Actual costs for Jan-Feb in Portugal and Mar-Apr in Ireland: 13,984€. This was over what we had budgeted by 2,684€ or 19%.

Portugal costs

The total cost of our time in Portugal came to 4,357€ for almost 7 weeks. This comes out to 622€/week or what would be an average of 2,488€/month.

This included:

• 1,874€ accommodation
• 877€ Groceries
• 355€ restaurants
• 838€ travel (flights, bus, train, airport snacks etc)
• 419€ misc (cash withdrawals we didn’t track, unexpected child related costs)

Overall we spent 750€ more than we budgeted even though we came back a week and a half earlier than planned.

Accommodation

Accommodation was 233€ less than what we had planned mostly because we came home 1.5 weeks earlier than planned so had less accommodation to pay for.

Food

Food was a lot more expensive than we had read, we think partly because we were in Portimao for 5 of the 7 weeks which is more touristy, and we thought that Lidl would be as cheap as Ireland. We also ate out at restaurants more than we would have at home so while we had budgeted 750€ for food for the 8 weeks, we actually spent 880€ on groceries and 355€ on restaurants which brought us to 483€ over budget.

Half of the restaurant cost was an unplanned day date when my sister was over and graciously minded baby MH for the afternoon. We went to a fancy french restaurant and had the tasting menu for 165€, an unusual splurge but oh so worth it.

In Mar and April once we were back in Ireland we spent an average of 152€ and 160€/week on food. If we look at the 880€ plus 190€ on dinners out excluding the pricey day date that comes to an average of 152€ on food per week as well. According to numbeo, we were expecting groceries to be 40% lower than Cork. Even if we exclude restaurants in Portugal (new average of 125€/week) and take-away in Ireland (new average of 146€/week), the difference still only comes to 14% less in Portugal.

Travel

Travel was over by 337€ as we had originally budgeted the flights we had booked at 250€ plus 250€ additional misc travel for bus trips, uber etc. We went over on this item as Mr. MH sadly had to come home for a funeral and to visit a sick family member, we also decided to come home early and booked additional flights, though this was offset by the savings we made by not needing to pay accommodation for the last 2 weeks in Portugal.

Misc

We had budgeted 250€ for misc items, things like outings and sightseeing or unexpected expenses. This came to 410€ (160€ over budget), the biggest portion of this was cash withdrawals that we didn’t track where it was spent.

Basic comparison

Overall we spent an average of 622€/week (or an average of 2,488€ for 4 weeks) for our time in Portugal. In Mar and Apr in Ireland we spent what would be an average of 2,474€ for 4 weeks (more or less the same).

This isn’t a fair comparison though as the Portugal costs include air travel and other costs we wouldn’t have in Ireland.

For a more fair comparison, if we look at accommodation and food costs alone (accounting for 35% of the typical Irish household budget) and compare to our costs in Ireland, in Portugal we spent 2,945€ for 7 weeks (or an average of 1,682€/4 weeks). In Ireland for Mar and Apr we spent 2,337€ (or an average of 1,168€/4 weeks). This shows that our current cost of living in Ireland is 514€ less per month for these 2 items. The Irish accommodation costs I included was mortgage, electricity, gas, internet and refuse bins which would have been covered by the accommodation we paid for in Portugal.

Ireland costs

So the Portugal portion was 750€ over budget leaving the remaining 1,934€ overage to the 2 additional weeks in Ireland in Feb which were unplanned and other unplanned costs in Mar and Apr.

For Jan and Feb, I originally only estimated mortgage, electricity, gas and internet as fixed costs we would have while in Portugal. As mentioned, Mr. MH came back for a week during our stay and we all came back mid-Feb when we had planned to come back at the end of Feb. This added most of the additional costs in terms of food and transport etc.

We also found that our mattress was making us itchy and decided to get a new one which was almost 600€ we hadn’t planned for. I also splashed out a bit and got a new mirror for our bedroom and some other decorations for the house.

March and April were pretty much what we had planned.

Take aways

If you’re planning a mini-retirement yourself and will only have a set amount of money to cover your expenses be sure to add in a 20% contingency. You will always have unexpected expenses which cannot be planned for. I should have known this from all my time working on projects! Life is no different. If you under spend, great! But if the unexpected happens at least you’ll be prepared and not be looking to sell off other assets (which also happened to take a 35% hit at the same time due to COVID-19) or go into debt to cover them.

Nitty Gritty

And for those who love tables. Here is our full expense listing for the last 4 months. A total of 13,984€ and a monthly average of 3,496€.