im a 24yr old newly wed - get me out of here

[Stravinsky]

Originally Posted by Big Pete

Rubbish thats not life its a existence
life was back in the good old days in the then Great Britain

We dont live in the Uk we survive and that is a major difference ..

I really do hope that you have minutely checked out the Spanish Tax system BP, because for someone like you who has described that you are fairly well off in the past, you may well find yourself being worse off in Spain than you were in the UK with wealth tax & income tax combined

[jojo]

Originally Posted by Big Pete

Sorry jojo your wrong on the fuel .. its the exchange rate thats wrong at the moment .. but fuels and most items are cheaper in Spain .. as Strav says i agree with him .

Yeah, well I am blonde and get my euros/pounds confused LOL!! HOWEVER, petrol/diesel IS rising here on a daily basis and really isnt that far behind the UK when you consider the exchange rate.

As for the cost of food, maybe its cos I've got two rather british kids, although I'm really trying to force a more natural mediteranean diet on them, I do still succombe to occasional english goodies (baked beans, walls sausages, golden grahams!). Even so, its not just food, I find things like washing powder, cleaning products, bathroom stuff, dog food is more or less the same as the UK and meat I buy from Mercadonna is definately the same -eg. a pack of mince is 4 euros, the equivilant ammount in Sainsburys would have been around £3. I buy veggies and eggs from the market and yes, mostly thats cheaper.

Places like macdonalds are easily the same price, if not more than UK (no bad thing!!) and we had an indian takeaway here the other night and it came to 30 euros, the exact same order in the UK was £14 when I last had one there the night before we left for Spain

I would say my average shopping bill here for me, occasional husband, two kids and three dogs is around 140 euros a week, in the UK (before we left in Feb), it was around £120.

Its possible that I'm finding it financially challenging because my OH is paid in sterling, so the current exchange rate overshadows any reduction.

Anyway, it is what it is and comparisons cant really come into it once you live here and are settled. I think that before I came I (wrongly) assumed it would be MUCH cheaper here and the reality is that it isnt, (although that said, food prices are rising world wide at the mo, so how can you judge?). I'm just trying to convey my feelings on that


Jo

[jakaka]

Mark, on the whole things are cheaper here in Spain but what you have to remember is the wages are a lot less, the average wage here is in the region of 13,000 - 15,000 euro, so after the tax man has taken his share what will you be left with? I'm not to genned up on tax matters but friends that I have who are self employed tell me that they pay 250 euros a month in tax whether or not they are earning that sort of money. By paying that they are legal in the system and qualify for benefits like free health care. As I say I'm not genned up on this but I am sure if I am wrong then someone will kindly give you the correct details.

As others have said work is very hard to come by and unless you have a skill that other people are willing to pay for then you will find it hard to get work, that's not to say you may get lucky and things will take off for you. I know people that after 4 years of struggling with their bussiness are only just now making a healthy profit, it was achieved by long hours, hard, hard work, knowing the local market, finding the niche(spelling?) that both Spanish and Brits will use, give a perfect customer relations, resonabley priced product, a big must is leaning the language and above all patience.

Good luck in what you decide and research, research, research.

[Stravinsky]

Originally Posted by jojo

Yeah, well I am blonde and get my euros/pounds confused LOL!! HOWEVER, petrol/diesel IS rising here on a daily basis and really isnt that far behind the UK when you consider the exchange rate.

I would say my average shopping bill here for me, occasional husband, two kids and three dogs is around 140 euros a week, in the UK (before we left in Feb), it was around £120.

Its possible that I'm finding it financially challenging because my OH is paid in sterling, so the current exchange rate overshadows any reduction.

Anyway, it is what it is and comparisons cant really come into it once you live here and are settled. I think that before I came I (wrongly) assumed it would be MUCH cheaper here and the reality is that it isnt, (although that said, food prices are rising world wide at the mo, so how can you judge?). I'm just trying to convey my feelings on that


Jo

What you have to remember jo jo, is as the price goes up here, it also goes up in the UK, so the difference will always be about the same.

Not taking into consideration the present rate of exchange crisis, cost of living here is about 30% cheaper than the UK in general. We tend to spend about €80 - €90 a week

[Wils & Nance]

Hi Guys, how are you all doing ?
Haven't been about for a bit (family illness) but am back now.
Thought i would tell you this, on Saturday I decided to drive to Inverness and buy myself a mountain bike.....I needed fuel so off to Dingwall I went, Tesco fuel station filled up at £116.9 a litre, went off did what I was doing and drove home.
Now I had to go and get my weeks shopping (couldn't get both, shopping and bike in the car) so Tescos again, and in the space of 5 hours fuel had gone up to £118.9 a litre. !!!
Monday morning off to work, passed Tesco and fuel was now £121.9 a litre !!!
Deisel is £135.9 a litre !
Here in the Highlands you need a car for everything......it's all well and good saying get the bus, but we only have 1 bus an hour and it takes 45mins to get to Dingwall where I work, in the car it takes 14 mins ! And we don't have buses at night, at all, ever !
What are peeps supposed to do ?
And before anyone says ride my mountain bike to work........."don't be mad" !!!

[Big Pete]

Originally Posted by Stravinsky

I really do hope that you have minutely checked out the Spanish Tax system BP, because for someone like you who has described that you are fairly well off in the past, you may well find yourself being worse off in Spain than you were in the UK with wealth tax & income tax combined

A Guaranteed impossibility Strav ..

UK Overheads per week - Spain (Mallorca ) per week £ 50 Council Tax £ 8 Council Tax
£ 5.85 Cigs per pack x10 £ 58.85 £ 2.50 per pack Cigs x 10 £ 25
£ 50 Petrol 1 tank £ 35 Petrol 1 tank
£ 100 Food bill weekly £ 80 Food bill weekly

£ 258.85 per week UK --- £ 150.50 per week Spain

UK ripped off to the tune off £ 108.35p weekly

Yearly stuffed by UK Government to the sum off £ 5634.20p
and thats just on a few key issues ..

So as long as i am not stuffed by more than 5k a year over and above rip off Britain i will be happy to swap lifestyles Strav

And this doesnt allow for all the Governments little extras like TV licence , Rip off Car Park charges , Needing heating and lighting on 11 months of the year etc etc ..

Hence why i use the term often "you survive in UK NOT Live ".. And how the average working Joe survives in the UK is beyond me , And they wonder why the poor rob and burgle to feed there families

[jakaka]

Pete I can't believe you only spend £100 a week on food, blimey where were you when I needed you, OH and I spent well over £160 per week every week when we lived in the UK. Now we are living in Spain we eat 90% fresh food, we go shopping three times a week and spend over 80 euros each time, we do however eat meat or fish everyday.....fish most days. bill for last weeks fruit came to 28 euros alone.

[Big Pete]

Originally Posted by jakaka

Pete I can't believe you only spend £100 a week on food, blimey where were you when I needed you, OH and I spent well over £160 per week every week when we lived in the UK. Now we are living in Spain we eat 90% fresh food, we go shopping three times a week and spend over 80 euros each time, we do however eat meat or fish everyday.....fish most days. bill for last weeks fruit came to 28 euros alone.

Ahhh but i do like me takeaways so that is extra to above , Friday night is Takeaway night , Saturday is Takeaway night and Thursday night is takeaway night also there is only me and mrs BP oh and little Molly the cat but we got her trainned to eat the cheapo asda cat food

You eat to much i reckon , be careful you dont pop

And when you needed me i was here you only had to shout

[Big Pete]

Originally Posted by Wils & Nance

Hi Guys, how are you all doing ?
Haven't been about for a bit (family illness) but am back now.
Thought i would tell you this, on Saturday I decided to drive to Inverness and buy myself a mountain bike.....I needed fuel so off to Dingwall I went, Tesco fuel station filled up at £116.9 a litre, went off did what I was doing and drove home.
Now I had to go and get my weeks shopping (couldn't get both, shopping and bike in the car) so Tescos again, and in the space of 5 hours fuel had gone up to £118.9 a litre. !!!
Monday morning off to work, passed Tesco and fuel was now £121.9 a litre !!!
Deisel is £135.9 a litre !
Here in the Highlands you need a car for everything......it's all well and good saying get the bus, but we only have 1 bus an hour and it takes 45mins to get to Dingwall where I work, in the car it takes 14 mins ! And we don't have buses at night, at all, ever !
What are peeps supposed to do ?
And before anyone says ride my mountain bike to work........."don't be mad" !!!

welcome back

i agree on the buses , its the same here , 2 buses a day 1 at 10.00am and 1 at 4 pm , so they dont work out the towns .

On the fuel they are changing daily and i dont blame the producers i blame the Government

[Stravinsky]

Originally Posted by Big Pete

A Guaranteed impossibility Strav ..

UK Overheads per week - Spain (Mallorca ) per week £ 50 Council Tax £ 8 Council Tax
£ 5.85 Cigs per pack x10 £ 58.85 £ 2.50 per pack Cigs x 10 £ 25
£ 50 Petrol 1 tank £ 35 Petrol 1 tank
£ 100 Food bill weekly £ 80 Food bill weekly

£ 258.85 per week UK --- £ 150.50 per week Spain

UK ripped off to the tune off £ 108.35p weekly

Yearly stuffed by UK Government to the sum off £ 5634.20p
and thats just on a few key issues ..

So as long as i am not stuffed by more than 5k a year over and above rip off Britain i will be happy to swap lifestyles Strav

And this doesnt allow for all the Governments little extras like TV licence , Rip off Car Park charges , Needing heating and lighting on 11 months of the year etc etc ..

Hence why i use the term often "you survive in UK NOT Live ".. And how the average working Joe survives in the UK is beyond me , And they wonder why the poor rob and burgle to feed there families

No I was talking about wealth tax and income tax Pete

Wealth tax varies between 0.2% and 2.5% of your total world assets, and income tax varies between 15% and 45% of your income.