When friends and friends of friend’s contact me to ask about working as an auxiliar in Spain, one thing they always ask is: “is 1000 Euros enough to live on in Spain?” or “is the auxiliar salary enough?”.  In general, it is enough.  But you can’t do it ALL on the auxiliar salary (I’m saying this after having less than 100 Euros in my account because I want to do it ALL).  You can’t eat out, buy clothes, buy groceries, pay your rent and bills AND travel.  You need to do some private lessons to help supplement things, but if you can work a few extra hours, you’ll find that this salary is enough to live and to live quite comfortably.  Below, you will find the breakdown of what I earned and what I spent in October.

A few weeks back, I made a budget for myself in an attempt to curtail my willy-nilly spending.  Especially on clothes becaaaaaaaaaaause …hey, Zara.  Anywho, here is a copy of the budget:

And after one month of (almost) meticulously writing down my purchases, here are how things turned out:

So, overall, I was able to stick to my budget!  

• Groceries: 25 LESS
• Bars and Restaurants: 50 LESS
• Coffee and Snacks: 27 LESS
• Toiletries: 12 LESS
• Clothes: 63 LESS
• Travel: 200 +++ (There is 300 in travel unaccounted for that I will include in November)

*The travel expenses this month account for an Airbnb in Lyon, France next month and a trip to Bilbao and San Sebastian with my parents.  It’s worth it though, because when in Europe….

With the additional money from private lessons, I actually saved a little bit of money in October (but I guess when you count in that extra 300 I didn’t note here, then I didn’t save anything).  Overall, I am very pleased with this.  I didn’t do any wild spending this month and most big chunks of money went to rent and travel.  Both are necessary.  Both are why I’m here.