The main reason for my moving to Portugal was to cut my cost of living expenses by at least 30%, and having been here for only two weeks, I’m going to declare 100% success.
At least in terms of my basic cost of living expenses - shelter and utilities, I've managed a 60% saving!
I’ve managed to find a nice cabin to stay in with a friend for the winter, and I’ve decided to gift her 260 EU a month for the foreseeable future, completely unrelated to staying in said cabin, and then another (estimated) 40 EU on top for bills.
It’s a pretty basic cabin - it has a double bed, which I’m going to collapse into a single bed, a sofa, a table with kitchen stuff on it, and just about enough floor space to do some yoga stretches, but it’s enough for one person, more than sufficient.
Then there’s a large decking area outside, twice as large as the cabin space, with a nice table, which is going to be my work table for autumn, although I imagine by late November I’ll be mostly inside. Now I’m thinking it’s a damn shame I couldn’t fit my folding desk in the car, it would have been perfect for this cabin!
I’ve also got an outside kitchen area, which will probably need covering for the coming winter, powered by a portable gas bottle (covered in the bills contribution).
I’ve also got a fridge freezer outside, so yes, there is electricity, so no need to rely on my solar set up just yet.
And I’ve got a separate compost toilet a suitable distance away from the cabin, and a a nice separate shower and washing up area next to the cabin, water from a borehole, but not drinkable, so I have to fetch my local water from a font in a nearby town, which is a bit of a pain, but if I get two 25 litre water canisters and make early morning trips once a week/ fortnight, that won’t be too much hassle!
So that’s 300 EU all in for my housing, electric, gas, water. No tax.
That compares to…. 650 mortgage/ mortgage insurance, 90 council tax, and almost 100 EU in total bills.
So That’s 850 EU in total I was paying this time last month
Now I’m getting housing, gas, electricity, water, all for 300 EU a month!
So that’s a massive 60% saving on what I was spending.
I’m being a little cautious about calculating my savings - I’m hoping to negotiate getting a wood burning stove installed, which the cabin needs, and paying for it myself, and wood is quite expensive, but I just really really like wood burning stoves!
And I’ve got to buy a gas heater in the meantime (it is necessary) and some water butts for the water, so there are some capital expenses, but nothing too expensive!
Obviously I have other expenses too: car, internet, maintaining my rented out house back in the UK, but in terms of pure basic cost of living expenses, I’m winning, and I haven’t even begun to look for my own land yet!
There's not a lot I can for now about cutting down my other living expense - food, car, insurance, but even if that holds steady, shaving 60% off my shelter and utilities should give me an average overall saving of around 40%, which is pretty good going!
As a final note, more important than the money is my quality of life, I really like the person whose land I’m staying on, I’m at the foot of a mountain range, the climate is superb, it’s just so damn chill around here!
And the 4G connection is BETTER than in Hereford in the UK where I came from, which means I can spend as long as I like dicking about on Hive!