If your healthcare is sorted (ie covered by an Eform), then my own feeling is that costs will be very similar to the UK. More for healthcare - top up insurance etc - but less for income tax. Local taxes vary hugely so that much depends on where you're moving to and from (ours are about 30% of what they were in Kent, but others moving from low council tax areas to expenive parts of France have different experiences.) Our power bills are roughly the same, even though we're at home all day, whereas in the UK we were out for 12 hours' plus, because we worked. As far as food etc is concerned, it was roughly the same, but at the moment it's probably a bit more expensive here if your income is from the UK, due to the lousy exchange rates.
But it really is a piece of string thing...
According to INSEE, the minimum wage (SMIC) in France is 1,280€ per month, and there are many French families who exist on this.
I fully agree with the other answers. But our very small rural commune has an average income per household of 754€ per month according to the same official sources that SD quotes (actually likely to have risen slightly since the data were compiled). As to whether that provides a particularly fulfilling lifestyle, or the 'high quality of life' much quoted by British moving overseas, I leave you to judge.
Just to clarify, the SMIC amount quoted of 1,280 euros is the GROSS amount - I'm on the SMIC and my net take-home pay each month (that is after social charges have been deducted) is 1,005 euros (and a few centimes); however last year we didn't pay any income tax, in fact they paid us a couple of hundred euros.
Lou
'But our very small rural commune has an average income per household of 754€ per month '
Our commune has a similarly low average income but that doesn't take into account non monetary income. Many of my neighbours are almost self sufficient in food... veg,fruit, milk, pork, duck, beef, chicken. My next door neighbour even produces about 360 bottles of wine a year. Water for everything but drinking comes free from the village supply. A car is a necessary business expense. My neighbours don't have an affluent lifestyle; far from it and they work very hard. They have few luxuries but they are not at poverty level by any means . Anyone moving from the UK into the village (without the land, experience and family support mechanisms) would find it extremely difficult to survive on an income this low.
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