Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

droopsnout

sandy2, try looking here. It might just be a tiny bit useful. Might give you just a bit of an idea?

Try Googling around. That's how I found that link.

[Deleted User]

I use this site for my foreign currency
http://www.crowncurrencyexchange.com/content/euros.asp

I like the futures concept and bought my winter hols euros a couple of weeks ago

It is such a gamble though and if it ever gets back to 1.40 ish then I will buy lots of euros and stash them in the house for future hols

donny-gal

gfplux wrote: »

hello Donny Gal,
A tip for your satellite problem. A good few years ago when I first experimented with an old Sky dish and an old box in the South of France I but the dish in an old washing up bowl!!. yes truly and it worked.
I removed the "L" shaped pole from the back of the dish. I then placed the dish in an old, large washing up bowl which I had placed on a table in the garden. The round dish and the oval bowl made it easy to manually site up to the satellite. You will have to have line of site to the satellite.
It took quite a long time but I did it and I hope you can.
In those days it was an analogue signal. Today's digital signal is a little more tricky but I used exactly this technique two years ago when having some dish issues, so I know it works.
Good Luck

We freed up the washing up bowl and got the dish out when we have got to Normandy where we are settled for a fortnight, and DH said, I think this would just sit on the floor, and I could peg it down with a couple of tent pegs, after a little faffing. Success Wimbledon loud and clear, thanks for the thought process. Someone is slowly coming out of the doghouse:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

DG

gfplux

Luxembourg petrol prices.
The official price has just been reduced.
They are now:-
95 Octane - €1.105
98 Octane - €1.130
Diesel - €0.88

Just a reminder to everyone. Watch out for congestion leading up to a service area in holiday periods. So many cars come through Luxembourg for the cheap fuel, booze and fags that the service area's often have tail backs into the slow lane.

droopsnout

Diesel here is between 0,98 and 1,16€

And I can assure everyone that round here you are quite lucky to see another car, though the farmers are harvesting wheat, barley and oilseed, so you may hurtle into a grain truck.

Those about to go on holiday in France might like to know that they can find info on French fuel prices at this site.

I also get the regular email about UK fuel prices from here, and I note that diesel prices have been static since 11 May. Here, they've been creeping up since then.

Blimey. Some on-topic posts!!!

gallygirl

There are a few garages around me (E Mids) where diesel is 101.9 and petrol 102.9 - can't remember ever seeing diesel cheaper before?

droopsnout

At one stage - not too long ago - it was government policy, for environmental reasons, to have diesel at about 10p per litre less than petrol. Then it was decided that petrol was less polluting, and the relative costs have swapped around, with the oil companies saying also that they lack facilities to produce enough diesel for Europe's demand.

So diesel has been cheaper than petrol in the past, and still is in France and some other countries.

At the supermarket where I usually tank up, 95 petrol is 1,259€ a litre, and diesel is 0,999€. Prices as of 25 June, so may have changed slightly.

gallygirl

droopsnout wrote: »

At one stage - not too long ago - it was government policy, for environmental reasons, to have diesel at about 10p per litre less than petrol. Then it was decided that petrol was less polluting, and the relative costs have swapped around, with the oil companies saying also that they lack facilities to produce enough diesel for Europe's demand.

So diesel has been cheaper than petrol in the past, and still is in France and some other countries.

At the supermarket where I usually tank up, 95 petrol is 1,259€ a litre, and diesel is 0,999€. Prices as of 25 June, so may have changed slightly.

I'm oviously so much younger than you as I don't remember this

Or just more senile :rotfl:

Actually, I do remember now, but twas a good while ago wasn't it.

€ at 1.168, here's hoping it rises in the 8 sleeps before my next trip

droopsnout

Ah. The older one is the more recent it seems!

Pound has taken a real tumble and is even lower now than when you posted. :eek: _pale_

Suggest you sleep continuously until departure.

mioliere

Hi all - here I am, posting from my little bit of France, where I'm feeling quite settled, though still missing the family. Thank goodness for Skype! Having waited so long to get connected to the internet here, I've been very pleased with the service. However, Orange billed me for the two months before I was connected! When I called them, they said it would be easier for me to pay it, then reclaim it, so I am currently having June and July 'free', Plus France Telecom sent me a bill for the time I was waiting for the internet package to start, which, of course, included charges for the calls I'd made during that time, which should have been free with the monthly package deal. I paid the bill, then told them that it was not my fault I'd had to wait so long to be connected, and they've agreed, without argument, to refund that, too.

I remember - many summers ago - that the Government of the day (Tories) said that diesel would always be cheaper than petrol. This was when they wanted to encourage people to buy diesel cars. It makes my DH so mad whenever he sees or hears about the price of diesel in the UK. The last time I filled my car (petrol) here in France, I think I paid about 1.20 euros a litre; DH pays about 98/99 euros for diesel for his van.

It's been four years since we bought our house here; we came over loads of times before we actually moved permanently in March, and the thing that has really surprised me is how expensive food is here now. On our trips over in previous years, we always marvelled at how much cheaper things were. I know the exchange rate has made a difference but - 2euros, 50 cents for a cabbage?! I remember moaning in the UK when they went up to 89p in my local supermarket! I tried not to give in, but I started hankering after one, and treated us. I made sure it lasted for three meals! Onions, too, are dear. It's no wonder a lot of French people grow their own veg! Fresh milk is much more expensive here, as is bread flour, yeast, raisins, meat, unless it's on promo - I could go on (and frequently do!). Oh, and anything made of plastic seems to cost the earth, too. We've discovered Leader Price for basics like crisps and biscuits, and even their cheapest teabags are almost as good as PG, so, at the moment I buy some stuff from L'Eclerc and some from LPrice. I'm not a lover of shopping, and I've never liked the big superstores, but LPrice reminds me of my lovely local Co-op back home, so I'm pleased to have found it.

I'm finding it easier here than I expected, and I love the peace and quiet where we are. DH has begun to find work so we are settling into some sort of routine. We are meeting lots of people, and our neighbours are great. We even dog, rabbit and goldfish-sat for one couple, while they went on holiday, and felt really flattered to be entrusted with the keys to their house. Their dog is a lunatic - we've only had cats, so that was a whole new experience for us! Talking of cats, we keep being offered kittens. I'm trying to resist them because, TBH, I quite like not having the commitment of pets, after years of cats, but my DH keeps trying to talk me into it!

The building plots we have here are up for sale with three separate agents. Two of the agents seem to have fallen off the face of the earth, but the third has been very good. He has found a couple interested in buying both plots for one house, so, fingers crossed! We had to get the grass taken down on them, because it was so high; the farmer next door did it for us. It took him three hours on a sweltering hot day, and, when he started it, you could only see the exhaust at the top of his tractor, it was so long! He did a brilliant job and didn't want anything for it. We had to force him to take a bottle of whiskey and some euros.

We have a persistent mole problem in our garden. I'm loathe to resort to explosives - like friends of ours here, who have only succeeded in blowing up a mouse and half their lawn, so we're trying to live with it. DH gets a bit mad when he's sat in the garden, and a mound of earth suddenly pops up, right under his nose!

Anyway, I only came on here to join in the 'diesel debate' and I've really waffled on. Hope you are all well and enjoying your corners of the world. I think Donny-Gal is somewhere in France as I type.

Kathy