Our costs in Spain

Once again, we have come up well under budget in the third country we have visited: Spain .

During a total of 85 days in Spain, we have spent €5,227. Our budget for those days was €6,171, which means we have saved €944. We have to admit, our six weeks stay in our second home, Guisando, has contributed to these large savings, even though we had the expenses related to xmas.

Spain has been the cheapest country so far. We have underspent in everything except in other costs. Why?

1. Travel:

We have not driven on tolls road and we have free parked everywhere – Spain is a very relaxed country about motorhomes. Well, about everything really – .

Fuel costs have been much lower than expected. We have not driven that much whilst we have stayed in Guisando. Also, oil prices have dropped dramatically over the last month and, surprisingly, petrol stations have passed on lower prices to the consumer straight away. Luckily, our nearest petrol station put its diesel prices down to €1.07 per litre!! The cheapest we have seen so far. Absolutely incredible!

So Rober we never did find that €1.35 per litre diesel. GDR

2. Camping:

We spent €133 in refuges where we were up in the Pyrenees. Staying the night cost us €16. Quite expensive really.

We have been able to park overnight pretty much anywhere for free, so our aires costs are zero. On the other hand, we have incurred higher electricity and water costs during our six weeks in Guisando. We have estimated these costs to be around €230.

3. Repairs:

Dora’s heater broke down at the beginning of November as soon as we arrived in La Rioja, just when the cold started, typical. Luckily we were in Spain, so I was able to communicate easily. I found a caravan place in Vitoria and the heater got repaired in an hour. It cost us €110.

We have also bought a few accessories for Dora: a lid to the toilet cassette which we dropped down a drain whilst emptying the black water, and a 12 V hoover to clean inside the van.

4. Food:

Spain has been the most economical place to eat so far. We have stuck to Lidl so our supermarket costs have been very low. Also, eating in Guisando has been really cheap, which is amazing, considering we have been cooking for lots of people.

The local shop in Guisando though, really high prices! GDR

5. Other costs;

5.1 Communication costs –

The cheapest Spanish SIM cards we found was those sold in Carrefour. A card for 100 MB per day cost us €15. We bought two in case we needed more. We topped each card with €10 each.  We could have spent more, but luckily, we have been using the families wifi whilst we were in Talavera. Other times, we stopped in a bar with free wifi so we could also enjoy a glass of wine.

I have an old phone with a pay-as-you-go local SIM card which I use when I am in Spain. I have probably spent around €70 on this phone.

Gary’s computer’s hard drive broke down. We paid €67 for a new one which was quadruple the size. Very good deal and means we can now back up the external hard drive.

We also got some hardware for the phones and computers such as new battery for my iphone and a cable for my laptop to use whilst we were in Guisando.

5.2 Toilets, cleaning & Doctors –

Gary had to have a small procedure on his eye lid. Our travel insurance didn’t cover these costs as it was a pre-existing condition.

5.3 Souvenirs –

We bought climbing equipment in Decathlon; new clothes for me (I only have trekking clothes in Dora, I didn’t think it was appropriate to socialise in these outfit. This was a good excuse to buy new clothes), and quite a bit of wine from our winery routes.

5.4 Activities

Costs associated with visiting our numerous wine routes and sightseeing in Zaragoza, Madrid and Toledo.

Here there is the updated cost per day of the three countries we have visited so far, so that you can compare like with like.

We have also updated our page costs.

SM