Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

Pobby wrote:

I would be very interested to know if you rent in Spain.My wife and I are thinking of moving there in a few years time and are considering renting.We own our home in the U.k. but maybe we would decide to sell it rather than rent.Should we rent it then we would clearly have the rent from that plus approx. £140,000 of savings giving us about 5 to 6k a year income plus my wifes pension of about £7.5k a year.

Although she would qualify for health care,I would need to set up some health insurance.At the moment we would be happy to rent out there,and I know by renting our house at approx.£500 a month would easily pay for rental accomodation.

Then my state pension and private pensions would kick in after about 3 years.Any advice please.

My husband and i returned to the UK last year after living in Spain for just over 3 years.

My advice would always be to rent. Property prices are dropping in Spain particularly in areas of high building activity. A 3 bedroomed property in the Costa Blanca would be available for long term rental for about 500 Euro a month. Electricity costs the same as here, some of our electric bills particularly in the winter were terrifying! Water rates were approx 45Euro every 3 months.

Certainly Suma(like Council Tax) was low at about 250 Euro a year, but we had a property on an Urbanisation so had those fees to pay for the upkeep of the swimming pool, street cleaning etc. This was 300 Euro a year.

We found food no cheaper, in fact if you want any English stuff you pay dearly for it. However the meat and fish were of wonderful quality.

Alcohol is cheaper as are ciggies if you use these items.

I paid 66 Euro a month to Crappyfonica as they are known for phone line and broadband. No calls included in that.

Health care......we both came under the auspices of the Spanish Health Service as we are pensioners. Mostly it was fine but of course you need to find and pay for an interpreter, usually about 25 Euro a visit. All medications were free to us as pensioners. I do believe that even if you are not pensioners you can still access free health care but would pay towards your medications.

Hope this helps , if you need any more just ask. I just wish I had known someone to give me the information, saves a lot of effort and aggravation.

My most heartfelt piece of advice is to learn to speak Spanish before you go.

A budget of approx 1000 Euro a month after rent would enable you to have a fairly good life.

margaretclare wrote:

Hi

I would echo krisskross's advice. I can't understand why anyone would want to move to a foreign country, ANY foreign country, and make no attempt to learn the language. And that applies just as much to those who come here as to those who are thinking of going to e.g. Spain.

Assuming you are going to get health-care when you need it but factor in the cost of an interpreter is just plain daft IMHO.

Margaret

I very soon learned enough Spanish to deal with routine stuff like repeat prescriptions etc. but my Spanish was never going to be good enough to risk misunderstanding a diagnosis or drug dosages. The farmacia does not print instructions on drug containers like in England, you rely on what the doctor has said. Felt it was always preferable to pay for the services of an interpreter to be safe.