agree_to_disagree

Prefer a proper curry house!

You do get quite sick of this bland Spanish food. The best bit is the Spanish think that Spanish food is the best cuisine in the world!!! What a joke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fred James

Spain has far more Michelin starred restaurants than the UK.

Maybe you are eating at the wrong places!

Or eating the wrong food.

agree_to_disagree

That is because you have lots of daft tourists running around with money burning a hole in their pockets, wondering what do with it.

You can be sure they take a few snaps in the Michelin restaurant and it ends up on facebook!

Besides, I've been to places like that and you get a meal the size of a postage stamp, on a massive plate and end up leaving the place hungry....

Fredbargate

I prefer a cook to a chef

A chef will ask you what you want then tell you how it should be cooked and present it his way.

A cook will ask you what you want and how you would like it prepared and then present it the way you asked for

agree_to_disagree

I prefer my own cooking to be honest.

I know what ingredients are going into what I am preparing and I can cook whatever, the way I like it.

Fredbargate

My wife is a cook, a very good one.

Stingychips

Expect high electricity prices in Spain all the way to At least 2023.

Barriej

You could quite easily insert any country into that statement.


Our costs so far since the changes have been lower every month compared to last year.
And even last year they were still 1/2 of what we were paying in the Uk averaged over about 5 years (we moved here in Aug 2020) so my knowledge of Uk prices is current...

Fred James

They will all go up in Spain very significantly in January when the government removes the current subsidy.

A lot depends on what sort of contract you are on.

Mark604

"...when the government removes the current subsidy."
Unintentional pun.

Lynn R

Do you mean the reduction in IVA to 10%, the reduction in the electricity consumption tax to 0.5% and the suspension of the electricity generating tax paid by companies? If so, the Hacienda Minister announced last week that all of these will be extended until at least April 2022 (decision awaiting ratification at the next meeting of the Council of Ministers).

https://www.lasexta.com/noticias/nac...0014e4f13.html

I changed to a new tariff (with the same supplier) in June of this year, paying a flat rate per kwh no matter what time of day I use the electricity, and like Barriej my bills have been lower each month since than they were the previous year. Last week I received the latest bill which covered October and November, and was for €76.02. The bills for the same 2 months last year totalled €109.58.

My energy costs in Spain now are lower than they were in the UK when I left in 2006 - now 15 years ago. I was paying 60 pounds per month at that time for gas and electricity from the same supplier. I don't use any gas here so my electricity bills of around €40 per month are quite a bit less and even if the taxes go back up they will still be lower. I read recently that the cost of electricity in the UK has gone up by 54% since 2011, and that figure was from this summer before the latest round of big increases happened.

Lynn R

Repsol (not my supplier) are offering a fixed price per kwh tariff at €0.1299 per kwh (flat rate no matter what time of day the electricity is used) and guarantee that the price will not change for the next 36 months whether the wholesale prices go up or down. Might not be a good idea to fix for so long if prices come down, but I wouldn't describe that as a particularly high price if people would like to be sure about how much they are going to have to pay. They are a huge company so extremely unlikely to go bust unlike a lot of the small outfits in the UK which have gone to the wall. The Repsol contract is "sin permanencia" so customers can switch to another supplier at any time, if they find a cheaper deal.

Fred James

No, I was referring to the unit charge. I have just changed to a fixed 24hr rate and the contract clearly states that there will be an increase in January when the subsidy is removed. That is not considered to be a price rise in the context of their guaranteed prices.

If you look at the prices on the government price comparison price, you will see that all companies with fixed rates clearly say this increase will happen

Lynn R

But the subsidy is not going to be removed in January - as the link I posted said, it is being extended for a further 4 months (at least). That has to be ratified by the Council of Ministers at their meeting this week, so the information on your contract would have been correct when it was issued and the comparison website can't change what it says until that meeting has taken place, either.

Fred James

You are referring to the IVA and other tax reductions. What I am talking about is the current reduction in the actual KWh rates which would seem to be different. I still have to pay the full 21% IVA anyway so that reduction does not apply to me.