Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

droopsnout

Good luck with the weight loss.

Pity about Feb. Not to worry. Maybe you and husband can stop off here some time, on your way in either direction.

seven-day-weekend

Hmmm.....just had some more worrying news....

Our son and his lodger who live in our UK house both work at Matalan in our home city. My son has rung me this evening and told me that Matalan are only giving people their core hours to work (i.e the hours on their contract - in my son's case only eight - although up till now he has normally done 20ish).

Now if this is correct and long-term (he has only hearsay so far) then it doesn't look too good for Matalan. Or for my son's job.

It won't be easy for them to find more retail work, what with all the Woolworths employees looking too.

If both he and the lodger are on so few hours, neither will be able to afford their rent. We can't afford to subsidise the UK house - the rent has to cover the bills/expenses. So we will have no choice but to go back and try to get some work.

The Spanish house can be locked up and left much more cheaply than the UK one, and it doesn't matter if it's left empty.

So.....if my husband loses his IB, or /and my son loses his job, it'll be UK here we come.

Will keep you posted.

droopsnout

Life is pretty horrible for many people right now I feel for you, s-d-w, and for your son, of course.

You will have seen that the pound closed even lower yesterday. I really need to settle down for half an hour and work out what, if anything, we could save by closing up here for a while and going to England. Off the top of my head, it's really only a delivery of heating oil. But if stopping with my Mum, we'd be sharing her energy bills, which would save a bit more.

Anyway, I wish you peace of mind and a happy heart, s-d-w. And, yes, do keep us informed. Of course, if and when you're driving north, you're very welcome to drop in for a coffee, etc., if you have time on your journey. We're maybe not in an ideal location, but for reference, we're about an hour's drive from Toulouse, half an hour or so from Agen.

Thanks, edinburghlass, for the link to Vine's programme. Will try to listen later today.

donny-gal

Why is it that the majority of short time and redundancy announcements seem to be made around Xmas. We have lived with a place which had cyclic redundancies, but were lucky enough to avoid them until it closed, so in an awful way it is a relief now not to have the worry. There are rumours at our son's place too, and short time working, but as he was given extra tasks or the next quarter yesterday we are keeping our fingers crossed. Without trying to give false hope S-D-W we always found that rumours were put out painting a far worse picture, so that when announcements were made everyone was relieved and not as upset. I think Matalan will be still busy as most folk will go for cheap clothes/goods, though it may cost them more to buy with the falling £. There is such an air of pessimism at the moment I think rumours are flying everywhere.

The falling pound will push prices even higher here too, as most of our food is imported and nearly 80=90% of manufactured goods.

We are out in the 'van this weekend, looking forward to meeting up with our friends who we have not seen since September.

Hope you have a peaceful weekend, double check the sums droopsnout, we don't want you teachers getting the maths wrong. :rotfl:

droopsnout

Cheers, d-g. And have a great caravanning weekend. I miss ours. We used to rally 40 or so weekends a year, and have summer and Easter hols, too. I miss the friends, but I don't miss the arguing and rivalries that used to come up!

After we came here, our 'van stood rather forlorn and totally unused for 14 months, so we took it back to the UK and sold it. Now I miss it, and wish I could take it round for mid-week breaks.

seven-day-weekend

Thanks to both of you for your supportive posts.

I've told my son not to panic, - he's going into work today to see if he can find out what's what.

We've been planning 'Plan B' this morning and finding ways we can subsidise the house if necessary. Actually feeling quite positive!

If they lose their jobs, or only have few hours,the lodger should be able to claim Housing Benefit so hopefully that will pay his share of the rent. Our son doesn't pay full rent anyway, as he acts as caretaker/agent. They are jointly liable for the Council Tax, (although it is paid from the rental income) so hopefully they should get that paid. That's £90 a month saved. So hopefully we will only be down on some of our son's portion, which we think can be made up elsewhere. We can probably JUST about manage.

It's 2009 that's our worst year - in January 2010 I get my State Pension (which to us, at nearly £100 a week, is a lot of money) and things will be easier.

Thanks again for your good wishes.

I'll let you know what's happening.

seven-day-weekend

And thank you for your kind invitation droopsnout - we'd love to come at some point! However, this June we are taking the ferry from Bilbao (already booked and paid for). But sometime in the future - or if we have to go to the UK earlier than June - we'lltry to pop in!

clearmydebts

s-d-w

Sorry to hear about your son and hope he gets something very soon. I'm afraid it just seems to be doom and gloom in the UK at the moment for everyone. I hope you can find a way to stay in Spain, as you seem so happy there.

I am Irish and heading home for the Xmas. Am so worried about the value of the £/€ at the moment. At this rate, I won't be able to even go out on NYE it will be so expensive.

seven-day-weekend

Just a thought droopsnout, to earn some money while you are in the UK - have you thought about doing exam invigilation? You can do as much or as little as you like and it is around £7.50 an hour. We're going to enquire about it.

droopsnout

clearmydebts, commiserations. I hope you can enjoy your NYE as you would hope to do. I guess you have family to go to who will make a fuss of you?

s-d-w, thanks for the tips about invigilation. I wonder if I'm allowed. I got early retirement through illness, so am not allowed back into teaching. But does invigilation count? Anyway, it's a very good suggestion, although I think the main invigilation time would be in May, June and July, when I'm most needed here for gardening and maintenance. I'd really love something during the winter. I'll certainly look into the invigilation thing, though, as I really do have to keep those crocodile teeth away from my nethers!

Glad that you've been able to find some solutions and positive thoughts about how to get over the worst. We've had a chat, too, punctuated by quite a few long silences, and, to me, the simplest answer is for Mrs Snout to return to doing some supply teaching. Of course, that's easy for me to say ... But a month's supply money would make life a heck of a lot easier. We might even get a holiday!

I think we may have decided not to go back to the UK in February, as another cost-cutting measure, though I do believe we ought to, in order to see our parents, and also to see how the land lies regarding finding some work.