Surviving In Bulgaria With Little Money

Many people have asked me how I survive in Bulgaria with so little money. It is no secret that I came over here with hardly any savings, no job and very much with an adventure on a shoestring in mind. Most of my money that I came over with vanished completely as I crashed someone's car and had to fork out thousands of pounds to replace it. Without that incident, I would not have had to go back to the UK for a few months to work for more funds to stay here.

Back to the question and maybe an answer. Living here, I can easily live on my own for next to nothing. I was living on less that 20 Bulgarian leva a week when living on my own in my first year here and I ate well, no restaurants or uneccessary spending. Right now I could quite easily return to that economical life although the cost of living here has risen substantially since joining the EU so to survive here solo it might have risen to around 30 Bulgarian leva a week, plus the fact that expatriates have extra cost as the running of their business have to be paid, (Your land can only be owned by a registered Bulgarian company of which you are the manager.)

Right now though we are finding it difficult to live on 100 Bulgarian lev a week, mainly because we are having to provide food for our family, fuel costs for the car, electric, gas and water bills for two homes. When we leave Galia's family home, which will happen one day, we are not sure when or where we will end up, we should be able to survive on around 70 Bulgarian leva a week or even less if we gave up the weekly trips to the Skalitsa farmhouse.

Whatever happens, both Galia and I remain quite sure that I will not have to return to the UK to work, we will try an make out here indefinitely no matter how hard it is. If Galia was to lose her job again then we would really struggle and make even more cuts on our simple lifestyle. This is how it used to be not so long ago in the 1990s with Galia. Like many others here., she had no job, no social security to fall back on and had to resort to selling her possessions to pay for food. She doesn't like to talk about it, but I know they were close to starving many a time, which happened in many town and city areas throughout Bulgaria. Those in the villages where luckier as had their own food from their farms to rely on of course.

I don't think it will ever get to the 'starving' level whatever happens as families support each other in times of need. In the village that would certainly be the case with our close friends there who would also 'help us out' food wise. We could survive financially if we moved out into a village where generations had lived on almost nothing other than their working on the land, wits and total practical way of life.

If there is one thing I have found out since living here in Bulgaria, it is that town and city living is far more expensive that village life. That is entirely due to the barrage of advertising in the totally business based cities and town environments. The seeds of materialism have been sown and the only escape is out of town, but then the invasion of the television is still very much a threat, even out of town.

The answer ot the original question can now be answered - How do I survive on so little money? Simple I live the lifestyle of a Bulgarian.

Image via Wikipedia

Living or Surviving in Bulgaria?

I mentioned on a previous post that it is not a case of living here but surviving here. For many who come here to retire they have a income from either a pension, inheritance or a nest egg they have saved to live on. These expatriates are mainly here to retire and take the backwaters of Bulgaria. Trips to the Coast, the mountains, sightseeing, restaurants and many other things to keep them amused and entertained. There are other countries that can provide a much better retirement location that Bulgaria and I still contest that the main reason expatriate retirees are here is because it is cheap.

It was my original dream to move to France, I loved the diverse countryside,the culture and the language. Everything was geared toward a move there, then the cost of living went sky high, property prices untouchable with a dream now that had faded into oblivion. A depressed Englishman with a dream of living on a small holding completely shattered. I didn't want much, just a small living area and a bit of land to do my own thing. No cars, televisions, microwaves or anything that the modern world makes you think you need. A simple life where you work for you food, not a financial world, but a bartering world. It can still be down to a degree in Europe, the question was for how long?

Bulgaria was there, it seemed just what I was looking for. Then the affordability of Bulgaria came in to play. Affordability is one thing, maintaining to pay for living a life there is another. You can survive will a little money, but you can't with none. Without any pension, nest egg or inheritance, this was the last chance I had. Staying in the UK wasn't an option and although it going to be difficult in Bulgaria it was something I felt compelled to do rather than carrying on in a downward spiral - You could call it desperation I suppose.

Galia works for her brother who owns and manages a boiler manufacturing company. On the site they not only have a new massive factory, but around a big area of land, part of which is farmed by the workers and the crops are rewards for their labours. Now I have been offered work there in the past as another cog in the wheel of boiler manufacturing, but Galia didn't want me to as she felt that this isn't the kind of work that I would enjoy. Besides that that assume that the pay would be an insult to an Englishman. She works there full-time from 7:30 to beyond 5:00 and the odd Saturday and receives less that £150 a month. She is a manager and gets paid more than the workers there who work the same hours. We manage on this wage and Baba's pension; I earn next to nothing and living off other people's income and this is very difficult for me to accept. There is little or no work for me now in the factory as the financial crisis has meant that employees have had to be laid off.

Today, we are just about surviving, as long as our health is fine we should make it. As it stands we will be working all our lives to survive. Having said that, that's exactly what we would be doing the UK and probably end up in an early grave for our efforts.

Would I return to the UK to work for a short spell again for more funds? There is only one reason I would go back to the UK, but that's my secret.