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01/05/2008, 11:35 blackcat Joined on 16/04/2008 Posts 30 Cost of Living for familes in France? Hi, any experiences of families in France would be appreciated. We would be a family of 5 (kids aged 5, 12 & 17). Im trying to gain a realisitic perspective of what sort of monthly income we would need to live on comfortably, mortgage aside, just bills, food, maintenance etc. Average sized property, one car, no debts.  I understand the wages/salary in France are much lower than the UK and am hoping this reflects in the cost of living. Any info appreciated. Sara            Report

01/05/2008, 12:18 Russethouse Joined on 23/08/2004 Forum Moderator Posts 9,806 Re: Cost of Living for familes in France? Have a look at : http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1176705/ShowPost.aspx I think an idea of where you will be living or hope to live ( putting it in your profile helps) etc and other details would be helpful. There are some areas of France with quite high unemployement rates for example.... www.quimperclub.org 99    Report

01/05/2008, 12:45 Val_2 Joined on 23/08/2004 Posts 3,117 Re: Cost of Living for familes in France? Sara I honestly don't think you will find much difference between here and the UK these days from what my family tell me. Here your equivalent of council rates will be cheaper BUT you will have to finance your top up health care which cancels out the difference(with three kids and two adults expect to pay anything from 150€/month upwards), food here is better but not cheaper any more and very limited in some areas to what the supermarkets will stock only dependent upon local requirements. You will drive twice the distance here to get anywhere and with petrol/diesel cheaper but not a lot you will save on road tax as there is non for domestic vehicles. School will cost you in insurance for the kids,school meals,books etc,sports clothes but then you probably have uniforms in the UK. Electricity is dear here,expect utility bills every two months once resident.At the end of the day whats cheaper there is not here and vice-verce. As long as you don't keep popping back to the UK by ferry like many people do,your finances should stretch if you can find work.Child benefit is payable for the second child upwards and you must sign off with the UK first but you do get it backdated eventually. Don't forget that if you need hospital treatment and doctors visits,you usually pay at the time and them claim it back as not all establishments have the Carte Vitale automatic reimbursement system installed yet.    Report

01/05/2008, 13:55 Panda Joined on 29/01/2008 Charente (16) and Vienne (86) Posts 309 Re: Cost of Living for familes in France? I would tend to agree with Val, these days the diffferences in costs are minimal and sadly the wages are a lot lower.  You would do well to research and find employment before commtting to coming over, I have a totally fluent ex-teacher friend who can't even get a job as a cashier in the local supermarket here in the Charente.     Report

01/05/2008, 14:14 blackcat Joined on 16/04/2008 Posts 30 Re: Cost of Living for familes in France? Hi Thanks for your reply. There is a lot of useful information on the other posting thanks. Here in the Uk I spend £130 per week on shopping and its rising rapidly at the moment. Is the local produce in France not cheaper? Here my only option is to shop in the local Tesco as theres no local butchers or grocery shops any more, in fact Tesco has even taken over most of the post offices and turned them into small versions of the stores! We are looking at moving to the Dordogne area, we are going to start visiting Eymet as it may be a good place for us to move first with the children so they can indulge in a bit of british culture still, and with Bergerac airport only 25 mins away would be good for my hubby as he will need to fly back for work. For the first year my husband will continue to work in the UK but is hoping to only have to do that for about 6 months of the year, in periods of 12 weeks at a time via his agency. In France his trade will only pay a fraction of what he can earn in the UK, so he's hoping that if he may only have to work half the time to achieve what we need to live on.  In the Uk we have large mortgage (over £1,000 a month). by selling up and moving to France we will mortgage free with our equity so wont need that extra £1k a month. God only knows if its going to work but we'll give it our best shot. We just need a realistic view of what its going to cost us to live. It can't be any more than here!                Report

01/05/2008, 14:49 lizzy h Joined on 18/12/2004 Magnac laval Posts 172 Re: Cost of Living for familes in France? we are a family of  7  Mam, Dad 2 kids age 6 and 14 and nana, sister and uncle, 1 car we eat very well and have no mortgage  we can live on 2000 euros a month ( Basic income)but thats without luxury's such as holidays and not counting all the animals, we work hard for our extras in the b and b so I think you could survive on less than that maybe just ever 1500 a month but don't expect lots of fine dining or holidays you just couldn't do it liz x www.holidaybandb-limousin.com    Report

01/05/2008, 15:03 Sprogster Joined on 23/08/2004 Var & C.I. Posts 321 Re: Cost of Living for familes in France? sara77, You don't say what age your children are, but if they are in secondary education and not proficient in the French language you might want to research carefully the education section of this forum, so that you fully understand the challenges and risks involved. Especially, if things don't work out financially and you have to return to the UK, which unfortunately is a real possibility based on the estimated return rate of other non retired Brits who have moved to France and needed to continue to work. As for the cost of living, as the other posters have mentioned France is not cheaper than the UK and is becoming increasingly expensive in £ terms with the strenghtening Euro. Therefore, if you are going to be reliant on UK source earnings you should factor in the risk of the weak £ depreciating further against the Euro, as if we end up with Euro/£ parity ,anywhere in the Euro zone will be expensive from a UK comparative!      Report

01/05/2008, 17:28 LyndaandRichard Joined on 01/05/2005 Posts 845 Re: Cost of Living for familes in France?  Val_2 wrote: BUT you will have to finance your top up health care Is it mandatory to do that? Your Property in France    Report

01/05/2008, 17:32 blackcat Joined on 16/04/2008 Posts 30 Re: Cost of Living for familes in France? Hi there I said in my original post, kids will be 5, 12 and 17. Am currently looking into the education side of things too, but not planning on coming over for at least a year and have a tutor booked for my 12 yr old. 17 yr old is fluent but not looking at studying, she is coming for a year 'experience' and then maybe going back to the UK to stay with her dad and study for another year or so. Have taken into account the Euro/£ factor. The wages for my husbands trade are too poor in France and he can earn 3 times as much in the UK so he'd be better off commuting even with the weak £. We have 2 bachelor uncles who are always taking in lodgers, one of them is in London so would be perfect for him as most of his work centres around there. Thanks for the advice, lots of useful info on these forums, expect everyone will get sick of me soon!      Report

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