Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

droopsnout

Indeed. Apologies for any confusion.

martyn4764

droopsnout wrote:

Indeed. Apologies for any confusion.

Thanks; I'm sure I don't need to tell you that there's no shortage of Brits over here who can be a little... selective... when it comes to interpreting the laws on re-registration :mad:

seven-day-weekend

We have a White Christmas here in the mountains.

It was snowing all day and all night yesterday and this morning the mountains and villages were covered in snow.

It has now more or less cleared from our village,as today is bright and sunny, but there is still plenty of snow just behind the village where it is about 50m higher.

Beautiful!

Mrs_pbradley936

Well it is warm and cloudy where I am - Florida. This past week has been sunny and in the upper 70s (they still use the F. scale).

wearside_2

It's warm, humid and sunny also for me in Florida, about a 100 miles north of Pbradley

IFA

Hi all

Is it easy to get sky tv setup for UK channels in France or Spain?

thanks

seven-day-weekend

Hi IFA!

We haven't got Sky, but you can get it fixed up (usually by expats), but I believe you have to supply a UK address . If you're in the South of Spain you normally need a huge 1.5m dish.

We have a system we bought from Lidl, only a small dish, 99 Euros for the complete set-up and no extra charge....we didn't know what channels it received but took a chance...there are LOADS of European channels , but the only English-speaking ones we can get are Sky News, and BBC World and CNN.

As you can imagine we get fed up watching the news!

Might fork out for Sky at some point if there are no extra charges other than the installation.

Cook_County

Details of entitlement to UK incapacity benefit whil living outside of the UK can be found here:

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/international/sa29/benefits_05.asp

Don't forget that this benefit may be taxable and have to reported as taxable income in whichever country you live depending on the domestic tax laws of that country.

Pozidrive

seven-day-weekend wrote:

We have just over £7k to live on at the moment, which is my husband's actuarily reduced Teacher's Pension. He also receives Incapacity Benefit (although we try not to use this for everyday living, as it could stop - it is being reviewed at the moment). We are not at State Retirement age yet.

We can only live on £7k because we live in Spain (cost of living a lot cheaper) and we have no debts. Our 'Council' Tax here is 80 Euros a year, and our water rates 7E. Electricity is much cheaper and we use bottled gas. There is no TV licence. Car Tax is cheaper too. Telephone is about the same and internet is more expensive. Petrol/diesel is about two-thirds UK price. Groceries are cheaper, so is a night out at the local bar.

The expenses on our UK house are paid for from the rents of two lodgers and our son, who lives there, so it looks after itself. We could not afford to live there at the moment as we wouldn't be able to have the lodgers if we did.

We also have savings

Hi, great thread. New to his but have read many of the responses relating to living in Spain. My wife and I are retiring ti the Murcia area later this year. We purchased our house, in the tranquil mountains north west of Murcia, two years ago. My brother moved out there, about 15mins away by car, 18 months ago.
The locals are made up of Brit ex-pats and Spanish and all are very friendly.
True, we have not lived in the house for long periods, but have experienced the extreme eat and cold of the country. Some, we have been told by the locals, have been the worst for years. This has not deterred us in any way. We have a little 2 bed end terrace with own converted swimming pool and a small olive orchard. The local tax for this, this year, was 27.50 euros. Bottle gas, water and electricity is extremely cheap compared to UK and petrol, although the cost is gradually increasing, still remains economical.
Providing we do not expect the Spanish to change their ways to suit us, I can not see any reason why we can not enjoy our new life. I think this is why some ex-pats do not enjoy the benefits of living in Spain.

Sorry, diversed a bit there.

The reason for checking out this thread, was to find out the best way of transferring my monthly paid pension to a Spanish Bank account. Is there a cheaper option to my Lloyds bank account? How do you get your pension to Spain?

seven-day-weekend

Hi there Posidrive and welcome!

When we first moved out to Spain, we had some money left from buying the house and lived on that for a few months. Then when we started moving the pension over, there was a few months' worth to go in. So basically we move it over every few months from our Co-Op Bank account and it costs around £8 a time.

If you need to have it monthly, I believe that you can have it paid straight into a Spanish Bank Account.

Wishing you a good retirement in Murcia, it seems very popular with expats!