Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

donny-gal

Thanks Lislou, I had not come across that before.
DG

seven-day-weekend

Yes, Lislou that is indeed useful to know.

This is chickens coming home to roost due to the massive underdeclaring that has gone on for decades, with full complicity of the legal and financial insitutions.

joshieg3011

Thanks for your comments. I have spoken to my solicitor and he is going to do some "searching" on this and also contact the Tax Office. They are basically saying that the apartment is valued at 122,000 euros (and not the 90,000 that we paid for it 3 years ago). The new-build apartments cost 110,000 euros 6 years ago and there is an apartment for sale in our development for 79,000 (it's the same as ours and has been for sale for about a year and still not selling!) So I don't see where they get their figures from. My solicitor is also going to find out why we have been given this bill now when we have owed it for 3 years.

I will let you know but thanks again

Savvy_Sue

But the information which Lislou gave seems to indicate that the price you paid is ONLY relevant if it is MORE than some minimum set by the 'local authority'. That's what your solicitor needs to be establishing: what was the minimum set when you bought the place?

And should they have known what it was and advised you accordingly?

The price for which other apartments sold then and for which they are selling now is not, as far as I can tell, a relevant consideration. Whether or not they sold you a bargain to avoid tax, and whether or not you snapped it up to avoid tax, the tax people have decided they should have got more.

If I could give a rough analogy: we have to value Dad's estate to make sure it's below the IHT threshhold. As part of that we had to get the house valued. We can't just say "Oh the house is only worth £30,000", nor can we say "It wouldn't sell at the moment anyway". We have to get a proper valuation.

As it happens, Dad's estate is well below the IHT threshhold, but suppose it was borderline and we deliberately undervalued the house - it would be reasonable for the tax office to ask for more when they found out.

I know this isn't what you want to hear, and it's only my opinion from reading that information. Others may disagree with me ...

joshieg3011

This is what my solicitor has to say as to how they have worked out the valuation:

"Constructed surface 58 sqm, Property Tipology, construction category, Age, Building manteinance. The ground is valued according to impact, which means euros/sqm built. To this effects the average impact values for ground, construction and surface are as follows

GROUND VALUATION (GV)

Impact: 946 euros/ squm
Construction Surface 58 squm

GV= 54868 EUROS

For the CONSTRUCTION VALUATION (CV)the property has been assigned a value of 32,949.80 euros, figure worked out with some coefficients applied to building mantainance, tipology, category, age and multiplied for impact and surface as follows

CV= (475eur/squm) * 1.04 * 1.15 ( coefficient applied to Tipology) *1 ( applied to Category) * 1 (applied to Age) * 1 ( applied to building state ) * 58 ( squm surface ) = 32,949.80

Finally to value the property the have just applied another 1.40 to the sum of the Ground and the Construction and there you have the 122,944.92 property value."

How complicated is that!! Yes, I am concerned that my solicitor should have advised me of any minimum "tax band" but I don't see how there's anything I can do now.

Many thanks again

superflygal

Hi folks,

Ayone living in France?

MY mother in law lives in France and pays a fortune for everything.

She is now a widow, and needs to pull her belt in. I was wondering if any Francophiles have any tips?

Merci en avance

SFG x

droopsnout

Hi, superflygal.

Yes, I live in France, and I'm paying a fortune for everything, too. This week, the price of tomatoes has shot up to 3,99€ a kilo, and bananas to 1,79€ a kilo. Ridiculous.

So what can we do? Well, options are limited. But we now shop more at the "hard discounters" like Lidl and Leader Price. We have learnt by trial and error (and friends' recommendations) which products are OK and which are disgusting! Not all products in these stores are cheaper than the mainstream equivalents, though, so care is needed.

Clothing is either tat or hopelessly expensive, so we shop for clothes on the one or two occasions in the year when we are in the UK. Otherwise, if fitting is generally not a problem, orders can be delivered from M&S for £5 per order, and also Littlewooods Europe will deliver to expats (also - I think - for a fiver, but I'm not sure on that).

We have pretty well given up on eating out, and we hardly drink wine any more. A nightly serving of Floc (an alcoholic aperitif) has also ended.

We have started growing our own fruit and veg, too. The heating is turned right down, and the water heating, using an electric water tank, is limited to two hours' operation at night, when the rate is cheapest.

Redecoration no longer occurs. Maintenance is limited to essentials. We use the car only when absolutely necessary, and shop once or perhaps twice a week only, as our nearest affordable shops are approx 22km away. We watch TV with lights off. We hardly ever use the electric oven these days.

I do online surveys for every company I can find, and this earns cash, or vouchers to use in shops such as Eurodif or Castorama (many others, but they're too dear even to spend vouchers in!), or else Amazon vouchers.

I also teach English for a couple of hours a week, and I teach French for two hours a week. My students pay me per hour of contact time. Preparation can take ages, especially with new students, and the rate per hour actually worked would be pretty poor! But it all helps.

We had a couple of endowment policies pay out two years ago, and exchanged our ancient gas-guzzling car for a much more economical diesel car, new, with a guarantee, so that servicing costs are virtually nil.

If you Google, you can find tyre suppliers who will deliver tyres at discounted rates, and their website lists local garages who will fit them for a set rate.

Buy everyday medicines, like paracetamol and antacids, in the UK, or have friends/relatives bring them over. They are only available in pharmacies here, and so are very expensive.

If possible, subscribe to an expats' newspaper. I subscribe to The Connexion for approx 28 euros a year (issues monthly) but there is also The French Paper. They carry lots of useful of useful info about possible benefits paid by the French state to qualifying people, even expats, and as your MIL is now widowed, she may just qualify for some extra help. Also advise her, if she has access to the web, to read some of the online forums, like Total France, where lots of tips are freely exchanged - but beware, as there is as much misinformation as useful stuff.

Also, if she has an internet subscription, see if she can transfer her phone line rental to her ISP. Line rental in France is 32 euros every two months from France Telecom, and this can be avoided altogether if she transfers it to her ISP, if she chooses wisely. In addition, as with my own ISP, you can find deals which include all phone calls within France and the EU, N. America, etc., etc., for less than 30 euros a month, including line rental and internet.

We Brits tend to prefer fresh milk to UHT. UHT seems to be much cheaper, but if fresh milk is needed, then Intermarche's own "Pâturages" brand is quite a bit cheaper than the standard "Candia" brand.

You might also like to have a look (if you don't know it already) at the "Old Style" forum here on MSE, where cheaper ways of, for instance, cleaning household goods, are discussed. They are huge lovers of white vinegar over there, and for good reason!!

Shop around for insurance, using price comparison sites like Assurland - but be prepared to fend off any phone calls which might ensue. I do that, but then go to a local insurance broker, who sorts me out every time. She is independent, and when she gives me quotations, I know from my internet research whether she is finding me good prices.

It is now becoming possible to change energy suppliers. It may be possible to reduce energy bills by changing company.

Switch off all appliances like TVs which have pilot or stand-by lights.

We save money by going for walks and collecting wood for kindling.

Invest in a battery charger and rechargeable batteries (bought via eBay - NOT in France) rather than buy disposable batteries for radios, remote controls, etc.

Try to work out car-shares with friends and neighbours, so that trips to the shops can be shared between cars.

Cancel all newspapers and magazine subscriptions unless they result in money-saving.

Approach the Mairie to see if there are any grants available for insulation and the like.

If considering green home improvements, explore the possibility of tax credits for certain work, like fitting wood burners or solar panels.

If MIL has a computer, she could spend some time compiling a spreadsheet of prices for her regular purchases at the different supermarkets. (I haven't discovered any equivalent of mysupermarket.com over here). She can then make shopping lists for each shop, to benefit from the cheapest stockists. These may need to be updated as the shops' weekly leaflets arrive in her post box.

The cheapest regular supermarket is usually Intermarche. But Leclerc have a website (https://www.quiestlemoinscher.com) which claims to find the cheapest supplier for your shopping, and it is worth some exploration, even if some suspicion is called for, as they are a leading retailer.

Does your MIL use heating oil? If so, it is worth ringing around suppliers to find out their current prices. She also needs to know that it is generally cheaper to buy heating oil in a minimum quantity of 1000 litres. (But you may need around 600 euros to buy that much in one go. And the price changes almost every day). But there is also a site (http://www.fioulmoinscher.fr/) where you can try to join up with folks who live close by, so that between you a BIG order can be made, so that the tanker can deliver to several properties in the same district, again reducing prices.

Make the most of shops' loyalty cards. Intermarche's card pays back in cash. Once a year, at Christmas, we cash in our savings on the card, and it helps a fair bit. The Casino Group send out mailings for bonus points (called "s'miles") which are worth having. I recently bought two coffees in their cafeteria (cheapest place!) for which I would normally receive two s'miles. But I also handed in a coupon for 40 bonus s'miles. It all helps.

Is there any possibility that MIL could do some child-minding, or house-sitting? We visit a holiday home locally on behalf of its Brit owners, and they pay us a small amount each quarter for the peace of mind that our fortnightly email to them brings.

It's a real fag, but some extra cash could be earned by offering a service like ironing. A card in the local newsagent's window might pay off.

Finally, get involved in the community, and slowly friendships will be formed. In our experience, our villagers are very generous with little gifts of locally or home-grown produce, or a bunch of flowers, or a jar of home-made jam to see what it's like, etc.

I may well be teaching my grandmother to suck eggs here (if you will excuse the expression), but I don't have much info to work on!

Hope this is useful, and I wish your MIL good luck and "bon courage" in her money saving.

mommame

Hi droopsnout I had to come out of lurkdom to congratulate you on such a fabulous post,jam packed with information which I hope I will be lucky enough to use one day when I actually get to buy my little house in France "sigh".

Savvy_Sue

droopsnout wrote: »

Otherwise, if fitting is generally not a problem, orders can be delivered from M&S for £5 per order,

I was discussing where to buy bras in the Canary Islands with the resident manager of the apartment complex where we were staying last week, and she said that sometimes M&S have a 'spend 80 euros, get free delivery' offer.

(As I've explained on the SKIing thread, I'd arrived with only the bra I was wearing, but the answer to where to buy bras in the Canary Islands was to wait until you get back to the UK! Fortunately I had some detergent 'leaves' and in that weather it dried overnight.)

droopsnout

mommame wrote: »

Hi droopsnout I had to come out of lurkdom to congratulate you on such a fabulous post,jam packed with information which I hope I will be lucky enough to use one day when I actually get to buy my little house in France "sigh".

Why, thank you, ma'am!

I wish you luck with your ambition to get your own place here. It is a buyers' market at the moment! (I know - I'm selling!!)

And don't just lurk! Join in any time!

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

As I've explained on the SKIing thread, I'd arrived with only the bra I was wearing

Pictures always help me understand better ...