What we actually spend as a family of four, six months in — with the surprises.
Cost of living posts are usually either fantasy or scaremongering. Here is what has actually changed for us, without exact figures that would be out of date in a month.
Much cheaper than Manchester
- Eating out, especially the menú del día at lunch
- Fruit, vegetables and fish, particularly at the weekly markets
- Children's sport and activities
- Coffee, wine and anything drunk on a terrace
About the same
- Rent, depending heavily on how close to the sea you are
- Weekly supermarket shop
- Mobile and internet
More expensive than we expected
- Electricity, especially with air conditioning in August
- Cars — buying, insuring and running one
- Anything imported from the UK
- Flights home in school holidays
The honest summary
We spend less overall, but the saving is nothing like the numbers you see quoted online. The bigger change is qualitative: we spend far more of it on being outside with the children, and far less on filling wet weekends.
