Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

Merrywidow

Wow SDW - you really are feeling torn between two loves! It springs to mind that you may be too young yet for your village. On the other hand you are young enough to want a big city when you fancy it. This is what has been tearing me apart for a few years now. I love my house in rural Kent and our town has everything a city lover could want, even top class restarants, big name shops etc etc. I can be a hermit too when I am in the mood and I love my peace and quiet - but the choice is mine and when I'm in the mood I have the town to satisfy my retail and culteral yearnings.

Biggest reason that is preventing me moving at the moment is of course my mother, but having spent 30 years in Holland and living with the Dutch language, the thought of starting all over with Spanish fills me with dread. Holland was option 2, but after a recent visit I find Amsterdam so frenetic these days, I guess I have outgrown that too.

Merrywidow

Droopsnout - It is indeed an interesting situation. Rural area equals rural people in old rural houses, who in turn equal low income and/or low savings. I feel there has to be a fund of somesuch for such eventualities. What happens if you have the work done and move house. Do you 'sell' the work you had done to the new owners by upping the sale price?

Your appreciation of how women feel does you credit - many men (my late husband in point) ignore our feelings when it suits them. When I moved back to England after half my life in Holland, it had to be South because my DH worked in London. I sat in my house all day unpacking boxes, I had no friends or family (all up North) and I was suicidal. I needed us to get out and socialise and meet people. DH found this completely uneccessary and "didnt I realise what a busy life he had to lead". When I finally made friends the situation eased, but DH found it all very exagerated.

seven-day-weekend

Merry Widow, you are right, I am not quite ready to bury myself in the depths of rural Andalucia permanently.

We came here because my husband took early retirement due to his health (absolutely the right thing to do, I'm not complaining), he needed the peace and quiet and the sunshine, for a while so did I but now I think I retired too young at 54, I'd got a job I liked working three days a week, just suited me and I miss it sometimes.

Also things like the church, yes we have a church in the village and we do attend it occasionally and enjoy the religious events that we have in the village, but to find the sort of church we were involved with in the UK (an independent charismatic fellowship), it is a two hour drive - yes the church is fine, but you don't always want to drive two hours there and back, especially as the service is at 5.30 in the evening.

I love to visit my church when I go to the UK, there's also a C of E one I visit sometimess, I have friends there too. Again, my husband is much more of a hermit than me, although he too is a Christian he doesn't miss the corporate worship like I do.

Oh I don't want to sound as though I'm complaining, I'm not, I realise I am lucky to have the choice, and that is what we are going to do, spend the time half and half in each country, as my husband says, it's his turn to compromise now and if he needs the sun and solitude while we are in the UK, then he can always get a cheap flight and come back, or even drive over, I don't need a car in our home city. I'm lucky to be married to such a considerate man.

Wow... sorry for the verbal diarrhoea - wherever did that all come from?!!

Savvy_Sue

droopsnout wrote: »

Regarding the sale of the house, yes, the sale of a property involves the preparation of a report on lead, asbestos, termites, electrical installation, and now waste water and effluent disposal.

and the state of the drains back to mediaeval times ...

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Also things like the church, yes we have a church in the village and we do attend it occasionally and enjoy the religious events that we have in the village, but to find the sort of church we were involved with in the UK (an independent charismatic fellowship), it is a two hour drive - yes the church is fine, but you don't always want to drive two hours there and back, especially as the service is at 5.30 in the evening.

I love to visit my church when I go to the UK, there's also a C of E one I visit sometimess, I have friends there too. Again, my husband is much more of a hermit than me, although he too is a Christian he doesn't miss the corporate worship like I do.

Would St Pixels be any help? They have live online worship, of varying kinds.

No use for hugs and coffee afterwards, however.

droopsnout

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

sorry for the verbal diarrhoea - wherever did that all come from?!!

Your heart.

Thank you.

droopsnout

Merrywidow wrote: »

What happens if you have the work done and move house. Do you 'sell' the work you had done to the new owners by upping the sale price?

Well, since every house has to abide by the norms, no-one is going to pay extra for stuff that has to be there by law. Rather, if your house doesn't have a suitable installation, you put yourself at a disadvantage against other houses for sale. So I don't suppose having the work done would increase our house's selling price. Rather it would be worth, say, £8000 less if we don't have it done.

But sooner or later, it seems to me, it WILL have to be done.

There were just two households represented at the meeting on Friday afternoon. Not even other Brits in the commune attended. I could put that down to one or more of several reasons: they are rude people who don't appreciate the effort of the mayor and officials who set up the meeting for their benefit; they are unaware of the implications; they have already installed appropriate systems in renovating their properties; they are protesting silently, and are unlikely to co-operate as they don't like the mayor/new law/Sarkozy (though it's not his law - it was actually passed in 1992). We reckon that no-one was actually out at work as an employee. Some people are self-employed.

Merrywidow wrote: »

Your appreciation of how women feel does you credit

I don't think it's necessarily a gender thing; more a personality-related issue. But as a languages teacher, I found that almost all of my colleagues over the years were female, and although as a male I never stand a chance of understanding the feminine psyche, maybe I have managed to gain the odd insight!

Maybe it's strange, but I've always found it easier to be friends with women than men. Perhaps it's just habit from the job I had. I do find many men boorish, and can never understand why or how their women fell for them in the first place.

seven-day-weekend

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

and the state of the drains back to mediaeval times ...

Would St Pixels be any help? They have live online worship, of varying kinds.

No use for hugs and coffee afterwards, however.

It looks good, i'm going to sign up, thank you so much!

seven-day-weekend

Well we have just spent the evening sitting outside on our covered terrace drinking the local vino tinto.

Bearing in mind we are at the altitude of the summit of Snowdon....yes, I had to put my chunky cardigan on, but it is only the ninth of March!

The sky was very milky with that unique Andalucian light (which you can recognise even at dusk), the bats were out doing figures of eight just level with our terrace....absolutely beautiful.

See, I like it here too!

Our son and his girlfriend are arriving tomorrow for a week, we are picking them up from Malaga - that will be good and I hope to get to know Jessica a little better as he has been with her for nearly two years. She is only 21, (our son is 29), so maybe a while yet before the marriage and grandchildren.

Meanwhile we have made two good friends in a young English couple who live the other side of the Alpujarras, they are in their early 30s (not much older than our son) and it is amazing how well we get on; they are the first real friends we have made here (as opposed to people whom you merely socialise with). They have a six-month-old daughter Isabel (Spanish for Elizabeth) who is our honorary granddaughter, she is delightful . They have lived in Spain for ten years, His parents live in Malaga and they met whilst she was having a gap year. She never did do her Teacher training!

Waffling....see you later.

Mrs_pbradley936

One of the reasons for choosing Florida was the fact that you could read a newspaper, listen to the radio, join a bridge club, ask for directions etc. etc.
We have good friends who live in France and have learned to speak French and other friends who moved to France but didn't learn to speak French and they hated it. Our French speaking friends have been there for about 8 years and have no intention of returning to the UK, they much prefer the pace of rural France.

We will still spend the most spiteful winter months in Florida but not owning means that we can try other places too. I enjoyed owning a house but now feel it is yet another "been there, done that" episode in my life!

seven-day-weekend

We are ususally able to say what we want in Spanish (as long as it is in the present tense).

We are not always able to understand what people say back to us, especially if the local accent is strong.

Yes, I can understand the liberation that comes with not owning the place, Mrs PB.