Cost of living in VT

This question is almost impossible to answer as you don't provide enough information.
Travel how, public transport or car? To compare with Bulgaria is one thing, travel in Europe is quite another.
Living cost in Bulgaria a very low compared to other EU countries and that includes utilities. However, there are other cost comparison site that are far more detailed you can even tailor it by cities compared to your own I you wish!

Thank you for the reply

Sorry I didn't really make my self understood....I'm looking at cost of living i.e food,wine etc,eating out twice a week average,utility bills,fuel..(fill the car up once a week),insurances
I'm working on 2000 lev a month budget......what I'm asking will this be enough or do I budget for more

Many thanks for the help

2000 a month should be enough if you don't party and you own a place rather than rent. As far as traveling, yes you can do some light traveling around Bulgaria and the surrounding countries but going to Western Europe you can forget about. It really boils down to what kind of lifestyle you live, you can eat out for 5lv or 30lv per person, you can go to a club and spend 500-600lv for the night or go to a bug or bar and drop 50lv.

Hi- you'd be living like a king on that much a month!! And even then you could still be having change leftover unless you're really having an extravagant lifestyle! It depends on a lot of things, for example, are you in town or a village?Does your house have a burner or have central heating which will make a difference to your electric bills. Water bills are cheap. Internet is about 25lv a month depending on your tariff. For shopping, there is a supermarket in the Mall which sells many British products and is more expensive than if you shop in Lidls; and there are plenty of well-priced restaurants where you can have a decent meal with wine for under 50lv. I think initially, things would be more expensive as they usually are when you move but once it levels out, becomes very cheap to live here.

Thanks for the replies

1/ At our age our partying days are over.....a nice meal and wine in a nice restaurant is classed as a good night
2/ We are having a wood burner that heats radiators fitted
3/ We plan to grow our own veg and salads as we have the space to do this
4/As for traveling we plan to see the surrounding countries rather by coach/train or by car
5/As for British goods were not too bothered we've lived in Goa for the past 8 yrs and had to do without certain things and as they say when in Rome

Thanks,this is the first time we've joined a blog and were very impressed

Your budget should be plenty for what you will want to do. We find the biggest drain on resources now that we have settled is running the 4x4 which we came out with and which is very useful to get out and about off the beaten track with the cameras and for coping with the roads which can be a bit rough.

You will find your first year a bit more expensive, you will be setting up your home and growing area (which might have been neglected for years) and you will not see the benefit for a year. On the other hand a lot of people come out thinking they will grow their own but find the reality of all that space is just damned hard work, especially with fresh veg so amazingly cheap in the markets. You will have the heat (not a problem with you maybe)and flash storms, not knowing what will and won't grow here, the variety is not the same as we are used to, the (normally!) short but harsh winters which means little is left in the ground over that period, Preserving your bounty is hard work too, even if you are just going to freeze. But you get so much from the land and trees which usually abound in the gardens. We love it, but have far too much! We freeze, bottle, pickle, jam/chutney and dehydrate, so if the electricity fails or freezer breaks we still have plenty.

How much you spend on your home depends on condition obviously, but talking to various people (including one who is a builder) it is often cheaper to buy one with all the basics done, like plumbing, electrics, septic tank, roof and insulation, than it is ti get the jobs done on a wreck, especially if you don't have a reliable source of recommended and reasonable tradesmen, cowboys abound. Of course if you have the tools and know how to do it yourself that is different. But it sounds as if you have already bought so that is academic. You will know that you will need a back up source of power for if the electricity goes off and you water pump can't work for the heating. Not that it goes off that often, but you don't want to risk being without heating if there is a metre of snow and many degrees below freezing outside!

Eating out is relatively cheap compared to the UK, but I have no idea how that might compare to Goa which I guess is not expensive anyway. There are some nice restaurants in VT though we don't eat out much. We might only go there to eat about three times a year and always go to a better restaurant. Some things, like beef and sea fish can be expensive. Locally you can get a main course for under 5 leva. Local wine to drink at home is very cheap too. As is beer.

But if you are lucky with your neighbours and you are coming to a great area, it is a wonderful place, we love it, even this year when the weather has been freakily wet and humid after a mild and dry winter. I hope you do too.

Blimey, I'm sorry...I wrote a book!!!!!

Thanks Sarah

What you've told us has helped,my wife is there at the moment organising work with a lady who came highly recommended
We are hoping to move there by July/August.....as for growing veg and salad we seem accomplished at that here in Goa and if you can grow it here you can grow it anywhere
Electric again we can live with as we have power cuts approx 3 to 4 times a week so we have an inverter to overcome this
It comes across to us both we are going to have a good life there,we have employed good people here to look after our business so it will be our time.....fishing ,walking enjoying life
It's nice talking to people and learning from there experiences we had to do the same when we first moved to India and we have met some lovely people on our journey.
VT a new adventure

It sounds as if BG will be ideal for you.
With regards growing, I have to admit it was a bit hit and miss at first as I desperately wanted to grow without chemicals and some of my favourite veggies that I was successful with in the UK. The first year I tried French and runner beans, salads like lettuce, radish, chard, beetroot. But because the season starts early here and it was summer and too hot in June, everything failed. Our neighbours had kindly planted dozens of tomatoes, peppers, courgettes. aubergines, okra and pumpkins before we arrived....we were inundated with those, with buckets more coming from neighbours all around, as well as fruit. Lettuce doesn't grow here in summer and I get urges for a nice, crisp, cool lettuce. They tend to be overwintered and also grown for autumn and spring. They go to seed too quickly, radish and most other brassicas get flea beetle, Colorado beetle is rife and will take out all the potato family if you don't keep on top of them, we lost most aubergines to them last year and missed the gap to grow a second crop of potatoes after the second hatching because of the awful weather we have had this year. But i will not use chemicals, just grow more plants!
I'm glad your wife is over supervisinf, it's a good thing as I am sure your research has shown you. Everyone I have spoken to seems to have been ripped of in some way by trusting too much. We just set the neighbour on anyone we don't want around, bless her.
The electricity generally is not a big problem unless you live in a remote and small village, where water can also be a problem. Our's might go off if we have a huge storm, but we have been told it is turned off to minimise damage.Occasionally it goes off for other reasons but often we will be told. Not a problem as usually only a short time, but we have lost a lot of hatching eggs when there were a lot of storms when we first arrived. Last spring we were more prepared but we didn't always know and still had some problems. We have given up now, it was costing a fortune and other emergency methods would have added to it. As with everything, trial and error. We don't have central heating, just a burner upstairs and down, it is enough and we can cook on the one in the kitchen. can't imagine anything worse than no heating or cooker in the bleak months.
Although we love it here and our neighbours and village are great, the one thing that gets us down is animal welfare, but that is a whole subject in itself. Wherever you go in the world there are some things not right, this is a biggie for us but something that will take many years to sort.

We had the same problems here until we realised the soil wasn't sufficient so we had dig the old up and replace with appropriate soil and manure
Now we have managed to grow tomatoes,courgettes,peppers,chillies,avocados,pineapple,orange and banana trees,curry leaves,lemon grass,lychee,cashew nut tree and other local foods
The problem we had certain plants attracted certain species of snakes.....thankfully we won't have that problem over in VT
My wife has already made friends with our neighbour and he is re building a boundary wall for us.....he just told her buy the material and it will be his gift to us,which is nice
She's been told that the village which houses about 25 people can't wait to meet us so it all looks as though the decision we've made is the right one
Thanks again Sarah I'm sure I will be picking your brains as and when we settle in

Good neighbours are a boon, especially in a small village like your's. Most new people seem to be 'adopted' by someone in the village, very hany for finding out about services.
You will miss the variety of fruit and veg though you can get most stuff in the larger supermak
rkets if you really want them. The only things we buy are citrus and occasionally bananas which can be bought in the markets...and mushooms, currently researching growing our own. But citrus grow well in pots if you have somewhere to put them frost free in winter
We do get snakes, we had some large ones living on the plot, but they are harmless. The venomous ones tend to live in the mountainous areas.