled by the hamburger situation myself. It just makes no sense at all. WE have taken to getting our meat at a different chain, but even there, the hamburger is not purely beef. The color doesn’t even look the same, which leads me to believe it is mixed with pork somehow :-(. We definitely have a much better place now, and you’re right, it is not expensive at all. It’s still like 1/4 the cost of Houston for instance. Yeah for traveling more :-). The price includes occasionally eating out, which usually runs about €20 for tapas and beer. We eat out once a week, sometimes twice.
Oh wow! Great you are living in Seville! There was a recent report on CNN go featuring food and flamenco dancers. Have a blast!
Yeah! We are 3 months into a year’s lease, and so far loving it :-). I Think l saw that report. It was quite good. We haven’t tried seeing a flamenco show yet though. Thanks!
Your pool looks nice! I wouldn’t want to eat the mystery meat though! =)
Lol! You nailed it right on the head..mystery meat it is :-). It never attains that brown color, it stays pinkish.. The pool was a deal sealer on the renter. It’s starting to get wicked hot, and we just hang out there.
I feel you on the meat situation. When I moved for school the beef in the area I moved to was SOOO BLAND! Plus it was really expensive, I pretty much lived on chicken throughout uni.
I’m glad someone else has experienced bland meat..LOL! We are sticking to steaks for now :-). Thank God the chicken is good though, and l like that.
Great information!
Regarding your burgers – are there no independent butchers (carniceros) near you?
I never buy meat from supermarkets.
It improves your language skills too, when you have to ask how you want the meat cut/prepared.
Just a thought
x
I know it’s completely juvenile, but l cracked up at what you said about asking how l want the meat cut/prepared! :-). I don’t think l could say it with a straight face. We tried a butcher that is walking distance, and he has a really pitiful selection. We do buy chicken from him, but no meat. I think l will try and ask the old lady at the little store, maybe she knows of another one. I practice with her for a few minutes after “misa” on Sundays.
…and I was trying to word it so carefully! LOL
Trying to find beef can be a challenge – my local butcher only started stocking it for me (the locals ‘don’t like the taste’, it would appear). I have learned a lot of Spanish by building a relationship with Lucy (Maria Lucia – but she likes to be called Lucy!) We swap recipes, now, which has been enlightening (to say the least)
I hope you find a good source
x
Good idea, we might just ask the butcher, maybe he can order it for us. I can understand them not liking the taste..lol!
Hey Kemkem – ever thought maybe you’re getting the same stuff as the dogs? 🙂
I’m surprised by the low cost…but how about stuff like restaurants/booze etc…are you lumping that in with groceries? For us it usually comes out to the same as groceries (ie about 400 euros/mo). How about costs of travelling around, tours, museums etc…and toiletries? Just curious if that includes everything, what I call all ‘direct expenses’ associated with living somewhere.
Its interesting doing these cost analysis and sometimes you get surprises: over the last year the cheapest places for us were Nong Khai, Thailand (about $1500 US) and Prague($1600). Split, Croatia and Bangkok would you believe ended up about the same at about $2500. Most people have an idea that all of Thailand is cheap but Bangkok is proof it’s not (not if you want to live up to Western standards).
I’m disappointed we’re not going to see you this time around. We’ve worked out our immediate plans and we’ll be in Budapest for a couple of months, then moving on through Romania and Bulgaria to Turkey where we’ll take a vacation for a few weeks. From there we think of going to South Africa for the worst of the winter months.
But Portugal/Spain definitely on our short list and I’m sure we’ll be there in the next 12-18 months 🙂
Nice post,
Frank (bbqboy)
I’m starting to think so at this point.. :-). I lump everything into the groceries, toiletries, dog food,beer,wine,and the occasional tapas adventure. Once in a while, we might go to a sit down restaurant, but we usually reserve that for when we travel. Things are just kind of cheap here (crisis mode in action still). Believe it or not, as residents, it’s free entry to pretty much everything..like the cathedral,alcazar etc..so that is not included. We drive when needed to the city, if it’s going to be crowded, there is free parking at the closest metro station to us, and we take the metro in to the center at €3.35 each round trip. It’s so cool that the city knowing that there is no parking in central Seville have huge parking lots at the metro stations, so most people just do that. I can’t believe Spain is as cheap as Thailand..lol! Prague is way more than here..wow! Too bad we won’t see you this time either :-(. It will happen at some point l’m sure.
I can’t believe how affordable it is there. It’s like triple the size of my place too…and with a pool!
LOL! I know l shouldn’t be happy that there is still the crisis here, but it sure makes it affordable. Insane the price difference! 🙂
I love these posts! So useful and helpful! Thanks! 🙂
I’m so glad you’re enjoying them :-). I hope you are also enjoying your mom’s visit! You too could be sisters 🙂
I know! Well she is only 18 years older than me. 🙂 I am thankful that I know I will also look great at her age (or at least I hope so).
Lucky you! You have nothing to worry about. She looks great! 🙂
Aaah….I would love to live in Europe seasonally. It would be great to summer in someplace like Spain or Portugal. Costs there are ridiculously reasonable. There are many places that beat L.A. I suppose. I’m surprised your neighbors haven’t picked up on the gardener’s hustle. Maybe they just have money to blow. Do you rent long term via AirBnB, or do you use a local agent to find your rentals?
For sure either place would be fine. There are so many spots within each country. I can’t wait to discover them all :-). The costs so far have been great,so much less than the U.S. The neighbors are an old couple, really old. I figure they must either have money, or they are paying a decent price and he wants to gouge us to make up for lost money..LOL! I think it’s the former though. We use a local agent all the time. It’s good because long term rentals are 6 months, not one year starting..so we do that.
Interesting post! We are thinking about picking a base in Spain for a bit at some point. Maybe next year.
So far, we are loving this area. Malaga seems like a mild nightmare that happened a very long time ago.. We had thought of Barcelona, but too crazy packed and expensive. Madrid was another thought, and we liked it, but we didn’t see ourselves living there either. We immediately liked the vibe of Seville..so it was an easy decision. Thanks for the comment..see you next year? 😉
That pool looks divine. I wish I had one especially with the extremely hot weather we’ve been having in the last few days. Haviing said that, things are back to “normal” now as we had a day of storms yesterday.
I expected the prices for Spain to be low and even though we live in pretty cheap Berlin, our expenses (with a growing child) are double LOL!
It’s gotten so hot here that we are using it every day! Me on the low side of course.. :-). With a growing kid, l can definitely understand your expenses..I don’t know what it’s all about these days, but the kids are bigger and taller than in previous years..:-)
Thank you for following me via Twitter. I am new to your blog site and have already found a few interesting things. My wife and I visited Andalucia (Sevilla, Malaga, Granada, Huelva, and Cordoba) in 2014. My wife loves Sevilla. I love Malaga. We really want to move to Andalucia in the near future (and also consider South America). Our impression was that it is expensive to live in Spain. But we may be wrong based on your info. I have 3 questions.
1. How far from the city center was your apartment in Malaga?
2. How far from the city center is your house in Sevilla?
3. Why is your health insurance cheap – 47 Euros (Malaga) and 112 Euros (Sevilla)?
Hello, and welcome to the blog. I am happy that you’ve found things of interest on the blog.I have to admit that we like Seville better than Malaga, even though they are both nice. It is certainly not expensive in my book to live in Spain, they are still feeling the pinch of the recession. Those prices were accurate as of the dates posted. Let me answer your 3 questions;
1) The apartment was about 12 miles to the city center. I think we disliked Malaga because of where we lived. It was a lower working class barrio and we ended up there because we couldn’t find a place that would rent to us with the dogs.
2) We are about 15 miles to the city center right now.
3) In Malaga, only he had an insurance plan. I was doing self pay. 112 euros is not cheap for here..haha..that is the price for full coverage with zero copay. Of course if you have preexisting conditions, they are excluded. The ones with copays are slightly lower than that. Also, he is a few years younger than me (7) so his is slightly lower.
Hope this helps.
Thank you for your quick reply. You just gave me good info about rental with dogs. We have one as well.
Hearing “dog” is like Kryptonite to them in Malaga, never mind the fact that our dogs, and yours too l’m sure are more well behaved than most kids :-). You really need to consider that 🙂