Yup, although because working online is possible these days, it does make it a lot easier to move here before retiring! We live a simple life and build it one brick at a time - that’s all we need :)

Ants are the Cockroaches of Portugal, nothing kills them 😂 Life is almost always good here but it’s important to not create false illusions! Thanks for watching ❤️

they actually say flies are worse known here as the daughters of protistutes🤣🤣 @@oakolive

Have you tried Diatomaceous Earth? I had an ant house under a pot, didn't know it till I moved the pot...I sprinkled DE over the ants hill as they were going everywhere and biting. Soon they were no more. Lots of vids about using DE.

I will give that a try next year! Thanks!

Oh man, I’ve heard Ireland is not off too well in terms of cost of living - I have some friends really struggling with the lack of rent control im Dublin. But this really puts it more into perspective! Ireland was our back up plan 😂

@@oakolive Forget it. 🤣Portugal is mine. There is a joke here that in Italy the politicians at least pretend to be fighting the mafia. In Ireland the politicians ARE the mafia.

Thank you for your comment! Reading your comment made me miss my time in Japan (especially trying mentioned plum products). You might find that you miss certain foods here as even getting sushi rice and Nori is not easy. We use risotto rice mostly 🫣 In the winter, when we run our wood range all day, we bake our own bread. Our gas oven would cost us more in gas then getting the 0,90€ loaf from the bakers so during the summer, we buy it. We also do a lot of foraging for fruit, nuts, mushrooms and also make acorn flour. That keeps the cost down s lot but is obviously a lot of (very enjoyable) work.

Just another comment about saving money while still eating foods you like. I found a video that explains about making your own (Burmese-style) tofu from any kind of legumes. It won't have the same creamy texture of Chinese-style tofu, but you could find it to be a good workaround to cut your costs by using locally available pulses to make your own. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/asehq5lqqp-4ZHU.html

Between a full time job, a child and running a farm, we barely have the time to finish building our house ;) so we do buy quite a few things that we need. We have chickens already, we talk about them in other videos.

I’ve heard from friends that food and basic expenses (except for car fuel) are more expensive in the US. Keep in mind as well that we have less appliances than most people, no TV, Radio or dryer, so when we actually get a proper fridge, our electric bill will go up as well. And my condolences to these health care costs, I do not envy you there at all 🫣 hope you can fullfill your dreams!

We used to do weekly videos but Jackie is working a full time job that doesn’t leave a lot of time to plan, film and edit a weekly video, since that alone can be a full time job :) right now, we release monthly

I actually had a whole minute in the video where I was confused whether or not they’re called ladybirds 😂 cut it out in the end because no one needs to hear that.

Oh wow, I thought we spent a lot already 😂 Though once kids really start eating, I think it will go up some more inevitably.

@@oakolive Many of the things we buy have gone up significantly, two years ago 400 was possible for us. Now, not so much

Honestly, we’re very happy where we’re living - the lack of an Aldi is the o my downside. We were too focused on having water and forest that we didn’t even think about the kind of supermarkets available. Now I would make it an requirement if we’d buy again

Thank you! And agree on everything! We have a lady on the local market who sells organic produce a bit cheaper than the supermarket, so we do support her :) on the whole I agree though, prices are mostly the same everywhere with a few exceptions for some products. We’ve actually also finally gathered all the paperwork for seguranca social and will see how much we’ll get - I had used an online calculator for the child support and was a bit surprised by the number they gave me.

Most Portuguese KZfaqrs seem to be in Castelo Branco district which has more water stress. We’re further west and at a higher altitude :) the green comes from the invasive eucalyptus though and is deceiving as to how fertile the ground is here.

@@oakolive thanks for the response. Certainly a lot to consider when considering relocating. Good luck with the farm/channel, subbed.

Interesting! Will read up on that! Since it was the first year, we had added some half-rotted manure into the layers of the beds

Glad it was helpful!

Pensava que ia encontrar o paraíso....

Não se entende porque razão se sai de um país civilizado e vêm se viver no interior de um país velho e vendido...

I live in Puerto Rico, food is 300 dollars every time I step in the supermarket, have the highest sales tax (11.5) and the highest cost of electricity in the US, plus the lowest salary of the 50th states. I'm ready for Portugal,what I'm not ready is for cold climate countries. My two cents.

I heard Puerto Rico cost of living is horrid for a little ng time😞. There's very inexpensive land in parts of US,just need a well and septic, growing your own food+ chickens...so there is some hope,i know several people that lived in cars for 2-3 yrs,then bought land, never turning back.....but it is getting scarcer😞

We will be getting an electric water heater soonish so probably that cost will rise for us. But compared to Germany, where we paid 50€ a month, electricity is a lot less here.

Maybe check out Portugal in winter time, it does get quite uncomfortable here in winter 😅😅

Puerto Rico is a great place,weather,people ,beaches etc, I belong to the rebel side, being a bona fide farmer for 20 + years, we grow all kind of vegetables and root crops,also specialty coffee. Labor has become the turning point in looking where to farm and travel my next 20 yrs. Establishing a home stead in portugal is my next chapter. Being on a different financial condition along with experience gives me a positive attitude towards Portugal.

Being single income is a choice for us :) Zak is working full time (and overtime) with our animals and our land. We couldn’t juggle another job and still get our house built, our land managed and have happy animals :)

It’s pretty simple, we buy a lot of fresh veg, and per week one pack of tofu, one pack of Seitan. Other proteins are lentils and beans which we buy dried. Greek yoghurt, cheese, a six pack of unsweetened soy milk, cream, cornflakes, oats, crackers and a lot of dried fruit, dark chocolate and nuts for snacking. And we do buy canned tomato sauce and pasta for simple meals :) it’s honestly not that special, our bread comes with the bread delivery three times a week and is about 1€ per loaf.

Brilliant thank you. We 2 and thought we spend little as no luxuries and its over EUR600 a month 😮

The amount of scammers I saw was crazy yeah :D

Yes, that’s what we see here as well. Or the weight reduces but the price stays the same. Though a lot of products here were expensive to Begin with…

For us, this is the best place. We're trying to help people get a clear idea of how much things cost so they can make educated choices when moving here.

Yeah it’s 16km for us which we cycle with the e-bike because it’s so hilly. Cars are a must

We will be using the chickens in the garden next spring to prepare the beds :) as for receiving benefits from another country: we left Germany and we’re not residents there so not entitled to such payments (and also don’t want to because I think it’s immoral and just asking for trouble…). We buy some stuff in Germany and our family brings it over for us indeed. Clothing is not much of an issue, we get it for free in community swap shops. It’s furniture, building supplies and tools that are hard to find where we live.

Ants don't destroy your crop. Diatomée will destroy the microbiome in your soil

I find a lot of vegetables are cheaper and we’re supporting our local farmers this way. We have a lady that sells organic-ish produce at a reasonable price. And I can choose the quantity I need so nothing goes bad. In the End, it’s not much cheaper than the supermarket though

I’m some areas here it’s definitely slower than in others. If you love to urban centres like Lisbon or Porto you will find skyrocketing rents and housing prices (though not as bad as Auckland). If you could get an NZ salary/pension then you’ll be more than fine here. I lived in Otago and on Waiheke Island for 8 months a few years ago :)

How funny.. we are considering both PT and NZ as places to move to… we are in CEE Atm

Wow cool, like Bulgaria or somewhere? I've Just now been talking to my sister who is going to do the Camino de Santiago in April and we are going to meet in Porto sometime in May/June, Im so super excited cos its been 23 years since I was in Europe. Claudia listen...I don't recommend NZ as a place to live, it is super expensive and so far behind the times, Go Portugal !

We have a few chickens that live with the sheep. We've lost so many over the years to predators that it's not worth keeping them at scale until we have time to build a safe run for them.

We’ve addressed property taxes in another video. It’s about 25€ a year. Our house insurance is 100€ / year and car insurance and medical was addressed in the video. Car insurance depends on the type of car you own.

Thanks for the reply. Here in California my two largest expenses do not include food, but rather property taxes and insurance (i.e., auto, homeowner, liability) which together amount to approximately $15,000 to $18,000 per year. Those figures don't include health insurance which is another $8,000 to $9,000 per year for a family of three.@@oakolive

@@cwcobo yeah that’s why I really appreciate our health services. I pay through my taxes and it’s significantly more affordable this way :)

About 40,000 for our place. At the peak of our savings in Germany, we were putting one thousand euros per month in the bank. It took us a while to get to that level of savings, but in four years, we were able to pay for the place and finance most of our first year living here. The price of land has gone up substantially in Portugal but there are other areas in Europe with affordable land/houses. So it's still possible to make it work.

Oh, maybe I misread! I looked at a chart and it said something like 37€ which was a bit sobering

Well since you are working here you should get for sure over 100 euros. We got it now finally fir our toddler. But he Was born here. Maybe that makes a difference?

@@sweetheaven5527 I don’t think it’s about birth, but we’re actually going today to fill out the paperwork :) I really dread bureaucracy so I’ve been pushing it ahead of me for months lol

No, I’m from Germany :) I did spend some time in NZ though

I've been living abroad for a long time. And I married an English man...

We’re also in central portugal, just this summer has been an outlier. We’ve had maybe 10 days where it was 35°C or more, the rest has been really pleasant :) in terms of the political situation, it really is quite a lot of corruption and nepotism here, which you unfortunately get used to it. We are in that FB group but there’s not a lot in our area and I don’t think it’s worth it driving 3+ hours unless it’s an exceptionally good deal :)

@@oakolive central Portugal spans from Coimbra to Castelo Branco...so that is my question and confusion. I'm not asking you to divulge the name of the city you live in, just the next larger area to you. I'm in my mid 50's and have found that I can't deal with hot and humid temps anymore. My body just can't deal with it. I understand climate change is making the summers hotter everywhere and might possibly be extending the warmer seasons...hard to tell when you live near the Great Lakes in US...sometimes you can have your garden into November and other times you'll have a hard frost in Sept. I have also lived in the Pacific Northwest of US where you'd get 9 months of rain as your winter. I have not however dealt with mountain ranges and how weather changes when mountains are involved. Try looking up that topic online..very difficult. Majority of ppl with YT channels say they are in Central Portugal and that temps were high 39/40. I would end spending my time indoors which happens nowadays in my own country. One usually has several reasons for moving...one of mine is be in a place where I can be more physically active...walking trails in mountains, parks, to the city, etc...Many want to live in walkable city to ensure they keep active...but they tend to heat magnets. Anyway, that is reason for my question...trying to find the 'not so hot' location...if it exists. I had read that in some areas of Portugal, farmers actually had two properties...one higher up the mountain for the summer and one at the base of the mountain for the winter. I can't imagine having two complete houses in two areas....but they would move the livestock as well. Activities they had were completely seasonal...so in some cases having two properties makes it easier...nowadays people move clothing depending on season...unless they have closet space for all clothing. There is a Brazilian couple who have a channel who recorded going to different places....one interesting place that they portrayed but also I've read about....where ppl in the village share the responsibility of moving the herds for grazing everyday. A narrow street, a car, surrounded by goats twice a day. Apparently a different type of 'rush hour'. Someone lamented in the comments how the 80 yr old woman was still shepherding the goats in the rotation. I said that woman can probably do more than most 80 yr old women because ppl become more sedentary in older age. The couple didn't interview the older woman but everyone assumed she was poor and had to do the work....it could be part of routine that actually is very good for her in practice. (I was reading about a city of Tondela having exercise classes for their elderly to attempt to keep them active, not sedentary and to keep them from being isolated...to help keep their health up. ( Funny thing for me was seeing the people in yoga pants....because in year 2000, the mother of a former Portuguese boyfriend came to visit in the US...just getting her to wear shorts was a struggle. She was only wearing black as the tradition goes for the widows. But she did have black pants and wasn't confined to a dress. It was quite warm in the summer and just getting her to wear the shorts was an ordeal. It wasn't appropriate, she said, for her to wear shorts at her age. Trying to tell her, she was in a different place, nobody would know she was wearing shorts, there's no judgement, no scandal, etc. In fact, you'd draw more attention to yourself being dressed in black in summer...if that was the concern. I know that Portuguese in the 1980s to sometime in 2000...were very clothing conscious and there were strict dress codes appropriate for the house, the street, the store, school, work, etc. US had this too to some extent but everything got more relaxed as the years go by. ) Tondela being located near Viseu....in the more rural areas...generally speaking rural areas are usually the last to change. Thus seeing the yoga pants reminded me that the ppl have changed in some regard. So either you are doing group exercise class or you are taking your flock/herd of sheep/goats, cows to other pastures around the mountain...both keeps people fit. To full fill the social aspects, the herder should have all the senior citizens in neighboring areas go with the herd around the mountains. That might be a hard tradition to insert into the public consciousness.

@@oakolive The DIY fb grp do not gather together, they just share information for foreigners. I did see two bulk grocery stores...one in Tondela and one in Viseu. They showed up when I was searching a map for something and the suggestion was to look up grocery stores in the area...for curiosity sake, I clicked and was very surprised to see the number of grocery type stores in and around Tondela/Viseu and further south Oliveira de Hospital. There was even an Indian grocery store that appeared which made me wonder if there was a large Indian population. I looked up all the Aldi locations on the map as you suggested...one thing you might have thought of previous to choosing your location....looked like they largely stayed closer to the ocean side of the country...though there was one in Viseu, Oliveira de Hospital. Probably the more populated areas in the cities "no interior". You might suggest to the company (contact us) that there are lots of ppl in your area who drive for hours to the Aldi x times per month....it would really stretch your budget if they could put a location closer to you. Probably won't work..but worth a shot. One burning question I have wondered about the foreigners with YT channels in PT....I assume you have to pay income tax on the YT income...but I wondered how YT knew to inform the govts of the incomes ...since some ppl created their channel in home country, moved to different country...usually the country gets an accounting of what was paid to each employee. Or does PT rely on YT to inform the govt of the location they are located in? PT's definition of remote worker is where the work is being done, not where the salary is coming ...which may be different than other countries. I was looking for remote work from Portugal that I could do in US...but all companies required you to be in country or part of EU. Many foreigners attempting to apply for remote jobs in US but stay in their country...had same problem. Apparently each company with an employee/contract worker has to pay taxes to the other country and this is limiting some ppl. But I just wondered how it worked with YT. BTW: there is a fb grp Tax Benefits of living in Portugal. They are well versed on UK, Canada, and US. Lots of free information on the company's website. They also tend to answer basic questions about different platforms to be within the tax system....they of course recommend having your taxes done if you are from those three countries because PT doesnt recognize many of the business systems of those countries. But searching basic topic information is educational. I share the info with ppl who watch your channel as well who may benefit from that grp. Some ppl with YT vids share work days to help ppl get stuff done that otherwise might take ages. Some have little ones so shared child care while ppl work. Reminded me of my mom's generation of farming in US...building barns, sharing equipment to do harvesting, planting, etc. In many situations, carbon footprint might be lower if more ppl would have communal spirit. US ppl are too independent and capitalist ...everyone has to buy their own...for that to work but I wish it could be done in some areas.

I actually enjoyed it and felt very good on that diet. I’m lactose intolerant so halfway there already ;) But the products I used to supplement dairy are too expensive here.

@@oakolive the almond groves in Portugal are a good example of how damaging (at least that substitute is.) I’ve seen them spray glyphosate on the weeds for example - even though Idanha Nova is supposed to be a bio zone. In California alone 5 billion bees die in 3 months to pollinate the trees. What I’ve seen is that the alternatives overall cause even more suffering and environmental harm. It’s not the mainstream narrative though, so, as usual, that info is never in your face.

Hey, in no way am I belittling Portugal. This is our home. I think there is something very wrong with the food system though if you pay more for very basic products that are commonly subsidised by the EU (wheat, dairy). Prices in Germany don’t always represent the reality of how much it costs to produce food but even if you look at neighbouring Spain, they pay less on a lot of the same products.

@@oakolive we also can pay for some food and non food products far less than in Spain it is a monopoly game by E.U and governments and we the people suffer but I am sure we have also positive points but not all are negatives

Easy to solve: go to Spain.

@@joaoportalegre3659 Thank you great answer not too many explanations very clear I love it great way to solve it

Hey, in the summer they were roaming completely free in our valley and lounged in the shade all day. They were in the pen only overnight and in the morning, where it is heavily shaded by an oak tree. They are protected from rain when it rains because we put up an extra wall. By the way, sheep are outside in all kinds of weather in most countries on earth ;) You see only a tiny slice of our life here.