Prices

When thinking about living abroad

Planning your retirement

Maybe you are thinking of buying a holiday home, for yourself, family and friends to use

Why not see how much it really does cost to have a home abroad

It’s always a good idea to compare prices, to see how your pension will work for you, whether you have a private pension or a state pension, you will want to make sure you have enough money to live on, without having to use your life savings on a week to week basis

Here are some prices current in the Dobrich region of Bulgaria, to give you some idea of how far your money will go

PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE PRICES WERE DONE WHEN THE EXCHANGE RATE WAS AT 1.11 EUROS TO 1 POUND

GOODS HAVE BEEN PRICED AS ACCURATE AS POSSIBLE AND HAVE BEEN DONE ON A WHOLE RANGE OF GOODS, SERVICES AND PRODUCTS TO GIVE YOU A MUCH BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF TRUE COST’S INVOLVED, WHEN LIVING OR HAVING A HOLIDAY HOME IN THE DOBRICH REGION

The first thing to remember when buying one of our properties is, although all of our property is ready to move into, some updating will always be needed

An example for this would be to have a full family bathroom fitted, cost’s for this of course do vary, however you should look at approximately £1,000.00

A fully fitted kitchen starts at around £500.00 without appliances

Log burners for heating are very popular and come in lots of different shapes and sizes, but you should be looking at around £150.00 for a good one, as for wood or logs to burn, you can either buy logs from the locals for around £8.00 per cubic meter or from a main supplier which will cost you around double, £16.00 per cubic meter or simply pick up broken pieces as you go for your strolls throughout the day, you will be surprised how much you will collect during the long summers, which last around 5 months over here

10 cubic meters should get you through the winter, so allow 12 cubes to makes absolutely certain, log burners will also help you with re-cycling, waste paper, cardboard, boxes, packaging, it all burns nicely in a log burner

GAS

Although we do not have piped gas, you can re-fill your gas bottle very cheaply at most petrol stations and priced at around 45 pence per litre, is very good, to give you some idea, if you was cooking by gas, and filled your bottle to a price of approximately £12.00 it would last you around 7 weeks, so allow yourself £2.00 per week at the most

ELECTRIC

If you are cooking and heating water and using an electric kettle, you can expect monthly bills of around £30.00 per month in the winter and around half in the summer approximately £15.00

WATER

Water is very cheap here, if you wash, drink, bath, shower and have a double flush toilet, you can expect bills of around £7.00 per month

Bills are normally hand delivered and you simply pay at the door and you will be give a receipt as well as your printed bill

POST

Post from the UK normally takes 4 days, however if you are expecting larger parcels it sometimes takes 7 days, if you need something urgent, ask about a carrier service, it is more expensive but normally 2 or 3 days it is delivered

COMMUNICATION

If you take a contract phone from Globul, you can phone the UK to 3 different numbers for up to 500 hours for a set fee of £6.00 per month, so you change a number for a different one, the cost of each number changed will be 20p and takes up to 4 hours to be activated, please note, for this type of contract, your UK numbers must be landline numbers, you can also add up to 7 other Globul mobile numbers in your free phone section

If you wish to use a data card for internet connection, you will be looking at a price of approximately £15.00 per month, please note with this system, you can use Skype and VoIP for video webcam and type chat, however it is not so good for voice, what you can do is see each other on cam, but use one of your free numbers to chat, it works really well together or simply webcam and type to each other, you can also text by Skype or VoIP for around 2p per text

BANKING

Unlike other countries, banking here is very easy, the staff speak good English and are very helpful but best of all, charges are kept to an absolute minimum, however remember owning your own property will mean you have to submit an account each year stating you have not earned from it, this will cost you approximately £60.00 pounds per year

COUNCIL TAX

Depends on the size of your property but normally will cost you around £10.00 per year

CAR INSURANCE

The minimum car insurance is third party fire and theft, for this basic insurance for a 5 year old VW polo 1.8 will cost around £65.00 per year

CAR TAX

This can be paid weekly, monthly or yearly, but of course yearly is much cheaper and will cost approximately £25.00 per year

TELEVISION

There is only satellite TV in Bulgaria and of course comes with a whole range of different packages, but to give you an example, no equipment charge, 2 dish system, sport, UK football, film, English, untold channels, but not ITV, BBC, channel 4 and 5 but lots of soaps and English speaking films and programs, £8.00 per month, if you pay for one year in advance, you get 2 months for free

Please note that there is no TV licence in Bulgaria

FUEL

Unleaded petrol is approximately 65p per litre, while diesel is a little cheaper at around 60p per litre and still coming down in price each month as the cost of oil comes down each month

FOOD

When buying fresh fruit or vegetables, there is not really any price difference between your local village shop and a large supermarket in Dobrich town, what you will find however is that a supermarket has a better selection and of course more of it, having said that, don’t forget that your neighbors grown fruit and vegetables and are always happy to sell you some, including eggs, milk, honey, all the fruit and vegetables that are in season, tomatoes, cucumbers and onions are always available, as are potatoes, carrots and cabbage, most vegetables are under 20p per kilo, fruit is more expensive around 40p per kilo, meat is very cheap 2 large pork chops, good thick ones will set you back around £1.00 will 2 large beef steaks will cost around £1.50p a bakers loaf of bread, large and crusty will cost you 35p and a litre of milk 50p and good quality pasta 500g will cost around 20p and a whole chicken £1.50p while a good quality box of 100 tea bags will cost you 55p

So what would you expect your weekly shopping bill to come to, well of course it will depend on what type of food you like, mostly everything you buy will be fresh and of course how many people you are cooking for, to give you some idea, if you was cooking for 2 people and having 3 meals plus the odd snack every day, you would expect to spend around £25.00 per week, so if you like cakes, biscuits, chocolate and crisps, and a few bottles of beer which is around 30p for larger, allow yourself £30.00 per week and have a couple of bottles of wine too