An Extreme, But Exciting Way To Drastically Lower Your Cost of Living
The story, experience, and budget of a top Medium writer
In this article, we turn things over to one of Medium’s top writers, Livia Dabs RN,MSc.
Please hover over her name and follow her. Livia’s profile says it all —
Top writer in Travel, Health, and Life Lessons. Quit the best country in the world to live sustainably and healthy in Andalucía, Spain.
Livia moved with her family from the United States to Spain a few years ago.
We started talking after one of my articles comparing the cost of food and drink in Italy to the US hit Medium.
Anyhow, I asked if I could tell her story — with details about her cost of living — and she agreed.
After reading what she sent me, it’s best if I mostly step aside and let Livia’s words do the talking.
Everything she wrote is in italics. My interspersed commentary is in regular type.
After two decades of never-ending quest to reach the American dream by acquiring titles, certificates, and working in top businesses or even the US government, I eventually gave up because I had enough.
I’ve lived in New York, California, Colorado, and the District of Columbia over the last two decades.
The more I earned, the more time I spent working, and the tasks were soul-sucking and uninteresting. I felt as if I was chasing my tail, constantly pursuing more money. It appeared to be a never-ending cycle of getting more money to live better. That is why I moved to the US.
Don’t be misled that we didn’t work hard or earned little because I and my spouse, as Eastern European immigrants, were highly educated and successful. However, the costs were going up each year while we lived in the DC metro area.
Typical story.
When I riff on a low cost of living, I often check myself.
I keep a low cost of living, in part, because I enjoy living in big cities. At the moment, it’s Los Angeles.
It’s well worth it. I don’t feel short-changed paying $1300-$1400 a month for a small apartment for what is truly the privilege of living in a great city.
So, while I understand and appreciate Livia’s experience, it isn’t quite mine.
That said, I’m certain her experience is the experience of countless others. Plus, her experience and the recent experience my girlfriend and I had in Italy has made me completely rethink the idea of place as it relates to cost of living.
For the last 2 years, I worked for the DOD as a nurse consultant and my husband was a travel nurse but because he fulfilled his contract as a travel nurse; he needed to go to a different state which didn’t include the tri-state area DC-VA-MD. By law, you need to change location every year if you want to maintain the status of a travel nurse (he was already in the tri-state area for over 2 years).
So he accepted a very lucrative offer in California, and we could also accompany him for two years or remain in DC.
However, we couldn’t go with him because of my work and my daughter’s school, and I didn’t want to stay on the east coast alone, in a location without friends, family, or support. Also, I didn’t want to work in a dead-end job that was unfulfilling and costly. I had no desire to live an empty life or be on the move. I wanted to settle down with my 8 years old, daughter.
We knew it was unsustainable for the long term by working ourselves to death, and maybe never even retire.
That is why we moved to Spain: to lower our expenses, for me to stop working for a while, and for my husband to work less, and not 6 days a week as he was used to.
It took us 6 months to put our finances together and leave. Because we are nurses, we believed we could always return to the US and get a job.
In 2018, we settled in Granada, Spain and we never looked back. Our quality of life has improved dramatically, our finances have never looked so good, and we’ve semi-retired.
Let’s do some comparison with life in the US vs Spain.
Lifestyle in the US
Life in the US was very boring and exhausting. We just worked, slept, studied, and occasionally dined in the restaurant. We planned once a year to go to Europe for vacation. But mostly, we went separately because getting a month-long holiday in the United States was not possible.
My daughter had only karate class to enjoy after school. Or my husband took her for a bike ride.
That was all the fun we had.
Life in the DC metro area was expensive and we couldn’t afford much, even we had a good salary ($150k a year).
So, let’s talk about expenses.
Monthly Expenses:
- Rent: $2300
- Food: $900–$1200 ( I shopped organic and healthy foods, from fresh markets)
- Student Loans: $600
- Phone Bill: $200
- Internet: $100
- Utilities: $300
- Car: $500
- Parking: $200
- Karate: $200
- Graduate school: ( I paid cash) $3000 every 3 months, total $11k
- Restaurants: $400
- Credit cards: $500
- Misc: $500
- Health Insurance: basic 500 from my work
- Total around $7,000 to $8,500 a month
My daughter had asthma and every month on top of the insurance premium, I paid an extra $200.
As you can see, we worked hard to save around $2,000 or less each month, depending on my husband’s contract.
We lived a very basic, uninteresting life, and the only thing we looked forward to was vacation.
I worked 40 hours a week and my husband 65 hours.
Lifestyle in Spain
When we moved to Granada, I didn’t work for 3 years. We had savings of $60k and my husband continued to work for 6 months out of the year and made around $60k.
Meanwhile, I finally had time to spend time with my daughter, unwind, learn Spanish, establish myself in the community, or learn Flamengo.
After three years, a recruiter approached me with a position at J&J Covid-19 Call Center, which I accepted. It was a remote position. I couldn’t resist and told myself to try it.
I describe my dreadful experience in the article Why I will Never Work Again, and after I quit the corporate job, I decided to work solely as a freelancer. That was in October 2021. Since then I am a part-time freelance writer, and I will continue to work 20 hours or fewer a week.
I get a little more than $800 per month, which is enough for me. However, my goal is $1500 a month. I believe it is a realistic goal, and I should achieve it in 12 or fewer months. My husband will continue to work for 4 months as a travel nurse in the US.
Monthly Expenses (in euros):
- Rent: 400
- Food: 400
- Restaurants: 150
- Horse riding: 300
- Aikido: 15
- Ski club: 240
- Health insurance: 150
- Internet: 30
- Cell bill: 30
- Misc: 200
- Painting and classes: 50
- Total: 1,965 euros (which equals $2,202, as of this writing)
Not much to add because what Livia relays speaks for itself.
Here’s a snapshot of Livia’s apartment in Spain:
Four hundred euros for 700 square feet!
Unheard of in California. I pay $1,342 for considerably less space.
Again, not complaining. Just comparing.
Anyhow, I am happy to have had Livia chronicle her experience for us. And I’m happy I was able to mostly keep my mouth shut during the article.
I hope to do more of this. So if you have an experience to share related to cost of living, rent versus own, retirement (and it doesn’t have to be moving Europe!), please do not hesitate to contact me.
We often read about people making big lifestyle changes to do a whole host of things, such as —
- lower their cost of living
- afford to buy a house
- retire early
- make the money have in retirement last longer
- escape the grind/rat race
Livia and her family made it happen.
For them, the grass appears truly greener in Spain.
But that’s the question when you make a drastic move like this — is the grass always greener?
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This article is for informational purposes only. It should not be considered Financial or Legal Advice. Not all information will be accurate. Consult a financial professional before making any major financial decisions.
