Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

Merrywidow

Ok everybody - I confess to a major senior moment. I was catching up on all the news on both threads. Now lots more people know about the book.

My neighbours on either side of me ( and me) get together each Xmas eve or so, and we have some mulled wine and nibbles and exchange little gifts. I received "The book of Senior Moments", by Shelley Klein. Fantastic - I think they bought it in Past Times shop. Great read and great giggle.

donny-gal

Hola!

Arrived safely, and it was great being made so welcome twice during my trip through France.

Weather brilliant during journey, blue skies and sun, and temperatures up to 17 degrees.

Nite all
DG

droopsnout

Glad you arrived safely. Have a great holiday.

P.S. My lappy has died and I'm typing on the old desktop.

carrots

Hope it's warmer there than here, DG! Enjoy youselves!

Bank of England makes its decision on new rates at noon GMT today. I'm off to the distributeur to get some dosh before the rate gets worse.

donny-gal

Thanks for the reminder Carrots, I've just tranferred some more over.

Yes it is warmer here made 17.7C outside today, just had a sit in the sun in a sheltered spot as there is a breeze.

DG

seven-day-weekend

We have a traditional Moorish village house with flat roofs.

One of them is crazy paved to make a terrace, and the other is covered with launa (powdery grey clay) which is the traditional building material used for roofs on these houses.

We have had heavy snow and heavy rain for nearly two weeks now and now both roofs are leaking!

We are all used to minor leaks in these parts, but I'm sure there is more water in my house than outside!

Spanish builder neighbour is going to fix the paved one as soon as the sun shines and the launa one is soon as it has dried. Should take three days and be about 600 euros ( so that'll be £600 then...)

Aaaaagh! More expense!! (And the money has to come from England, so even worse!).

donny-gal

7-d-w - I got 1.12 on a free Halifax transfer today. Not the best but does give a little better than 1-1.

DG

seven-day-weekend

Thanks DG - I will be transferring it next week as I have to move it from a Savings Account in one UK band to a Current account in another before I can make the transfer to Spain! I've done that bit, so probably next Tuesday or Wednesday I should be able to transfer it over.

LesD

Merrywidow wrote: »

Hi LesD - sorry for the delay but I have been poorly and not very chatty the last few days. Sorry your KLM experience was below par. I was on British Airways, seats lovely, bags of leg room, but all we got on the plane was a bag of nibbles and a glass of wine.

How did you find Schiphol? I was thinking of you as I trawled thru the place looking for some goodies. I buy Salmon eggs in the Deli - my one true vice. I sit at home with a spoon and the jar and indulge. For lunch in the Amsterdam Cafe I had two croquettes on bread - only the Dutch can make such scumptious fare!!!!!On the way over at Gatwick I sat at the shellfish bar and had 6 oysters and a glass of wine - HEAVEN. I guess this should be posted on Ski-ers and Ska-ters but who cares. Its now back to sobriety 'cause I put on 4lbs in Tenerife and they now have to come off (and some).

I have a treadmill in my conservatory that has been feeling very neglected of late - so I am going to have to heave my body in its direction and get walking. I still have visions of my younger brother in law running 10 k's on it every day when he is here - the mere thought brings me out in a sweat! Hey Ho - no pain - no gain.

My turn to be late in replying!!

Have been adding to our carbon footprint with two weeks in Spain since returning from the US!

Schiphol itself was fine. But it was a real adventure trying to find the pharmacy! And when I got there they wanted to see my boarding card just to get some Ibuprofen! They did relent when pushed though - it was a good job I could remember our flight number.

We thought the prices at the noodles and sushi bars were high so, sad to say, we ended up with McDs!

Bought Edam and Gouda for our relatives in the US and Gouda on our return for us!

Did get ripped off when buying some dollars from the ABM AMRO cashpoint. Wouldn't accept my Nationwide debit card so had to pay both the ABM and a Natwest fee! Still, the convenience was helpful.

One other comment is that you can't take water through the security for US flights at the gate. Even though it will have been bought 'airside'.

(ps....my earlier comment about Ryanair related to their unhelpfulness when their flights are cancelled. They're fine when things go well, but if they cancel a flight you can wait days for another!)

carrots

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

.....

Spanish builder neighbour is going to fix the paved one as soon as the sun shines and the launa one is soon as it has dried. Should take three days and be about 600 euros ( so that'll be £600 then...)

Aaaaagh! More expense!! (And the money has to come from England, so even worse!).

Oh dear, I really do know how you feel, SDW. When the euro and the £ were almost equal just before Christmas, I had to pay my builder for the second phase of work on the house (and it was several thousand involved) :eek: . Just had to keep reminding myself that amount of work would probably have cost more in England and that the bulk of the work had been done when the exchange rate was better, but I still felt like shooting myself. Well, felt more like shooting some greedy incompetent bankers, actually. :mad:

By the time you have to pay your chap, let's hope the rate will be a bit better. You never know ... and that's the problem in a nutshell as far as I'm concerned!