Ah Spain!

AI generated, please excuse any errors!

0:08
Welcome to a Spain. Hi Gaetano. How's it going? It's going Bueno. Tania A2.
0:14
Oh my bien. Yeah. Well, it's still a little hot, but we're getting we're cooling off a little bit and I'm loving that. But you have an Aspane for us
0:21
today. Right. I do have an ah spain and ironically it goes with today's episode. So, my my
0:27
youngest daughter is been wanting a what is called a C curl. Do you know what a C
0:33
curl is? I do not. I'm sure I'm I know. Tell me. Tell us all. Do we all Do we need to
0:38
know? I um get Zena on the line because I'm sure she knows. She probably does. Okay. Share. Share.
0:44
It's a permanent but just for the tips of your hair. So, they're constantly
0:50
curling in. So, it's not a full perm from the roots down. It's just the end. So you have a little wave at the bottom
0:56
of your hair. Oh my god, this is starting to remind me of yesterday morning. So this is what I was doing to Zena's hair.
1:02
Oh, were you do were you having to curl the bottom of my hair? I was having to curl it very specifically in a certain direction. I'm like, what is going on? And how do you
1:08
know so much about this? So this I think is what was happening. Yeah, that's what it is. Yeah. So you you do know without knowing what a
1:15
secret. And so she's been begging me all summer and I was like, "Okay, well, let's look around."
1:20
So, she wants it permanently done is the she wants it permanently done. Okay. And she has, by the way, beautiful long,
1:27
dark, thick hair. I mean, gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous hair. Both your girls. Yes, they do. And I wish they'd give it
1:33
to me. And so, anyway, we're going on tangents here. And
1:39
so, we go to our normal salon and he was like, "No, we don't do that here." And
1:45
he like, you know, he grabs her lock and says, "Her hair is too beautiful. It will damage it. we don't believe in
1:50
doing that to girls this age and so we don't do it. I was like, "Oh, that's great." And then she left mad and she
1:56
was like, "I still want it done." So I was like, "Well, it's good." Like, so one day we went to five different salons in the area.
2:02
You're such a nice dad. I would have been like done not doing that, right? But you know, she's got a cute
2:08
face and puppy dog eyes. So I was like, "Let's go around." So we went did the other five salons we went to all
2:14
basically said the same thing. They were like, "Your hair is too Your hair's too good. You're too young. it'll damage
2:19
your hair and it'll be really expensive. They're like it'll be like an extra €200
2:25
on top of the cut and you're going to be here like four or five hours and like I was like
2:30
oh Spain like America I mean I don't know my experience I think in America like yeah we'll do it give us the money
2:36
here they were like no it's we don't recommend it they're like it won't last it's a waste of money like they were all talking about like they were all more
2:43
concerned about her well-being and I think my pocketbook thank you for that but it was
2:48
side effect I would say side effect so she left angry but She had heard it from enough sources that,
2:54
you know, and they're like, "We're going to do it. It's going to last for what? 3 weeks, a month. It's not going to last. Oh, that's all it's going to last for as
3:00
well." So, from what I understand, if we have any hairdressers out there that want to prove me wrong, but what they were
3:05
saying is because it's such the end portion of the hair, it won't like hold like if you do the whole the whole tress
3:12
from the root. Oh, I see. Okay. That's interesting. Yeah. I mean, that that makes sense. I mean, I think it's I think it's also a
3:17
good lesson for them to learn that some of these things have a lasting effect, right? It's not just like you're
3:23
watching somebody that has this. There are side effects and things to some of these things. So, a good life lesson for
3:29
her, I guess. Well, and I do have to say, speaking of the life lessons of this whole thing, it was one of the slants. Yeah, but you
3:36
know, you realize that's just an Instagram moment. This isn't really happening. Like, these girls are getting can afford it and it's it's for
3:41
Instagram. It's not for life, right? And they also might just be doing it with a hair curler and pretending
3:47
that it's permanent. Like, who knows, right? I mean, there's no way of knowing if someone's spending hours every morning getting this done themselves.
3:53
So, this goes into what we're talking about, as I'm sure everybody knows, is we're just going to talk a little bit
3:58
about some of the costs of things that kids need or want or you want to give them here. So, we're just going to give
4:04
you a little bit of a sort of breakdown of various costs that you may come
4:09
across and you may decide to do or may not. And for their upkeep, for their further upkeep, I mean, since we were
4:16
talking about hair, we could just start on that. We because I mean I think it's funny that a haircut here is is
4:21
generally about 30 35 euros. I that's been my experience,
4:27
right? Same same with me. We paid 35 since we've been here. Now they do charge more for like hair treatment since like the hair washing for our
4:34
salon was like an extra €9 for the hair. But she had a hair mask. It wasn't just even a shampoo. So she was gone for like
4:40
30 minutes just getting this hair treatment for 9. So that was like And I think also the blow drying is
4:45
extra. And so I mean I'd never come out with a 30 35 euro bill but you could go
4:51
in get your haircut and leave without it being blowdried for 35 and it seem my the prices for Zena seems to be the
4:57
same. I mean she's older and maybe a very tiny toddler. They have special places but it seems to be an across the
5:04
board kind of there's a cut price and then there's all these other things you're going to end up with. Yeah. Right. I mean, we would in that looking
5:10
around at different salons. I was also asking their haircuts because we need to get one done and our normal salon didn't have an opening before school. We waited
5:16
till the last minute for some of this stuff, by the way. And they were all 27 to like 40. It was like that still 30, you know, we were
5:22
coming in that range, right? And so, which I think is surprising. I mean, in America, you can spend thousands for a
5:28
haircut, right? I mean, hundreds in a in a regular high-end salon would, I would imagine. So, it's seems it's very
5:36
reasonable, I think. And you know, I I don't know about you, but my girls only get haircuts like once, twice a year.
5:41
It's like twice a year, but because they they just want long hair. So, it's just when the ends look better. I mean, I'm
5:47
getting out about 70 bucks a year per child. I ain't that, you know.
5:52
Same here. Yeah. It's nice when they want to grow their hair. That's all I got to say. Okay. Well, we
5:58
can sort of So, now they have their hair did. Now, where are they going to show it off at? So, we should go where they're at
6:03
school. This will be more expensive than the haircut, right?
6:09
Well, actually not if you go to public school, I guess, but No. Exactly. Exactly.
6:15
We've talked about this before in our other Cost of Spain episode, but we wanted to have this one just be more
6:21
about children. So, you know, if you've listened to the episode before, you know, this is a time to go get a coffee because we've mentioned school cost
6:27
before. So, and we will make it quick. We will scoot by this. Yes. Okay. You have time to put sugar in your
6:32
coffee. So, anyway, yeah. Don't go make the coffee. That's going to take too long, right?
6:37
So, let's start at which we can start at the beginning, I guess, which is preschools. Well, nannies and babysitters are going to cost you around
6:44
12 to 15 an hour. So, if you're coming in Yeah. what I've heard from my friends. Yeah.
6:49
Which, as a side note, you might also need this if you have kids or not, is it's about the same price for a cleaner.
6:55
Right. Exactly. That's kind of be like the minimum wage price, right? That's kind of like the starting for you could even get like teens to tutor your kids
7:02
at that price. Like that's kind of like a opening price, but yes, absolutely. And then so so you got babies and stuff.
7:08
So we did the babysitters. Then you got to go into private, you know, the the preschools and the public preschools are about
7:16
what, like 100 to like 250 a month or something like that. And then the privates are around 400 to a,000 because
7:23
some of these international private schools will start at the baby age. They'll have them and it's it's not
7:29
cheap. Yeah. starting them very young and it is it's a good way I think for to get into
7:34
the school and I think that's why people are often going in that young. It's you're getting your kid in the school and they have a
7:40
spot at a young age. So there there's a there's a trick there if you're here that young but it is a much more expensive way of having your kid go to
7:47
preschool obviously but on the flip side if you're not a native speaker your kid
7:53
may already will already have English going into kindergarten and stuff. So there's benefits obviously. I mean, the
7:58
kids at my daughter's schools that have been there since baby, they're I mean, they're they even have accents that
8:04
because they're learning by some English accents, right? So, their accents are actually more American than they are
8:09
Spanish with, you know, English speaking with a Spanish accent or British. It's because how they're hearing it from different places when they talk to us.
8:15
I'm like, that's you have such a little accent. You don't even not sound like you're from here speaking English, right?
8:20
I've I've seen I' I'm going to be honest and I've seen a mish mash of that. I've seen kids that have been there since can
8:26
since before since preschool and they still have a very strong accent. So I think I do think overall accents will
8:32
depend on your language talents and your ear and your ability to hear those things. It's like do you have a talent
8:38
in that area? And then going on to regular school obviously the public schools are free
8:44
and they will you will have to be provided a spot somewhere. That's the
8:50
the legal thing in Spain. I think from age six, I think six to 16, they have to be guaranteed a
8:56
spot. They have to go and they have to go. Yeah. It's not like you have a spot and you don't go like they have to go. And then and then you have
9:03
um private school. Oh, you have conot schools which can range between 100 and 500. So those are semi-private schools.
9:10
We've like I said we've talked about this before but so that's semi-private and then and then the private schools
9:16
which can be I mean those can be anywhere from well here right so it
9:21
depends like you know so you can like Spanish private schools might come in around 5,000 6,000 a year maybe lucky
9:28
you've lower your international schools in Valencia area are going to be about 8,000 a year plus costs and all that
9:34
stuff and then as they get as they progress they get higher it does get more expensive yeah but But if you're going to look in
9:40
Madrid and you're going to look in Barcelona, you're going to be spending 20,000 a year. I because when we did the move, I looked and interviewed many
9:47
schools and it was in that 20,000 range. And I think there's a couple in Marba that are a lot higher, but that's
9:52
Marbaya money. So yeah, they are easily they are easily 5 to 10 grand more.
9:58
Yeah. In other areas. So look in the different areas, different parts of Spain and maybe in areas of northern Spain, they might be similar to here. I
10:04
don't know. Right. So that is a difference. And then when you get into the universities, you
10:11
have the public universities are very very reasonable about I think I do think they are around 3,000 a year
10:18
and I think that's including your expenses. I think that's kind of like your out of pocket like like what you'd
10:23
expect to spend for the year. Yeah. But I don't for not for room and board because No, that's what I was going to say. Yeah. You're not living you're not also
10:30
living for that. That's just fees and Yeah. Your fees and things. Yeah. Yeah. And then we won't even talk about
10:35
America because obviously that's outrageous. But the the cost if you go to another country here if you go to another if you're here and you go to
10:41
another country in Europe that's probably a different cost to going to say England and that might be more like
10:47
10 20,000 a year I think. So England is like 10,000 or more a year right somewhere around there. Now, I do
10:52
have friends that do went that got their daughter into the American University of
10:57
Paris, and it was exponentially cheaper than going to American University still,
11:02
but I think they were like 20,000, but they had financial aid. Does the UK offer financial aid and scholarships? Is
11:08
that a thing? They do um they grants they offer Yes, they do. But I don't know you. This is
11:13
what we I think we're getting out of our depth here a little bit because there's going to be if you are actually still
11:19
living in Spain and you're resident here, you're going to have a different cost to the other universities in Europe and England is no longer part of Europe.
11:25
So now you're you're now you're really a foreigner going into a university there. And I don't know if you'd be able to get
11:30
that going in there like that. So I I have no idea. But it will be a little bit more expensive I think certain
11:36
places. But obviously living here, going to your local university is going to be the cheapest thing. That's the cheapest thing. And I'll say
11:42
we can come back to this. We'll just put a pin in this because my daughter's in, you know, her sophomore year as it were
11:48
in America. So this is the year we're starting to research stuff. So we'll maybe we could do an update and like at
11:53
the end of this year be like we're going to start looking at narrowing down things and what our choices are. So put a pin on that people.
11:59
And also and when we do get into that, there are a lot of English programs in universities around Europe. So as a
12:07
foreigner, if your kids have come later and they haven't learned Spanish fluently, there are programs like that.
12:12
So we will do when we later on university section when we when we know
12:17
more right now. Yeah, not so much. Let's let's get into the fun things which is
12:22
the thing. But also the one thing we forgot with the schools is you do have to play for
12:28
um uniforms like private schools. So those will add up. Yeah. So that'll add another couple hundred for the year for
12:34
the uniforms if your school has uniforms. If your school has uniforms uniforms and some schools make you pay for books, some
12:40
it's included in the tuition. Um same same with computers and tablets, right?
12:45
So our school we have to pay and we have to have iPads and a certain specification. So that's a thou that's a
12:51
a thousand. Also, if you do have, you know, talk to your schools if you are lucky to have gotten into a school
12:57
before you move to check in what they need and if you have to provide it and
13:03
then do a worldwide search of the cost of that because iPads were much more
13:08
expensive in Spain than back in the US. But now with tariffs, who knows, things could be cheaper here. Things might have changed. Yeah. And
13:15
it's very different from school to school. like we didn't have a uniform and now we do because we changed schools
13:20
but then we the computers were given by the school, the books were given by the school, everything else. So I mean we
13:26
had a we had a materials cost of around 480 I think it was um a year that
13:34
covered some of this stuff. So there will be there will be a fee you have in school if you're going to a private
13:40
school to reenroll every year and then there's also a materials cost and then
13:45
you just get into the fees and then on top of that you personally would have uniforms and the things that you have to provide. So it is going to
13:52
vary all these things vary quite a little bit between different schools. So but they want to have fun. We're so now
13:58
so now let's get into something that's actually fun that you don't have to pay for which is extracurricular activities
14:04
which you might you might still want to but you don't have to. Oh you're not required to have your children's have fun doing these things
14:11
but you're required to pay when you do do them. No no no but I want to point out that you are not required to put your kids in
14:16
extracurricular activities. It may feel like you do but you don't.
14:22
You can be just a good enough parent. You don't have to do all these. No. But I I will say we had a we had a
14:27
parent that was doing free basketball training in our school and that was an after school activity and and he and
14:32
another parent were just like let's just get the kids together and and he enjoyed basketball. So that was a fun free
14:38
activity which I think is you know sometimes parents do things like this you never know. And also let's start
14:46
with the lowest cost maybe just and then we can move up. So we have the regular rec center which is called a poly
14:53
deportivo in Spanish or a poly you call it a poly and the in valenciano it is a
14:59
poly portio I guess so slightly different you might see both things if you're looking around
15:05
this area for information okay and you can do pretty much anything in
15:10
anything in these places I mean some of them have pools you can do tennis basketball gymnastics I mean they have a
15:16
range of things so like comparing it to like the states, it would be like your parks department
15:21
rec center kind of place. That's it would be like a YMCA or something, you know, you've got depending on where
15:26
it is and how much money they put into it will depend on what they offer. And some of them are really nice, some of
15:33
them, but they some of them maybe not so nice, but still perfectly fine. And for the one Zena did a gymnastics in one,
15:40
and it was a 5 sign up just to get into their little system. Okay. And then the
15:46
gymnastics was I think 15 or 20 a month just to kind of go and it was twice a
15:52
week. And then I think as you get better and you do more it would it could go up to like 30 a week.
15:59
Okay. And and then I do have a friend that's doing tennis and they're paying 105 a
16:04
month for two day training. Okay. And that's 2 and a half hours each of those days. And that's probably also not
16:10
bad. Not a bad price at all for tennis and you can probably do more. there might be options for that. So, they offer I mean
16:17
a lot of things. It's definitely worth looking especially if your kid just wants to try something. It's a great
16:22
place to try and it's a great place to perfect place to try because you're not contractually signed. Like like at our
16:27
school they have some of these things offered during the school day but then they're like once you sign up you're at least paying for the term, right? So
16:33
it's so you're paying for three months at a time, you know. So if they come home, I
16:38
don't want it. Well, guess what? You're going to love it cuz I've paid 300 for the next three months. So you're not I'm not the only one
16:43
that's had that discussion with my child. Oh no. I'm we paid. You're going right. And I will say even with the even
16:51
with the poly ones, I'm like, look, you committed. At least give it some time to try, you know, but it it is less of a it
16:58
is less of a the a dagger if they are like, we don't want to do it anymore. You can't hate something on the first
17:05
day. You've got to spend at least a month or two to find out if you really hate it because you may love it. So,
17:12
I have to say it's never worked out that way, but at least they had some lesson in commitment, right? But see you live
17:18
in the in in an urbanization where we do not because we live in the city. So so people know urbanization means like like
17:25
planned community suburby type thing would not it doesn't mean you're urban. It means they've urbanized a the
17:31
country, right? It means rural. It means a lot of houses on a small street in a rural place, right? Or a community. But
17:39
those have private clubs which we don't have access to in the city. I'm sure there's private clubs in the city, but like you'd have to search them out. I
17:44
know there's private tennis clubs and stuff, but you have like club houses for your community. So, there is a range of it. So, there's
17:51
private clubs like golf courses. People will be familiar with this scenario, I think, in America where they have a
17:57
planned community around a golf course and people that live around that golf course can probably join the the club,
18:04
but otherwise they also take people from other places to come and play golf and all that kind of thing. It's a little
18:10
bit like that. So like in our urbanization, we don't have a golf course, but we have tennis courts, we
18:16
have a little restaurant, there's a kids playground, there's, you know, some football, like concrete football
18:23
pitches, that type of thing. So lots of places for kids to run around. We have to pay €3 to use the tennis courts,
18:31
okay? And there's also a fee in the urbanization that goes into the keep up
18:36
and everything of that. And but that's very very minimum. There are places that have full-on pools, like really proper,
18:44
I would say more proper like club places where it's like and and people are dressed to the nines to go there kind of places.
18:49
It's nice. Yeah, these I mean they're Yeah, it's like they've got they're an enclosed place like ours is kind of not
18:55
so enclosed. It's kind of an area in the urbanization, right? Whereas some of these are like enclosed clubs with pools
19:00
and tennis courts, paddle tenn paddle courts, like you know big football
19:06
places and restaurants, nice restaurants and playgrounds and basketball courts and everything. And those are places
19:11
where in some cases you have to be living in that community to actually be a member.
19:18
And some of them will let other people in. That's, you know, that's a place that if you do live in an urbanization with one of these places, you might have
19:25
access to a lot of sports, but you will have to you don't have to pay to go to the pool, but you're paying for the
19:31
you're paying for the club and then you will have to pay extra for tennis and things, but it might be more
19:36
convenient to you than going somewhere outside, especially as we've spoken before, a lot of the schools don't offer
19:42
extracurricular activities. So if you're living out of the city and you can go pick up your kid and get them home and
19:48
then they can just walk to your club and get all their stuff done, that's going to be a lot more convenient. So that is
19:54
an option versus dragging them driving them again being the chauffeur to some other place in another town to
20:01
do classes. It's an it's an option and some of I mean those clubs would be I think probably you're going to be €60 is
20:07
going to be the probably the cheapest for a proper club and they can probably go up to I don't know what the ones with
20:12
golf clubs golf courses and things charge. I have no idea. Right. Right. Now you talked about doing
20:18
gymnastics at the Palivo placeo palaka
20:23
place. My Spanish is getting so good. And polyivo. That's what I said. Pay attention.
20:29
Yes, that is exactly what you said. Have you ever paid for private like or like you know like private um gymnastics
20:35
classes or whatever? We did because the gymnastics was very fun and it was a great way to learn and
20:42
sort of see if Zena really wanted to do it and it was really fun. But then she really wanted to take it a bit more
20:47
seriously. So we found a gym that just just did gymnastics and they did an array of like regular gymnastics, the
20:54
the silks, the whole, you know, they did a whole bunch of things. And that one we
20:59
paid around I think like 33 a month or something for that one. And that was a
21:05
but that was a very specific you there were two two classes a week. And it was that one
21:11
was very specific that you were doing competitions. So you had to show up. You were very very very serious
21:17
like show up for these classes. You can't not come. You have a partner you need to practice with. And it wasn't an
21:22
option of like how many classes do you want to take? Like a lot of sports is like, well, how many do you want to do?
21:28
You want to do two? You want to come on a Saturday? You don't want to come on a Saturday. And you get charged per month based on how many times you're And
21:34
that's the difference, right? Do you want to expose your child to the thing or do you want them to compete? Right. So, they do that is a completely
21:40
different setup, right? Completely different setup for it. Yeah. And one of your daughters did gymnastics in the city as well.
21:46
Well, she did she does she currently still does the silks? Yeah, she does the silks. And we pay €40 a month and it's
21:53
just one hour a week. So there's the price comparences of the suburbs. So it's, you know, theoretically it's twice the price here because it's only it's
22:00
half the time for the same price. Can she do more if she wanted? She can do more and then they drop the
22:07
price if you add more classes, right? So if she doubled up, it wouldn't be 80. I think it would be like 65 or something
22:14
like that, right? There are places for certain things where you can maybe buy packs of classes or something and you
22:20
can bring the price down a little bit or you commit to, you know, whether or not you show up, you commit to this is
22:25
how many we're going to take. But then my older daughter does ballet. So that's been we've kind of done the array. When
22:31
we first arrived, she was doing it three days a week and now she's doing conservatory, which is six days a week.
22:37
So that's a whole different thing. that like when she was doing three days a week at the same ballet conservatory school, she just wasn't in the
22:43
conservatory program, right? So, I see. Okay. So, they offer both. They offer both. Like you still have to
22:48
have the correct uniform and all that stuff and you still are in the performance. It's still you're just not
22:54
getting a degree, but it's still a conservatory school. It's still a ballet school that you are committed. You have to be there. But you can choose also,
23:01
especially with the younger girls, how often they're going. If it's once a week, twice a week, three times a week, they offer that because that's at the
23:07
younger age in ballet in ballet schools, they're exposing them and then if
23:13
they've commit, then it's like at a certain age, you're either in conservatory or you don't you
23:19
you stay with you have to find a like a less stringent school or you stay with the young kids, you know, you're not going to progress. But anyway,
23:26
she was doing three days it was like 180 a month, but now that she's doing six, it's 280 a month. So it's like it was a
23:32
huge like discount for the amount of time she's there in the conservatory program,
23:38
right? And I think that I think what we're seeing here is a a sort of a level of commitment which can change if when
23:44
sports get serious the prices can change. So they do like the for instance if you have a kid that wants to do
23:50
football, it's unlikely that the football in the school if they really want to be competitive in football, it's
23:56
unlikely the football that's provided in one of the private schools is going to be enough. And so if you go out and
24:02
you're in one of the football leagues that's in the one of the towns that you're in or cities, you're going to be paying around 400 to 500 a year for
24:09
that. And then al and this is probably the same for like a serious out outside of
24:16
school basketball, anything like that, you're going to be in that range. And then the uniform might cost you 30 to 60
24:22
as well, right? And with dance you have to pay for uniforms and the uniforms for the dance recital and all of that,
24:28
right? That's true. And with Yeah. and we had to pay extra for the gymnastic competition um leotard things as well.
24:35
So that was obviously they an extra if you're getting into things that are a bit more serious and but yeah the the
24:43
cost of the football obviously I mean everyone's experience the same in America this is going to be a three four
24:49
two two to four time a week activity this isn't something you're doing one day a week so you're probably
24:54
really getting your money's worth in that regard but it is a commitment for the whole family for the whole family. Yes. Yeah. As
25:00
well. Probably the ballet is a commitment for the whole family in a different way because it's such a commitment now if you're as serious as
25:08
your daughter is at it, right? It It's a lot. It is a lot.
25:20
This is my exposure to like extra clubs. Have you done anything else? Like anything exotic? Cuz I mean we've done
25:26
exotic things. I think it's but not in the sporty world. Have you done any other kind of I won't ask we well so when we moved
25:35
here Zena's always been really into animals in general and she loves uh riding. So coincidentally not not on
25:42
purpose we ended up in an area here north of Valencia that is just horse stables everywhere. So we did some horse
25:49
riding for a bit and that was definitely one of those ones that's a lot more expensive. So it's about 25 a class more
25:57
or less. But you could that is one of the ones where you can buy packs and maybe get it down to like 17 if you want
26:02
to pay for maybe 10 classes at a time. So that's showing again the same thing
26:07
as you were talking about. If you're showing some commitment to coming, they can bring the price down a little bit. But horse riding is going to be
26:12
expensive and you also need proper equipment for it. And one of the places
26:19
we went to they had they had helmets and whatever. Not the horse riding. My god,
26:24
what are they called? The helmets. They're helmets. They're not called helmets, though. They're like riding hats, I think, or
26:29
something. I don't remember. They have those that you can just use. You don't have to buy everything. Obviously, if your daughter gets or your son gets very
26:36
much more into it, you would start buying your own equipment like that. They also have the vests that have the
26:41
support for the back. That's all things that you can just borrow until you want to get your own. And to that end, my
26:49
favorite shop of one of my favorite shops, Decathlon, for the attempted um starting of
26:56
sporting activities, they they have the $10 tennis racket and
27:02
the $300 tennis racket, right? In every sport, $5, but euros, but yes. Yeah. In every in every sport. So,
27:08
whatever sport you're getting into, you can find a really cheap entry item, right? and then give it to a friend when
27:15
your when your kid has given it up or go back and buy something that's better for
27:21
a more serious activity, you know. So, I do love that about the the shops. It's very very handy. But also, for sure,
27:27
look at secondhand places around the city, through friends, through your school if your kids starting the apps and the WhatsApp groups and all
27:34
those. Somebody somebody is sitting with that stuff in their closet for sure. someone's hopes and dreams have died and
27:41
you can you can get from that and please pass it on when you know if your kid does the same thing.
27:47
So So since we're still trying to better our children. So
27:53
now have you So have you um paid for like private Spanish lessons or any of
27:59
those kinds of things in the house? Yes, we've done a little bit of summer camps and a little bit of SP private tutoring
28:06
and we've found this the tutoring is around
28:11
10 to 25 is kind of what we found for kids. We I we had one teacher that was doing it
28:19
10 € 10 a kid, but it was she was doing groups and this was for like a subject or like
28:24
Spanish classes. Spanish specifically. We haven't done any tutoring outside of outside of Spanish. And yeah, but I think the
28:31
pricing was sort of it's around the same range as it is. We've looked into tutors and I've
28:36
talked to parents actually just yesterday I was talking to a group of parents about like tutor like school tutoring and
28:42
they're like we pay 15 an hour. Yeah. And it's two hours a week so we're paying you know 30 but so that's the
28:48
price I think for any of your tutoring your private tutoring I would imagine. I mean, we haven't done we haven't got into any serious needs
28:54
for um exams and things like that. So, I don't know. I would imagine that's going to be very
29:00
similar. And like I think one of those things where you might for especially for the for any of this tutoring
29:06
depending on the level of your child, another student or college student that's trying to make some extra money
29:13
is probably going to be on the lower end of that range and then a professional person will be on the higher range. So,
29:19
range. Yeah. You might just need your kid to be speaking Spanish and it may not matter who's doing it. They just need to be
29:25
inspiring, you know, but if you're studying for a really for a very serious exam of some sort, then you know a
29:32
professional. Right. Right. And then there's the day camps. And have you done any as your kids?
29:38
We have not I mean we get offered at our school the day the day camps are more in the 250 range at the school and then you
29:46
have to pay more if you need them to be bus. So you're really looking at like 400 a week. That's through the private
29:51
internet if you need the bus. We did the Spanish camp at your school and it was very good and Zena loved it because it was a lot
29:57
of it was indoors and these camps are in the summer. It's hot. So, she's not into these let's play sports all day out in
30:03
the baking heat. So, she actually really loved the Spanish camp at your school. It was wonderful.
30:09
They did a little, you know, jump in the pool and stuff like that. Yeah. So, and it So, for us, I think it was around
30:15
like 230 a week or something like that. And then we've done very little sports
30:21
camp at some of these clubs that you that we were talking about earlier. And I want to say that was around
30:28
and 110 or something a week. And I mean they were just running around doing sports. It was
30:33
and this was at like the the urbanization clubs or the poly one of the one of the urbanization clubs. I
30:38
don't know if I'm assuming these poly deportivos do camps as well, but we
30:44
haven't tried them. Okay. So, as far as other day camps, I mean, I would imagine 250 a week if it's
30:52
a day camp that you're sending your kid back and forth to would be a good range to be imagining.
30:58
And then on top of that, like you said, getting your kid there and back and these sorts of things. Right. Right.
31:03
We don't have any experience with overnight camps. I just see the ads from my school, so I just know.
31:09
Right. And and ours, I will say they're in like that 2,00 like 1500 range per week. But
31:14
these are really like specialized sports camps in in Mayorca like the tennis one
31:19
at what's which recall its place who's ever done you know the guy that's Nadal Nadal thank you that's him and or you know
31:26
going to Austria for German camp for a week so so that's very fancy things I would imagine you can probably do an overnight
31:32
camp for 4 to 700 maybe um a week perhaps
31:37
but not having had that experience I think and like you were saying you can they have all sorts of camps in all
31:44
sorts of places. We had a friend who sent their child out to a to a camp in I
31:50
think it was somewhere in Holland and that was a camp about you know being an
31:56
international child and it wasn't a sport it had some sports but it had some other sort of sort of activities in it
32:02
as well and I I so there's a lot of different things that you can find here right and I will say what I have been
32:07
looking at these super because sometimes I fantasize my kids will be gone for a couple weeks of the summer and I'll I'll
32:12
have independence and freedom never happens But but you do have to put them together in the same camp somewhere or at least at
32:18
the same time if you want that freedom. It's like oh I'm sorry the camp for this girl is in July and this one is in August. It's not
32:25
it's not good. But what I've noticed is these camps is and a lot of them they're not all inclusive. So they may you know if you
32:32
want extra activities you're paying. So maybe you're paying for a football camp, but if you want them to be able to use
32:37
the pool while they're there, that might be more or take extra football lessons, right? There might be a minimum that
32:43
comes with it, but if you want an addition to it, or if you're at a language camp, but you want them to do tennis while they're there, they're
32:48
going to add on. They do they do nickel and dime you have an add-ons. I'm just going to send Zena to my brother and see what happens. You know,
32:55
of course, I'll get three kids back the next summer from him, but I'm sure that'll even out and and I think that'll
33:01
be fun. We'll have fun there. All right. So, we've we've gotten them
33:08
educated. We've gotten them well-rounded. Now, we should probably talk about once they trip and fall and
33:14
broke their leg, those costs, right? The care and other needs, which will not be as much as they are in
33:20
America for sure. Our extra costs in that regard have have been zero because
33:26
we haven't had any of some of the things that you I think are going to be better equipped to talk about, which is I think
33:33
you should start and talk about dental care because what what we've what yeah what we've needed has just been what's
33:38
under our plan. So yeah, we're a house full of metal here. So we have
33:43
So when you the greatest thing for us for me was the orthodontics because both
33:50
girls have braces. I have a visaline and I paid 6,000 total for the three of us
33:55
which is exponentially cheaper. It would have been like $18,000. I was going to say, do you have any idea what that would cost in the States around?
34:01
Yeah, I did because my my oldest was starting the process and they're like, now she'll need braces and that'll be 6,0007,000.
34:07
So, what was her individual? Can you split it up a little bit? So, I would say you should expect about
34:14
3,000 per child for for where we went to or basically what they did is they
34:19
charged me for two and my Invisalign was thrown in for free. That was kind of like how they did. So that you will get
34:25
discounts if you buy the whole family at once and if you pay upfront. So that my
34:30
two-year plan I paid for at once and we go in and it's just in and out the door all the appointments we need. So it's
34:36
okay. So that's good advice cuz some people might be thinking about starting in another country and then starting and then carrying on here. You'll be better
34:42
just to wait and do it here. And you've been very happy with the with the
34:48
experience and you feel like the dental care is very very good. I have no problems. One's getting hers
34:53
off in a couple month maybe a month or two and the other one by the end of the school year. So we're very happy.
34:59
They're very very happy. And then that cost was start to finish. So there's not any extra costs related to that.
35:04
Nothing. They break brackets. I don't have to pay nothing is you know I know in LA it was like this or if you broke this this has to come in and and so I've
35:12
been very happy. I mean, like I said, that that savings alone was half of our expenses for the year here I
35:18
would have spent in LA. Do you know what I mean? Like I was like Yeah, absolutely. So, when it comes to like regular dental
35:23
care, our insurance covers, I think, one or two cleanings a year and like one X-ray thing per year, but it doesn't
35:30
cover fillings and stuff like that. So, ours covers one cleaning and one X-ray. So, that's probably yours is probably
35:36
the same, but we've had to pay for extra cleanings. So, I prefer to have extra cleanings. do like three or four and so
35:42
I pay 60 bucks for an additional cleaning outside of my insurance and I think cavities were like 60 bucks as
35:48
well per cavity. So not still very reasonable and I will say you can talk to your insurance and find out
35:53
you can get extra dental insurance. Uh we've talked about this on another episode, but I'll just
36:00
sort of give a little bit of an information here on that, which is you can get more, but you just have to see like what you were saying, what what are
36:07
you actually going to be spending and what is the cost of the extra insurance and it may not work out that to have it, but it is something that if you know
36:12
you're going to need a lot more than maybe what you're doing that it's worth getting the extra dental insurance. And
36:18
it's not required for any visas or anything, but it might save you money. It might save you money. And orthodontics is is not covered. I have
36:25
found insurance going to be the I don't think so. Yeah, that's going to be out of pocket. Yeah. And then eye care again, we get as an adult, which
36:34
Zena doesn't have. Obviously, as an adult, we have one of those eye exams at the, you know, the hospital, like a
36:40
proper eye exam. Yeah. Your my my daughters go to that. They they've had their eye they get one a year there.
36:45
Yeah. And then and then I've paid €75 for glasses. You're basically just
36:51
paying for whatever glasses you want to get. I don't wear glasses all the time. It's just a pair of reading glasses, so
36:57
I wasn't going crazy about it, but I think that cost of glasses might be the same as it is. I mean, you can spend a
37:03
little bit or a whole lot. It's up to you. I'm a contact glassware, and the prices are about the same. I mean, for glasses
37:08
are the same. And Gucci glasses are Gucci glasses. If you have to have Gucci glasses, they're going to be Gucci prices. If you want What I haven't found
37:14
here, and I'm looking is back in the States, I there's a a website called I'm I'm just plug it. Glasses USA, right?
37:21
1800 glasses. One of those kinds of things. And you can get like a 10 pack of really fun funky glasses that are not
37:26
going to last. Like they're fast fashion glasses, but they come out to like 30, 50 bucks a piece and you get them and
37:32
you don't care if they break, but they're cool and fun. I'm trying to find that site here because I like to have a bunch of glasses I can throw on and be
37:38
cute and fun. Well, you can buy like in theies in in
37:43
normal they had glasses. No, no, I'm talking real glasses, not reading glasses. Like real.
37:49
Okay. Real glasses. So you with your prescription on them. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. If you just need if you just need
37:55
glasses to see certain things like reading glasses, you can buy those everywhere for nothing, right? You can buy those at the at the
38:01
Chinese store for sure. I'm talking about like fun fashion prescription seeing glasses. But so if anyone has a
38:07
tip of what's the website for Europe to get, you know, fashion glasses for cheap, let me know. Anyway, so that's my
38:13
experience with the health care and stuff. We we thankfully haven't had to go to the emergency room, but there's no
38:19
cost with them with insurance and stuff. No, no, no. There's no cost for that. So that's that's works. And then if you're in the if you're in the Spanish
38:26
healthcare system, then you've got a variety of ways to have pretty major things taken care of without it costing
38:32
you anything. And that would also include there are some in our in our
38:37
private insurance, we do have some therapy included if you can find a therapist that speaks your language and
38:43
things. But yeah, we've discussed that. Yeah, we've discussed that before too. So there's a cost to that if you are
38:50
going to just take care of that yourself, right? Which is much cheaper than I had found in the states, right? So you can
38:56
therapist about 50 to 75 an hour here privately. So that is cheap, but it's an
39:01
expense. I mean that is an expense and that goes expense. Yeah. And if your children need any sort of
39:07
their therapies or the occupational therapy if they have learning disabilities disabilities or or challenges you
39:14
because it's not you some of them just challenges they need new new tools. So, it's more of an occupational learning therapy kind of thing, right? Right.
39:20
Those are around 50 to 75 an hour. That's a very reasonable price. And obviously, you're going to have a much
39:25
more variety if you pay for it privately because, right, a lot of these places are not going to be on the plans for the insurance. So,
39:33
you'll have much more variety and variety of languages and and things for that. Right.
39:38
I think that covers that and those things. That's the important stuff. And
39:43
okay, you say that that Okay. Okay. We can't say that's the important stuff cuz the important stuff is birthday parties. Okay, that's the important stuff.
39:51
Is that the important stuff? That is the important stuff. Okay. In this house, we take birthday parties
39:57
very seriously. Birthdays are important, but you you're still so you have in between our age and
40:02
you've been here longer, so you have experience with us. I don't have experience when it comes to like birthday parties and stuff. We've done
40:08
them at the house, but I haven't been here the younger ages where birthday parties are more of a invite the class
40:13
big, you know, bigger a bigger thing. Here now it's three friends or whatever. Well, we have stopped inviting in we
40:18
have stopped the inviting the class part, but there's still also I think the difference big difference between you and I is that you're in the city and
40:25
we're outside the city and people outside the city are taking advantages of a lot of event places and things that
40:33
that you can find. Whereas in the city, you know, I we've talked about this a little bit before. It's quite hard for
40:39
you to get your girls out to birthday parties that are thrown by people like us out here in Sagunto on a Monday at 6. You're
40:46
like, how do you think that's going to happen? Right. So maybe, but that is what is going on.
40:51
If you're living out that side of the city, they have the the trampoline places, you know, there's just there's
40:57
these the go-kart place that we mentioned before that we still have yet to go to. Yeah. And then they have these these
41:05
clubs that we were talking about. If you're a member of the of a club or if you're in an urbanization with a
41:10
restaurant, there's most likely a room that you can book. You probably don't
41:16
have to pay for it and you you just have to book it. And then you can throw a party in one of those places and you
41:21
bring your own food or you get food from the restaurant and do whatever you want, you know, with that space.
41:27
And then the kids can play around in the pitches and things like that. Yeah. So, we've done like Halloween
41:32
parties and birthday parties where we've uh booked one of those rooms and we've put everything out and decorated the
41:39
room and the the outdoor sort of terrace area of the room and then the kids just come in and out, run in and out and get
41:46
food and leave and disappear and the parents are really the ones having the party in that room because the kids are
41:52
out running around doing their thing. So, that's like a fun way to do it. And then that therefore that's just the cost
41:57
of the fact that you have to have a membership and then the cost of food. The jump places are about €20 per kid
42:06
and you will have a minimum probably of like 10 kids that you have to do for the to have
42:12
Now do they include the food in that price? Is there like a party plan or do you have to bring food? I think it's like a party plan but it's
42:17
going to be like pizza and the cake and a cake and Zena's always like the cake's not very good. I mean, it's like a what
42:23
do they call those cakes that you get at the supermarket in America? There's a name for them. She cake. Thank you. It's like a sheet
42:29
cake and and then pizza and maybe some It's just very just basic, but it but they're
42:34
really really fun. The kids are exhausted. They're bouncing everywhere and jumping and it's that's been a very
42:41
fun party which you your kids may have been too old for those sorts of things. Plus,
42:46
in the city, I don't know if you have them. No, there's not. I mean, you have to go out and they're not some of them aren't
42:52
that far. I mean, you could take a cab to them, but like when people say we're having a birthday party in Sagunto on, like I said, on a Monday, you're like,
42:58
that's not going to happen. But if they're like, it's a paterna and you're like, oh, we can't get there by cab, we
43:04
can't get there by train, but we can take the cat. Yeah, I'll take the I'll take you by cab. That's do it, right? Well, you got to try and
43:09
find a friend that's carpooling. I did a actually we did one of Zena's birthdays was a very nice place and now I can't
43:16
remember the name of it and I should really plug it because it was amazing. It was a very little uh painting
43:23
shop or whatever where you can go in and learn how to paint and it the the artist is there and they do events. They do
43:29
like the the paint and sip things that are very popular, but they also do kids parties, but it's small. So, they have a
43:35
maximum, I think, of like eight kids and they all paint something and they
43:40
get taught how to paint something and you like Zena went in and picked the painting that she wanted everybody to do and everybody left with the same
43:46
painting that they had painted and then they stop in the middle and did some food and cake and it was just really
43:51
really nice and that was around 25 per person and then I obviously bought the food and
43:57
I bought the cake. Uh but that was a limited sort of that was a limited thing because you couldn't have so many
44:02
people. Right. Right. Yeah. So I think the birth and then I don't know that we Zena went to a
44:07
birthday party at one of the escape rooms which we haven't so I don't know how much that cost actually cuz I don't
44:13
know how much the escape rooms are. Right. I haven't been to one. Yeah. But
44:18
cheaper I think than the ones that we had gone to in Alexandria I believe. But that's a fun that's a fun way to have a
44:25
birthday party. And there's a lot of escape rooms because I see them pop up on my Google maps from I like E and
44:30
there's like escape rooms start popping up, right? So there's a lot here. So what's been your experience? You know,
44:36
since different culture, we've talked about this before, but let's put it in this episode. The experience of like
44:42
birthday presents and how you're paying like what you what are you doing? And my daughters, I'm bringing this up. My
44:47
older one, it's transitioned. They're now they're having like three girls meet for lunch and they kind of pay for
44:52
themselves and they might bring a bottle of like face cream or something, right? Like it's it's I'm probably spending 30
44:59
bucks per birthday for my older daughter because there's a gift and maybe they're paying for their portion of the lunch as
45:05
well, right? Oh, really? Okay. So, they're actually going Dutch on the birthday party. That's interesting. I haven't seen that.
45:11
Yeah, we haven't quite reached that level yet. That's probably coming. uh we've for the younger kids which I love
45:18
and it was something that I had to get used to cuz I honestly felt like it was a bit weird at the beginning which is
45:23
that you've got you have invited the whole class or it's a really big party with the friends from school and friends
45:29
from outside of school and instead of bringing a gift you just give the parent or you be zoom the parent like €10 and
45:36
it's something that if you've been invited to a birthday party and you're on the WhatsApp group probably for the birthday party at that point and they'll
45:43
say you can bring a gift or if want you can be zoom me which is just to send money you know through the bank
45:48
right I think this is the most brilliant thing I've ever heard of in my entire life I
45:55
think it should be everywhere it should be everywhere and how this is not a thing because I will tell you I mean it was back in the states with the
46:02
young kids right cuz that's the birthday party I had like three twisters three connect fours that had so many pieces of
46:08
tape on it cuz by the time we were all just regifting each other the same connect four that each party cuz we
46:13
already had one at home and everyone's giving the same gift and I would much rather have had the 10, 15, 20 bucks you
46:19
spent on that gift to buy something better and after we've moved and as you know got rid of everything you're like I
46:25
$10 I could have had $10 I could have had $10 I could have had and you're like I just got rid of $380,000
46:31
worth of junk that I could have that were birthday presents. No, it's so true. And what will usually
46:37
happen is the parent might say, "Oh, they've wanted to buy this thing and it's something that costs €150 or
46:43
something or they wanted to buy this collection of things." So, you're participating in a bigger gift for that child that that child has decided they
46:50
want. And I think it's amazing. I will say, especially for boys, I mean, I can buy presents for girls until the cows
46:55
come home. It's so easy. But boys, it just starts getting really, really difficult in my opinion.
47:01
And maybe because I don't have boys, so it's harder for me to know what they're interested in. But how many footballs
47:06
can you have? I don't know. Right. Right. So, it kind of fixes a lot of problems.
47:12
You don't have to go shopping. You don't have to wrap anything up. You don't you know, it's just this it's just brilliant. So, be prepared for that and
47:19
take advantage of it. You know, this brings up something about the birthday parties that I forgot to
47:24
mention earlier during the during our other arts and the classes that we were talking about gymnastics,
47:30
right? All the extracurriculars. Yeah. I forgot to mention art. We didn't talk about art classes. And so for my
47:36
my youngest did ceramics and that was it was 90 bucks a month for the throwing
47:42
where you form the pottery with your hands and then it was a hundred um bucks I'm sorry euros hundred euros a month
47:48
for the the wheel and that was four hours four classes a week two
47:54
wait I'm sorry it was a hundred or 90 for throwing in the wheel throwing in the wheel was 100 molding
48:01
the clay like if you're doing the coil pottery um and rolling it out where you're create, you know, you're building it.
48:07
You're not So without the wheel, if you're not throwing and you're not using the wheel, it's cheaper. It's cheaper. Yes.
48:12
Got it. Um and that was for four classes a week and I think they were two hours a week.
48:17
And can I just say that was really fun for all of us because the stuff that you guys created was really fun and you get
48:24
to keep that and you have beautiful pieces that you've all created from that. So, I would say probably one of
48:30
the best like bangs for your buck as far as extracurricular activities. I agree. It was the best thing. And I
48:36
was going to actually say too that what was great about it if you got fast hands, it was unlimited pieces. So, it
48:41
wasn't like you created one bowl a week, like if you could roll out 50 glasses. They were going to they were going to
48:46
they were going to kill those cups for you and and paint them. So, that was it was it was I think a very cost
48:53
effective. And I was like, "Oh, we need a salad bowl. Make a salad bowl. I don't want to buy one.
49:00
And I found other art classes to be around the same price. Um, and you know,
49:05
and what was great is that everything was included in that price. The UT, you know, you didn't have to a a a supply
49:11
fee, you know, all the clay was provided. All the glaze was provided and they glazed everything for you and fired everything for you. So, you just
49:18
end up sort of coming back for it when it's done. Exactly. Exactly. And some of it really beautiful. Really, really nice
49:24
pieces, I have to say. So, I was very jealous because there hasn't been This is one of This is honestly one of the
49:29
benefits I think of being in the city is that there's more things like this. Like we do not I've looked everywhere for a
49:35
ceramics class. There's nothing near us. I would have to drive into the city for it. Yeah. And it's just not that's not
49:40
really feasible. So, yeah. So, that's a that's a great you definitely to this point
49:47
you will have more access to more things in the city which will end up costing you more money, but it's also nice. So,
49:53
just keep those two things in mind. There's a there's a breakdown there, I think.
49:58
Yes. And I want to add I think I think we've covered everything, but there is
50:04
one thing that was a pleasant surprise to me, and it's is that
50:10
we we didn't have to pay for Santa. To me, oh, really? That was like the most amazing thing. We
50:16
got it. We got I found an email and said there's going to be a Santa in the city. And it was through the it was through
50:22
the hospital and they had a whole Santa village in the courtyard. Oh, that's so cute. Like a whole thing. And we went to that.
50:29
What's the other thing is Santa's not a thing here. So there was no lines. Like there was just like five people and we
50:36
went there and you didn't have to pay and you were allowed to use your phone. I because all you had to do was you had
50:41
to bring your phone. Like they didn't have the camera. Okay. So they didn't have the whole It wasn't it wasn't sponsored. It wasn't
50:46
sponsored by the company that's printing all the photos that you have to buy. It was not a money grab. It was the hospital's like, "We've got a Santa for
50:53
you. Come on down." And that's nice. And it was free and used my phone and it was and it was an adorable event. And we
50:59
had a good time. Of course, my kids hated me for taking them to it because they're too old.
51:05
I was going to say they're a little old for wanting to actually do that probably. But I'm like, until you're all out of my
51:10
house, we get pictures with Santa every year. And if you're coming home
51:16
hopefully Santa comes back this year and does it again cuz Yeah. We're usually in England over Christmas, so we that they
51:22
have a lot more of that there than they do here. Yeah. Oh my god. Yeah, that's very that's a
51:28
very very good point. I think overall you're going to find that things are not costing as much, but you have to just
51:35
decide what your kids interested in. And some people's kids are really interested in something like you have a daughter
51:40
that's so into the ballet that you just can't not be doing that, right? So, but I don't know what you would be
51:46
paying for that in America. I would imagine. Oh, it would be a lot more. It would be for what the level she's doing would be
51:53
at least three times as much if not I probably a lot more. I don't know. I mean, we were paying a lot more than
51:59
that for just two three times a week back in the States. I I think I was paying like 600
52:04
a month or it was a lot. It was a lot that I was paying for. Um, so when I saw the price here, I was
52:10
like, of course you could do conservatory. But then once you get used to it, you're like, do you really have to be doing it?
52:16
Yes. Because once you've been here for a few years, you start looking at the prices with sort of fresh eyes of, you
52:22
know, can it be cheaper? Can I be, you know, I've said it once, I've said it before, that that that baguette used to be 62
52:28
cents and it filled up the paper bag and now it's 65 and it you can fold the bag over and I'm livid every time I buy it.
52:35
A sign of the times. But anyway, I think that gives that that's pretty much all we can think of of things that we're spending on our
52:41
kids or have spent and that we can share to give you some insight in what things cost. So, I hope it's been helpful.
52:47
I hope so, too. And if you have if you have any uh things you want to ask us about, we can try to answer. So, let
52:53
drop us a line. All right. All right. Aso. Bye. Asgo.
53:00
Hey, can't get enough of us? Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at a podcast and on our website.com, which we will be
53:07
updating with exciting new things as we grow. We would love for you to message us with any topics you would like to hear about.
53:13
See you next time. Bye. [Music]