The UK government pay towards costings to the tune of 1200 pounds per head

Price of gas has doubled in Spain since I have been here. ;-))

Well, since I only use a bottle every 3 months or so, I won't cry just yet.

Winter I'll use the woodburner to cook as much as is sensible. If you had a diy bent, there is nothing to stop you setting up a solar cooker, and other solar projects can save you needing to heat much water with electricity, oil or water.

How can you use one bottle every three months? Don´t you heat your water, cook or any other use.

My OH is going to put black pipes across our roofs to heat up the water before it goes into the boilers so it will start warm so less energy to heat it up.
We have or will have fitted for next winter two log burners and we have saved all the beams from our house to burn should last two years.
We use approx a bottle a month in the winter, we havent used a bottle since the hot weather as the water comes out of the taps hot, just one every 2 months for the cooker, and that is slowed down as we eat more salads.

We only use gas for heating water, one bottle per month in the winter, when we have people here we use more especially in the summer, we have been know to use one a week whilst the grandkids are here, what is it with people on holiday. They have a HOT shower/BATH in the morning and another HOT shower/BATHh in the evening, Mal and I hardly use any hot water in the house in the summer as we shower outside by the pool.

Mal is happy with the luke warm water from the pool shower but I use the water from a 50 metre black hose that is hung on the garage wall, the water comes out of there boiling I have to let it run for a while before I can use it. Last year we got the grandkids and SIL to shower outside with us they loved it thought they were on a camping holiday just have to get our daughter in camping mode this year and we should save a packet.

When we bought here a bottle of gas was 8 euro (2003) now it is 15 euros the biggest increase has been this last year.

I just cook with it, and in the summer, I cook very little.

Water is heated by electric, and is going solar.

Sharon, Have a look at solar stuff. The black pipes work, but need shelter from the wind. If you go a step further and have a hot tank on the roof, you can really use the sun. A mirror either side, and all of a sudden you have really hot water.

I made myself a "black plastic pipe" solar panel and it lasted all of 3 years before the UV destroyed the flexibility of the plastic and it blew itself apart. I do have 3 tonnes of well water stored in 3 tanks on the roof of the shed and that is quite warm enough for showers galore all through the summer.

As for burning wood in the winter, I burn large logs around 20 kgs each log and the fire stays in day after day, week after week but we do get through around 5 tonnes of hard firewood in the 3 months we need such heating.

You can even make ice using solar power!

Goodness me you poor people..... I thought I was being a Pioneer carrying a log 1 meter from the basket to the fire in winter.

Any of you guys live in an apartment rather than a villa? or on a "development" - If so does the service charge include your building insurance and "council tax"?

I know this has been discussed many times - but if, as seems to be the concensus, it Costs a minimum of 1k euro/month to get by in Spain without house purchase/rent costs - How do the locals get by?

Good News you can get ready to return to the UK......HUNDREDS of thousands of immigrants will quit the UK to escape the credit crunch, City experts predict today.

Britain’s cash crisis will look like a “horror movie” and Eastern European workers will flood out as a result.

A new report from analysts Ernst and Young ITEM Club says the UK will teeter on the brink of recession in 2009 and jobs will dry up — especially in the construction and service industries.

The report predicts unemployment will rise from 1.6million to 2million by 2010.

Many of the 650,000 eastern Europeans who have poured into Britain in recent years — and the hundreds of thousands here illegally — will quit to search for work in other countries.

The report states: “There are already signs of that happening — helping to reduce the impact of job losses on the unemployment figures.”

Any one think that this could be manufactured to get rid of all the immigrants in the UK,

I am intrigued about all this "black pipe" to get hot water. Can someone actually tell us how to do it please.

Crispy, I often have a shower morning and evening in the hot weather.

My community charges include buildings insurance but the local taxes are billed separately.