Cost of Living in Cyprus Our family's experience of living costs

Even here in beautiful Cyprus, the recession has hit. Don't let that stop you from visiting, moving, or retiring here. I've got loads of ideas to help you save money.

The most important thing for all of us are household utility bills.View our family household bills and the best recession busting, money saving tips our family use to cut living costs.

The weather in Cyprus is sunny and warm for the majority of the year. Cold days are few and far between.

So during March through to mid November, we don’t need to use the following…

Solar Panels, which are installed on the roof, do all the work to heat the water and believe me, as soon as the temperature starts rising… the water gets REALLY HOT!!

Every property in Cyprus has at least one Solar panel installed on the roof. They are fitted as standard on all new houses, apartment blocks and commercial buildings on the island. Learn more about Solar energy…

We don’t have one... there really isn’t any need. If I remember right, there have only been 2 or 3 days since we moved to Cyprus that we have had to move the laundry inside because it was raining.

Laundry is dry in around 1 hour, some times less. Obviously it depends on the time of year. It’s one advantage of living here that I love. Your clothes smell so fresh, look so bright and clean... I sound like a washing powder ad!! That’s another freebie!!

Another laundry experience and advantage, we have noticed that your clothes stay cleaner for longer. The island doesn’t suffer from high pollution, therefore you can get more than one day of wear before you wash.

It’s an absolute must in Cyprus. The hottest period of the year is July-August and sometimes up to the first few weeks of September. You can’t live without it. I must stress, sensibility rules.

Air conditioners are expensive to run. We have learnt to use it very wisely. A few tips for you….

When we need to use the air conditioning, the first thing we do is close any doors in the area. If you don’t, it is very inefficient, and you’ll need to leave it on for a longer period.

When the doors are closed, the room chills much quicker. As a general rule and depending on how large the room is, 30mins to 1hour is enough.

You need to invest in a big one… With all the delicious fruit and vegetables, cold drinks, white wine and beers it will be well used. Invest in a quality, energy efficient fridge freezer.

When we became permanent residents in Cyprus, we only had a tiny fridge which we bought while we use our house as a holiday home.

After a month or so we realized that it just wasn’t enough. So we looked around for a larger fridge freezer. There are some gorgeous designs available in Cyprus.

Now my husband is an engineer, he knows everything there is to know about energy efficiency. What it is and how it works and the potential savings. He has his uses!!! Anyway, as I was looking round at all the different fridge freezer designs, my husband was checking out the efficiency aspect.

Our Household Bills 2008

For ease of reading, I've put our cost of living household utility bills in a table below. All amounts are shown in Euros and cover costs for the whole year 2008.

Clicking on the Euro
Image will take you to a currency converter where
you can do a quick calculation.

Cyprus, electricity and water bills are paid every
2 months. It takes a bit of getting used to.

Gas on the other, you buy from the supermarket, comes in 10 Kilo bottles. So you buy these as and when you need them.

Bottled gas is used mainly for cooking. We use it for the BBQ and gas hob. Last year we used 6 bottles.

As the Cyprus weather, is sunny and warm most of the year,
your cooking outside more than inside. It's one of the greatest pleasures
of living in Cyprus and much more fun, and a great way of reducing your cost of living.

I love to experiment with cooking on the BBQ. You can be very creative. It also cuts your cost of living, because the gas is very cheap.

I'll cover this aspect of Living in Cyprus, on another page... watch this space for... Cyprus BBQ Recipes.

By the way, you can buy some really fantastic BBQs in Cyprus -
some are more like outside kitchens. Not badly priced
either. I'll add a link about this too.

Household Bills 2008
2008	VILLA	APT	COMMENTS
Council Tax (Rates)	320	220	Includes x2 weekly refuge collection*
Gas for Cooking	48 (6 ) 10Kilo Bottles	48 (6 ) 10Kilo Bottles	Cooking on BBQ and Gas Hob
Electricity	877	700	See (A Few Facts About Cyprus)
Water	120	120
TOTAL	1365	1088	Click on Euro Image for Currency converter.

We have come to realise that it is quite easy to cut your cost of living considerably if your conscience of what your spending your money on.

If there is anything you would like to see included in relation to the cost of living in Cyprus, please don't hesitate to contact me.

I would really appreciate your feedback on my site. It is a work in progress which I update regularly.