Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

seven-day-weekend

donny-gal wrote: »

Hi again everyone

Back again from my Dutch/Belgium/French travels in our caravan, good time had and much drier weather than here according to things(hardly saw much rain until last Tues/Wed in Calais..

Re the bringing your caravan back from France someone mentioned. If you have a sat nav (ours is Tom Tom) select no toll roads, but fastest route, found us som brilliant roads and costs us "nowt" from the Uk to Spain.

Can you tell me how much diesel is in Spain now please, it was 1.29€ a litre in Calais last week, even in the supermarkets.

Interesting about the Wealth Tax, is that the one they charge you for your property if you don't have a residencia? as they presume you rent it out?

Will be back to comment on some other points, but must get sorted.
DG

This is the second time I have answered this question in as many minutes! (sSomeone asked on another board).

Where I live in rural inland Spain, it is around 1.05 euros a litre.

donny-gal

Thanks 7DW

Just doing a spread sheet to see the most cost effective method of getting to Spain with the car at the end of the month. Looks like it is the long drive!!! Using Speedferries and allowing two overnight stops with an estimated 1.25€ to the £1 is £336 for the two of us using something like Premier Class or B&B in France, and via Bilbao £480 and £495 via Santander. We could do a return flight for £250 for both of us from a local UK airport, but then we need a hire a car when we are there £100 a week min. This time we are looking at a 7 week-ish. We did consider buying a car in Spain, but you need a Padron to do this I beleive, and now where we are we need a Residencia before we can get on he Padron. But then we have to tax and insurance a second car, and have the depreciation on both (not as much in Spain I know), plus we are still "boot filling" as we make our "holiday home" a longer period place. I think we need to get our heads together as to coming out less often for longer next year.

DG

binnie

Seems like me and hubbie are the only ones who pay the wealth tax who we have spoken to for non residents.
But we worried that if we didn't pay it and came to sell, then they would find out and charge us all the years we didn't pay.

I do begrudge paying the gestor sometimes as that charge is triple the cost of the tax bill itself, but then it's easy money for them from someone who doesn't speak spanish.

We have thought of having spanish lessons. but the nearest ones are in an evening miles away, I don't drive, and hubbie works nights, and races most evenings in good weather on his bike.

When we are over there though, we take our little phrase book and sit in the restaurants and learn new words in spanish, and also ask the waitress/waiter to say certain words to us then we can hear how they prounounce it.
We have met quite a few people who we see everytime we go over there now and become friends, but neither of us can understand each other.
We just smile and use the phrase book, but they seem pleased to see us and always get a big grin and cuddle.
:T

seven-day-weekend

donny-gal, we are going the opposite way to you at end of May/beginning of June, from Northern Spain on the Pride of Bilbao to Portsmouth. It's £300 one way :eek: but with all the other expenses plus the hassle of the drive (did the long drive last year) we don't think it's a lot more expensive than driving through France. Plus you can enjoy the ferry too and not get stressed out driving. Like you we are going for several weeks and this means we have our car when we get there.

This is part of our SKI-ing and some of the money is coming from savings.:beer:

I think you and I will be literally 'ships that pass in the night'!:rotfl:

Savvy_Sue

Well binnie, if evening classes are not a possibility, I'd go for CDs (may be able to borrow from the library) or there was a thread a while back about free online language learning resources. Not on this board, maybe a freebie, hopefully someone more awake than me will find it for you ...

And also look out locally - or advertise yourself - for conversation classes!

Oh, and our adult education classes include some 'taster days' or Saturday courses where you get to speak the language, AND eat the food.

droopsnout, you really don't want ALL us ladies in bikinis, but my new-ish swimming costume does have pink go faster stripes! Plus I bought some pink croc-style shoes today, and pink sandals on Saturday. Hopefully all that will off-set the tasteful and slightly understated grey patterned silk shift dress bought for a wedding (from a charity shop) which will probably be teamed with a grey and purple silk wrap (ditto). I do have silver-grey sandals and bag to go with that lot, in case you were worried they would have to be pink, but I still need some grey tights!

droopsnout

"Several weeks" in the UK??? I'll say a prayer for you, s-d-w!

seven-day-weekend

Prayers would be nice droopsnout.

We are staying several weeks for various reasons,

1. to see our son
2. to see various friends around the country, sometimes staying a couple of days
3. to go on holiday to Wales for a few days with some more friends
4. to maintain our house which always decides to fall down the instant we step through the door.

Please pray that we don't bankrupt ourselves like we did last year!!

droopsnout

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

droopsnout, you really don't want ALL us ladies in bikinis, but my new-ish swimming costume does have pink go faster stripes! Plus I bought some pink croc-style shoes today, and pink sandals on Saturday. Hopefully all that will off-set the tasteful and slightly understated grey patterned silk shift dress bought for a wedding (from a charity shop) which will probably be teamed with a grey and purple silk wrap (ditto). I do have silver-grey sandals and bag to go with that lot, in case you were worried they would have to be pink, but I still need some grey tights!

My, what a smart gal!!

Well, I did say that the bikinis are almost a necessity! And I would hope that in an over-50s thread, my comment wouldn't be taken too literally, lol. Erm, especially by the blokes. (God forbid, but some here may remember a certain old post of mine connected with tights!)

I have to agree, though, that, especially for formal wear, the combinations of grey-and-pink and grey-and-purple can be stunning.

It is with some considerable relief, Sue, that I note that you won't be wearing brown sandals with grey ankle or knee socks. Well, not at the wedding, anyway!

droopsnout

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

Prayers would be nice droopsnout.

We are staying several weeks for various reasons,

1. to see our son
2. to see various friends around the country, sometimes staying a couple of days
3. to go on holiday to Wales for a few days with some more friends
4. to maintain our house which always decides to fall down the instant we step through the door.

Please pray that we don't bankrupt ourselves like we did last year!!

I suppose it's a bit crass to be talking like this as those poor souls in Burma suffer a hell far worse than we'll probably ever know.

Perhaps my prayers would be better directed towards their plight.

However, I do sympathise with you, too. The bit about going to Wales is especially sad. *

* It's a joke, right? Listen, I worked for over 20 years in Burnley. I'm allowed to make jokes about Wales!

Savvy_Sue

droopsnout wrote: »

(God forbid, but some here may remember a certain old post of mine connected with tights!)

don't worry droopsnout, I was keeping the tights thread in reserve! And I had the good taste not to ask for a photo of YOU in a bikini! :rotfl:

droopsnout wrote: »

It is with some considerable relief, Sue, that I note that you won't be wearing brown sandals with grey ankle or knee socks. Well, not at the wedding, anyway!

I don't wear brown. Not ever. If I find grey pop-sox before I find grey tights, I may be wearing them, but you won't be able to see their tops because the dress is fetchingly long enough to hide my knees!