Hello,

The best bet to rent a less expensive place is to look for one in one of the nearby towns, like Alcobendas, Tres Cantos (expensive) or Colmenar Viejo. There are many others all around the city (these are in the North). They have excellent bus and often train connections for cheap (an Abono, or pass, which works on the intercity trains, the Metro and the city and intercity bus systems is around 50€ per month).

We live in Colmenar Viejo, and there is an apartment with two bedrooms, kitchen and small living room, and bath with big tub/shower, furnished, above us for 420€ per month (I think). Our landlords are the absolute best people in the world, kind to a fault, and keep the place spotless. Oh, we also have a medium sized swimming pool! If you found an acceptable roomate you could split the rent and have a very inexpensive place. Utilities are not expensive, in our apartment (three times as large) we pay about $100 per month for everything but the phone (with three people). You would have to pay a deposit for the utilities, for the year (everyone requires this). Keep away from using Telefonica for your phone company, they are a huge rip-off. Use Jazztel instead, especially if you want an ADSL connection to the Internet. We are saving around 700€ per month this way! That's right, I said 700€ difference per month!

CV is about 25 minutes by bus from Plaza Castilla Bus Terminal with connections all over Madrid, and about 50 minutes by train to Atocha Station, farther in the city, again with bus, train and metro connections to everywhere, so the commute is very easy. The schedule on weekdays is a bus to town every 15 minutes, and twice per hour by train, with a special bus which goes to the station just in time for the train. We are on the bus route, half-a-block from the busstop.

If you are interested, email me at martin@1stclasspinups.com, be sure to put a reference to MadridMan in CAPS so I will be able to see it above the spam, and I can give you addresses, maps, phone numbers, etc. for my landlord (who lives below us), if you want to contact him.

Otherwise it is a question of looking through the classified ads and pounding the pavement, a rough task, believe me. Usually you find something through networks of friends and acquaintances.

Good luck,

Martín Shellabarger

President, 1st Class Pinups
website: www.1stclasspinups.com
"The Classical Alternative in Pinups"