Location: On the edge of tomorrow looking back at yesterday. Gender:
Posted:
Mar 12, 2023 - 8:43am
Iâm finally ripping through my basement office, trashing old electronics, paperwork, and boxes. Slowly downsizing and upgrading when I can.
This is the other half that Iâm replacing the ceiling tiles and new LED recessed lights.
Ap .... App .... Applied ... for SOCIAL SECURITY! (finally reached official age, parsed, pared and waited all these years) Getting more than I thought.
It's much cheaper than most places in the US. Ponta Delgada is by far the biggest city of all the Islands with a population of around 70k. It's also the most expensive place to live on the Islands. Most everything else is small villages from 500-3000 people. Most of the Island is rural. I live in Povoacao which is the oldest city on any of the islands founded 1432. It's one of the best small villages to live in and very reasonable. Furnas is close by and more populus but costs more as it's a tourist trap.
Some sample costs I pay. This is for one person:
Electricity - 30 euro/month
Small gas canister - 30 euro lasts me 2 months for hot water and cooking.
Internet/TV/landline phone - 29 euro/month for MEO 250 down/140 up fiberoptic.
Water 5 euros/month.
5G phone service 5gb data- 9.53 euro/month 2 year plan Vodafone.
Local beer (Sagres, Super Boch, Amigos etc) 1 euro/ 33cl bottle or less.
Lunch at village eatery - 4.60 Salmonella wrap with salad & drink. Decent pizza for 2 is 10 euro. Friday buffet 10 euro.
Dinner - Friday buffet 10 euro.
In grocery stores anything local is much cheaper than US. Eggs and Milk all fresh from farms around town. A plat of 24 eggs is around 26 euros. Milk is around 0.8 euro/liter. A 1.65 Kg whole chicken is about 4.5 euro. Food is much healthier here as no factory farming or growth chemicals. Cows eat grass and chicken eat bugs and not grain. Imported food and beers cost more. Not always a lot more. Low-on-the-brow is around 7 euros a six. Local wines are very drinkable and cheap (unless you are allergic to tannic acid like me).
Rent starts around 400 euros for a year contract. You can buy a very livable house for 100k and up or a fixer up for much less. Mortgages here start at 1.2 percent but down payments are higher here. I bought a huge stone farm house with several acres and a killer view for under very reasonable.
Cars cost more. Only about 30% of people drive here. Cars are hard to find here so most people buy them from the mainland and pay around 600 euros to ship here. Imported a car from the US is so expensive it's not worth it unless you are rich. There is no such thing as an automatic trans here and that includes rentals. Car inspections are much more rigorous here than the US. Once you try driving on the narrow winding mountain roads you will know why. There is decent public transit here. Car registration and insurance is much cheaper here.
Building materials are about the same as the US with a few exceptions. I just had a nice extra thick granite countertop made for about 1/3 of what I would have paid in the US. Tile is cheaper here also.
Labor is MUCH cheaper here. My skilled contractor that does masonry, roofing, plumbing etc charges me 8.2 euro/hour and 5..50/hous for his helpers and they do fantastic work and actually work hard. The average wage here is only 1100/month.
If you own a house here you can live very comfy for under 700/month. 70% of people here speak English but I am trying to learn Portuguese so I can fit in better,
Cool. Sounds like a nice change of pace from US & Can . Thanks!
Fired it up, it plays pretty sweet for the price. Low power fun...
I cannot put into words how amazing it is to live in a country where the postal service works - you order something and then it just.....arrives!
It still feels like a miracle everytime it happens.
The simple things that make a country work - a postal service, and one of the first things to go for a ball of shit when Marxists take over....
Fired it up, it plays pretty sweet for the price. Low power fun...
I cannot put into words how amazing it is to live in a country where the postal service works - you order something and then it just.....arrives!
It still feels like a miracle everytime it happens.
The simple things that make a country work - a postal service, and one of the first things to go for a ball of shit when Marxists take over....
Went to look at a venue for a conference in July here in Toronto. Looks good. Had a phone call with the lady winding up my parents investments. Went to the bank and got my Dad's estate account set up, and deposited five cheques. Made steak for supper. Checked out the RP website and saw that there's a push on for donations, so cancelled by quarterly donation of $10 (cheap) and upped it to $20 monthly (better), because there's nothing like this radio station anywhere.
Location: No longer in a hovel in effluent Damnville, VA Gender:
Posted:
Feb 10, 2023 - 12:06pm
Beaker wrote:
Hi Dave,
What's the cost of living like there on São Miguel ? Housing cost - rent or buy?
Interesting. Certainly warmer winters!
It's much cheaper than most places in the US. Ponta Delgada is by far the biggest city of all the Islands with a population of around 70k. It's also the most expensive place to live on the Islands. Most everything else is small villages from 500-3000 people. Most of the Island is rural. I live in Povoacao which is the oldest city on any of the islands founded 1432. It's one of the best small villages to live in and very reasonable. Furnas is close by and more populus but costs more as it's a tourist trap.
Some sample costs I pay. This is for one person:
Electricity - 30 euro/month
Small gas canister - 30 euro lasts me 2 months for hot water and cooking.
Internet/TV/landline phone - 29 euro/month for MEO 250 down/140 up fiberoptic.
Water 5 euros/month.
5G phone service 5gb data- 9.53 euro/month 2 year plan Vodafone.
Local beer (Sagres, Super Boch, Amigos etc) 1 euro/ 33cl bottle or less.
Lunch at village eatery - 4.60 Salmonella wrap with salad & drink. Decent pizza for 2 is 10 euro. Friday buffet 10 euro.
Dinner - Friday buffet 10 euro.
In grocery stores anything local is much cheaper than US. Eggs and Milk all fresh from farms around town. A plat of 24 eggs is around 26 euros. Milk is around 0.8 euro/liter. A 1.65 Kg whole chicken is about 4.5 euro. Food is much healthier here as no factory farming or growth chemicals. Cows eat grass and chicken eat bugs and not grain. Imported food and beers cost more. Not always a lot more. Low-on-the-brow is around 7 euros a six. Local wines are very drinkable and cheap (unless you are allergic to tannic acid like me).
Rent starts around 400 euros for a year contract. You can buy a very livable house for 100k and up or a fixer up for much less. Mortgages here start at 1.2 percent but down payments are higher here. I bought a huge stone farm house with several acres and a killer view for under very reasonable.
Cars cost more. Only about 30% of people drive here. Cars are hard to find here so most people buy them from the mainland and pay around 600 euros to ship here. Imported a car from the US is so expensive it's not worth it unless you are rich. There is no such thing as an automatic trans here and that includes rentals. Car inspections are much more rigorous here than the US. Once you try driving on the narrow winding mountain roads you will know why. There is decent public transit here. Car registration and insurance is much cheaper here.
Building materials are about the same as the US with a few exceptions. I just had a nice extra thick granite countertop made for about 1/3 of what I would have paid in the US. Tile is cheaper here also.
Labor is MUCH cheaper here. My skilled contractor that does masonry, roofing, plumbing etc charges me 8.2 euro/hour and 5..50/hous for his helpers and they do fantastic work and actually work hard. The average wage here is only 1100/month.
If you own a house here you can live very comfy for under 700/month. 70% of people here speak English but I am trying to learn Portuguese so I can fit in better,
No street vendors in this village. No rat-on-a-stick or barking tacos (band name). Though the village only has about 1100 full time residents we do have 4 grocery stores but that is because none of the other nearby villages for miles have any so they all come here to shop. We ate sort if the county seat. There is also a small mom & pop place about 200 feet from my ouse. One downside is we only have a few resturants and they don't have much variety. Keeps me from eating out to much. The next village that is bigger is Furnas which is a real tourist trap due to the hot springs there and they have a much better selection of eateries. They are about 12 minutes away but I can't drive due to my poor vision so I don't get there much.
Hi Dave,
What's the cost of living like there on São Miguel ? Housing cost - rent or buy?
Location: No longer in a hovel in effluent Damnville, VA Gender:
Posted:
Feb 10, 2023 - 9:42am
miamizsun wrote:
i want to see the local market
like the hustle, bustle and selection
curious about the local street food and restaurants.
No street vendors in this village. No rat-on-a-stick or barking tacos (band name). Though the village only has about 1100 full time residents we do have 4 grocery stores but that is because none of the other nearby villages for miles have any so they all come here to shop. We ate sort if the county seat. There is also a small mom & pop place about 200 feet from my ouse. One downside is we only have a few resturants and they don't have much variety. Keeps me from eating out to much. The next village that is bigger is Furnas which is a real tourist trap due to the hot springs there and they have a much better selection of eateries. They are about 12 minutes away but I can't drive due to my poor vision so I don't get there much.
high school reunion in beautiful Walnut Creek, Calif.
