Never Retire: 30 Days Of Eating and Drinking Out In Los Angeles Vs. 30 Days In Valencia, Spain

In the next edition of the Never Retire newsletter, I will discuss aspects of life in Spain that make it better, especially when compared to the United States.

As it turns out, I have been preparing all my life to live this urban, car-free, pedestrian-focused lifestyle. Once you start living it, you quickly realize that one of the main reasons people cite when they first say they want to move becomes less of a factor.

Even if my cost of living in Spain was the same as—or even higher than—what it was in the United States, I couldn’t imagine ever living there again. The real bargain you receive when you live in Spain—particularly its large cities—is a quality of life that’s objectively impossible to attain in the US.

Clearly, cost of living matters, but it’s really icing on a cake that never was and sure as hell never will be accessible to many, if not most, residents of the United States. To be clear—I have a longstanding conviction of not being happy with the quality of life in America. It’s not something that just hit me on the head after moving to Valencia!

Anyhow—

Here’s a comparison of one month eating and drinking out in Los Angeles, compared to two months in Valencia—when we arrived and really didn’t check ourselves much and now that we’re settled. I also calculate our grocery store and market spending for the month of March.