The Cost of Living in Italy: How Italians Live on €1.500 a Month

Now that Italy is getting national attention for its many strikes and protests against the high cost of living and low salaries, I thought it fitting to address the subject.

Coming from America, it was shocking to me just how little Italians make. And it's astounding how most of them make it work. Let me share what you might not know about the cost of living in Italy.

Average Salaries in Italy

Salaries vary wildly between the north and the south of Italy. There's always been this discrepancy, at least since "The War" (WWII), so it's not a huge surprise that there's a difference.

In the north of Italy, the average salary is around €2,000 a month. In the south, that drops to about half that. My house cost more than €2,000 a month in San Diego, so this is incredibly hard to process as a foreigner.

What You Don't Know About the Cost of Living in Italy

So how do people afford to live here? Well, there are some habits that Italians have that make it possible.

Often, Housing is Free

This obviously isn't the case for everyone, but especially here in Calabria, parents either build houses big enough for their grown kids and their families to live in (think a giant multifamily building, all with cousins, siblings, and in-laws living in loud Italian harmony), or they bequeath family houses to their kiddos.

We benefit from the latter. Fra's mother inherited the house she grew up in from her parents. Fra and his family lived here until he was five, and then his parents rented it out. Now we're here, and we, very fortunately, live mortgage-free!

(I have never owned a house. I simply couldn't afford it in America. Now I'm so glad I never broke my back paying a million-dollar mortgage!)

Nobody Cares About Having a New Car

In Davoli, I'd say the average age of the cars I see around town is 15 years old. You even see a lot of sturdy Fiats from the '90s. Those cars just keep going and going. We just replaced Fra's 18-year-old Punto with a new Panda. His dad drives a mint green Panda that is at least 25 years old. He will probably take that car to his grave or be buried in it!

Whereas we Americans panic if our cars are older than five years, here, people don't waste things. They patch them up. Get them fixed. Keep driving them. Which, naturally, helps them save on car costs.

Name Brands Aren't Important

Again, my experience is in the south, so obviously in big cities like Milan, fashion and brands are going to be more valued (and, ironically, they're the ones complaining about high housing costs!).

Here, it's important that the clothes fit and are of good (or good enough) quality. The shoes don't have to be Nike or Adidas. They just have to get you from Point A to B.

I will say that I struggle with this approach sometimes. A lot of people buy cheap clothes from Shein or Temu, and yes, they cost little. But they're also filled with chemicals and pollute landfills. So I prefer to spend more on better quality products. Still, I bought my first pair of non-name-brand sneakers the other day!

We have a tradition here in Davoli of holding "Swap parties." This is where you bring all the clothes you no longer wear and "shop" what everyone else has brought. The rest is donated to a charity. I've gotten some great "new" clothes without spending a dime.

This Isn't an Eating-Out Culture

Certainly, there are restaurants in Italy. Amazing ones. But people are much more likely to eat at home. And here in Calabria, though food delivery services exist, they haven't exploded the way they have in the U.S.

We made the error of ordering delivery for kebabs once. Given that we are 15 minutes up a windy road in the mountains, it shouldn't surprise me that no delivery driver picked up our order for two hours!!

They Recycle, Reuse, or Repurpose Everything

I've written before about how Calabrians throw away nothing. It makes me crazy sometimes, since our cantina is filled with old bedsprings and furniture that will never see the light of day again. But still, Italians save money because they find a way to repurpose what they've already got rather than buy something new.

Here's an example: I'm working with our carpenter friend Vittorio to create shelves for my herbal products studio. We went to the brico (hardware store) to buy wood, but thanks to the recent strikes, there was none.

Not to be daunted, we put on our thinking caps. I immediately went to my father-in-law, the Keeper of Every Useless Thing. In this case, he saved us! It turned out he had just the right types of poles and even screen that we needed! We paid nothing and cleaned up the yard a bit!

They Grow Their Food

Never have I lived in a place that takes growing food so seriously. In the U.S., I had a little garden that produced a handful of tomatoes. But here, 80% of the people I know own a plot (or five) of land where they grow produce and raise animals. That cuts down drastically on what they spend on groceries. And there's always plenty to share.

Italians live much differently than Americans, which is why they can live well on so little. We could learn a lot from their frugality.