dontheturner

Windsong --Yes, we did check that out, but the houses are not selling unless you drop considerably, which I cannot see the point in doing, when I think of the only areas, where prices are so much lower, and they don't have the convenience, of being, 1) Near the Doctors,2) near a mini supermarket 3) near a Pharmacy 4) have a free bus to Tesco every morning at 10 am, and back at 12 5) Near to Pubs, and Filling Station 6) near the Hospital 7) near to the Dentist, 8) have nearby pools, and lovely walks 9) Have cycleways and 10) Regular bus route in walking distance. So it is no contest. dontheturner = Oh! and about 2 miles from my Daughter.

Beedubya

Sounds just perfect Don.

dontheturner

Hello Barb, it is really - and the biggest bonus of all, my house is down a cul-de-sac, so no through traffic, and the neighbours, are all friendly, though one does owe me £16. But then, it might not suit others, you are on the edge of beautiful countryside, and it is within 10 minutes of Wellington town, with its market, there is the Railway, with trains to Aberystwyth, and London via Wolverhampton and Birmingham Cities. Another bonus, is the local people, are very friendly. Take care, barb, dontheturner.

Beedubya

Thanks Don, you and Tim take care too, you are one week ahead of me.....gulp......

windsong

Yes, I see what you mean, Don. It's perfect. Love that idea of a free bus to Tesco's every morning. Goodness, even if you only wanted to get out for a while, you can go there for coffee/tea and read the paper and come back and you don't even have to worry about driving. I am beginning to like the idea of not having a car more and more. Of course, I would miss it for the country drives at the weekend, though.

You know, Don, if push comes to shove, you could always rent out a room in your house. I think you will be fine, though. As I find out what it costs to live over there - and with all the senior discounts - I think we will all be better off in the UK than anywhere else.

windsong

You must post some pics, Don. I'd love to see it

windsong

Don, does everyone in the UK pay the "council tax" plus their normal rates? I am wondering how much this comes to on average per year - how it is calculated. I am trying to figure out how much, over and above a mortgage, you have to pay to own a home. I am still not sure if I will try to buy a small house or just rent so I am looking at the two options. I am not sure that at 62 (by the time I get there) I will be able to get a mortgage, though, even if I could afford one.

charleygirl

I think Council Tax is same as rates, you knew replaced the old rates system, I know there are water rates to be paid but not sure about anything else.
Windsong where will you be moving home from? And whats your timeline.

windsong

Well, I only recently made a firm decision to go back - and I just started working after being unemployed for six months - so it's going to be 2-3 years. I am 58 now and want to save enough money to have some sort of cushion behind me when I first return. Also, I want to begin collecting my SS and pension just before I go back so I will have a regular income when I get there. I plan to work there as well but, being "new" again in my own country, it might take a while to get a job. I have no family there so I have to be sure I plan this carefully.

If I had parents there, believe me, I would get my pets prepped (six months) and save enough for the trip over and I would be gone.

dunroving

Council tax for a single person, moderate size house in a halfway decent area is circa £1,000 per year. Mine includes "water rates" at a fixed amount, but in other regions you can ask to have a water meter fitted so you pay less (if you live alone). I pay the same amount for water as the people next door, a family of 5 ... but in this part of Scotland you can not opt to pay for metered water, completely unfair.

If you rent when you come back, you will be liable for the council tax, not the landlord, unlike the States where the homeowner usually pays the property taxes and takes account for this by including it in the rent.

DDL

Hello everyone!

Thought I'd pop in for a cuppa.

As always, I've enjoyed reading all the posts. It appears that we all survived the holidays regardless of which side of the pond we were on.

Our Christmas was rather quiet. To be honest, it was quite difficult for me ... thinking about my grandsons back home opening all their presents on Christmas morning, etc. etc. and more etc. But sacrifices such as these are the reality of my life and I simply have to accept them. To be honest, Christmas has never really been the same for me since my children grew up so it seems like every year my personal Christmas changes and evolves and is still a "work in progress", I think. As I grow older, I seem to enjoy more and more my recollections of Christmases past such as when my children were young and, even more melancholy, remembering Christmases when I was a little girl. I'm lucky to have had the most brilliant childhood/family and am so thankful that I have these memories.

Ahem. Sorry. Moving on....

Tony has a 52-year old [mentally] handicapped brother who lives here at home, and it was a complete joy, truly, to watch him opening his presents on Christmas morning. He attends several centres/schools and has quite a large circle of friends who are in a similar situation to his, and they all exchange gifts with one another. Between family and friends, he must have had close to 50 pressies to open!

Tony loves giving little "gag" gifts to people. He has nicknamed his Mum "Bunny" because she's always running to and fro, always busy, never sits still. He found a little pink "Energizer bunny" ornament on Amazon and it really made her laugh when she opened it.

After Tony made phone calls to his 6 children, we drove into London. As I had been quite ill for the previous couple of weeks, we decided to forego the Dickens Walk around London and instead visited the Charles Dickens House Museum in Bloomsbury. I had been there 2 or 3 times before, but Tony had never been - and Dickens is his favourite author. It is one of the few places open in London on Christmas Day and of course it had a special 'Victorian Christmas' atmosphere there.

They served mulled wine and mince pies, and there were readings of 'A Christmas Carol'. Each visitor also received a free gift of the souvenir guide, a pencil, and 2 postcards. You could also tour the 4-story house. And the gift shop was open. We enjoyed it very much and were glad we arrived early because by the time we left, the queue to get in went all the way down the street.

London is surreal on Christmas Day - quite empty - although there are still a number of people walking about. We drove up the Mall to Buckingham Palace but the road was blocked at one end. Since I had recently mentioned wanting to see the Emmeline Pankhurst statue at Westminster Park, we drove over there, parked up, and made a quick run to the statue (it was freezing outside!!!) long enough for me to snap some pictures.

We were trying to kill a bit of time before arriving at Tony's aunt and uncle's house. Since they live very near Heathrow, we decided to go to Terminal 5 to see what it was like inside. And very nice it is.

After that, we stopped by his aunt and uncle's for about an hour, then headed home. The refrigerator was full of sliced turkey, gammon, etc., for Mum's Boxing Day drop-in, so I fixed us plates of all the goodies, made my phone calls back to the States, then we spent the rest of Christmas evening in front of the telly watching all the Christmas specials.

Boxing Day saw more family here for Mum's drop-in, which was very nice. On the table: turkey, gammon, chicken, cold potatoes, potato salad, shrinp vol auvents, egg vol au vents, scotch eggs, sausage rolls, sausages wrapped in bacon, cheese wrapped in bacon, beetroot, pickled egg, 3 different types of cheese and crackers, tomatoes, salad, pineapple/cheese bites, stuffed potato skins, bread rolls ... gosh, and loads of other things I can't remember. Oh yes, 3 types of homemade TRIFLE, and of course Christmas Cake and other desserts.

So now we're back to normal, although the tree is still up and all the Christmas cards are all still standing at attention here in the lounge. A new year is just around the corner, Tony starts work on January 6, and hopefully 2011 will be our best year for ALL of us.

Taffy Duck

AVERAGE MONTHLY COSTS FOR A 2 BEDROOM BUNGALOW JULY 2010
COUNCIL TAX...........................92
HOUSE INSURANCE....................30
CAR INSURANCE........................50
TV LICENCE.............................12
MOT AND CAR TAX....................15
ELECTRIC BILL..........................20
GAS BILL.................................100
PETROL...................................40
WATER ON METER.....................30
FOOD FOR TWO........................300
BROADBAND AND PHONE.............30
MEALS OUT.............................60 ?????? ALL DEPENDS
CLOTHES................................50 ?????? ALL DEPENDS
MISCL....................................50
PUB VISITING..........................200

TOTAL....................................1079 POUNDS PER MONTH

ALL THE ABOVE IS APPROXIMATE

Cheers....Taffy I hope this gives everyone an idea

sallysimmons

Sounds lovely DDL - especially the Dickens museum.

Thanks for the links. We'll be buying a lot of stuff there but there are some things we just really like and to replace them would either a) cost a lot of money or b) take a long time before we found something as nice. For example, we have two old coffee tables that we found in junk shops and refinished. They are truly one-of-a-kind pieces and I love them. I don't see the point of selling them for peanuts and then trawling around auctions trying to find something the same.

I also don't fancy starting from absolutely nothing trying to fill up a house when we have lots of basic pieces that will do fine. I think I'd end up buying things I didn't much like, just so we didn't have empty space.

A lot of my paintings are up through the house. They aren't worth anything to anyone else, but I don't want to leave them behind. And there's all the basic kitchen stuff. I do a lot of cooking and if I had to replace all that stuff it would take forever. I just won't have time when we get back since we'll still be running our business full-time.

I don't think we'd take back a whole container - we'd probably share one if that's still possible.

sallysimmons

Wow! If those numbers are right, I will be OK. We have to pay just a little less than that for one month of health insurance!! That's before we even get into all the other living costs.

Wawa

Taffy, I found that really helpful, thanks! We pay a damn sight more than that here in Canada, and we lead a fairly careful life, knowing that we only have a few years left here before we move home. Still, its good to have some sort of guide to show my OH and to know this is all affordable.