6. June Recap + Spain Cost of Living Deep Dive!

Welcome to our very first monthly recap episode! We take a look back at the incredible conversations this month, pulling out memorable quotes and practical tips. We feature highlights from Björn Boy on RV travel, Leanna Woodley-Tock on building a creative hub in Spain, and Moira Mills on the art of house-sitting.

Then, we do a deep dive into one of the most requested topics: the real cost of living abroad. I'm sharing our family's actual budget after the last six months in Sevilla, Spain.

Lastly, I review five fantastic websites to research the cost of living in any city around the world, helping you plan your own future adventures.

Guest Resource Links:

• Björn: @littletravelfamily, Linkease, podcast Nomad Kids
• Leanna: Spain Abroad Creative Hub, @FindingManana
• Moira: website

Websites:

1. Numbeo: City-to-city comparisons
2. Nomads.com: For digital nomads (membership)
3. Expatistan: Clear cost-of-living comparisons 
4. The Earth Awaits: Match your specific monthly budget
5. Budget Your Trip: For shorter-term vacations and travel

Other Mentions:

• OK Mobility: Car subscription in Europe
• Preply: Online language learning (use link for 70% off!)
• Trusted Housesitters, HomeExchange,

Host Info: I'm Suzy and my family lives between Spain and Colorado. 🌞

🌎 We feature traveling families and worldschool creators taking learning global. 🚀

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Chapters

• 2:35 Episode 3, 4 and 5 recaps
• 7:42 Cost of living in Sevilla, Spain
• 12:47 5

Transcript

Hola and hello, I'm Suzy, and welcome to the Wander Slow Family Travel Podcast, where we discuss the stories, logistics, and finances of long-term traveling families and the multitude of ways to learn and educate along the way.

Wow, can you believe we've already wrapped up our first full month of the podcast? I want to take a moment and say a huge, heartfelt thank you to all of you for listening and to the incredible guests I've had the pleasure of speaking with so far. It's truly a joy to share space with families who are making such intentional and travel-focused decisions for their lives.

And that's why I'm going to be doing something a little different at the end of each month. I'll be releasing a special summary episode where I recap the previous three episodes, pull out my favorite memorable quotes, and highlight all the best logistical and financial tips our guests shared. Plus, I'll do a special deep dive into one specific aspect of long-term travel or moving abroad, giving you even more resources to make your own future journey easier. I also want to answer any listener questions, so please send me an email or use the "Send us a text" link in the show notes to give feedback and ask questions. This is a community-building effort, so I appreciate your insights.

For this month's deep-dive topic, I will share our cost of living in Seville and the websites you can use to research the cost of living in other parts of the world, too.

And before I start the recap, I'll share that I am recording this from Theth, Albania, where we have actually not had power all day! So I'm recording this on my phone and we will see how the quality turns out. We just had an amazing hike to the Blue Eye—it's a beautiful place here in the Albanian Alps, so more to come on my Instagram. Please follow there and you can get all the scoop on where we are traveling this summer.

So let's start by recapping our episode with Björn Boy.

In our very first interview episode, I chatted with Björn, a German entrepreneur and father of two, who has already taken his family on an incredible 16-month, 25-country world trip. Now, they are preparing for their biggest adventure yet: leaving Germany for an open-ended journey, starting by shipping their custom RV to North America. Björn shared the family's preferred travel style, relying on their "house on wheels" to explore nature and hike extensively with their young children. We dove into the practical side of their travels, including their monthly budget of around €5,500 and their unique hybrid approach to education, which combines worldschooling with a formal German remote school curriculum. Björn also revealed an exciting new resource he's developing called Linkease, an app designed to help like-minded traveling families find each other and connect on the road.

The memorable quotes I pulled out were, first, in regards to his daughter's enthusiasm for their next trip. He said, "I asked her if it's okay if we go on a world trip next year, and she said, 'Yes, Dad, that's all right. I think one year of school is enough for me.'"

And second, on why he was inspired to make his new family-connecting app, Linkease, he said, "I thought, how great would it be if we had a map where you can see other families with like-minded people and same-aged kids? And maybe there are some families just around the corner we can just catch up with and they can have a playdate."

Björn shared his favorite RV travel websites as well as his own Instagram documenting their travels and their Nomad Kids podcast highlighting German-speaking traveling families. Don't forget to check out Linkease if you're a traveling family—all links are in the show notes.

On our second episode, we featured Leanna, a screenwriter and life coach who moved to the beautiful seaside village of Estepona, Spain. Seeking a slower, more connected lifestyle, she embraced the Spanish concept of mañana and found a way to reconnect with her family's Iberian roots. Leanna shared her entrepreneurial journey, which began with running a gap year program for young adults before she pivoted to create the Spain Abroad Creative Hub. This flexible worldschooling hub offers families a unique combination of beautiful apartment rentals and community spaces, including a digital cafe for teens and a whimsical children's library.

Leanna shared some memorable quotes, including one about learning to embrace the Spanish pace of life from her handyman. She said, "He said, 'We're going to go paddle boarding because you're acting like an American in Spain right now and you need to be a little more Spanish.' And so essentially, he made us stop and break. It didn't matter if shelves didn't get up in time; that was not the most important thing."

Secondly, she shared a quote on her daughter's innate love for travel: "When you ask her what her favorite smell is, she will still say her favorite smell is the airport. She loves it because it means we're going somewhere new." Leanna shared her worldschool offerings, which are also linked in the show notes.

On our third episode, I spoke with Moira Mills, a mother who is traveling the US full-time with her son. Moira detailed how they made this lifestyle sustainable almost exclusively through house-sitting, which dramatically reduced their accommodation costs. She shared the incredible statistic that in one full year of travel, they only paid for 27 nights of lodging. Our conversation also explored their approach to education, as Moira practiced unschooling with her son, a philosophy she herself grew up with, explaining it as a child-led learning journey where academic subjects are discovered organically through real-world interests.

The memorable quotes she shared are, first, about the incredible savings from house-sitting. She said, "For the entire year, we spent 27 nights in Airbnbs, which was a total of about $1,700 for the entire year." That's an incredibly low accommodation cost.

Her second quote is on how unschooling connects learning to real life. She said, "It's about what you care about. You want your animals to thrive, so you're learning math to be able to formulate the best diet so that they're thriving. You're going to find all the subjects, but you don't think in terms of subjects. You think in terms of what makes you come alive."

If you're interested in pet sitting through TrustedHousesitters, make sure you sign up using the link in the show notes for 25% off.

Okay, so for this week's deep dive, we're getting right into one of the most requested topics: the cost of living. I'm going to peel back the curtain on what our family of four has personally experienced with costs here in Spain, and I also want to highlight some great resources you can use to get a clearer picture of your own expenses, no matter where you dream of going.

But that brings me to something really important I want to talk about before we even get into the numbers. It's so easy to see what others are doing and start comparing. Some families travel on a super tight budget, while others might have an experience that comes with higher costs. The most important thing to remember is that there's no right or wrong way; the only best way is the one that aligns with your family's goals and finances. So please, don't let comparison be the thief of your joy.

One of the best practices I've cultivated is JOMO, the Joy of Missing Out. It's about practicing the art of being genuinely happy for someone else's journey without it negatively affecting my own. Sure, we can be inspired by one another—that's what I hope this podcast does—but if you ever feel like this content isn't serving you, it's always okay to take a break and focus on being grateful for all the wonderful things you do have in your own life.

One last note: we are grateful for remote work, so we have income currently, which allows us to be a bit more flexible in our budget than families who might be taking time off.

Alright, let's pull back the curtain. What does it actually cost to live in Spain for our family of four? For this breakdown, I'm focusing only on our day-to-day spending in Seville, so I'm not including things like life insurance or other routine bills from back home. When you average it all out, we've spent about $8,000 US a month for these last six months in Spain.

So where does that money go?

• Rent: We recently moved to a more budget-friendly apartment that's €1,400 a month—about $1,570—plus about €100 for utilities. It still has a community pool and is a four-minute walk to the kids' school.
• Groceries: With low-cost options like Aldi and Carrefour, our family spends between $800 and $1,000 a month.
• Food & Dining Out: This includes restaurants, cafes, and the kids' school lunches, and it totals about $800 to $1,200 a month for us.
• Kids & Family: This category for things like games, birthdays, clothes, school supplies, and family activities averages about $500 a month.
• Travel: Our dedicated travel fund for hotels and flights has averaged about $1,500 a month. This included trips to Valencia, Morocco, Santiago de Compostela, and northern Spain, as well as my annual fees for platforms like TrustedHousesitters and HomeExchange.
• Transportation: Including a five-month car rental subscription from OK Mobility and other bus and train tickets, this comes to about $500 a month.
• School: This varies widely, but for our two kids in a private school with an after-school activity program, we spend on average $1,500 a month.

So, that's a detailed and honest breakdown of our family spending in Seville. Remember, there are definitely families doing this for less, and I'm sure plenty are doing it for even more. One of the services I provide is individual money and travel coaching to help you put together a plan to meet your own travel goals. Next month, I'll be opening up coaching sessions, and the first three people to sign up will be absolutely free, so stay tuned for more information in July.

Okay, so you may be thinking, "Sure, Suzy, this is great, but what about the countries I plan to visit?" The internet provides! There are five websites I'd recommend to help you get a financial snapshot of costs in different cities and countries.

1. Numbeo.com: Best for detailed, crowd-sourced data. Its powerful comparison tool allows you to directly compare the cost of living between two cities, which is incredibly helpful.
2. NomadList.com: This is specifically designed for the remote worker community. While it's a paid service, it includes crucial data like internet speeds, safety, and air quality alongside cost-of-living info.
3. Expatistan.com: Best for simple city-to-city comparisons with a very user-friendly interface. Its visual price map of the world is great for getting a quick overview of expensive versus affordable regions.
4. TheEarthAwaits.com: This is a unique tool that works in reverse. You input your desired monthly budget and family size, and it generates a list of cities around the world that you can afford.
5. BudgetYourTrip.com: Best for vacation and shorter-term travel budgeting. It provides average daily costs for destinations based on three travel styles: budget, mid-range, and luxury.

I hope these resources are helpful in your travel planning process.

And that's a wrap on this June summary episode. Please go back and listen to episodes three, four, and five if you haven't yet had a chance. And please review and share this podcast with a friend. Join me on Instagram at @suzymay.wander and let me know if you have any other favorite cost-of-living resources in the comments.

Hasta luego!