How much I spent living in Malaga, Spain🇪🇸 (January 2024)
January 2024 is the first full month that my partner and I have lived in Malaga, Spain. We moved from Toronto, Canada and we’ll be living in Spain for one year on the Youth Mobility Visa.
One of the reasons we chose to move to Malaga is because of the lower cost of living that would allow our Canadian dollar to stretch further. According to Numbeo, as of January 2024, Consumer Prices (including rent) in Malaga are 37% lower than in Toronto (source).
As you’ll see once we deep dive into the numbers below, we spent a rather large amount during our first month living in Malaga. We are living directly in the City Centre/Downtown where prices will always be a bit higher because it’s where many tourists end up, but we still spend a lot more than I would have expected!
Here’s how much we spent in each category as a couple:
Rent (2 bd/2 bath, fully furnished, city center): €1,771
Note: This also includes all bills such as water, electricity, unlimited high speed internet, and a washer and dryer in-unit
Restaurants & Takeout: €1,561
We were overly jet-lagged and exhausted and ate out WAY too often. We also have a very small kitchen with no oven (only a small toaster oven and a stove) so we were getting used to cooking in such a different space. Regardless, we were alarmed by this number and are committed to doing much better next month! We’re also investing in an air fryer from Amazon to make cooking our own meals at home much easier.
Groceries: €987
We experimented with many different foods from many different grocery stores and by the end of the month, found our favourite and affordable go-to grocery store (Mercadona)
Travel (a weekend trip to Madrid): €432
This includes two roundtrip train tickets and a 2 night stay at the Hotel Catalonia Plaza Mayor
Spanish Classes (private and group): €430
I do 2 group classes and one private class per week, and my partner does 2 private classes per week
Home goods/furnishings: €227
Though our unit is furnished, it didn’t come with a computer desk and chair that my partner needs to work, so he bought that. I also bought a few home furnishings such as a high quality pillow, laundry hamper, etc.
Transportation (Uber): €194
Malaga is a super walkable city, but places like IKEA (where we bought the computer desk and chair) are further out and therefore the Uber costs were more expensive.
Primark: €180
Primark is a problem for me because I love it so much! It’s a one-stop shop. I bought some pajamas, slippers, home decor, and workout clothes from here (as did my partner).
Mobile phones: €60
Unlimited calls and 160GB of data each to use throughout the EU from Vodafone
Personal Care: €89
This includes goods from the pharmacy like body wash, toothpaste, lotion, etc.
Fitness: €50
Unlimited gym membership
Amazon: €29
Technically this is a business expense as I needed a special cord for my wireless mic to record content)
This brings our grand total to: €6,010 ($8752 CAD/$6494 USD). Yeah…it was a lot.
The plan for February is to reduce that Restaurants/Takeout cost by at least half since we’ll be more settled and have an air fryer that’ll allow us to cook more. I also plan to decrease my Spanish lessons slightly because the 3 classes per week (while running a business and trying to keep active at the gym) was a bit too overwhelming.
We’ll see how it goes! I’ll be sharing our expense reports every month while we live in Spain, so check back to see how we do! I’ll also include a link to each report in my monthly newsletter, The Liberty Letter, which you can sign up for here (for free).
P.S.: For all of the purchases I make while in Spain, I use Wise, which is a multi-currency account that allows me to convert Canadian dollars into Euros at the “inter-bank rate” (aka the real rate) so I don’t have to pay expensive commissions or bank surcharges. It’s super easy to use and convenient! They also have a digital card that you can link to your Apple Pay (and everywhere in Malaga accepts Apple Pay!) so I never have to withdraw cash from an ATM or bank. Sign up for Wise using my referral link here.
