Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

seven-day-weekend

Oh dear droopsnout - a frugal Christmas for you then!

I suppose though if all your bills are paid and you have plenty of groceries in, then it is not too bad - in other words if you don't have to spend anything!

droopsnout

Yes, that figure is after payment of all direct debits. But no, not plenty of groceries. There's a fair bit in the freezer, but not three weeks' worth. It's bread and jam for lunch for the foreseeable future: home made in both cases.

Christmas lunch will be something of a relief!!

donny-gal

droopsnout wrote: »

Right now, we are facing a December of self-enforced imprisonment, as we struggle to get through to mid-January on 170 euros. I'll let you know whether this is better or worse than spending the month in a giant shopping centre.

I hope your store cupboard and freezer are well stocked!:eek:
DG

donny-gal

droopsnout wrote: »

It's all we've got left till I'm paid. Well, without dipping into savings.

Welcome to the club - we have to subsidise until we reach OAP ages.
DG

droopsnout

Hard, innit?

donny-gal

droopsnout wrote: »

Hard, innit?

Yes, but in our case it was a known, and "retirement" decided upon on that basis. The major now is the interest rate to make the most of the savings, which account, do you put some in fixed interest rate accounts and if so how much and for how long, and which are the safe banks/building societies, and make sure we both use different ones, so that if anything was to go wrong even within the limits we don't lose access to everything. :eek:

We have decided we were saving for our old age and we must have reached it:D
DG

droopsnout

Noooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I refuse to get old. I permit no thought that I may even be approaching elderly. I don't feel that I'm getting on. I bought myself a bike last month! I am going to live for ever. (Even if I'm skint, lol!)

seven-day-weekend

We knew how much money we would have to live on and we kept our house in the UK. And our savings in the UK. We only draw out of savings for large major purchases (like for example a new fridge-freezer or a new clutch for the car as happened last year).

If we had not thought we could live on our income (or buy a house without being able to keep a property - not necessarily our family home - in the UK), we would not have come here. Also, if we could not have found a suitable Spanish property on our small budget we would have gone onto plan B whatever that was. But keeping a UK property was non-negotiable.

Our savings have never been designated for us to 'live on' and if that starts to happen it's UK here we come!

We always knew that this was not to be a permanent move however- that's why we wanted to keep a property - we may just have to come back a little while before we intended.

Droopsnout, I agree with you - no way are we 'old'! 60 is the new forty!

donny-gal

I agree that old is not something I consider for DH or me.

I thought you were SKI-ing? Having watched our parents scrimp and save for their "old age" only to find when they really got old they did not need as much anyway, ours didn't but some end up spending all their saving and house on old age care. We know that when 2014 comes we will be fine, government permitting.

We also have no desire to lose the UK base, but atm think that we should be OK, but will not have a massive savings pot when we get to our late 70's if we get there! (not that we really have now).
DG

droopsnout

Your description of your financial organisation matches ours, s-d-w.

I don't want to to return to the UK permanently (or even temporarily) but the option is there if needed.

This terrible exchange rate, though, means that belts are tightened as far as they can go, and an already simple life becomes more frugal than it was even before.

However, yesterday, some friends came round for coffee for a couple of hours, and that cost us a few coffee pods and a few (UK-bought) mince pies. Entertaining doesn't have to be expensive.

I ain't going anywhere unless there's really no option. But as the bills total mounts to meet the reducing income total, somewhere or other, there's a problem lying ahead, unless the currencies start to return to previous levels. I have to be prepared for that.