Transcription
What is the cost of living in Brazil in 2025? Well, in this video, I'm going to share this with you. So, I've been living in a small town in the south of Brazil now for a number of years. And what I would say is that the cost of living here in the south is kind of in the middle. So, you've got São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, where it's very expensive to live. Then you've got the south of Brazil, which is kind of in the middle. And then you've got the North and the Northeast of Brazil, where it's even cheaper.
And I live here with my wife and my daughter. So, the costs I'm going to show you are for three people. And we've bought our own home. It's a simple house, it's about 100 square meters, which is 1,100 square feet. And we bought this house a few years ago for about $90,000. So, we don't pay rent and we don't pay any mortgage payments on it because we just bought it outright. And I have a separate video showing the house. So, if you're interested in that, I'll leave a link in the commentary below.
Okay, so let's have a look at the breakdown of my costs. Okay, so I've broken the costs down into utilities, food costs, car, health insurance, school, pets, and some miscellaneous things. And I'm showing the costs in Brazilian Real and also in US Dollars. Um, and the current exchange rate is about 5.8 Real to $1 US. And actually, over the last couple of months, the exchange rate has changed quite significantly. So, the Brazilian Real has weakened. So, for those earning in US Dollars, the cost of living has reduced. Um, but not for those earning in Real.
So, if you look at the bottom here, you can see that we spend about 12,000 Real per month. That is about $2,100 per month. But this is for three people. And also, there are some costs here which are discretionary and many people don't spend money on.
Okay, so let's start from the top. So, we've got utilities. So, you've got electricity, which is $80 per month. Now, we use a fair bit of electricity, um, because it gets pretty hot in summertime, so we have the air conditioning on, uh, a lot in summertime. And also, it gets a bit cold here in the south in wintertime as well, so we have electric radiators, uh, in wintertime. So, I actually think electricity is quite reasonable.
Then we have gas. So, this is gas for the stove for when we cook, and also for the hot water heating system as well. Now, here in Brazil, in most areas, you don't have gas pipes leading into the home. So, what you need to do is you need to order these gas cylinders. They get delivered to your house, and then when they run out, you need to call again, and a guy comes and changes them. So, that isn't the most efficient system, but that's what it's like in large parts of Brazil.
And then you have internet. I think our speed is about 300 megabits. Then you have water, and then mobile phones. And the mobile phones, there, $27 is for the three of us.
Then you have other house costs. So, we have house insurance. And you'd be surprised to know how many people in our neighborhood don't have house insurance. Um, I mean, obviously many do, but I was shocked to know that a lot of my neighbors, they don't have any house insurance on their homes. We have the cleaner, uh, so she comes once a week and stays for half a day to clean the house, and we pay her $80 per month. So, you can see the cost for a cleaner are a lot lower than they are in in Sweden and many other countries. And you'll see that in Brazil, when it comes to services, so cleaners, builders, plumbers, uh, gardeners, these kinds of things, um, they're a lot cheaper here in Brazil compared to other countries. And then some maintenance on the house. Now, these costs don't include, you know, new appliances, doing major work, just some small maintenance of the house.
And then you've got food. So, we spend about 3,800 Real, which is about $650 per month on food. Um, and what I would say here is that, so, some of the local produce, um, so the the beef and some fruits and vegetables, these are cheaper here in Brazil when you compare it to Sweden, if you look on a US dollar basis. But then, if you look at other food, especially food that's imported, that can actually be more expensive here in Brazil compared to to Sweden. And also, it's possible to spend a lot less on food than we do here in Brazil. That's for sure.
And then you've got restaurants. We spend about $300, uh, per month, and we go out about three times a week. So, if we do a little calculation here, so three times a week, four weeks in a month, so we spend about $24 every time we go out and eat. Again, you can see that's definitely a lot cheaper than when you go out to restaurants in Sweden and other Western countries. And these restaurants aren't, you know, McDonald's, Burger King. I'm talking about going to nice restaurants where you can have a a healthy meal.
And then we've got car expenses. So, we've got petrol or gas. So, we spend about $67 per month. Now, we don't use the car that much. I mean, we both work from home, my wife and I, so we don't commute. And also, we visit some cities and do some exploring around Brazil. But just to give you the the cost per liter or per gallon, which I know some people ask me about. So, at the moment, it's around 6 Real 25 per liter here in Brazil. So, that is $1.07 per liter. And then if we convert that to gallon, so that would be $1.07 times 3.78 to get to US dollars. So, that would be $4 for a gallon of gas. So, it's actually a bit more expensive than gas in the US. And then we just got some car insurance and maintenance of a car.
And next category is health insurance. So, we have, um, private health insurance for the three of us. So, that costs about $220 per month. Now, a lot of people don't have private health insurance because Brazil has a public health system, which is free. So, a lot of people just use that. And actually, what we do is we use both. So, when we just need to see a doctor because we're just feeling a bit sick, I don't know, got a flu or something, then we just use the public health service. And we can just go to this drop-in clinic, and usually takes about half an hour, I think, to see a doctor. And the service is pretty good in our little town. But what I would say is that in some of the bigger cities, uh, the service isn't as good. But in general, in the smaller towns here in the south, the service is is pretty good. It's reasonable.
But then when we want to do other things, like we want to do a health checkup or or surgery or something, then we use the private health insurance. And the big health insurance providers are Bradesco, Unimed, and Sul América. And then there are some others as well. And I was pleasantly surprised by the cost of health insurance here in Brazil compared to back in Sweden and other Western countries. And I know back in the US, there's been a lot of talk about health insurance providers not approving surgeries and medicines and so on. And what I would say is here in Brazil, it seems to be a bit better. I mean, um, we've done a couple of surgeries, and there's never been any pushback or anything. They just accepted it. And also some friends and family as well have done surgeries and and again, they haven't had any issues, um, being approved. But yeah, I haven't got enough information and experience to give you a definite answer on that.
The next one is school. So, we send our daughter to a private school, and we spend about $240 per month. So, and yeah, compared to Sweden and other Western countries, there's no way you can send your child to a private school for $240 per month. So, that's definitely a lot cheaper. But what I would say is there, there are some very expensive schools, especially in Rio and São Paulo, where you know, spending thousands of dollars on a private school. But if you're in the smaller cities in the countryside, they you can spend like $2, $300 to send your child to a private school. And these schools are very good. I mean, we're very happy with the school our daughter goes to. But then I would also say that if you want, you just want to send your child to the public schools, which are free, then some of them are very good. Again, I would probably say that in the big cities, there it can be a bit more hit and miss with the schools. Some of them can be a bit run down, um, maybe the teachers aren't the best. But in a lot of the smaller towns in the countryside, there the the schools can be pretty good. And yeah, for many people, they don't see the need to send their child to a private school.
Then we've got some expenses for our pets, about $70. So, we've got two dogs and two cats. Luckily, we haven't had to send them to the vet that much. And then some just some miscellaneous costs, so Netflix and some other things. And obviously, we don't spend anything on rent or mortgage costs.
So, in total, we spend about $2,000 per month. But if you're thinking of moving to Brazil, I would definitely recommend renting at the beginning. And to just give you a feel for how much things cost, um, I'll just show you a few examples. So, let's have a look at a town called Brusque in Santa Catarina, in the countryside. So, so what I've selected is two-bedroom apartments in the town of Brusque. And you can see here, you've got a nice apartment building, 70 square meters for 2,900 Real, which is about $500 per month. And then you've got simpler, smaller ones. This is 60 square meters and a simpler area in Brusque, which is 1,500 Real per month, which is $250 per month. So, you can see you can get okay apartments in okay areas, uh, for about $250 a month. So, rent is pretty reasonable in these smaller cities.
But then if you look at the bigger cities. So, if we look at the biggest one in Santa Catarina, which is Florianópolis. So, here prices are significantly higher. So, I've selected here, Barra da Lagoa in Florianópolis, which is a really nice area in kind of the center of Florianópolis. Two-bedroom apartments. So, you can see you've got a big apartment here for about 6,000 Real per month, which is $1,000 per month. But you've got smaller ones as well, 60 square meters for 2,800 Real per month, so $500 per month. But you can see here, you've got even more exclusive ones. So, you've, this one here, which is 90 square meters for 10,000 Real per month, which is about $1,700 per month. So, that's located in a really nice area with sea views, um, so that's why it's so expensive.
So, yeah, you can definitely rent a nice apartment in a small city in the south of Brazil for about 2,000 Real per month, which is $350 per month. If so, if you include that, then the cost would be $2,400 per month. Like I said, you don't need to incur all of these costs. So, I've actually added another column called "Reduced Spend." So, what I've done here is I've removed the the cleaner. You can definitely spend less on groceries than I do, so I put 400 there. Remove health insurance and remove the school costs, but put in the rent. So, that would be $1,600 for a family of three to live here in Brazil. So, you can see here roughly what kind of the range of costs are.
Okay, so hopefully you found this video useful, just to give you kind of an indication of how much it costs to live here in the south of Brazil. Like I said, it varies a lot. Brazil's a really big country. So, if you live in the North, costs will probably be lower. But if you live in the big cities like São Paulo, Rio, it will probably be more expensive. So, hope you like this video. Please leave a like, subscribe if you've got any questions or anything, leave in the commentary below. So, thanks for watching until next time.