At 27, Lucía left Madrid for a Galician village with just nine residents. There, she is restoring a century-old stone house and tending a vegetable garden. She spends about €50 a month on food, and her days also revolve around caring for animals.
Lucía’s move was not impulsive. With a background in sustainable agriculture and a longstanding connection to nature, she sought a life where she could control more of her food supply and live more sustainably. The transition meant learning to rely on what she could grow and gather herself, while continuing to buy essentials she cannot produce.
Living on Less
One of the most striking aspects of Lucía’s new routine is her grocery bill. She spends about €50 a month on food, a figure she attributes to her expanding vegetable plot and foraging efforts. “Between the garden and what I can collect, I spend very little,” she explains. The only items she regularly buys are staples such as rice and oil.
Household food production is particularly prominent in Galicia. Provisional 2025 figures from Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture crop survey, ESYRCE, put the area of family gardens used for household consumption at 123,212 hectares nationwide, including 31,253 hectares in Galicia, the largest reported total of any autonomous community. The figures offer a regional measure of home food-growing, while Lucía’s €50 monthly bill remains her own experience rather than a typical household budget.
Lucía says rural life can be inexpensive for people willing to invest time in the land and animals. “If you have your own animals and a garden, living in a village is very cheap,” she says. Her largest monthly expense, but, is not her own food but feed and care for her animals, which costs around €150.
Galicia’s wider policy structure links ecological production to local economic activity and the viability of rural communities. Organic production is certified by the Consello Regulador da Agricultura Ecolóxica de Galicia, which checks compliance with organic-production requirements. At a Xunta-linked event, Martín Alemparte, director of AGACAL, highlighted the commercial opportunities and territorial value of local initiatives.
Seeking Peace and Purpose
The decision to leave Madrid was driven by more than economics. Lucía describes feeling a sense of belonging as soon as she arrived in the Galician countryside. The contrast with her urban life, marked by insecurity and precarious work, was immediate. “I felt a spark when I got here. I knew this was home,” she recalls.
Her project is about more than saving money. Lucía is committed to building a life rooted in the land, with a direct relationship to food and the environment. Restoring the old house is part of this vision, though it requires impressive effort and investment.
Regional agricultural policy also backs research into more resilient production. The Xunta supports 44 operational groups working on needs identified by the farming sector. One project, BIO_MARTERRA, tested biostimulants and by-products derived from marine algae on horticultural crops and potatoes. Researchers also tested them on vineyards. Trials ran in the laboratory and greenhouse, followed by fieldwork, to examine ways of strengthening crops against stresses including drought and high temperatures. Salinity was another target. The project has been presented as an example of circular-economy practice and more sustainable agriculture.
Fighting Rural Depopulation
Lucía’s move also has a broader purpose: she wants to help counteract the depopulation affecting many Spanish villages. Her arrival in a community of just nine people is a small but meaningful change in a region where empty houses and abandoned fields are common. Very small settlements are part of a wider rural pattern in Spain: INE population-register figures reported for Villamedianilla, in Burgos province, recorded nine inhabitants across 6.70 square kilometres.
To finance the renovation, Lucía used savings from unemployment benefits. She now plans to apply for a livestock grant to start raising cows on her land, further deepening her commitment to rural life.
The wider debate about rural sustainability also sits alongside quality-of-life and demographic challenges. The INE’s 2025 multidimensional quality-of-life indicator placed Galicia at 99.88 points, below the reported Spanish average of 101.74. That regional measure provides context, but does not determine the costs or benefits of rural life for any one household.
Lucía’s story is part of a wider movement among young Spaniards seeking alternatives to urban living. The challenges are real, from restoration costs to isolation. Self-sufficiency brings its own demands, but her experience shows one way to build a life connected to the land. A similar entrepreneurial spirit can be seen in the fitness industry, where individuals like Roberto González have transformed modest investments into thriving businesses, as detailed in this report on the rise of Vitalfit.
For Lucía, the Galician countryside offers a refuge from city stress and a place to build a life on her own terms, rooted in the land and sustainable within her budget.
