Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

krisskross · 19 August 2006 at 4:46PM

seven-day-weekend wrote:

We have all these.

There is a bus from Granada to the coast and back every day, calling at most of the villages, and then from the coast there are buses to Malaga and Almeria. Both these have national bus and rail stations and airports.

We have our own house telephone and we have a public telephone box in the village.

Mains sewarage/electricity - I would not have moved here if these were not connected.

We also have in our village ( permanent population c.400) a church a general store, a bakery, a jamon shop, a 3-13 school, a pensioner's club, a 'women's institute', access to banking and post office facilities, access to a Doctor and Nurse, a local councillor is available every morning and various mobile vans call frequently, selling everything from gas bottles to knickers, fish, blankets and live chickens. There is an open-air municipal swimming pool between us and the next village (about five minute's drive). We have a 24 hour health centre two villages away and a hospital with accident and emergency about 1.5 hours away.

Most importantly, in our tiny village we have EIGHT bars!

Sorry to go off topic - just wanted to make it clear that we DO have facilities, far more than an English village of comparable size would have.:beer:

Sounds wonderful. We did enjoy living in Spain and would probably still be there if we could have got treatment for my husband's exacerbation of rheumatoid arthritis. Winters were very cold and damp though, our house just was not built for cold weather:rotfl:

It was a great experience but I feel a lot safer in England with the shelter of the NHS and the knowledge that should we have an emergency I won't be panicking trying to remember the Spanish and also knowing how the system works.

al_yrpal · 19 August 2006 at 4:46PM

What a fascinating glimpse of life in rural Spain.

Some years ago we toured Andalucia by coach. Our lady guide and her Spanish flamenco guitarist husband accompanied us. Each evening we ended up in a bar singing flamencos with the locals. Our guide, who had lived in Spain for many years, used to point out the 'little old men' in the villages. She reckoned that all these wizened little guys were ejected shortly after 9 o'clock each morning and not allowed back for anything except perhaps lunch until evening by the Senora of the household. Hence all the bars!

On a visit to Northern Spain earlier this year, the liittle guys were there as well, and the bars looked just as dingy. After a visit to the unspoilt parts of Lanzarote last year, we regularly ate in cafes with the local builders/cement lorry drivers etc each lunchtime €3.50 to €5, and absolutely delicious to boot. Did that in North Spain/Rioja too. What an eye opener.

Oops - well off topic!

seven-day-weekend · 20 August 2006 at 1:27AM

krisskross wrote:

Sounds wonderful. We did enjoy living in Spain and would probably still be there if we could have got treatment for my husband's exacerbation of rheumatoid arthritis. Winters were very cold and damp though, our house just was not built for cold weather:rotfl:

It was a great experience but I feel a lot safer in England with the shelter of the NHS and the knowledge that should we have an emergency I won't be panicking trying to remember the Spanish and also knowing how the system works.

Winters are cold here too, (I never had an electric blanket till I got to Spain). However, I think the Spanish NHS is much better than in the UK.

My husband saw the doctor ten days ago for a condition which he had in England, and was successfully treated there, but has now recurred. Instead of waiting 3-6 months to see a consultant as he did in the UK, he has an appointment with a consultant for next Thursday.

However, I agre that not being fluent in the language can be scary at times (and if you've not known Spanish until your 50s you are never going to be fluent).

We will come back to the UK if anything goes wrong healthwise because of the language difficulty, not because the health service is substandard. IMHO (albeit limited) it beats the UK system hands down.

seven-day-weekend · 20 August 2006 at 1:40AM

al_yrpal wrote:

What a fascinating glimpse of life in rural Spain.

On a visit to Northern Spain earlier this year, the liittle guys were there as well, and the bars looked just as dingy. After a visit to the unspoilt parts of Lanzarote last year, we regularly ate in cafes with the local builders/cement lorry drivers etc each lunchtime €3.50 to €5, and absolutely delicious to boot. Did that in North Spain/Rioja too. What an eye opener.

Oops - well off topic!

A colleague of my husband's (when he was working) who did his degree at Malaga University, reckons you haven't seen Real Spain unless the bars are littered with fag ends and napkins, the bar's TV is blaring away with no-one watching it, and at least half-a- dozen elderly men are sitting at the bar supping anis or sol y sombre.

Having said that, a group of about half-a-dozen elderly men from our village regularly walk all morning up the mountain paths. They are as fit as fiddles. We call them 'The Last of the Summer Wine'. Then on summer evenings a group of about 25 can be found outside the pensionista, playing cards for matchsticks and shouting at each other at the tops of their voices (this is rural Andalucian normal conversation). When the last matchstick is lost, they all go home. Poor Luis (74) who has given up his evening to open the bar , has to go home without anyone having ordered a drink.

We take pity on him sometimes and go in and order an anis each!

Sorry, way off topic.....but I'm so proud of my little village! Sorry.

seven-day-weekend · 20 August 2006 at 10:29AM

Edinburghlass wrote:

Please use this thread for any hints, tips or just your experiences of re-locating abroad especially on a budget.

Not necessarily for the retired but this discussion started regarding how much it costs per month to live in the UK when retired and living on a limited budget which made people talk about their experiences of living in Spain. No need to restrict the discussion to Spain though

Hi there, thank you for enjoying our posts so much that you've started a new thread and not just deleted them for being off-topic! :beer:

I do have an 'overseas' money-saving tip as it happens.

In our area, not just our village, most of the bars and shops will not touch plastic money in any way, shape or form, so you have to live on cash. This makes life far more straightforward and budgets much easier to keep to. Our friends here even had to pay in cash when they bought their brand-new car!

We work in cash except for household bills which are direct debit same as in the UK.

So, work in cash (this applies to the UK too) and you will find you spend less money. :money:

krisskross · 20 August 2006 at 10:59AM

seven-day-weekend wrote:

Winters are cold here too, (I never had an electric blanket till I got to Spain). However, I think the Spanish NHS is much better than in the UK.

My husband saw the doctor ten days ago for a condition which he had in England, and was successfully treated there, but has now recurred. Instead of waiting 3-6 months to see a consultant as he did in the UK, he has an appointment with a consultant for next Thursday.

However, I agre that not being fluent in the language can be scary at times (and if you've not known Spanish until your 50s you are never going to be fluent).

We will come back to the UK if anything goes wrong healthwise because of the language difficulty, not because the health service is substandard. IMHO (albeit limited) it beats the UK system hands down.

I think some things are treated well in Spain but we were told 18 months-2 years to see a rheumatologist within the health system , and in the interim no one but a rheumatologist was allowed to prescribe the can be toxic medication he needed. This was apparently because rheumatoid arthritis is not a "Spanish" ailment. We did eventually pay to see a consultant privately but were having to fund all treatment, blood tests and medication which was soooooooooo expensive. We had only been in the clinic 10 minutes and we had been given bills totalling £500!! Private insurance was never an option because it was a pre existing condition.
18 months on and his steroid intake is gradually being decreased, but the monthly blood tests and hospital visits continue. We would have been bankrupt by now had we remained in Spain.

Unfortunately you cannot mix and match which country you have health care in, you need to satisfy habitual residence rules and normally can only be treated in 1 country which is why we had to come back permanently.

al_yrpal · 20 August 2006 at 11:49AM

seven-day-weekend wrote:

you haven't seen Real Spain unless the bars are littered with fag ends and napkins,
Sorry, way off topic.....but I'm so proud of my little village! Sorry.

We were told that the best bars could be identified as the ones with the most litter!

On our visit to the North, we did stay in two Paradors - absolutely great, probably the best standard hotels you can stay in. You get a 35% discount at some if you are over 60, making them more affordable. But by far our best experience was staying at a very Spanish Hotel on the edge of the Picos. No-one spoke English, the food was very Spanish and it cost half what the Paradors did. So, by eating in cafes at lunchtime (look for the builders lorries) and going 'Spanish' on accomodation, you can do a very nice week immersed in real Spain.

Easyjet return for two to Bilbao £85, 1 weeks car hire £155, diesel £40, 7 nights good standard 'Spanish' accomodation for two with half board £700. Lunches for a week at cafes £50. I am sure it is possible to do it cheaper and simpler if you wanted to.

After rejecting Spain as a destination for our hols (lot of walking), because of the chicken and chips +hotel with pool images of the Costas, its now back on our radar.

We also did a Natural History week in Lanzarote, staying at a sort of houseparty with a British Uni Prof and his Mrs, that was also great. We never got a sniff of beach/hotel/pool for 7 days and what we saw was fascinating. The real Lanzagrotty doesnt deserve that repution, its a very beautiful and interesting place.

seven-day-weekend · 20 August 2006 at 9:00PM

One way to 'eat cheap' in Spain (at least in Andalucia) if you don't have to drive anywhere, is to go to a bar and ask for a 'cana' (Sorry, the n is supposed to have a squiggle over it, don't have one on my keyboard - the word is pronounced 'canya'). This is a small beer costing about 1-1,5 euros. With this you will be given free, a 'tapa', a small snack to go with your drink. Sometimes you can chose what you want, but sometimes you have to take pot luck. Do this two or three times and you have had lunch and drinks for about 3-4.5 euros.

Otherwise, most restaurants offer a 'menu del dia' , the menu of the day, and this is a three course meal (which may or may not include a drink), and must cost less than if all the things are ordered separately from the menu. There is usually an element of choice. These are usually around 7-8 euros.

krisskross · 20 August 2006 at 9:52PM

We always found that Chinese Restaurants were very cheap, menu del dia about 5 Euro but the Indian was really expensive, much more so than England.

Lucky for my waistline the Spanish are not big on cakes or confectionary. Desserts are usually just icecream or frozen gateau.

seven-day-weekend · 20 August 2006 at 10:26PM

krisskross wrote:

We always found that Chinese Restaurants were very cheap, menu del dia about 5 Euro but the Indian was really expensive, much more so than England.

Lucky for my waistline the Spanish are not big on cakes or confectionary. Desserts are usually just icecream or frozen gateau.

Yes, I agree....I know a Chinese restaurant where the Menu del Dia is only 4.5E! There is one in the historic centre of Malaga right outside the Cathedral which is only 6.5E. We haven't managed to find an Indian restaurant yet, not even on the coast.

Desserts here are usually ice cream, or 'flan' (creme caramel) or arroz con leche (rice pudding).

Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free