Youcancallmeal

Fair comment.

The reason I made the post was that I had seen so many negative comments on various forums about Spain. So I am trying to get a balanced view.

For the record we have ruled out Scandinavia, Ireland, former eastern bloc countries, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland,Greece, Near Eastern Middle and Far Eastern countries, Africa, North and South America, Canada, Pacific Atolls, Russia, Mozambique, South Georgia and the Falkland Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Antartica and Malta.

Italy and Potugal are possibilities!

You can call me Al.

Mitzyboy

Dont ask for only positive comments only!!! That doesnt really give the balanced view you mentioned

OK, you've made it clear that you are retiring, so that makes it easier for me to comment as we are also retirees here.

If you are moving to Spain to retire then the benefits are positive. If you have a reasonable income (I would say €1500 a month excl rental) then you are going to live a reasonable lifestyle, subject to the area you choose.

I'm in the Northern Costa Blanca. Since the rate of exchange crash we have been a lot worse off with our income from the UK. Our reaction was to stop spending without thought. We now for instance go to Aldi or Lidl to get all we can before we go to Mercadona! We visit two supermarkets and maybe another shop for our shopping then .... not as easy as popping down to Tescos.

We no longer go out for expensive evening meals in posh restaurants costing us €80. We use the daily menus that might cost us €8 - €12 each.

The net result is that we are still worse off than we were three years ago in Spain, but we don't find it a struggle. I go back to the UK (midlands) fairly regularly and without doubt I can say that despite everything I am still better off financially here than the UK. The cost of living generally in the Northern CB if you are streetwise is less than the midlands UK. To start with my "council tax" is €400 for a start, my place in the UK is £850, and the one we left to come here was £1500. Electricity is expensive. At one point I was paying near €100 a month in the winter, now I have it under control.

If one of you is over retirement age then your health cover will be through the state for both of you. If not, you will need to take private health cover after your initial E106 cover. Its cheaper here, probably €1400 ish for a couple in their mid fifties. With state care you have to speak Spanish. Imagine going to the doctor here and not being able to explain what is wrong with you. You could end up going with a sore throat and being given suppositories.

The weather is a nice point. Having just spent two months in the UK I will appreciate it more when summer comes. Something we sometimes forget here. Its not always warm here though. People around here have had the log burners on for the last three months. It gets bloody cold at night. The Pool; I get late March/April to maybe early October out of it ... other than that its too cold unless you are Finnish or something like that. Of course you still have to look after it all year.

The beaurocracy is mad. It does my head in sometimes. You need a licence to pick your nose, and the documentation is never ending. If you decide to open a business, be ready for this.

Beware the expat know it all. I know a couple who live nearby in Spain who have never registered on the foreigners list or padron because they have a house in the UK and therefore they don't need to be residents here or pay tax. They tell everyone this, so expats they know now believe this to be true. You will find people who think Spain has no faults on here, but you will find those everywhere. It's because of their personal experiences, not that they are blinkered. Some people just hit it lucky and due to their temperament cope with things better than others.

But when all is said and done you cannot imagine the frustration of not being able to communicate. When I came here I spoke little Spanish. I did a course in the UK and I have been doing a course with a teacher on here. I am by no way fluent at all. In fact I have been very stupidly lazy. I can (famous words) get by, and when forced into a situation I often surprise myself. If I were to give you one piece of advice it would be to learn as much Spanish as you can. I once went into a local shop (appropriately named "Arse") and went up to the guy and said in my best Spanish "do you speak English?" He looked at me curiously and in his best English said "do you speak Spanish?" I've never done that since.

So there you are. You will probably find it extremely stressful for the first months you are here. You may even regret having made the move ... but if you have the income and you think you can hack it then give it a go.

Youcancallmeal

Hello Mitzyboy

Thanks for the time taken to reply and your comments. Thanks for the info on monthly costs.
I think we will be ok on current income projection with a bit to spare. I expect that is what a lot of people thought 10 years ago. So we all have to be careful I suppose.

I am relearning my Spanish from my school days and will get up to speed. My wife is very good at languages, she has a fantastic memory, so we should be well prepared in that respect.

Interesting what you say about going to the doctors for example. I expect you have to learn things you would not find in a phrase book!

I have been looking on expat type forums for a couple of weeks. It seemed that a lot of people only went on them to vent their spleens, justifiably I expect. So I was trying to find some positive experiences.

But all comments welcome.

Regards

You can call me Al.

Mitzyboy

Thats frustration.

If you come to live here then you have to accept you are no longer living in England and things are very different. If you can't accept that then you will drive yourself insane!

ShinyAndy

Every forum no matter what it's about will be full of negativity and people venting things. It seems to be human nature to moan and tell the world when things have gone wrong but keep it to yourself when everything is great. The problem is that if you are positive and post that way you soon tire of being put down or told you're wrong by the majority so you move on or don't post which ultimately leaves the "regulars" as the negative bunch and taints the whole place that way

Youcancallmeal

Hi again Mitzyboy

Interesting point, - frustration. As you say it is not the UK, the culture is different and the bureaucracy a part of everyday life. I expect that some Spaniards even get frustrated by it.

And if you are leaving the UK for an "easy" life you may be in for a surprise.

Its not as if you can isolate yourself. At some point you have to interact with police, doctors, govt. officials. Its bad enough in the UK trying to get a doctor's appointment.

Cheers

You can call me AL.

Youcancallmeal

Thanks ShinyAndy

Well put. That is what I was thinking and prompted me to ask for positive comments. Its a bit like the Monty Python "What have the Romans ever done for us?"

You can call me Al.

Val001

Well we are flying out to Spain tomorrow to complete on our house near Albuñol in the Costa Tropical region in the south. We aim to have it as a holiday home initially and will move out permanently in around 18 months time hopefully to retire.

We believe the cost of living will be slightly less than the UK and above all we will have the weather so heating bills will be a lot less.

Anyway we are very excited about it all even though the weather this winter has been awful Hopefully a freak winter as the worst for about 20 years apparently. wet wet wet sums it up really.

Val

Youcancallmeal

Hi Val

Good luck in your move. Interested to know why the Costa Tropical.

We have not been out exploring yet, possibly April or September. That South Coast and inland a bit is a vast area to cover. So any info. / ratoionale would be appreciated.

You can call me Al.

Val001

The reasons why we targeted that area is the weather as they get over 300 days of sunshine and it called Costa Tropical because they can grow exotic fruits. It is predominantly Spanish with a small ex pat community. We did not want to retire to a tourist resort. Also we wanted to be near the sea and not too far from the Sierra Nevada as we are both skiers.

If you want more information PM me and I can give the details of a site dedicated to that area which you may find interesting as you look at areas in Spain.

Val

cafeconleche

Good post, Karma sent. That can so easily happen if you happen to say you like something or somewhere. I don't mind people being negative about their bad experiences but thats just one view and doesn't mean everyone else will experience the same thing.

jackytoo

What some term as "negative" others may think realistic. Some who post negative do it as a response to the over-positive. Mitzy's post is well-balanced. Lots of these threads end the same with the OP getting offended cos they don't get the replies they want.

manamama

We just got our gas bill and it was 358 euros (two month bill) !!!


YYYYIIIIkkkkes..absolute shock.

My little piece of advice is to find out the best way to heat/cool your house if you move to Spain...from day one. Ask you neighbours where ever you go.

Sure you know about it, but bills here are astronomically expensive now.

lynnxa

jeez what are you doing - heating the entire street?!!




ours is about 50ish every 2 months & we've been using the heating quite a lot!


gas, leccy & water all added together come to around 100 euros a month - but that's not scrimping on heating or aircon, in a large, open, spacious 3 bed apartment

Youcancallmeal

Hi manamama

Thanks for your info. Is that LPG gas? Here in the Uk we are all getting surprises with gas, oil and lecky. Actually we are on oil and pay by monthly DD about £45 for oil and same for lecky. So that is £90*12 = £1080 for the year. It is a small house!.

So we are trying to cut down on tumble dryer for example. We have just switched lecky supplier to save about £140 a year.

My son is a structural and civil engineer and has promised to assist in finding solution to heating and cooling when we make the move.

One idea is very interesting. If you have/install/ a pool, a pipe is laid through the pool open to the air at some point distant and into the house at the other end. In the roof a special vent is installed made of a material that absorbs heat. As the vent heats up it draws air up through it, through the pipe in the pool which cools the air coming in and heats the pool.

No moving parts! But you need a pool and to install the pipe.

Just a thought!

You can call me Al.