How much to live on

GunJack

…and Talk Mobile, uses Vodafone, and £6.99 a month rolling contract gets unlimited calls & texts, with 30GB data. We've both got one so no probs streaming using the Roku while we're away :)

angieb15edin

we did heating system windows window shutters doors and kitchen last year

Plan to do the bathroom and the garden this year and that should see us out

Didn’t realise how much the windows needed replacing till we did it the house is almost tropical now

Organgrinder

Just waiting for first quote for the windows then will go and have a look at some new (new to me!) cars. Definitely thinking of an EV. Obviously I'll need a charging point installed and will get the consumer unit replaced at the same time.

We've just come back from Krakow. Interesting place although the tours eg Auschwitz were very rushed at times.

As ever I compared prices! A beer in a restaurant could be as low as 14zl (under £3). Fuel was also cheaper. Taxis were unbelievably cheap too.

That said I have no idea how much the average salary is!

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81958298#Comment_81958298

I only ever seem to hear positive things about Krakow, so must go one day.

Regarding the average salary- as an advanced Maths teacher you will know that there are different ways of calculating averages, but an average of the averages gives an annual salary in Poland around £19Kpa, compared to £35K in the UK. Their income tax is lower than ours, but the overall % tax take ( including everything) is only a bit less.

Organgrinder

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81958466#Comment_81958466

Thanks for the info.

"Average salary" as oft used by the press is one of my biggest bugbears. Usually it is a mean full time salary. Sometimes they use the median. Rarely do I see household and even rarer still is one after housing costs.

I recently interacted with someone from Cambridge who was somewhat aghast at my retirement figures.

I asked whether he'd be happy to retire on a disposable income higher than the one he had when in full time employment with a mortgage. Of course the answer was "yes". Sometimes headline figures can be so misleading

louby40

We loved Krakow and found food and drinks very reasonably priced unlike Amsterdam where we went in February. We paid £19 for a beer and gin as opposed to £5 for the same in Poland.

We're off to Madrid on our next city break and taking in the Mad Cool music festival in July. We have never done a European music festival before and were shocked to find that Pulp don't come on until 12.30am which will be interesting. We are normally in bed by then 😂. Everything is pushed back because of the heat.

Savvy_Sue

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81958721#Comment_81958721

when I was learning Spanish I quickly decided that DH and I could NEVER be Spanish, because of their late night dining habits. He'd be up all night …

Organgrinder

Well I've taken the plunge and opted for an EV. Just under 2 years old and only 45% of the new price. For a car with 10,000 on the clock this seems pretty good.

The downside is of course the range but I do about 160 miles a week so not a problem there and with my forecast mileage about to drop further I'll also avoid the new pay per mile charges that will be coming in. For the time being I'll rely on slow charging and sort out a proper solution over the summer.

The most surprising benefit though is my forecast budget. I wasn't expecting my forecast to stay the same. This is partly due to the savings in fuel costs and partly due to spending less on the car than I had planned.

Now I do like having a brand new car but people are I believe correct when they say let someone else take the bulk of the depreciation.

louby40

Organgrinder congrats on the new car. I'll look forward to hearing how you get on with your electric car. My son works for Ford and often comes home telling us about deals etc on cars. My current car has only done 50k miles and is 10 years old so he's advised me just to keep it for now. It's been a great car. But I am tempted to look into electric cars in the future.

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81959396#Comment_81959396

I was given an electric car as a courtesy car, whilst mine was in the garage for a day for a safety recall.

It was a small car - Peugeot 208 ( very brightly coloured) and of course no gears, whilst I drive a large manual petrol estate. However when working I often hired all sorts of cars so soon got used to it. In traffic it drove much like a 'normal car'. On a faster road I was a bit disappointed with the power, as I understood electric cars had very fast acceleration. Later I worked out it was in economy mode and was a different beast in power mode, but used up the battery about three times as fast.