Ah Spain!

AI generated, please excuse any errors!

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[Music]
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Buen Diaz, welcome to Aspain. Hi Gano, how's it going? It's going bueno. Tanya,
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bueno. Bueno, bueno. Do you have an a Spain for us? I do have an a Spain. So, my dear
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friends Phil and Susan took me out to lunch last week for a menu delia
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at a place we had never been to and the if I get the name right I think it was called gastromantic something like that
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and I had they were like pick a place and so I kind of did a Google search thing and I was like this is near kind
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of where they live let's find it and we were so pleasantly surprised with the
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menu and I mean and the price right the menu dela here is an amazing little thing.
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And you know, I'll say the lunch for the three of us came to €50 and we and that
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was three courses plus a vida plus a drink and I thought that and the food was like
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really amazing and it was such a pleasant little surprise. So that was my ah Spain and it was airond conditioned
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and oh well I mean that's the bonus right there. And you know what they had a real salad
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with like lots of lettuce. It was like an arugula spinach salad with like crumbled nuts and things was and with a
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it had a a skewer of of meat and like a taziki type sauce. Oh, it was so good.
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That sounds really nice cuz you never know like a menu delia if you're going to a place you've never been to before. It's a it's a I mean you have to go out
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and try them because when you find good ones then you start to have a list, right? And it's such a great deal. But
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the problem with the menu del is you find a good one then you go back and it's also what they're serving for that menu delia. It's not necessarily always
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like a there's a place around the corner that does they had a liver and I've been back keep walking by liver has not been
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on the menu again and I'm like I mean I guess they have to keep changing it to keep people coming back too but also to
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your point you also want to find the place that does food very well. And I was very surpris I mean I was not surprised I was I was very happy that
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this random choice came out to be very good. So that was my a bane.
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I love that. That's a perfect and that does kind of bring us into what we're going to talk about today a little bit.
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Although pretty much anything would because we're talking about everything today which is the cost of living in Spain which is obviously a hot topic.
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What is it really like? And we can only tell you from our experience and that's
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what we're going to do is kind of delve into that a little bit in what our experiences are and and then you all on
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your own. Yeah, you're on your own and kind of give you an idea. I mean, so I think we should backtrack for anyone who's new
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listening. We are both families of three. Um you you are uh two adults and
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a child and I'm two children and an adult, but my child eats like one of your adults. So we have
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Yes. I would say we're about even on the food consumption chart. When we put Palomao and Jad together, it's like is
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there any food for anybody else? Exactly. But it's a it's it and then we have all
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the pets, right? So that those are those are the we're not really talking about add-ons, you know, because you can add
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on until the cows come home and you can bring a cow home. So, you know, it's just
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right. And then there are some differences too is they you know Tanya has a house in the country and we have
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an apartment in the city I rent she owns. So we're going to talk about that in our experiences too because some fees
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will be some of our costs are different because of that and we have air conditioning and heat and they don't. So
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that affects things as we get through. So that's a little that's a little debrief before we before we delve into
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before we go into all of this to bring everyone up to speed
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I would say. So, we could start just with sort of housing. I guess I think it's um if we're gonna if we start with
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the cost of housing in the city, it's probably a good place and if you go out of the city, you could expect it to be a
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little bit less and in some areas the same. So, I think the cities and we're also by the way talking about the
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Valencia area. We are not familiar with living in other parts of Spain. So,
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um obviously I think it would be expected that Madrid and Barcelona are more expensive. Um, but there's also
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cheaper places. You can go live out in the middle of nowhere. You can live in a smaller town. You could live in a more
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expensive touristy place. So, this is Valencia, which I think would be kind of in the middle, I think, of a general
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and Valencia has gone up a lot in the past couple years because it's been, you know, the cond NAS list and the CNN list
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of where people are moving to. So, it has surprisingly gotten more expensive than when we first moved here or before
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we thought about moving here. And there might be other cities that aren't on the list that are might be of comparable
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size and amenities that might not be as expensive. Um, that's do your research and we can do it all for you.
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Yeah. So, I think just for just for cost of living purposes, I mean a two-bedroom
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apartment in Valencia. So, we're talking renting, not buying. Obviously, buying is a whole other thing.
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Um, I think there's not a lot of onebedrooms. That's not so much a thing.
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And I think somebody that might be doing onebedroom might be looking at roommate situations anyway. Um, so if you if you
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are, you're probably going to get a twobedroom for the sameish price and then you get like an office or a roommate or something, right?
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So we're looking at maybe what we saying like 900 to,200 maybe. Obviously you
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could probably find one for 3,000 but you can definitely find one for 3,000. But if your budget's between 9 and 12, I
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think you're good to go and you have a lot of neighborhoods at your disposal. I think, you know, you're not going to be
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in the fanciest of the fancy neighborhoods, but you know, this is such a small city and each neighborhood
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is so small, so you can live next door to the fancy neighborhood and feel like you're living in it if that's important to you. Yeah. So, so walkable, right? So, and I
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think Valencia is also quite a safe t city in general. So, I mean, I think yeah, adjacent, you know,
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um is fine. Um and some of them come furnished and some of them don't. So that's also
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something to look at and that can sometimes change your price as well. Well, I mean that's the thing. Well, I
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don't know if it really changes. I find that I think unfernished might actually come up as more expensive. They are harder to find. Uh it's they the the
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mini furnished places. I know when we were looking it was like I don't want furnished. I want to home. And it was
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also this was our forever move, right? I was like I want us to move into things we like versus um that for sure. Um
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absolutely. And if you go an idealista, you'll see why some of the furnishings aren't that great. It's very old. It's
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been passed down. And speaking of I mean just just as a as a heads up since we're talking this is
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kind of a cost of living thing, but also just a read your contract because we had we looked at a place um for starters the
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prices will vary at the time of year that you're looking. So, if you're going to be moving in January and you're
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looking at places in, you know, in the middle of July, it's it's going to that place may not be available or it might,
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but the prices may change. So, al but also we had a place and in the contract
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it said um we didn't sign the contract, FYI. In the contract it said if at any point
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they can get more for the rent, they can move us out of the apartment. Yeah. Into a um what's the word? Like a a place
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that's kind of comfortable. And we were like to no and to who? Like who gets to
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judge what's comparable? And how could that even be legal? I I can't still be legal. I
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I don't know. I think it is kind of one of these things where there's there's two types of sort of situations. like
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it's, you know, we're not going to get into the legalities of renting long-term and short-term and stuff, but if you're
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looking, maybe it was an apartment that was really designed for more short-term and they wanted it to be available in
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the summer to rent out to someone that they could get more money for, so they didn't actually want someone in there long term. So, just always read your
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contracts. you know, you can go on to Google, translate them, have someone else look at them, double check
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everything, and just make sure there's because it is still a place where the rents will go up in the summer and the
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landlords might, you know, want extra money there. So, right. Um, I think that kind of
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especially if you're closer to the beach, too, because that's that beach rental thing. So, yeah, that is a thing, too. If you're coming here and you're
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looking for a shorter term rental cuz you're going to buy something and you come in um November, get a beach
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apartment because it will be very inexpensive compared to like living in the city if you're like we're only going to be there for a few months.
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This is so true. Yeah, it is a little harder to get places for shorter term, I think. So, you know, we when we moved,
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we were planning on renting for a year while we looked around, you know, and
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that seemed like a reasonable thing to do because not only if you're actually looking to buy, not only do you want to
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really get to know the areas, it also takes a while to close on a on a house here on an apartment. So, that's not
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something How long, if I may ask, how long did it take you to close? Um, two months.
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Okay. And it and then if you put August in the middle of it, could be three months. I mean, you have to be I'm not saying it's
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going to take that long. If you want a mortgage, if if if I mean, these things, right? It's not like in America, and I don't
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know what it's like in England and other countries, but in America, you if you want a mortgage, you can go to the bank,
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you can get everything pre-approved, and you're and then literally you could find a place and sign in 3 days and you get
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the keys and the bank's already on board, right? Well, here the bank's going to want to see the house. They're going to want to
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evaluate the house for themselves. So that has to happen and then then they will approve the mortgage and then the
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mortgage has to go maybe to Barcelona and Madrid and Zarago and Valencia and then back to Madrid and then come back.
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I mean it's like it has to be approved and then you can go to the notary and sign for everything. So it just is a bit
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of a process and so if you find a place don't tell your landlord we're going to be out by the end of the month. No.
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But also, I think it's nice to sit around somewhere, especially in a country that you don't haven't lived before, and and kind of get to know the
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area a little bit. For sure. I I'm glad we've we've been renting because I now have explored the
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city more than I ever would have, and now I'm much more open to neighborhoods I never even considered before that
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because it's just you look at a map, if you're not there, you're like, "That looks so far away." And then you get here and you're like, "Oh, that is
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actually very close." It's not far. Like, it's, you know, it's oh, this is not where everyone wants to move. Well, I don't know why
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there's some great restaurants over here, right? So, it's and and the more you see, the more you
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know about the quality of the homes and bathrooms and kitchens and I mean all that stuff. It's just Yeah.
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Um and I think that's so that pretty much covers housing. I mean, that's been our experience. That's what we did. Um
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and that cost is is pretty sort of comparable, I think. Can I bring up what I thought was my biggest sticker
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shock when we first arrived, which it still kind of is, is is the price of
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groceries and the markets like coming back. I mean, you sounded worried like what's
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he going to talk about? Oh my god. It's like
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Yeah. But I remember I and I I may I I tell this story a million times so maybe I've
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told it here but when we first arrived and we went to the grocery store and uh we got all this stuff and plum my my
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youngest was like dad we got to go we got to go when she saw the bill I was like honey I'm packing up the cart relax
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that's not legally behind yeah I'm like what was your rush she goes did you see that price they forgot
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to ring up stuff and I was like we didn't steal anything,
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honey. That is the price. And it was definitely a huge discount. And then what we was like I think we spent like
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€120 on our our first grocery spree that and
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that was to stock an empty refrigerator, empty cabinets and it was a huge amount
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of stuff. I laid it out on my on my counters and I sent the picture to our friends back to how much this cost and
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they're like €400 and I was like nope 100. But isn't it funny though? It's
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like so now like Jawad likes to go to the farmers market and get the fresh produce and all this type of thing and
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he's he's very good at going to all the because he does most of the shopping. So I would he you still within the much
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lower range of what things cost, you start getting horrified when prices go up, right?
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100%. Once you've been here for a while. So, this is like um I don't know how to say
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this, but it's like you do get used to things and then you're kind of back in
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your norm of what things cost. So, then we had we had we've had this issue and
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this is something that I think started in COVID, which is that the farmers markets or the you can't actually pick your own stuff
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in the ones that we have around here that we've been to. They just give you a bag of stuff and half of it might be bad
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and half of it might not be. So, you're not getting the benefit of the lower cost in some of those places. So, we
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were asking around and saying like, "Has anyone got a place where we can pick our own stuff?" And D. Well, we found one.
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You found because that's a cultural thing. It's very cultural here not to be able to handle your own food at the markets, not at the supermarket.
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Well, now you say cultural thing, but I think it's something that started in CO um in my opinion, but I could be wrong.
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So, we'll leave that on the table cuz I don't know. But what happens then? Dear listeners, do our research for us.
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research and let us know anybody that's been here longer than us cuz we landed right there like so we have no idea. Um
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but what we what you have to so you there's these futa e um bedura places
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like all over the city and all over everywhere often right next to supermarkets and all they sell is the
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fruit and vegetables and I don't know maybe some jars of tomato sauce or something but they're very basic like an
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indoor farmers market right and those places I think generally have to be a bit
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cheaper because they're surviving next to supermarkets so they have to be cheaper than the supermarkets
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Um, well, also, yeah, in my experience, there's two types in the city. There are the ones that have
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the secondhand fruits and vegetables and the ones that are the more upscale and they have that seems like the mini
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central markets, right? Like they have the really fresher fruit, but then there's like the the um these lesser
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ones where the fruit's kind of like that's you're going to eat that fruit that day. That's the Absolutely. And we've been given bags of
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strawberries where it's like the half of this is not good. And so you're kind of by the end of it the price is pretty
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similar to going to a supermarket and getting a nice pretty box of pretty strawberries. Right. Right. And but we but those places tend to be I
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think you can pick your own a little bit more. So that's a way to do kind of a farmers market in a place where you can
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pick your own. And we did get a really good hookup in this place that is huge and has really good stuff and their
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prices are amazing. And you have to put on one of the um plastic gloves, right?
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Which is fine. And then you pick your own stuff. So we're Jawad's feeling really happy and and uh you know excited
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about all the fruit and vegetables and everything he brings back from there. We can eat it all. So it's super Yeah.
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Okay. So, like again, even within the the very low cost of what it costs to
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buy stuff at a at a farmers market, we're still looking for a better deal. Well, it's it's now your economy, right?
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It's not as cheap as when you moved here because it's you're not living that way, right? And so, and
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um it's our life now, right? So, I get mad. I mean, I was there's the baguette when I first moved here. They were, you know, I think this one back with
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baguette was like 58 and I was like, "Oh my gosh, that would be $5.99 in LA and
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it went up to 62 and I about I about threw a fit and now it's up to 65 and
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it's it's about it's a good 3 cm shorter than it used to be." I know that cuz it used to love the bag. Yeah. I'm like,
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"Oh, this they're doing that little trick on us, you know." And I think ours our baguettes and consume our local
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supermarket are somewhere between like 80 cents and 115 or something. They're
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sort of in that range depending on the It's expensive, right? I'm like, well, smell you. Someone got
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it. Yeah. And you know, obviously like anywhere in the world, different supermarkets, different prices, but I would say a monthly grocery bill like
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we're looking at what do you think for for for like two people? maybe like
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400 a month. For a family, it's like for our family, our grocery bill is closer to 800. I don't know about
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so between 150 and 200 a week maybe for for food and that doesn't include sort of that's just literally your grocery
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bill if you're cooking like both to to be fair both you and I we're all cooking almost every meal at home and we do go
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out occasionally but we cook a lot. Um Right. So that's your grocery bill if you're going to be cooking and actually you
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know cooking your food yourself mostly. And I think we kind of mentioned and and
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I'm sure other people have mentioned it and stuff is that you know Spain has what Spain has. So there is going to be
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a little bit of a shock coming from like America or England where the grocery stores have the foods from all over the
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worlds and everything's at your disposal on every corner here. Spanish grocery stores have Spanish foods and that's
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what they serve. So if you want all your different fancy French and Italian cheeses, they're not going to have it.
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And so some stores will have them and you can find a French store and you can find an Italian market and those things
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and get that and you'll pay the premium for having imported stuff. Um like if
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you want your GIF peanut butter, you're going to have to find that in an American store and pay €8 a jar. But
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Mercadana has it. Um you said I think you've mentioned Consume has the other stores have their own kind of peanut
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butter. It's not that exotic here. It's not some places where you can never find peanut butter. Well, when we first moved
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here, it was not very accessible and it was in a really weird part of the store with the protein like gym people food
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and and now they've kind of moved it and now like literally last week they added
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a crunchy peanut butter. This none of this appeals to me. It's also disgusting. But, you know, that ended up
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in our house somehow. I was like, now we have crunchy. But also to that point, I mean, they have, you're right, because
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like it's all very Spanish cheeses and all this kind of thing if you just go to a regular supermarket. But they do have
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something that I love that has become a new favorite that I don't buy that often because it is quite expensive is a it's one of the Spanish hard cheeses and it's
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got ribbons of truffle in it. Oh, I love that one. Yeah, all the stores have it. All the truffle cheese.
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Yeah, it is so good. But that and I think and when she says it's really expensive, a block is like4 and
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it's a small block but it's like4. It isn't it's it's more expensive than my cheddar cheese and my other like cuz they have
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they do have really good cheeses in my opinion here in Spain. I mean it's different from your fancy French cheeses
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and stuff but they do have all these goats um sheep cow cheeses then they mix
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all of them. They like so their sort of standard hard cheeses are um they're
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very flavorful and delicious. Right. And they do have all this I'm sorry for interrupting, but they do have all this
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stuff here. It's just you're not going to find it at the one grocery store, right? You have to find your different markets, which is also an exciting thing
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because you then get to explore this the you get to explore the city. You know, you can find the Russian market that's
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going to have the thing and the Ukrainian and the Bulgarian markets and and all these other little markets that
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feed to these communities. We've talked about a the Hyper Asia store, the Asian market that if you need all your sauces,
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go to Hyper Asia. They've got they've got sauces galore, right? Can I tell you something I didn't tell
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you yet? Sure. What? In this in this uh fruit and vegetable place, guess what I found there?
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What? What? Horseradish. How random.
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Right. Like not a source, an act like actual horseradish roots. Oh. Oh, the the the the vegetable.
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Yeah. Yeah. The vegetable. Oh, wow. I haven't even seen that here, right? I've never seen it anywhere. I
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like I'm like I was going to leave it as a surprise and like get you one, but now you're like heading out next week and
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this I'm like I don't know if they'll still have it, but we have to go. Well, I have the jarred horseradish, but what I'm just thinking is uh if you need
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a little business, you could be start jarring this stuff. I mean, there's a lot of people in Valencia that would
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love some horseradish. So, those were some there are some things like you said that you just can't
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find and then they suddenly pop up somewhere totally random, which is which is, you know, that's fine. You just have
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to remember where you went. So, okay. Well, going moving on from
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groceries, we do have, you know, eating out obviously with kind of goes together. Um, and you did already
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mention the menu delia, which is just I think a very uniquely Spain thing as far
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as my travels and my experiences where it's I think so. It's so common,
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right? It's so common. I think there might be, you know, well, France has the prefix lunches and stuff, so I guess
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it's similar, but here it is. It is a cultural thing. Like that's it's kind of just what you do at lunch. You go to
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menu delia, right? It's Yeah. So you get three courses. You get, you know, a a starter and a main dish.
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And then you usually either picking a dessert or coffee, one or the other. And then if you want to have a drink, it
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it's usually extra. So it but it that the the price ranges from I would say 10
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is from 10 to 15 16 kind of on a usual basis if you're walking around looking
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at prices but you can get them for like €26. I mean there are places that have
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expensive ones but your general range if you're walking around looking at regular normal restaurants 10 to 16 I would say
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in the city right and I would say the place that's selling them for 26 your alak cart meal
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would probably be 60 for a person so it's definitely it's definitely worth the econ like if you're like that's too
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much for like would you really eat there for dinner because that's really going to hit your hit your pocketbook right and they might be doing a fancy
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you you know you'll see the New Year's Eve or something you know it's something special or some special holiday in
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Spain, they might up their prices and do something a little fancier even in any normal places, you know. And
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well, the menu delas do have different price points. It's the Monday through Friday price and then there's the Saturday, Sunday, and holiday price. So,
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they do. Yes. So, almost everywhere it's more expensive to eat out on the weekends and holidays. So, that you know you can they
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have like these they're very popular here. They seem to be everywhere. These buffets, these um where you're eating
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like Libé. So, it's like All you can eat, right? All you can eat buffets or you sit at the table and they bring the food you
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order on little pieces of paper or something and those are like 16 17 during the week, but they might pop up
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to like 25 on the weekend, right? Um and that you you can find those with
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um Chinese food, with um sushi, with all sorts of different things. And that's and paella. There's a couple in the
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city. All Spanish food. Yeah, we did try a pa one. I wasn't super impressed with the one that we tried,
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but you know, each to their own of that. What I thought was surprising about those places, have you noticed that some
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of them it's it's a height? So, if you're over the height Oh, yeah. They have a height measurement. Yeah. So,
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I don't care if you're 12, she's 6'2, she's paying the grown-up price. Totally. And if you have a if you're
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short, you might get the kid price if you're lucky. You never know. Hope so. We have to see. Is that
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So we had we have a restaurant that we love to go to for the menu delia and it was €10. So it was we were just like
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this is when we first moved we were like this is ridiculously amazing and and the chef was a like really really good. This
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was a point where Zena was only eating like if she had a burger it was literally meat in the bun. No ketchup,
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no nothing, no lettuce, nothing in it. So, we had ordered that and the chef actually came out to double check that
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that was what she wanted cuz he had never heard of anything so ridiculous. It's like a hamburger with nothing on
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it. Really, really nice. I remember those days. Yeah. So, we went we went back recently
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and um and the guy was just like, "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. It's moved. It's it's now €11."
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And he was so apologetic. I'm just I have to he's like explaining that the cost of all the food has gone up and
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we're like it's in in our heads we're like it's €11 it's still amazing right
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for what they're producing for €11 but it you know it was hard because you know things do go up and and nobody wants to
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upset um customers but I still think that's a great obviously still a great
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price for a menu. Well, I mean, I I think at that price point, you're like, do we do we slave in the hot kitchen or
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just go out? Right. Right. Exactly. Yeah. So, that that's definitely one of our treats. Um, just
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because it's also really good food. Um, and I think, you know, so that's kind of
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Yeah, I was going to say another sticker shock is the price of like coffee out, right? I mean, I mean, can you make it for that
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price at home when they're like it's a euro50? You're like, I I it cost me a euro to just wash my cup at home. You
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know what I Well, and I it's not that we've talked about this before. It's not my dream coffees. It is they are very
25:19
tiny. Um, so when we say that you're getting coffee for like a euro 20, euro50 or something, it's a tiny weenie
25:25
cup, which is fine. That is what it is. It's still a good deal. Espresso. It's espresso. But even the lattes are tiny.
25:32
Yes. But they're good. And then, you know, the other thing is is fast food. This is
25:38
one of the things that for me was we not we don't eat a lot of frost food, but
25:43
here when you have menu delas from a really nice restaurant cooking really good food and it costs more to go to
25:50
McDonald's, it really changes. I mean, I understand how the fast food makes it in in America because it's so much cheaper
25:57
and it makes sense for a lot of people to spend that, but here I You haven't been back in a while. In the
26:03
past few years, fast food has skyrocketed really, but so has the cost of food. So it might
26:08
still be comparable to what it would. It's not might still be cheaper than I mean, for a family of three to eat McDonald's, you're looking at 25 bucks.
26:15
So it is it's definitely you're like, well, it's not cheaper. Definitely not cheaper than you know, before fast food
26:20
was like on your way home, I don't want to cook. This will be five bucks to feed us. And you're now you're like it's 25 bucks. Well, I might as well cook
26:26
because I can do that for 10. Yeah. I mean, it's definitely like that here. Like if you're going to McDonald's or one of the fast food chains, it's going
26:32
to be comparable to any other way of eating here. So it's so now therefore it will be a choice of I want that not
26:40
it's like the fast food is a treat versus an a convenience. Exactly. Yeah.
26:45
Because um agreed. Yeah. But we did, you know, the Burger King
26:51
menu does have a cheap um thing. And the only time we ever get the Burger King is when we're coming home from the train,
26:56
like the big train station. And I'm like, you know, by the way, but you're ordering from the like the the little
27:01
menu where the burgers are like a a e50. I'm like, you can get three of those, but I'm not buying a waffle for €8 cuz
27:07
you can get three of those for cheaper because I am still a single dad on a budget. So yeah, I mean, if you're eating Happy Meals, you're probably still doing okay.
27:13
And you know, but yeah, it's very it's just it's kind of funny. Um, transportation is fun. So, I don't think
27:19
we're really even going to get into what it costs to have a car because I mean, you have to buy a car and then you've
27:24
got you got to pay for gas and it's a whole gas here is more expensive, but insurance is very cheap and we can do
27:30
like the the the insurance. Yeah. So, our insurance for the car is like 250 a
27:36
year and I was like Palomo at the grocery store when that happened. I was like, let's get out of here. This can't be right. Let's go.
27:43
And then in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, but what if we're not insured? and it, you know, it comes with like roadside service and like I'm like this
27:50
can't be right. So that is great. Um we Yeah. And we bought a we bought a
27:56
secondhand car and then you know that so you can obviously pay whatever you want
28:02
for a secondhand car. You know, you get what you pay for. And then um the cost, let me see if I get this right. Maybe
28:08
you can say it because I'm going to get it wrong because it's so weird. You pay more if the if there's two sticker prices. It might be €25,000 if
28:15
you give them cash and €22,000 if you finance it, which still works out to like the 25,000 after you've paid your
28:22
your interest or whatever stuff. But so that was a little you're getting hit
28:28
either way, but it is weird. Yeah. Now, what I want to know is there a penalty that if you're like, "All right,
28:34
I'll I'll agree to the 23 and in two months I'll give you the rest." And you don't get that like I'm sure there is always going to be a
28:40
penalty that will make the prices the same, right? Exactly. I think they've thought that out before
28:45
you have thought about it. I'm You think so? 150% sure. Yes.
28:51
And then we have if you want to lease a car, it's called renta. So that's very
28:56
confusing. Renta is called is leasing and then renting is another word, but so that's
29:02
confusing. And that's what if you want a search of what it costs to to lease a car, that's rent. You can look up that
29:07
which is very similar, right? You have to have a large down payment and a little monthly payment. I would say large. No, I mean, what's
29:13
large? Um, well, I looked at one car. I was looking and it was uh and it was like and it was
29:20
I think it might have been like a Mini Cooper, which is not an expensive car, but it was something like 7,000 down.
29:26
It's quite an expensive car, but yeah, I would say but like 200 a month, right? Yeah. What you Well, so if you could put
29:33
down less and your your lease payment will go up to 300. So what you put So when we went to rent our car, it was
29:39
like, how much are you going to put down? that will affect your price. So that's how that works, your what you put down. But if you're a foreigner coming
29:46
in and d you might find you have to put down more depending on how long you've lived here and all these things, right?
29:52
So if you have the choice of putting down various amounts, it will only just affect how much you pay per month.
30:05
Been looking that used car prices compared to America are very low. new car prices have been at a very high
30:11
premium in America for the past few years. So, I did notice when I was looking I had a little like, wow, that
30:16
is very inexpensive because, you know, I've toyed with the idea of leaving the city and and moving to the suburbs and
30:22
what what that economy would mean if we're saving this, but now I have to buy a car. And I was like, well, we can get a used car for a price that I don't
30:28
think we could find one back in the States. I'll just say that. Yeah. and and here in Valencia there's
30:33
definitely has been and it might be it might be coming out of that now but because of the Dana um the the used cars
30:40
the the necessity for those went up and the prices went up a little bit so that will eventually even out probably but
30:47
often when things go up they never come down right so who knows but still it's probably going to be a little bit
30:53
cheaper than doing it in America but you have also have maybe there's quite a few companies um that do that type of thing
31:01
sort of car maxi type places that you can go through and obviously you can also go and and do it individually.
31:08
Isn't flex car or something like that? Isn't one called flex car? I don't remember the names of them now honestly. Yeah, sorry.
31:17
And then the transportation the public transportation in the city is so expensive.
31:23
Not she means not expensive. But you know I will have to give with a
31:28
caveat. is like we can talk about the price of the public transport in the city but when you live in the city you
31:34
don't use public transport so they have like you know monthly cards I think the monthly card is like
31:40
37 or something like that to have like an unlimited card but we live in the city
31:46
and we buy a 10 pack for it used to be €4 I think it's gone up to six now
31:51
because it's also subsidized there's a a percentage discount for it and um but anyway what I was saying is if I buy a
31:58
10 pack. Sometimes that 10 pack lasts me two months. So, right. So, that's that's what we're talking about, right? We're talking
32:03
about what it actually costs. So, because it's such a walkable city, you realistically your monthly budget
32:10
for for public transportation is only like three bucks. It's penny. It's pennies a month, right?
32:17
It's it really is. And um and they do have this like government discount that
32:22
they renew every six months and part of it didn't get renewed. And um I think in a previous episode I had talked about my
32:28
daughter getting the the free Subway card. Well, my older one, it's no longer free. And if we want to use it, it's
32:34
going to be it's got a discount at like $14.90 a month, which is like, oh, that's
32:39
cheap. But she'll never spend that $14.90, so I'm just going to have to get her a 10 pack card for when
32:45
Yeah. And I mean, it depends. Yeah. I mean, in in reality, when we're talking about the actual cost of living
32:51
here, if you're not needing public transportation, it's going to be very cheap. Like what you just said, if you
32:56
have a kid that needs to take a bus to school every day or something, then you're going to be using a monthly card probably and it's still very
33:01
inexpensive. So you said what 14 14 140 for the youth card. So it's 14 to 14
33:08
to um 14 to 30 years old can use that. And then if you're an adult and you want a monthly, it's how much roughly?
33:15
I want to say it's like 30 something. So if that's something you need for for work or something, then that's kind of
33:21
roughly what that would cost. But like you said, I mean, chances are you'll live in walking distance. Whether you
33:27
want to walk it every day or not, it's up to you. And if you're coming here as a worker, you still might be not needing it cuz
33:32
you're going to be living close probably close to work. You know, I think the people are going to really need if you move to the suburbs and you find you're
33:37
coming to the city every day, you'll definitely or further out like the further reaches of the city,
33:42
right? And I think I think for me the the the biggest kind of immediate shock
33:49
for pricing was the internet and phones because we were spending in America I
33:55
want to say something like 180 or 200 a month or something for Comcast for just
34:01
like Wi-Fi and then we had like our phones on top of it. I mean so our bills
34:06
for you for like for like the internet and phones was a lot. It was it was
34:11
really a lot and and it's so different here. I want to say for our back in the states
34:18
with the two phone lines, the internet, the Wi-Fi and our and the streaming services and the cable and we put all
34:24
that all together. I think it was close to 450500 a month and I was like and you were like, "Okay." And then we can talk
34:31
about what you pay what I Yeah. I would say here, I mean, look,
34:36
we're going to leave the leave the subscription services aside, even though yours is kind of connected, but for me, I'll leave it aside, which is that we my
34:43
phone is €18 a month, and that covers me international, like calls to England,
34:50
like unlimited to England, unlimited around um which obviously is important to me, but also unlimited to the US and
34:56
unlimited around Europe. And that is and just yeah it has a bit limited data I
35:03
think but I've never reached it um because obviously we use Wi-Fi a lot here for a lot of calling as well and a
35:09
lot of once you're in the house you're using that and then for our Wi-Fi and
35:14
one phone we pay 40 and it's great Wi-Fi and then that so that so between so
35:21
we've got you know more or less 60 for two phones and Wi-Fi and I think our
35:27
Wi-Fi does actually come with like TV and some apps and things and channels, but we never connected it. So, I don't
35:34
know. But I think it does. Well, we pay like 115 and
35:40
115. 115. Yeah. Then that's for two. Yeah. Not one5.
35:47
Well, I just want to be clear. It might be like a baguette. Your very expensive baguette at 115.
35:53
Exactly. We pay 150. That's for two two lines with unlimited data, unlimited voice.
36:01
Um, we only get 200 minutes international. Europe is free, but like
36:06
to the UK, China, United States, I we get 200 included. I think it's 200. We
36:12
get included with that. But it also does include our our Wi-Fi, internet, um,
36:18
Amazon, Disney, and and um, Netflix. So, if you add all those together, it's
36:24
probably comparable. Now, to be fair, my phone will work if I move if I go to England, but it does not work if I go to
36:30
the States. I can call to the States, but I can't take it to the States and use it. It's like that whole thing is
36:37
does not work. So, I think we're probably pretty similar on that. And I don't know about my phone on that because I haven't been back to the
36:42
States and that wasn't like a priority for me. And then because of all the Wi-Fi the Wi-Fi stuff, I all my friends
36:48
were talking either through like FaceTime, iMessage, or WhatsApp, right? of the the calling but I did get I do
36:55
pay for the 200 because if I have to call England's a landline number then
37:00
you know if I have to call a landline number that um internationally that's why I did get
37:06
that service but that was probably the one where I was like this can't be real like it's so I mean and also we had no choice it's
37:13
such it's monopoly like Comcast had a monopoly everywhere that we lived um before and we had no choice but to go
37:19
with them and it was like really um frustrating and expensive. Um
37:26
so uh I think yeah so we're very happy with those prices but you do get used to it. I mean if I had to go back to the
37:32
states and pay those prices I'd just be like no can't do it right.
37:38
Um so utilities kind of you know since we're doing that electricity I will say that is a big fear. If we h
37:44
if there's a reason we we have to go back to the states I was like I don't want to pay those prices again and I don't want to buy another vacuum
37:49
cleaner. I don't want to buy all this stuff again. Again, again, that goes back to what we said at the beginning. You get used to it and that is what
37:56
things cost now because you know, you know that it can be. So, yeah. Um, all
38:01
right. So, electricity, water, utilities, the other things. Um, the other fun stuff that we need to
38:07
discuss. So, so I think it's what I mean you have a much larger square metered place than we do and I I feel like our
38:15
budgets are are similar except that there's the caveat, right? you don't have, you know, the the central heat and
38:22
air and but you have square footage and um we have we have teenage daughters so
38:28
they they they use water a lot different than we do. You have two, I have one, so it probably evens out. I mean, we don't have central
38:35
AC and heating. Um, I think, you know, we do have friends that, you know, have
38:41
a have a house and had central heating and decided to switch to the system that
38:46
we use in our house because it was so expensive to heat the whole house. So, as nice as that sounds, that is
38:52
incredibly expensive. Um, which is fine for some. That was that that was the reverse sticker shock here is that the utilities
38:59
were much more expensive than what I was used to in LA. That's my experience. So, I know people who live in places like
39:05
Vegas where their electricity bills are ridiculous compared to what I was paying. Yeah. I mean, it depends. So, we have,
39:11
you know, what we we don't have AC, but we have a pool and we're in the mountains, so it's a bit cooler. And
39:16
then we have um sort of electrical like plug-in electrical radiators that we
39:22
move. So, we don't we don't heat rooms that we're not in. Um and that's and and that is something that even people like
39:29
I was saying that have houses might do. you have you have friends upstairs that have a super fancy system where they can
39:34
do that with the central because they have multiple points. But generally speaking, that's not how it works. And
39:40
if you have a big house and it has central air and heat, be ready for a really big bill and be prepared for
39:45
that. And and you doesn't stop you from not using it. And there not it is not too hot or too cold here. You will
39:51
survive. You will not die either way. It's just how you if you want to be comfortable
39:57
um you can move to a system. Like we lived in an apartment that had that was didn't have central air and heat. It had
40:05
it had the units in each room and that I loved that because we didn't have to heat or air have air conditioning on
40:12
rooms we weren't using. So I love that. And it is much better on on your budget. For sure.
40:17
For sure. Yeah. Yeah. I would wish we would have had the splits, too, because this place that we have rooms that we're
40:22
not always in. For sure. And our our gas was really really expensive and so we
40:28
bought some electric heaters and I mean I will have like the gas on for like an hour before we go to bed and then
40:35
get through it kids and here's here's some electric heaters for your rooms because you got but what I what I should mention and I
40:42
am not an expert on this and I'm just learning about this is that here there are different electric
40:48
companies in different gas companies and it would behoove you to shop around which I was told it would behoove me to.
40:53
I just didn't do it. So, this winter, I'm gonna go in and shop around before the gas bill comes because someone told
40:59
me there's, "Oh, no, you're paying too much. It should be this." And so, yeah. Um, I'll get back to you that when I
41:05
decide to shop around, yeah, but I mean, you are sometimes left with whatever you have if you're renting
41:10
possibly. So, for our electricity, I mean, we're looking I mean, it's much higher in the winter because we're heating with electricity and then it
41:16
gets very low in the summer because we're hardly using any. So, more or less €80 a month. Um, if we spread it out and
41:23
then for water, I think we were pretty similar on water, right? We were like
41:28
I pay about 40 bucks. 40. Sorry. 404.
41:34
So, we were pretty similar on water. Even though we I mean, we have a pool. It doesn't seem to make a lot of
41:39
difference in the in the price. I mean, even when we had to fill it up, I was, "Oh my god, we're going to have a bill for like €1,000 or something." And it
41:46
only ended up being like €250. It wasn't even that much more and that was pretty shocking. So we might be, you know,
41:53
um kind of because we're up in the hills, maybe ours is a little cheaper. I don't know. We're not in the middle of
41:59
the city. What was your electrical was? I mean, our electrical. Yeah. So we were pretty similar, I think, on that.
42:05
I think so. I mean, my electric is like about 160 a month. I mean, see, I've never not used the heater, air
42:11
conditioning, but like our our our electric bill is actually cheaper in the summer than it was because our electric
42:17
and gas is one bill and I'm not parsing it out. Yeah, that's difficult. But in the winter, if we use the gas radiator, it it if we use So, we have
42:24
two. We have central air heat and we also have radiator heat. So, we have gas for heat, but we also have electric
42:30
heat. And Oh, interesting. So, you got two heating systems on you. systems
42:36
and I thought the gas would be so cheap and then we used the gas and the bill came 800 bucks for two months and I was
42:42
like what does this what so then we moved to the electric but then that bill
42:47
went up and then I'm just like and and I really don't like heat so I try not to use it I mean because I'd rather not be
42:54
dried out waking up every morning feeling like I I got a head cold you know so but anyway that's either here or
43:01
there but I wanted to say you had mentioned something something we hadn't talked about and popped into my brain which is you had said you might not have
43:07
control over your utilities when you rent and that is true. So we have control over our utilities. I had to
43:14
sign everything over into my name. Water is a weird and it's a little off topic but just put
43:19
it in is that you have to like move the water over to your name but not say that
43:24
you you have to make sure in the contract with the water company it showing that you're getting the bill but
43:30
you don't have the residence because it messes everything up. it it becomes it goes into frame and it's um messes up
43:36
for the landlord. But we have control over who where our power comes from. But I do know people that are renting and
43:43
their landlord just send but they don't want to go through the hassle of switching electricity and stuff to
43:49
tenants. So you're stuck with whatever the landlord has chosen. But you do you do have control over how
43:54
much you're using. So like you know everyone's had that experience where they think everything is cheaper here and not everything is cheaper here and
44:00
you just have to watch out. And we don't have gas coming into the house, but we watch which is very common. We just have
44:06
gas tanks, butane um tanks for certain things, which are our um our water
44:12
heater and our stove top, which we could have got an electric one, but we have
44:17
fancy cooks in this house and they wanted, you know, fire. So, we have a we have a stove top that takes that. But
44:23
the but those things are like 17 18ish. Um that's gone up a lot since we moved
44:29
here, too. about, let's say, €18 for one butane tank. And for the stove top, that lasts us several months. That lasts a
44:36
long time. But for the water heater, as discussed before, maybe a month or two at the most, I think we'll go through
44:43
that. Um, but again, I'm I'm on the it's not that cold here, right? So, if it
44:48
runs out because everyone's using it a lot, I'm like, well, everyone's just going to suffer a little bit so they don't take such long showers. It's cold
44:54
showers for the next two days, right? Until someone can go get a new tank. So
44:59
there you go. And right now in this heat, you want the cold showers. You do. So again, to that point, I would
45:05
say the the the butane tank is going to last a lot longer in the summer than it does in the winter, you know, but they
45:12
will inevitably run out when you have guests staying, you know, right in the middle of a shower, cuz there's there's no like gauge on
45:19
those things. There's I was going to ask you, is there a meter on it? Nothing. I mean, you if you if you want to be bothered, you can
45:24
go sort of lift it and see how you're doing, but it No, there's nothing. But those tanks are heavy to begin with.
45:30
How do you know, right? They're a lot lighter when they don't have gas in them. Oh, really? Much like tremendously. It's kind of an
45:37
interesting thing. But not I'm not going in there and checking because I I'm I'm fine with a cold shower, but yeah, it's
45:42
it's always that's always the fun part. I I think um you know, as we're talking
45:48
about our expenses, right? So there's something that you need to have before you step foot on the ground here, right?
45:54
Which is the healthcare. So um you know it you shop that around um because
46:01
there's a a bunch of companies to go through and and also every couple years shop it around if you're still using the
46:07
private insurance because you have to have private insurance as a foreigner to step foot on the ground here before be
46:12
even before you step foot you have to have your insurance taken care of to get your visas. like it's just you can't get
46:18
around it and you can't get into that public health here until after you've been here for a year and all that stuff.
46:23
So, you have to do it, but it is still you have to pay it all up front, but it is still very inexpensive. Now, it
46:30
depends on if you have pre-existing conditions and that well and your age will raise it, but compared to what you
46:36
know, I mean, compared to the states, you know, which has no kind of national health care system, you know, it was
46:42
very inexpensive for a family of three. It's incredibly inexpensive. If you're shopping around, every health care
46:47
provider that's that's helping you will know um there is like a visa health care
46:54
plan that you know which is a full coverage which means we've never paid for anything other than
47:00
um medicine extra medicine which has not come up to much but the odd medicine you have to pay a little bit for right um
47:07
but the medicine is a lot cheaper too um not talking for all medicine because I don't know but it's when if we go into
47:13
the emergency room if we go to the doctor. Um, it's all it's all included
47:18
and it's fantastic. And I would say that's Yeah. I mean, you walk in and you walk out. It's you're not getting a bill. I
47:24
mean, it's So, when you you you say if you pay like €2,000, I mean, we paid less than that for a family of three,
47:30
but I'm only one person was the for a year. So, we're looking at like 50 to 100 a
47:36
month per person roughly probably. Yeah. Something I would say like that. And then there is no other
47:41
expenses. So, you're like, "Oh, that's a sticker shop." But they're like, "Kill, let's go to the doctor because Well, how is that sticker shock? I mean,
47:46
our insurance was like 2,000 a month. So, that is not even sticker shock for me. Oh my god. That's that's So, we I wasn't
47:53
paying that. But, yes. Yeah. But we never we never had a good insurance. Like, we've always worked for ourselves. We've never had insurance
47:59
come through a company. Unfortunately for us, we're never in the parameters of
48:05
of a good situation where where we were getting good health care, which of course is I mean the good and
48:11
bad. So when we moved here, that was literally a monthly fee for us if you
48:16
know and it was like the whole year. That's a huge thing. So we were like, yay.
48:23
Yeah. So I think you know 2,000 a year for us considering that's what we were paying more or less monthly for really
48:29
bad insurance. here. It covers the whole year and it is full coverage like you said 100% like other than a fee other
48:35
than med but you can you can add drug um you can add a drug insurance as well to
48:42
the to most insuranceances which pays more into that was never that was never offered to
48:49
me. I'm going have to I had two different brokers. Oh really? So there's extra drug and extra dental. there's, you know, there's
48:55
one cleaning is included, but you can pay for more in both those areas, but that is not needed for your for your
49:01
visa insurance, but you could, if that's something that you're going to need a lot of, see what the price is. And I
49:07
don't know, I don't know what the what the price is with the drugs that we needed. It didn't pan. It didn't work
49:13
out to be worth it. Might as well just Okay. Um, so so yeah, so for us, the health
49:20
insurance was probably one of the reasons that we moved here. Now we're on
49:25
um we're autonom and we're paying into the system. We get the local um SIP card
49:31
and that's um you know just a a different system and not everything is included there either.
49:37
I mean we've we I think we've both come across um vaccinations that are not
49:42
included that needed to be paid extra. Right. Right. I have one coming up for one of my daughters because it would it would
49:48
have been covered if she got it at birth, but now old because now she's old and it wasn't. It's an older vaccine in
49:54
the it's a vaccine given to older kids in the states. Um,
49:59
and here it's given at birth or maybe it wasn't around when they were born. I don't know. But that can't be right because it's I don't know.
50:05
Who knows? I ain't there. I'm here. All I know is I have to pay for this vaccine. And that was like like it's €200 for this vaccine
50:12
for it's a 100red per shot. And I was like, and then it's like just remember you haven't like paid anything for two years. I mean,
50:19
you have to put it in perspective. Yeah, you really do. You know, I will say when I see um people post or complain about
50:28
like even the tax situation, which is a lot. I did see someone break down on one
50:34
of the boards the other costs and they're like, "So, you're complaining that you have to pay this amount in
50:40
taxes." is like say they had to pour 14,000 in taxes but they saved like 20,000 when it came into healthare and
50:46
all that they're like you're still net 6,000 and that's different for everyone but also think about that is when you're
50:53
looking at taxes think about the overall cost of living and what that means to you like we have this hate to pay taxes
50:59
but think about what you're getting for your taxes here and how that trickles down into the cost of transportation. Yeah. I think I think in
51:05
that in that regard the health care for us was a big deal because I think unless you are sort of independently wealthy in
51:12
a in a large way the miscellaneous amount of things that you might need to pay for the surprise costs of healthcare
51:19
when you're living in the states if somebody gets sick or you break a bone or something can really put you out like
51:25
they can take you out completely. So the fact that that is no longer a thing that
51:30
can happen is a huge relief. So that is that for us was like it that that I
51:36
think was a big deal in in regards to the health care is is that not not maybe what your health care has cost you in
51:42
the last couple of years but what it could cost you if something were to happen and that's where I think for me that's
51:48
where the difference lies. Um so anyway 50 to 100 a month for a person. Um and
51:54
that might go up uh a bit if you're a bit older. Um because it it will go up like anywhere else. It will go up as you
52:00
get older. Ours goes up a little bit every year just because of that. All right. Should we should we
52:06
He goes up every year and that's why you want to shop around because another company might come in cheaper and save you some money. But um
52:13
so should we do like the boring things like gyms? Well, I was going to say let's do the fun things. Let's do the miscellaneous
52:19
lifestyle stuff which is all the stuff you actually want to do if you have time. Maybe some of you are coming here
52:24
to retire and you have time to do some of these things. So um yeah. So, I do
52:30
have a gym membership and um it it's slowly working and
52:35
and how much are you paying? I just so you know, you have to you have to go to it to actually work. But anyway,
52:40
I thought just the membership was was enough. Isn't that how it works? You can't just pay I thought
52:45
I mean this is how like 80% of people use gyms, so it's got to be how it works. Exactly. Right. I bought lettuce. Why am
52:52
I not losing weight? So So I pay 31 euros a month. 30 something
52:59
like that. That seems very comparable to what it costs around outside of the city too. I would say around 30 to 35 a month
53:07
and you can pay up to 60 to 100 depending how fancy your gym is. Yeah. I mean if you want something that the
53:13
fancy people go to. I mean no no place is immune from appealing to fancy people or people who want to think they're
53:19
fancy. But even like the gym down this street that has an indoor pool is like 60 a month and it's a tiny tiny pool.
53:26
So, I'm not I'm not going to that one. And if you're not going to go to the gym, then you Yeah. So, you can also pay
53:33
€60 to not go to the gym. You might as well pay it on and get some menu delas out of that, I think, if you're not
53:39
going to go do the opposite. I think so. We also you also have um poly deportivos, which is like the rec
53:45
centers. Um they're kind of everywhere. And you can pay I mean Zena was doing a
53:51
a gymnastics class in one of those and it cost like €5 a month for her to do
53:57
that and it was like two classes a month. I um and I'm just finding out this now because Thanks.
54:02
Well, you've got a Well, I don't think I think your your daughter is a little beyond that in her fancy ballet.
54:08
No, but my other daughter could do things. And then some of them have pools, but they pretty much all
54:14
have some kind of activities that that the kids can join in regard they might have tennis courts, they might not, but
54:19
they probably have basketball and some activities. And they're all it's a rec center. It's like a YMCA, so it's very
54:25
very reasonable. And the ones that we Yeah, the ones that we've been to have been have been really nice. And some of
54:32
them have some of them in the out here. There's I mean full running tracks and everything if if that's what you need.
54:39
So, um, and some of them will do, um, sort of I I haven't seen, but they'll do
54:46
classes, but I haven't seen a lot of sort of, um, what do you call it? Like leagues and things that you can join.
54:51
It's more like your sort of So, I you'd have to look into it if you have a kid or you're interested in something specific, but it is a really
54:58
good resource for for that. And and yeah, they might have gyms, too. And there's tennis clubs and paddle
55:04
courts and things like that. And I think you I think they're like 10 p 10 year olds a person or something like that to
55:10
join. Yeah, I I like to play paddle. So it's usually a€ 10 per person sort of situation if you're not playing like I
55:18
mean somebody might be a member of a club and everybody can go for for free or sometimes the club is still charging
55:23
everybody that comes to to play if they're not members. So it depends on that and that's more of an outside of
55:29
the city thing. If you're going to one of the indoor courts or one of the indoor places that has a bunch of courts
55:34
in the city like Aldoro or something, it's going to be like €10 a person and I that's pretty reasonable.
55:40
Um, and then movie tickets. I mean, we have
55:45
that is now that was a that was a happy day for me. The first movie that we saw
55:50
when we first moved here and I paid and I was like, "Kids, run inside. Run
55:56
inside. Just it can't be right because for But the for the three of us, we went to see Barbie when we first
56:03
moved here and we went and and it was I think it was around €25 for the three of
56:08
us. Two large popcorns and two large sodas and the tickets was like €25 and back in the States that would have been
56:13
closer to 100. And I was like three people. Holy. Oh yeah.
56:18
Tickets in the States are close to 20 bucks a piece now. And then you know three kernels of
56:24
I mean the popcorn and the drinks are ridiculous. I mean, so the the movie theater that we have out here that's
56:29
close to the city, it's in like a a mall type place. I mean, the movies are €10.90, €10.90 for a normal regular
56:37
ticket. They do cheaper week Wednesdays which are €7.90. And then if you're doing like 3D or something fancy, they
56:44
have 15 €15.70 for like 3D 4D stuff. Um, which they do.
56:50
And some of them obviously have fancier seats and this type of thing. And then they do have the odd if you sign up and
56:56
you join their app and stuff, sometimes they'll do like five euro a day. Um, now the the thing about some of
57:02
those is they may not be offering the they may or may not be offering the the original version for those some of those
57:09
things. Gotcha. I think that's a pretty good deal. We well ours the city the cinema that we go
57:14
to in the city um there is a little club and so we get the discounts and it there's and it there's we can get the
57:22
discount any day and I think there is more discount on a different day but we still get a family rate discount um on
57:28
any day that we choose and if we buy the popcorn with it. So it was like, "Wow, this is now unfortunately we don't get to we don't go to the movies,
57:34
but yeah, the more you go, the more discounts probably." They have apps and the app for the movie theater near us
57:40
was not working super well, but they do like our village here and I they I'm sure they do that in the city somewhere
57:46
in the in the park. I mean, we have movies, free movies outdoors at night. I
57:51
mean, there's tons of activities you can do for free. Yeah. I mean I mean that's like anywhere
57:56
else. But as far as what things cost, that if you're going to go to the movies, that's what that's going to cost. And we have a bowling alley, but
58:02
we haven't been yet. And we were going to go do the that um go-karting thing,
58:07
and we haven't done that yet. So, I don't know what those things cost. So, on our list to do is going and
58:14
bowling because my kids love bowling, and we haven't done that since we've been here. Now, I think it's about that
58:19
time we should probably wrap things up. So, should we give like a budget for like two people based on what what we know?
58:25
Based on what we know as two families with three people, we're going to do a two person budget. That makes sense.
58:32
Sure. Two person BA basically. And we're just not getting into the extras. You guys do
58:38
your own extras obviously because everyone's different. But this will be kind of your basics. Go.
58:44
Right. Basic. So I think for rent for a two-bedroom apartment because a onebedroom and two-bedroom apartments
58:49
are about the same price, so you might as well get the extra room. Um, and so I would say you can find something between
58:55
9 and 1,200. We've discussed you can go up to two and 3,000 for sure, but 9 to 1200 gives you a good range in a bunch
59:03
of neighborhoods. So that's fine. Um, and I think for Yeah, utilities we're looking at like
59:08
maybe €100 a month. Um, that might obviously vary like everything is going to vary based on
59:13
certain things, but um, and then go ahead, you do the next one. the the phone your internet and phone about 60
59:21
plus whatever kind you know if you're going to do the subscription so you want to see if it's better to do alakart or if you might find a bundle
59:27
that's true yeah that might come with it and then groceries like we talked about um roughly €400 a month
59:34
would be pretty right and and then when it comes to public transportation or just getting
59:39
around whether it's transport or having a car the price is between 60 cents to owning a car
59:45
60 cents to everything you to everything or walking.
59:50
Or walking. Yeah. To free. It could go to free to everything, right? And
59:56
and eating out. I mean, that's I mean, you could eat out for €100 a month and
1:00:01
you would eat out maybe, you know, couple of times a week, I would think.
1:00:07
I think so. I mean, if you getting finally menu delas for uh €10 a piece, that's 2020 20 a meal. Five meals a
1:00:14
month there. You've you've eaten. And I will say wine and beer. a nice restaurant. Yeah, wine and beer is very very cheap here, but you can still rack up a bill.
1:00:20
So, obviously, if you're adding wine and beer and you're drinking a lot of it, it it's going to go up.
1:00:26
Exactly. Exactly. But I I I would say that, you know, even a hundred bucks. Say if you're a person that just wants to have one nice dinner in, you can eat
1:00:33
out for two people for €100 for a at a really really nice restaurant. Yeah. Like the fancy steakhouse place,
1:00:39
you're going to get you can get That's a good point. Yeah. You could do a lot of little things or one or two nice nicer things. Yeah, for sure. And
1:00:47
then we just threw in like €100 of miscellaneous because I'm not sure that's just extra things that might come
1:00:55
up, I guess. And then health insurance, you're looking at about 100 a person. Um,
1:01:00
depending on your age, it could be less or more, but that's a kind of rough estimate. And then we obviously have a
1:01:05
huge difference in home insurance because we have a house. So, we're looking at like €50 a month for our
1:01:10
house. Because you also own and that's got mortgage insurance. because we own it, we're responsible for it. So, you're
1:01:16
renting for everything. So, there is also your the owner of your apartment will have an insurance on that
1:01:23
apartment, too. But your part for the whole building. Yeah. My mine represents the people that get hurt or
1:01:28
the things that get broken inside the apartment. I pay 150 for the whole year. Yeah. So, obviously significantly
1:01:34
different. Um, and we did not recalculate what that actually comes to. So somebody else
1:01:40
I would say I would say about 2 to 2,200 a month that's probably comes out to for
1:01:46
two people that's a it's a good place a good starting and you haven't really at this point
1:01:51
with that price you really haven't sort of gone shopping or fixed a major thing that might have gone wrong in your house
1:01:57
or I don't know if you're renting that's fine not your responsibility but you know if you choose to add a pet or two
1:02:03
onto that you know these sorts of life things that happen um you know you would
1:02:09
need obviously more than that but that would cover your basics. Um we are not accounting for you
1:02:15
shopping at you know El Corting for like all your clothes and all your everything and your know
1:02:22
Yeah. And also there are there is a range here right? I mean we have Primark and Lefties and places where you can get
1:02:29
just a colored t-shirt for not very much and then you can go buy fancier things. So there there is a range of of good
1:02:35
shopping opportunities here where you can be frugal or less frugal as you as so as you choose.
1:02:41
I think um I think that kind of covers our very
1:02:46
how we have managed to merge into the Spanish lifestyle and and then totally
1:02:51
got used to it and complain about the pricing. That's how it works. Yeah. Yeah. How how we how we were
1:02:57
shocked and now we're shocked, right? Like we were pleasantly shocked and now every time we go, "What do you mean
1:03:02
three extra cents for that bottle of water?" And then was, you know, you you are the same person here. So if you're the
1:03:08
person that's like, "Where did you get the best deal on this back home?" You're going to be that person here after a
1:03:13
while. You know, totally where did you find those? You got them for how much? What? Where? And you know,
1:03:19
and after you've lived here a while then too, people who I don't know if you've had this moment, I'll just end this with this that I've had people, oh, can you
1:03:26
believe I only paid €5 for this? I was like, "Five years, you get that for free." You totally got hosed. I mean,
1:03:32
oh, what a new, right? That's so funny. No, absolutely true. So, you know, I hope that helps
1:03:38
anyone that's listening to have a bit of a budget idea. Um, and you know, that's
1:03:44
us. There you go. Till the next time. Awesome. All right. Bye.
1:03:49
Ago. Hey, can't get enough of us? Follow us
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