Retirement in Bulgaria

Hi Steve you have a holiday home I take it? how long have you had it and how often do you visit? I feel this will be my connection with Bulgaria, in and out for a while. Strange the thoughts going through my mind, as i have South African roots and brown skin, will I be accepted? blimey, I sound like my ancestors, paranoid. I have family, who are gay, will they be accepted.
I have never done anything like this before, my family probably think I'm bonkers, haven't money, but I have a BIG trust drive and this is where I am being driven.
Any hints or tips would be gratefully received.

Thank you
Shinina

Me again Steve, Ovcha Mogila Svishtov, if that means anything to you, I googled the distance to Byala Ruse, I think it is 35 minutes away?
Shinina

shininaflorence369 wrote:

Hi Steve you have a holiday home I take it? how long have you had it and how often do you visit? I feel this will be my connection with Bulgaria, in and out for a while. Strange the thoughts going through my mind, as i have South African roots and brown skin, will I be accepted? blimey, I sound like my ancestors, paranoid. I have family, who are gay, will they be accepted.
I have never done anything like this before, my family probably think I'm bonkers, haven't money, but I have a BIG trust drive and this is where I am being driven.
Any hints or tips would be gratefully received.

Thank you
Shinina

Hello Shinina and welcome to the forum.

As for your question about being "accepted" here as a brown-skinned person: the darker your skin is, the better. You do not want to be mistaken for a Turk or a Gypsy, because a vast number of Bulgarians do not like them. You will always be an extreme minority in this country. If you move to a village and are outgoing and friendly, Bulgarians will respond positively to you. My husband belongs to an extreme minority and has suffered less discrimination here than any country he has lived in. Sadly, there is always somebody who doesn't like you.

Concerning homosexuals, in the next village from us there was a pair of homosexual men living together. The villagers told us that they were "brothers" (born in different countries from each other) lol. But they were outgoing and friendly to their neighbors. We don't remember them ever reporting problems.

Best regards
VillageGirl

Hello Village Girl
Thank you for sharing your experience's, this site is amazing, amazing people, feeling really excited about exploring Bulgaria, chatting with everyone is giving me the confidence to carry on.
Where are you living? do you work? I have so many questions, I think I will drive everyone bonkers.

Shinina X

Hi Shinina,

My husband and I live is a tiny village that is close to Plovdiv (Bulgaria's 2nd largest city). I do not work--apart from looking after the house and helping in our garden. Ask your questions, you are also welcome to pm me whenever you like.

VillageGirl

Thank you! How can I pm you? new to this site, its probably common sense. lol

Yeah you won't be far just over half an hour away, when I'm there you can pop over and visa versa maybe we can go fishing ha-ha!! 

Hi Shinia,

Perhaps one of the Mods can jump in and assist here. I have tried to add you as a contact, but not sure if have been successful.

VillageGirl

Hello Shinina,

Just a word of caution - your area of choice happens to be in the Danube floodplain - so be aware of flooding in that area.

Go south - that is where I am looking.

Good luck

Eshek

Hi village girl you do not seem to have a private message option on your home page?
You click on your name and you get the profile and your own description, and add to contacts, but no send message (private message), not sure if somebody needs to add you to their contacts first to enable "p/message" option?
Regards Steve.

Thanks for the suggestion, Steve. Shinina, why don't you try adding me as a contact and then see if you can pm me.

VillageGirl

I'm thinking about retiring in Bulgaria since I am a Bulgarian living in California for the last 25 years. Make me return to Bulgaria and spend my retirement years there. I will retire in 8 years. What will be life after 8 years, cost of living, health care, taxes, economy, etc. Hit me.

Prices can be even cheaper than those you have posted.  You can buy  similar properties straight from the buyer at a reasonable sum and if using your own Notary/Lawyer can same a huge amount of fees

Tax on house 60 lev
Super high speed fibre optic broadband 200 lev a year - no installation or set up cost
Car Insurance 200 lev a year
Vignette (Road Tax) 97 lev a year
Security house and garden with alarms and sensors, immediate response 500 lev a year (haven't had to use it)
TV/Film/Sports package is free and downloaded via Kodi or MOBPRO
Cost of a meal in medium restaurant for two including drinks, appetisers, and main - 25 lev upwards (depends on location)
Local bar - 1 lev for a beer or a short
Bread 75 stotinki or stinkies as I like to refer to them
Milk 1.97 lev for 2 litres
Pork chops 6 lev a kilo
Fillet of port 9.97 lev a kilo
Beef 13 lev a kilo - this is only for stewing or mincing.  Steak requires a specialist butcher or very large hypermarket
Chicken breast 9 lev a kilo, legs 6 lev a kilo and necks etc 1.5 lev a kilo
Lamb/goat - I'm waiting for spring to buy some!
Cheeses (white and feta like) from 2-8 lev a kilo and Kashkaval (yellow, creamy and mild) same price range
Beans and pulses and rice very cheap all under 2 lev a kilo and often less
Great range of herbs and spices all for stinkies
Fruit and veg are seasonal and ridiculously cheap.  Tomatoes at the end of the season were being sold for 65 stinkies a kilo but 1.50-2 is more usual.  Potatoes anything from 97 - 1.65 a kilo,  Sweetcorn in season and fresh fro the stalk 30-60 stinks each, Peaches 1.50 a kilo, a bunch of fresh herbs 20 stinkies.  Chicken tastes like chicken and eggs are fabulous at 18 -25 stinkies deepening on the size.
If you are adventurous you can buy everything from chicken foot, to pig trotter to intestines of all domestic animals - you can get really creative.  Your neighbours will inundate you with their oversupply of fruit and veg and most people engage in growing their own.  Making wine and rakia are very important activities in a village so any fruit will be used for rakia and grapes bartered for new strains of wine.
National Health Service 18 lev per month
I paid 8 lev for a Blue ventalin inhaler without a prescription and 13 leva for 10 days course Augmentin antibiotics
We use bottle gas (by choice) for the hob (18k for 17 lev) and electric everywhere except the solid fuel burner.  We are in a full renovation so electric is being used heavily by tools so we're paying 96 lev a month but 46 would more accurately reflect a monthly bill for two.
10 kilo good dried dog food 18 lev
Wood for the burner we have from the renovation but I would suggest about 400-600 to upwards depending on house size and number of burners

If you are anything but a tiny personage then bring your clothes and bra's with you!  I'm an 8-10 and have to buy extra large size clothing - much to my chagrin!  And there are probably loads of things I cold/should have included.  These prices are current though and come from north central Bulgaria.

Great insight on the pricing of life, a good reply and post that is very informative and will benefit a lot of people, nice one.
Regards those oversize bra's well life's like that I struggled finding boxer shorts that were not highly flammable ha-ha!!
Regards Steve.

Hi Ron
I have emailed you
Cheers
Phil Parry

Hi we moved near to general toshevo in April,  still getting my bearings and adjusting to the culture shock! Mainly do my shopping in Romania as easier route than thru pothole dobric!
We have been offered a great deal on a renovated house in Seem south? BG, do you know the area?
Is it nice? Lots of expats?
It would be nice to meet some Brits as we are remote here and no one speaks English though I do try a little Bulgarian + sign language!
Any advice would be appreciated
Trish

Hi there, at least you will remember the language which I find very difficult!
Did you move back?
Trish

Well the prices of things that you have posted may have been correct a few years ago, but not today. Cost of living has risen and although Bulgaria is still alot cheaper to retire to than lots of other countries prices are rising. I don't want to sound negative because Bulgaria is a beautiful country, and yes expats with pensions can live a fabulous life! It's not all about cheap alcohol and tobacco, it's having open fields, gorgeous countryside, not much traffic. Lovely sunshine and four real seasons.
Stress free, no mortgage, having lots of space. I cannot think about how we used to live back in the UK, semi detached house, with a small garden. Traffic jams, fighting through it to get to work on time, and now we have hardly any traffic on the roads large gardens and a house that I could only dream of owning back in the UK! Don't get me wrong there are negative sides to living here as well. Pot holes are the bain of my life, and in our village there are big problems with the water going off! But life is what you make it, and we love our new country!

Ditto Bullador......

:-)

I’m new on this site and have been looking into retiring in Bulgaria from the UK. I’ve been living in the Middle East for a few years and coming back to the UK just makes me want to leave again! Bulgaria sounds really nice and perhaps affordable on a UK pension. Is it still possible to live there including renting a small apartment on 1000 dollars a month? Any advice would be really useful. I’m pretty open to any location.

With an income of 1k USD you can have a good chance in living in one of the smaller and medium size towns in Bulgaria.
The rent will be affordable with the range of 300-400 BGN. Also the cost for transportation will be lot less having on mind that if you rent a property in the town center everything will be close to you. The costs for food and monthly bills are pretty much the same everywhere in Bulgaria.

Thanks for the information. Very useful! I’ve been looking at Varna as a possibility. Any thoughts or other suggestions?

Varna would be a possibility for retired life on 1000 usd, but the city itself is more expensive than other slightly smaller places. So, it might be rough the first few months when you are figuring out how to manage your expenses in Bulgaria.

That being said, husband, child and I definitely lived in Varna on about $1200 for awhile.

Great! Well, it’s just me to cater for so it’s a nice possibility. Thanks for the reply. I guess being near the coast would be nice.

Other suggestions:
Bourgas - pretty much the same as Varna, just that winters there are not so cold and icy. Prices will be a bit lower, especially for renting.
Promorie - close to Bourgas - smaller, much more relaxed and calm, better climate, mineral water springs and famous SPA resort.
Stara Zagora - about 100 km. inland, size similar to that of Bourgas, very green, hot summers, close to mountains and to mineral water and SPA resort.
That is if you're considering living in a bigger place. Smaller options are numerous, always with lower prices and  ... o.k. better see this for yourself.