Everyone asks what it costs to move abroad. Everyone answers "it depends." Both things are true, and neither helps you plan. So here is what it actually cost our family, line by line, including the lines I wish someone had shown me before we started.
Who we are, so the numbers have context
Family of 4: me, my 2 girls (9 & 10), and my husband, who is still working in the US while we finish getting him here. We moved from the US to southern Spain on the digital nomad visa, we rent 5 minutes from the beach, and the girls just finished a year of international school. Also on the manifest: 4 dogs and a car. You'll see what that did to the budget in a minute.
How much does it cost to move to Spain with kids?
For us: $64,300 in year-1 one-time costs. Here is every line.
| Getting here | Cost |
|---|---|
| Digital nomad visa + paperwork (fees, apostilles, translations, medical certificates, background checks) | $1,500 |
| Immigration lawyer | $4,000 |
| Flights for me + the girls | $2,000 |
| Shipping the car (before Spanish registration fees) | $6,000 |
| Flying 4 dogs (130lb Great Dane, 100lb Great Pyrenees, 50lb terrier mix, 7lb Yorkie) | $9,500 |
| Shipping my husband's work tools so he can work when he lands | $8,500 |
| Subtotal: getting here | $31,500 |
| Landing in Spain | Cost |
| Rental entry: $1,600 deposit + $1,600 agency fee + $1,600 first month | $4,800 |
| Furnishing an unfurnished house (beds, sofa, table, TV, the essentials) | $3,000 |
| Subtotal: landing | $7,800 |
| Year 1 school | Cost |
| International school for 2 girls (tuition, uniforms, extracurriculars, admin fees) | $25,000 |
| Total, year 1 | $64,300 |
2 honest notes on that table. First, the school line is a choice, not a requirement: we're moving the girls to public school this year (that story deserves its own post, and it's coming). Without international school, our total would have been $39,300. Second, $24,000 of the "getting here" number is dogs, car, and tools. A family that arrives with suitcases instead of a Great Dane and $100K worth of work equipment moves for a fraction of this. We also sold our house this year as the costs stacked up, and gave away most of what we owned: the furniture, the trampoline, the lawn mowers, the whole life. Nobody puts that on a spreadsheet, but it's a line item too.
What does the Spain digital nomad visa cost?
Our paperwork ran about $1,500: application fees, apostilles, certified translations, medical certificates, and background checks. We paid an immigration lawyer $4,000 on top of that to manage the process. Is the lawyer required? No. Would I do it again? Yes, because the document requirements are unforgiving and the translations-and-apostilles circus (surprise cost #3, below) was annoying enough with professional help.
Is Spain cheaper than the US for a family?
For us, it's not close. A normal month in the US cost about $8,000. A normal month here costs about $3,500. Less than half, and we're paying a beach premium on rent by choice.
| Monthly line | US | Spain |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | $2,700 mortgage | $1,600 rent, 5 min from the beach |
| Phone | part of the $8,000 blur | $20 |
| Internet | part of the blur | $40 |
| Electric | part of the blur | $60 to 75 (summer runs higher) |
| Water | part of the blur | $50 to 60 |
| Private health insurance (Sanitas) | employer-tied | $175 |
| A normal month, total | ~$8,000 | ~$3,500 |
On health insurance: I now qualify for public healthcare, so technically I don't need the private policy anymore. I'm keeping it at least another year anyway, because wait times to see your local doctor are real. $175 a month buys the skip-the-line option, and with 2 kids, I'll pay it. And 1 warning for drivers: gas here is expensive. Budget accordingly if you're keeping a car.
The part nobody warns you about: renting as a foreigner
Fucking hard. That's my honest field note, unedited. Without Spanish payslips, landlords look at you like a risk with a suitcase, and it was one of the hardest parts of this entire move. We paid a deposit, an agency fee, and first month up front, $4,800 for a set of keys, and we got off easy. I've heard stories of foreigners paying 4, 5, 6+ months up front before anyone would hand them a contract.
There's also a trap nobody mentions in beach towns: the "school year lease." Our first rental ran September to June, because local landlords triple their income renting to tourists in June, July, and August. Which means every spring, a wave of foreign families scrambles for the tiny pool of annual rentals. We exited that first lease in March the moment an annual rental accepted us, and I don't regret the overlap costs for a second. If you're moving to a coastal area: ask if the lease survives the summer before you sign anything.
The 5 surprise costs that hurt the most
- 1. The exchange rate. It hurts my soul, but it's the reality of earning in dollars and living in euros. Wise has been the best way I've found to move money between countries without the banks taking their bite twice.
- 2. The double life. I was here months before my daughters arrived, paying Spanish short-term rentals while our US life kept costing US money. We chose that: the girls finished their school year, the 4 dogs made the trip, the car got shipped, and my husband's $100K in tools crossed an ocean so he can set up shop when he lands for good. Right choices, brutal overlap.
- 3. Translations and apostilles. Every document, certified, translated, stamped, sometimes twice. Not the biggest line, but pound for pound the most annoying one.
- 4. The deposit stack. We got lucky at $4,800 to get in the door. Plan for worse, hope for our luck.
- 5. Gas. The car we shipped costs more to feed here than it did at home.
The line item nobody budgets for
My husband's flights back and forth, which we're still figuring out. And this one: I've caught myself overcompensating, buying the girls things, because some days I still feel guilty for moving them away from their friends and their old life while their dad lives in 2 countries at once. That's not a number, but it's absolutely a cost, and if you're planning a move like this, budget some grace for yourself too.
The beautiful part is real. The math is also real. Most pages only show you 1 of them.
Was it worth it?
We swapped an $8,000 American month for a $3,500 Spanish one, 5 minutes from the beach, and I watch my girls switch languages at the school gate like it's nothing. So yes. But I want you to see the $64,300 it took to buy that yes, because the pretty videos skip the math, and the math is exactly what you need if you're sitting at your kitchen table tonight wondering whether your family could do this.
I'm documenting what happens after the move too: how we're building income from this kitchen table, with real numbers every month, in the Kitchen Table Income Experiment. And if the thing holding you back isn't money but the talking-to-strangers part, that's the whole reason the Not Fluent Yet Challenge exists.
The free kit for the after-the-move part.
The Not Fluent Yet Kit: a 12-week challenge for integrating abroad as an introvert, with word-for-word Spanish scripts and panic phrases for when they answer too fast.
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