Can two people live comfortably on the coast of Albania for under $40,000 a year – without living like broke gap-year students??

Today, we are opening our actual bank accounts and showing you every single dollar we spent during our first six months living in Vlorë, Albania.

We’ll break down what it costs to both land and live here—from rent and groceries to residency permits, outfitting our apartment, and buying e-bikes.

Our day-to-day living expenses came out to about $3,200 a month, but that’s not the whole story. There are also one-time setup fees and residency costs that most cost of living reports completely leave out.

Can you live here for less? Absolutely. Can you spend more? Easily. But our goal is simple: to show you how a comfortable life in Albania is possible, for two people, for under $40,000 a year.

If you’re new to the channel, we’re Sandra and Jeff—retired Americans who spent the last few years slow traveling internationally. After landing in Durrës and exploring several towns in Albania, we decided to set up a home base and signed a two-year lease right here in Vlorë, on the Albanian Riviera.

Unlike other articles, this covers every dollar we spent as a couple—including our local costs and our ongoing commitments back home in the US.

Quick note: We’ll mention local prices along the way, but all our category totals are converted into US Dollars so you don’t have to do mental math between dollars, euros, and lek.

Housing & Utilities

To understand how that daily total comes together, let’s start with our biggest monthly line item: housing.

On February 1st, we stopped nomading and signed a two-year lease on an apartment here in Vlorë, Albania.

We rented a furnished 2 bedroom, 2 bath, 1000sq ft apartment on the Lugomare with an unobstructed sea view.

We have mini-split units, that’s A/C and heating, in the living area and the main bedroom. We ran the heat quite a lot during our first two months because the daytime highs were mostly in the 50s to low 60s in this period.

We’ve yet to use the cooling function on the mini-split, even though the summer was hot and humid, instead we just ran both units in ‘Dry’ mode pretty much 24/7, which reduces the humidity in the apartment. That kept it cool enough for us and saved us money on our utility bills.

Our rent is €600 euros a month. Utilities, water and electric, ranged from $58 (low) to $143 (high).

There’s no cost for trash pickup as household trash is deposited in the dumpsters located on the street.

We also had some extra housing expenses because we hadn’t planned to stay here. We had already paid for our short term rental through February 11th and then we signed the lease for the new apartment to start February 1st, so for 11 days we were paying for both apartments.

Food & Dining

Now that you’ve seen what it costs to keep a roof over our heads, let’s talk about what it costs to feed ourselves—both at home and while out exploring Vlore and running errands.

Our grocery category includes food and sundries we buy at the grocery stores, produce stands, butcher and bakery as well as low-cost, non-food items that we happen to pick up at the supermarket. Things like dish soap, toilet paper, aluminum foil, soap, shampoo, etc.

We are NOT strict budget shoppers… we buy what we like to eat, like good parmesan, our favorite yogurt, bottled sauces, etc. Our total spend for groceries was just under $3000

We spent a little over $2,200 on meals, coffees and snacks at Restaurants, cafes, coffee shops. We tend to stick to mid-range restaurants because we are eating to refuel or as part of a social gathering. We aren’t seeking ‘Dining Experiences’. We go somewhat fancy occasionally but for the most part our meals out fall into the US$15 to $25 range, for the two of us.

So that brings our six month total for groceries and meals out to $5,200 and some change

Activities, Transportation & Technology

We didn’t do much sightseeing and tourist activities. We focused mainly on getting settled in our new home but we did spend a few days in Berat, and a couple days in Tirane.

So taxis, bus fare, accommodations in Berat & Tirane etc. are included in this category as well as Sandra’s watercolor art supplies cuz that’s an activity, right??

We’re also including the cost of the used e-bikes we purchased plus the miscellaneous add-ons required (tire pump, inner tube patch kit, phone mount, mirrors, those sorts of things) into the ‘Local Transport’ category since the whole point of having the bikes is to make getting around and doing things a little easier and more convenient.

Technology expenses include a years worth of internet for our apartment, our cell phones, data plans, website hosting, and software program subscriptions, some of which we pay for annually…We both retain our US phone numbers and use E-SIMs for data. Sandra has a local phone number and data through Vodaphone, I am still using the Airalo ‘Global’ E-SIM.

So our technology expenses came to $1,265.10 or about $210 a month

Healthcare, Insurance, Wardrobe & Miscellany

Beyond food, housing, and tech, there’s the ongoing expenses like healthcare, insurance, clothes, and everything else.

Total spend on healthcare and healthcare related items (otc medications, etc) for the 6 months was $1,944.60 that includes the $620 we spent for us both to get new glasses and eye exams.

And that number also includes our ‘social security’ payments to Albania (required as part of our residency path) which allow us to use the local healthcare system.

We also pay for other insurance policies, which you may or may not have, like Life insurance and insurance for a family heritage pickup truck in storage. That number came to $713

And now that we have an address, and closets, and we can travel with just what we need for the trip, rather than everything we own, we’ve both expanded our wardrobes a bit. Jeff added a few shirts and another pair of trousers, and Sandra picked up a few summer dresses, etc., Sandra also bought the obligatory black puffy coat that you see everywhere you turn in Albania from October to April.

For the period of February through July we spent $595.41 on clothing which also included new shoes for both of us (and good quality trainers are shockingly expensive)

And then there’s the Miscellaneous category… consider this the junk drawer of expense categories cuz we promised to share every penny we spent so…haircare, cigarettes, some personal care items purchased outside of a grocery store got put into this category. Somehow we managed to spend about $1,466.10 on miscellaneous stuff.

Cost of Living Total:

So, that 19,364.12 brings our ongoing daily living costs to about $3,227 a month—which covers everything from housing and groceries to our US-side commitments like our life insurance and storage of a heritage vehicle back home.

The “Hidden” One-Time Relocation & Residency Costs

But as we promised at the start of the post, daily living is only part of the story. If you’re planning to move here, you also need to know what it costs to land, get legal, and set up a home in a foreign country when all that you brought with you is your carry on luggage.

Let’s look at where those startup dollars went…

Residency Permit Fees

For our residency, we didn’t apply for the retired residency permits, for a number of reasons which we won’t go into deets here—we went through the business formation and family reunification pathway.

The total cost for the two of us to secure 5 year residency permits was $1,895.83. That includes the Attorney fees, immigration office fees, the cost to obtain an apostilled marriage certificate and get it sent to Albania. Notary and photocopying costs.

It even includes the ‘Port Entry’ fee we had to pay whenever we visited the Immigration office, the coffee and snacks we bought at the Portside Bar on the day we spent over 5 hours waiting at the Immigration office. Bus fare to get to Old Town to deal with the municipal office. When we say COMPLETE cost to obtain residency in Albania, we mean COMPLETE.

Apartment Setup Costs:

Next up is what it cost us to secure our apartment and get settled. (Monthly rent costs we covered in the housing expenses mentioned earlier)

$1,756.71 covers the commission we paid to the rental agent, the notary fees for the lease, relocation from our short-term rental in Sarandë to Vlorë, outfitting the kitchen with pots and pans, buying linens and towels, and having custom bug screens installed on our windows and balcony door.

There is one other out-of-pocket item to keep in mind: our €1,200 security deposit (about $1,410 USD). We aren’t including this amount in our first six month cost of living report because it’s refundable money we hope to get back when our lease ends. Any part of it that doesn’t get returned to us will show up as a housing expense at that time. But if you’re planning to move to Albania it is a cash flow item you should be aware of…

Grand Total First Six Months Cost of Living in Vlore

So, all in for our first six month cost of living in Albania was $23,016.66 which breaks down to about $3,836 per month.

That is a bit higher than our target of $3,300 per month but there was a chunk of one-time expenses — residency, the e-bikes and the cost of setting up the apartment — that add up to very nearly $4,000. So we’re still on track to hit our goal of spending less than $40,000 for 2026.

Questions?

What surprised you most about our numbers? Is there a category that came in higher or lower than you expected? And would you ever consider making a move to the Albanian Riviera?

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