Here’s Exactly How Much it Costs to Live in Spain for One Year
An honest look at our average monthly expenses in Galicia, Spain
It’s easy to gush about the joys of living in Spain (and we have).
The food is amazing, the culture is addictive, and the people are the best.
But our favorite thing about living in Spain over the past year has been the realization that a “good” life doesn’t have to cost a fortune.
To show you what we mean, we’re going to share exactly how much we spent on average over the past 12 months in Spain — on everything from rent and utilities to groceries, dining out, and entertainment — so you can gauge whether life in Spain is right for you.
How Much Does it Cost to Live in Spain?
We tracked all of our spending over the year and broke it down into 15 spending categories below. Here are our monthly averages for the cost of two people living in Spain from January 2023 to January 2024.
Monthly Fixed Costs in Galicia, Spain
These are the things that we have to spend money on each month, no matter what we do or where we are. I’ll dive into the details for each of these categories below, but here’s a quick overview:
Rent (2 bed, 2 bath) — €600/month
Utilities (electric, gas, water, sewage, heating)— €74.50/month
Wifi + (2) phone plans— €48/month
Private Spanish health insurance (w/ dental) — €708 per year (€1416 for both of us) OR €59/month (each)
Monthly Discretionary Spending
…and here’s what we spend to live the life we enjoy in Spain.
Dining — €452/month
Groceries — €368/month
Sundries — €38/month
Alcohol — €132/month
Coffee — €38/month
Stuff — €417/month
Transit — €141/month
Entertainment — €91/month
Gym memberships — €90/month
Spanish class — €127/each
Miscellaneous & Fees — €20/month
In all, it costs about €2800 a month for both of us to live one of the best years of our lives in Spain.
Not too shabby.
And honestly, that number is higher than it should be.
Our spending last year includes a lot of things we won’t be spending money on this year — like mistakes we made with our gas heating bill and one-time purchases for our apartment. We’re also more savvy about where we eat out, where we shop, and how we spend our time.
So let’s dive into the details so you can get more context on exactly how much it costs to live in Spain for a year.
How much does rent cost in Spain?
€600 per month
Our biggest expense this year has been rent. But our rent in Spain is lower than anything I’ve paid since college — and that was back in 2003 when I shared a two-bedroom place with three other dudes.
We pay €600 a month (plus 1 month security and last month’s rent) for a fully furnished 2 bed, 2 bath duplex in a charming section of Old Town in Ourense, Galicia.
Our apartment has a lovely working pellet stove fireplace for ambiance on chilly nights, a balcony that overlooks a cobblestone-lined plaza, a modern kitchen with an efficient electric stovetop, and an amazing landlady.
Our rent also includes our “community fee” which is a building fee you pay in Spain for cleaning and maintenance. It’s important to know if the community fee is included in your rent, as it can be anywhere from €25 — €100+ for nicer buildings, so double-check the fine print before you rent a place.
Finding an apartment in Spain can be a challenge, but we’re happy where we ended up.
We pay a little more than some people we know, but not as much as others. We could have saved €100 a month if we tried, but we love our location and apartment, especially when I remember what rent used to cost in the US.
How much do utilities cost in Spain?
€74.50 per month
Our rent doesn’t include any utilities (some apartments do), so on average every month we pay:
Electric — €15/month
Gas (hot water, heat) — €35/month
Pellets (for the fire) — €8.50/month
Water & Sewage — €16/month
When we first moved in, we didn’t completely understand the gas heating in our apartment, so our first gas bill was insane — €276 for two months of gas. But once we figured that out, our average bill was around €30 per month.
Once you take out that one expensive gas bill, our average monthly bills are closer to €60 a month, including pellets for our little pellet stove, which we use during the winter.
I’m also blown away by how affordable electricity is. We cook on an electric stovetop and run a portable AC unit during the summer, and our electric bill is always in the low double digits.
Granted our apartment is small, and we don’t leave the lights on all night, but I’m very happy with our utilities bill. And this year, our monthly bills should be even lower.
How much does wifi & cell service cost in Spain?
€48 per month
You need a Spanish phone number to do everything in Spain.
It’s how you rent an apartment, finish your visa paperwork, get a bank account, and do a hundred other things.
So we started the year by ordering a local SIM plan from Lobster, an English-speaking mobile provider in Spain. And it was great.
Then we signed up for Orange home internet service. However, after a few months, the billing experience with Orange was so bad — they constantly messed up our payments and shut off our wifi twice — that we migrated our wifi (and phones) to Pepephone for our internet and both of our phone plans.
And it’s been fantastic.
Our €48 a month wifi/phone plan includes:
500GB high-speed internet. You can upgrade to even faster wifi if that’s your thing, but ours is blazing fast)
2 mobile phone plans (each with 100GB of data). They even do rollover data if you don’t use your whole allotment like it’s the 1990s!
Free Amazon Prime membership in Spain. Fun fact, Amazon Prime membership is country-specific, so your American plan won’t work for packages in Spain. Just FYI.
Free Netflix membership. We get a free one-screen plan, which is all we need
After switching to Pepephone, we pay less than €50 for fast internet, two robust phone plans, Amazon Prime membership, and Netflix.
That’s less than one cell phone plan back in the States. Crazy.
How much does private Spanish health insurance cost?
€708 per year (w/ dental)
We are living in Spain on a Non-Lucrative Visa (NLV), so we’re required to pay for private Spanish insurance that also doesn’t have a copay, and includes repatriation.
We each pay €708 for a year of really good private insurance coverage with Adeslas (that also includes dental)!
We paid for our insurance in full before we moved, so I don’t think of it as a monthly expense, but it costs us each €59 a month for full private health insurance in Spain, which is pretty darn good.
Now for the fun stuff.
Are Spanish Restaurants Expensive?
€452.16 per month (for two people)
On average, we spend around €450 a month on dining for both of us. That’s about €7.50 per person, per day.
And for what we’ve been eating, that’s ridiculous.
Our “dining” category includes restaurants, morning pastries, and tapas bars — anything we eat that we don’t cook at home. This number even includes a few Michelin-starred places.
I try to keep our “alcohol” expenses in a separate category, but dining often includes wine, since a bottle of wine is considered part of the meal here in Spain.
The point is that the value of what you get in Spanish restaurants is off the charts compared with what we’re used to paying for in the States — especially if you like tapas bars.
Our numbers are pretty typical if you eat out a few times a week. But if you plan to dine out for every single meal, or you like seafood and expensive bottles of wine, your dining expenses will probably be a fair bit higher.
How much do groceries cost in Spain?
€368.07 per month (for two people)
We like to cook, especially living in Galicia, where fresh organic local produce is super affordable. So on average, we spend €368 a month on groceries for two people.
And we don’t scrimp.
We get the “nice” olive oil at the organic market. We buy the fancy heritage sourdough bread from nearby villages. We go to the butcher shop for fresh local beef and quality jamón.
Last week, we found a local pastrami that’s ridiculous and got almost a pound of it for €7.
We shop every few days at the local abastos market, or our local bio (aka “organic store”), and they’re both great. We also pick up a few things at one of the chain supermarkets — Gadis, Mercadona, or Froiz— for things we can’t get at the organic shop.
We’ve even found a wholesale grocer (like a Spanish Costco), with bulk prices on certain items (and very cheap wine!). So hopefully, our grocery spending will come down even more next year.
It’s also worth pointing out that this is the price of groceries in Spain after a historic rise in inflation. Euronews reports that grocery prices in Spain have risen 20% since 2022.
But even with that massive inflation, groceries are still far more affordable — and much higher quality — than anything we’re used to back in the States.
Sundries
€38.13 per month
We also separate our spending on stuff like toilet paper, soap, shampoo, and cleaning supplies from our groceries. Interesting stuff, right?
How much does alcohol cost in Spain?
€132.65 per month (for two people)
We love Spanish wine, particularly Mencía.
It’s local, delicious, and goes with just about everything. And it’s unbelievably affordable.
A glass at a restaurant or bar costs €2, and a good bottle of Mencia wine at the supermarket will run from €3 — €5. If you want to get fancy, you can buy a great bottle of Spanish wine for €10 or €15.
We like to meet friends for a drink and enjoy wine at home, so all told, spending around €2 a day each is pretty reasonable when I think back to how much great wine and socializing we’ve enjoyed over the past year.
How much do things cost in Spain?
€417.81 per month
This category is tricky since everyone’s spending on “stuff” is going to vary. But for us, it includes any physical, non-consumable, stuff we bought — usually clothes or stuff for our apartment.
Sample purchases in this category:
Clothing and shoes
Kitchen appliances like an espresso machine, toaster oven, cast iron skillet, and a rice cooker
Utensils, plates, and glasses
A skateboard and stand-up scooter
Costumes for festivals
Hiking gear and gym equipment
Furniture, like my IKEA rocking chair and a new mattress topper
And a new desk, office chairs, 1TB hard drive, and an HD monitor for our home office
The list goes on.
Even if you’re frugal and prepared, you will probably need to buy (a lot) of stuff when you move to a foreign country — even if your apartment is furnished.
Our home office setup was the most expensive thing we bought last year, so hopefully, our spending on “stuff” goes down this year, but there’s always something. If we need to replace a phone or laptop, that will use a huge chunk of our budget for the year.
It’s important to remember that moving abroad means leaving a lot of your favorite things behind. And you’ll probably spend a few bucks replacing them throughout the year.
How much does it cost to get around Spain?
€141.46 per month
This is another tricky category as your transit costs will heavily depend on where you live, if you own a car, and how often you need to commute to things.
We live in an incredibly walkable city so we don’t need a car to run errands or meet friends. We also don’t commute to work, so our transit costs are lower than someone who takes the bus or train every day or has to pay for gas, tolls, parking, insurance, and upkeep for their car.
Most of our transit spending was for high-speed trains.
We’ve taken the high-speed train to visit Madrid several times this year, as well as Barcelona and Valencia. And it’s super affordable.
For context, our cheapest and most expensive train tickets to Madrid cost:
Most expensive train ticket: €87.50 (each) for a last-minute round trip high-speed train
Cheapest train ticket: €18.25 (each) in February
Also, a huge chunk of our total spending on transit this year was for the car we rented when we arrived in Spain with all our bags. All told, that one-way rental cost over €250!
Walking, taking public transit, and using the amazing Spanish high-speed rail network are great ways to lower your transit costs while living in Spain.
How much does a gym membership cost in Spain?
€20-50 per month
This category might not apply to you, but my wife and I have loved the way joining a gym here in Spain has connected us to the local community. And our “gyms” aren’t your typical gym experience.
I pay €40 a month for unlimited access to a rock climbing gym (they gave me a key to the building!).
My gym is technically classified as a social club, so my membership includes things like free surfboard rentals, classes, a fully equipped weight room, and free monthly club “outings” like day hikes, trips to the coast, and camping.
It’s the best.
Lainey goes to an aerial arts circus gym with apparatus like aerial silks and aerial hoop/lyra for open workout sessions. Her gym also includes weights and machines like treadmills as well as other fitness classes for an additional charge.
She pays €50 a month for 2 open gym sessions a week, which is more than you’d pay for a regular gym here in Spain, but she loves the highly specialized equipment, and she’s made friends with the other women who workout there, so it’s worth it.
If you’re not a gym person, you’ll save some money here, but it pays to get involved in some kind of hobby or activity when you move to a foreign country to get connected with the people who live there.
How much does it cost to have fun in Spain?
€91.36 per month (for both of us)
We only spent around €100 a month on entertainment for both of us this year, which is kind of incredible. Because 2023 was one of the best years of our lives.
Our entertainment category includes anything with an entry fee or ticket — like a 3-day swing dance we went to in Valencia — and all the spas, festivals, and concerts we’ve gone to this year.
Honestly, our entertainment spending is lower than I thought, but that’s because a lot of the entertainment here in Spain is free. We go to the free thermal baths in Ourense all the time. The council puts on free concerts and events in Plaza Mayor almost every other week, and the festival calendar in Galicia is hilarious.
There’s free stuff happening all the time.
Plus a huge part of “entertainment” in Spain is going out to meet friends for a drink and a bite to eat, and then just lingering at the table to talk.
We also have access to hundreds of nearby hiking trails, waterfalls, Roman ruins, forests, beaches, and cities to explore for practically nothing.
The point is, it doesn’t cost much to have a great time in Spain.
How much does Spanish coffee cost?
€38.19 per month (for both of us)
Spanish coffee deserves a category of its own because you’re probably going to drink a lot of coffee here.
It’s acceptable to drink coffee pretty much all day long here in Spain, and we absolutely do.
The cafes in town are great — most coffee comes with free pintxos (including churros!) — so we like to meet friends for a coffee and chat sometimes, and a cafe con leche (coffee with milk) usually costs €1.20-€1.60.
Miscellaneous spending & fees
€20 per month
This category includes any customs fees we paid to receive packages from abroad, anything we spent renewing our visa, fees we’ve paid for transferring dollars to euros, and any odds-and-ends spending along the way.
It’s not much, but the little expenses can add up if you’re not careful.
How much do Spanish classes cost?
€127 per year
Our final expense is the €127 that we each spent to register for Spanish classes at the official language school here in Galicia.
Our Spanish class meets twice a week — for two hours each class — and lasts for the full academic school year (September — June).
We love it.
Our teacher is kind and helpful, the course material is engaging, and we’re not only practicing Spanish (the classes are 100% in Spanish), we’re learning about local customs, slang, and how people who live here actually speak.
If you don’t already speak Spanish, invest in learning Spanish when you arrive and you’ll set yourself up for long-term success.
How Much Does it Cost to Live in Spain?
Living in Spain for the past year has been a crash course in the meaning of value. I’ve had the chance to step back and prioritize what matters to me. And I’ve realized something.
Life in the US is expensive.
Just one year of life in Spain has shown me that I used to pay way too much for far too little for far too long in the US. And now that I know that, it’s gonna be hard to ever go back to the way life used to be.
