Expat Community > Portugal

Njleblan
Joined 2016
Posts: 3

Daily costs seem high

7 years ago

Hello all. My husband and I arrived here from Canada in October. We have rented an apartment in the Cascais area. So far, we are finding things much more expensive then we had expected. We are over budget on just about everything. We like to cook at home and have not eaten out much. We are shopping as locally as we can, and have not been purchasing many imported goods. (Of course a few exceptions such as tea and coffee). So far, our monthly food/wine costs are around 800 euros. The few times we have gone out for drinks or a meal are not included in this number. We are also having a very difficult time finding any quality accomodation. We are currently staying in a 3rd floor ( of a four floor building) T1, renovated apartment. Paying 1350 euros ( short term let). We have heat, which we figured out quite quickly was necessary, but the apartment is still cold and damp. It is so noisey that even with our white noise machine, we are woken up frequently through the night (especially on weekends) and when sitting in our living room you, often we can hear the neighbors using the washroom. We had expected to be around 700 -800 euros for a long term lease, but now are questioning whether we will be able to find anything that will give us any level of comfort for that price. We are thinking a top floor apartment will mitigate the noise transfer but when looking online, cannot find anything top floor for under 1500 euros. Just looking for advice on acutal costs and if we are being totally unrealistic with our budget of around 2500 euros per month. (For comfortable living) Thanks.

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Expat Community > Portugal

Daily costs seem high

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