You're doing the math in your notes app, aren't you?
Late at night, adding up guesses. Because every time you ask the internet what it costs to move abroad, you get the same 2 useless answers: "it depends" and a suspiciously cheap number from someone with no kids, no pets, and no husband with a workshop full of tools.
So here's what I wish someone had handed me a year ago: our actual numbers, every line, including the ones that embarrassed the budget. Take them, compare them to your life, and build your plan on something real.
Who we are, so you can adjust the math to your family
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, by choice, and the girls just finished a year of international school. Also on the manifest: 4 dogs and a car, and you're about to see exactly what that decision cost, so you can make yours with open eyes.
How much does it cost to move to Spain with kids?
For us: $64,300 in year-1 one-time costs. Before you close the tab, breathe, because a big piece of that number is choices, not requirements. Here's every line, then I'll show you which lines are optional.
| 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 |
Now, the honest breakdown of what's optional, because your number is not my number:
The school line is a choice. We chose international school for the landing year, and this fall we're moving the girls to public school (the full story of why is here). Cut that line and our total drops to $39,300.
$24,000 of "getting here" is dogs, car, and tools. If you'd arrive with suitcases instead of a Great Dane and a workshop, your version of our move lands closer to $15,300. Suddenly the scary number has a shape, right? That's the point of this post.
And 1 line that never shows up in a table: we 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 physical life. If you're planning this move, budget the grief of the giveaway pile too. It's real, and it hits on a random Tuesday next to a half-empty garage.
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 to manage the process.
Do you need the lawyer? No. Should you skip it? Here's my honest take, friend: if reading government document requirements in 2 languages makes your chest tight, the $4,000 wasn't a luxury, it was project management for the most unforgiving paperwork of your life. I'd pay it again without blinking.
Is Spain cheaper than the US for a family?
For us, it's not even close. A normal month in the US cost about $8,000. A normal month here costs about $3,500. Less than half, and remember, we're paying a beach premium on purpose.
| 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 |
Look at that phone line again. $20. I know. On health insurance: I now qualify for public healthcare, so technically the private policy is optional for me, and I'm keeping it at least another year anyway. Wait times to see your local doctor are real, and with 2 kids, $175 a month buys the skip-the-line option. You'll probably make the same call.
1 warning if you're bringing a car: gas here is expensive. The car we shipped costs more to feed than it did at home. Put a real number in your budget for it.
The part nobody warns you about: renting as a foreigner
Fucking hard. That's my field note, unedited, and I'm leaving it that way because if I soften it, you'll under-prepare. Without Spanish payslips, landlords look at you like a risk with a suitcase. 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 of foreigners paying 4, 5, 6+ months up front before anyone would hand them a contract. Have that cash ready before you fall in love with a listing.
And if you're looking at a beach town, learn this phrase before you sign anything: the "school year lease." Our first rental ran September to June, because landlords here can triple their income renting to tourists in June, July, and August. Every spring, a wave of foreign families scrambles for the tiny pool of annual rentals. We escaped our school-year lease in March, the moment an annual rental accepted us, and I don't regret a cent of the overlap. Ask if the lease survives the summer. Ask it first.
The 5 surprise costs that hurt the most
- 1. The exchange rate. It hurts my soul, but earning in dollars and living in euros means the math moves against you without permission. 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 it: 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 work the day he lands for good. Right choices, brutal overlap. If your family will straddle 2 countries for a while, budget the straddle. It's its own line item.
- 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. See above. The car is a pet now. It eats.
The line item nobody budgets for
My husband's flights back and forth, which we're still figuring out. And this one, which I'm telling you because I'd want you to tell me: 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 drains like one. If you're planning a move like this, budget some grace for yourself too. The guilt purchases are cheaper when you see them coming.
The beautiful part is real. The math is also real. Most pages only show you 1 of them.
So, 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 wanted you to see the $64,300 it took to buy that yes, because if you're sitting at your kitchen table tonight wondering whether your family could do this, you don't need a dream. You already have the dream. You need the math, and now you have ours.
What happens after the move costs something too, just not in dollars: the belonging part, and the earning part. I'm documenting both. The income side, with real numbers every month, lives in the Kitchen Table Income Experiment. The belonging side starts with the Not Fluent Yet Challenge.
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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