One of the best things for a girl in life is good old fashioned shopping and I am afraid to say that Portugal is seriously overpriced for such a hobby so you need to learn to adapt to your new surroundings.
Unfortunately I have failed to be original and have slightly changed the Mastercard saying. Instead of for everything else there is Mastercard you need to learn:
“For Everything Else There Is eBay”
Once you learn this you will be so much better off than you would if you purchased local goods. Obviously an eBay seller isn’t going to deliver a 3 piece suite to you but they will deliver the rest. For example in Portugal luxuries are very over priced so getting a DVD on eBay would cost you £6 for a new release including postage and packaging. However if you went down the local supermarket it would cost you £16 so you are saving yourself a lot of money.
I know eBay isn’t the best place in the world but you get great value for money and if you pay on your credit card your bank will cover you if anything goes wrong.
I have bought all my son’s birthday and Christmas presents since we got here this has also saved us a small fortune.
If you shop around you will find that there are endless shops that will ship to Portugal and offer a great service too.
Electrical goods is one of the biggest costs when it comes to buying them in Portugal so be careful with what you buy and how much you spend on it.
There are many really nice shopping centres in Portugal from you to chose from and a few retail parks. They have similar shops to what you would expect in England even though the prices are much more.
The idea behind money in Portugal is that things that you constantly need on a day to day basis are really good value for money. However everything else carries a higher price tag even products like shampoo and deodorant.
Since moving to Portugal I have preferred the products in the supermarkets in Portugal than in England. They are not driven by money like you would expect Asda or Tesco’s to be. This means that the staff are a lot nicer, the shelves are well stacked and the quality of the food is truly amazing.
To give you an idea of prices I have done a price comparison for you below between Tesco’s in England and Modelo in Portugal for November 26th 2009. Both of the supermarkets are what I would call medium priced. Neither of them are the cheapest yet they aren’t expensive either. I have done it for 25 every day items too so that you can have a good idea of how much things will cost you.
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Once you have moved to Portugal then comes the reality of actually living here. Most of us will have only ever spent holidays in Portugal before making the move and it soon becomes clear that life in Portugal is not all about lazy days by the pool and barbecues on the terrace.
There is still plenty of time for the pool and the barbecues but there are also many other aspects of day-to-day life that you need to get to grips with to make sure you get the most out of life in Portugal.
There is no need to feel daunted by new challenges that you may face when you are living in Portugal as we have probably been through them too and are happy to help with advice and information. Read about the truths, realities and benefits of living in Portugal on our blog Click Here.
Hello, my name is
Samantha Milner and I moved to the beautiful Algarve
in Southern
Portugal during the summer of 2008, with my husband Dominic and our seven year
old son Kyle for a better life living in the Portuguese sunshine.
This site aims to help and guide all those who are either planning, or have made the move to Portugal themselves. Here I will share with you all sorts of useful information, articles, tips, tricks, and even personal blogs of my own expat experiences with you.
To find out more about me and the Living In The Sun Team, check out our About page by clicking here.
