|
Living Costs This is a rough idea of living costs to help you decide how much you will be able to live on in this are of Portugal, obviously this is just a rough outline and prices do vary from place to place and as time goes on. Services Electricity bills for a normal size house, running lights, TV, entertainment systems plus a washing machine, kettle and a couple of heaters will come to about 30 per month. Water, a normal amount including baths and watering flowerbeds (not watering vast amounts of garden) will come to no more than 15 per month, probably more like 7-10 Other services, Phone bills are difficult to estimate because we make a lot of phone calls to England and spend a few hours each night on the internet, Normal phone use would probably come to about 50 per month (that would include a generous amount of internet time) Satellite systems cost 350 for installation with a basic package for less than 18 per month (that includes music channels English CNN and a movie channel in English) Broadband internet is 35 per month for unlimited use and downloads. Food and Drink Basic food is very cheap here, prices can go up when you buy imported or pre-prepared foods, a can of Heinz beans is roughly 1.20 but you can buy 1kg of frozen prawns for less than 7, meat is also very cheap, a standard sized chicken is about 5, 1kg of potatoes is about 0.80 and good wine starts from 1 per bottle. Eating out Every town has a few restaurants that do a lunch-time special, 3 courses plus wine for less than 5 per person, for dinner the same places cost about 8 for 3 courses and a few beers. If you want something a bit more special there are pizza parlors (coming to roughly 10per person with a bottle of wine each!) There are also some nice Chinese restaurants in Coimbra which come to about 15 per person (though this includes a couple of starters, a main meal, rice and lots to drink) Getting around Petrol here is just over 1.30 per litre, diesel is about 1 per litre. A train from Porto to Coimbra costs from 11 per person. Cars are quite expensive here though so make sure you check out the prices before leaving your car behind. Setting up home As a general rule with appliances, if it is £100 in England it is 100 here. Good furniture is very reasonably priced and made to measure fitted kitchens from the local carpintaria are only the cost of a good MFI do it yourself. Contact us if you have any question about costs of specific items. Click Here for the Printer Friendly Page
|