Anyone living in Nerja?

[jayseabee]

Thanks for the input. We do live on around £1000 a month here, but not comfortably. Half goes on a mortgage, most of the rest seems to get taken up with water, council tax, car loan, sky, tv licence, car costs, insurance, telphone, broadband etc, and there is not a lot left.
We don't intend to have a car, we will be probably hire one on the odd occasions we may need one, and my daughter wants to go to a State School. She is fluent in Welsh as her second language, and is looking forward to learning Spanish as her third. She makes friends easily and I am sure she will settle quite well.
We are hoping to get jobs, so that we can stay longer, but I want to make sure we have enough money to cover us for a couple of years just incase. Or at least work out how long we can stay on the money we have. I think then, if we allow £1500 we should be nearer the mark.

[SunnySpain]

The word Nerja would normally be pronounced nair-ha

As Jo points out, this much depends on the local lingo, but in Castellano the letter
"j" is normally pronounced as a "h"

For example, the place Guadalajara is pronounced gwad-a-la-ha-ra

As for your budget of 1250 Euros a month. It depends on what you call a confortable life and what you spend your money on - lol

Saying that, 450 Euros a month should get you a 2-bed apartment in Nerja out of season, but its likely to be more expensive during the summer.

So that would leave you 800 Euros a month to live on. Good luck !!

Regards, Dave

[jojo]

Originally Posted by jayseabee

Thanks for the input. We do live on around £1000 a month here, but not comfortably. Half goes on a mortgage, most of the rest seems to get taken up with water, council tax, car loan, sky, tv licence, car costs, insurance, telphone, broadband etc, and there is not a lot left.
We don't intend to have a car, we will be probably hire one on the odd occasions we may need one, and my daughter wants to go to a State School. She is fluent in Welsh as her second language, and is looking forward to learning Spanish as her third. She makes friends easily and I am sure she will settle quite well.
We are hoping to get jobs, so that we can stay longer, but I want to make sure we have enough money to cover us for a couple of years just incase. Or at least work out how long we can stay on the money we have. I think then, if we allow £1500 we should be nearer the mark.

I think you'll struggle. You sound like I did before I came over, its sooooo not that easy. You need to come out need have a look. I cant imagine how on earth I'd manage without a car here, nothing is close - apart from in the thick of the touristy bits and then everything is really mega-expensive - and schools arent usually in those areas.

Come over and have a look, I could be wrong and you may have different criteria and results than I did

Jo

[Burriana Babs]

I know many couples that live a confortable life her in Nerja on 1200 euros a month. ( and have a car) Once you have a long term rental your rent would be the same in season or out of season for the total 11 mnths then probaly a 4 per cent increase to renew the long term rental. Good Luck.

[SunnySpain]

Originally Posted by jayseabee

Thanks for the input. We do live on around £1000 a month here, but not comfortably. Half goes on a mortgage, most of the rest seems to get taken up with water, council tax, car loan, sky, tv licence, car costs, insurance, telphone, broadband etc, and there is not a lot left.
We don't intend to have a car, we will be probably hire one on the odd occasions we may need one, and my daughter wants to go to a State School.

We are hoping to get jobs

Hi again,

Lets say you have a budget of 1250 Euros a month

If you rent is say 400 a month (and that would be a real bargain or a dump)
Utilities would be approx. 100 a month (including the community charge)
Tele, broadband and sky tv at say 150 a month (I'm guessing with sky)
Food shopping for 3 people must be 400 a month easy

Leaving you a solitary 200 Euros a month to live on - and that does not take into account costs relating to travel, medical, insurance, clothing and schooling

So taking all that into account I find it difficult to understand how any couple (especially with a child) could live comfortably on 1250 Euros a month.

Note: I have not included costs relating to smoking, drinking or eating out

In conclusion then, a budget of 1250 Euros a month is unlikely to provide you with a particularly wonderful lifestyle, but you might just about survive - lol

As a wise man once said to someone in a similar boat, instead of worrying about making it your home or obtaining jobs - "Why not just take a long holiday"

[jayseabee]

"Why not just take a long holiday."

That is exactly how we are treating it. If we love it, and can find work, we will stay.
We are not looking for anything much to live in. As long as it has 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, and somewhere to sit, with a bit of outside space, be it a garden or balcony, then we will be happy. We did debate about pitching our tent up somewhere, but I am not sure we want to go that far.
TV and broadband are not essential. We can go without if needs be. We prefer to listen to the radio anyway. And having a couple of years away from the computer won't harm us, although it would be handy to keep in touch with friends and family here. But I presume there are cyber cafes around.
400 euros a month on food? Wow. We spend between £30-£40 per week here, and eat well on that.
I suppose it all depends on what you are used to. All my life I have had to save and make do, and I doubt I could change now. We are getting close to retiring age now, and just want to do something different before it is too late.

[chris(madrid)]

School books here you have to BUY. I don't have kids - but I know my sister in law dreaded the School start expenses. Depending on the classes/year - could hit 1000Euros each start of year.

Yup 400 for food sounds a bit high to me too - But 100/month per person would be a PRUDENT budget - UNLESS you can shop in local produce markets - and you may need transport to find them. If you buy UK things - It will soar. Use places like LIDL/Mercadona. If you shop "native" then expect little choice too - The Spanish are generally unadventurous eaters and shoppers. You will hoverer get offered about 50 types of Olive oil.

Utilities - 100 is not unrealistic. Ours is a bit higher (about 110) - MUCH MORE in winter (close to 300/month just for heating - we have a largish house and it's NOT fuel efficient - we keep it at about 18ºC)

Things like balconies (big enough to sit on)/gardens WILL push the rent up - FAST.

Broadband plus unlimited NATIONAL calls will be about 50/month (and I'd advise you use Telefonica despite it being a bit more expensive)- Get Skype to call the UK. I live quite happily without Satellite/cable TV.

[jojo]

Originally Posted by chris(madrid)

School books here you have to BUY. I don't have kids - but I know my sister in law dreaded the School start expenses. Depending on the classes/year - could hit 1000Euros each start of year.



I live quite happily without Satellite/cable TV.

My kids would lynch me if we didnt have satelite TV!! And yes, my daughter is at State school, we've spent 500 euros so far on books and equipment (hopefully thats it now!?), fortunately the uniform isnt compulsory so we havent had to buy that. The school bus IS free, so thats a bonus. My son goes to an international school, so thats quite a large chunk of money, but thats paid for with the rent from a seperate account.

I have a housekeeping account that my OH puts 1500 euros a month into, this is for all the bills and living expenses here and some months I dont spend it all and other months I go over. We eat out maybe once a week, and I do meet up with friends and have a coffee quite often, but thats not terribly expensive

Its interesting cos when I was planning our move I assumed we could live very cheaply here - my food bill is slightley cheaper here, not because the food is cheaper, but because I dont buy so much!!?? I also didnt want us to have satellite TV, cos I wanted the kids to have more of an outdoor life here. The reality is that in the height of the summer, its too hot for them to be outside, they soon got bored with the pool, beach, open spaces, freedom, garden etc and now the winter is here, they wanna be indoors or they want to go out to places and that, as we know with kids always seems to cost money!

Meanwhile, life goes on much the same as it did in the UK, housework, shopping, washing, ironing... The novelty does wear off - I'm not saying I would ever go back, I wouldnt, its wonderful here, but its nothing like I thought it would be. "same sh1t, different place"

sorry, I'm rambling this morning!

Jo

[jayseabee]

You are all starting to put us off now.
Maybe we have got a bit of an idealistic view of what it would be like.
But we are sitting here in Wales, with constant drizzle day after day. We can't go anywhere, we can't do anything but go on the computer or watch TV, day in day out.
A constant stream of bills through the door, and big brother wanting to know what we had for breakfast, so they can check on which bin we put the rubbish in.
Yes, we have the Winter Blues, and we just want a couple of years away from it all.
Maybe we will cut it down to a year, get a better apartment, and just have a great long holiday, totally spending out before coming back here.

[jojo]

Originally Posted by jayseabee

You are all starting to put us off now.
Maybe we have got a bit of an idealistic view of what it would be like.
But we are sitting here in Wales, with constant drizzle day after day. We can't go anywhere, we can't do anything but go on the computer or watch TV, day in day out.
A constant stream of bills through the door, and big brother wanting to know what we had for breakfast, so they can check on which bin we put the rubbish in.
Yes, we have the Winter Blues, and we just want a couple of years away from it all.
Maybe we will cut it down to a year, get a better apartment, and just have a great long holiday, totally spending out before coming back here.

Its never my intention to put people off coming here. I just feel the whole point of a forum to bring a bit of reality to it. Its wonderful here, but life goes on, with all the same things that affect you wherever you are. Itd not like "A place in the Sun"!. The sun may compensate a bit, although for the last month its been strong winds and rain more often than not!! Now thats really annoying when you watch british tv and the weather over there is sunny!!!

Jo