I left for personal reasons, I have touched on it a couple of times on here and don't really want to say any more about it if that's OK?

I never said it wasn't hard work or that I didn't have to do whatever I had to for a living but like I said, I never had a problem.

That said I have never had a problem here, I have never in my life signed on and to be honest wouldn't know how to even, but it hasn't been easy.

I think some of the people that return back to the UK because they can't find work are peeps that have families and they need to have a decent income coming in every month to cover all their bills which in many cases include school fees. Many families come to Spain because they think they will have a better life which includes spending more time with their families, but in the cold light of day it often means that they have to work longer hours for less money than they got in thee UK (only they do it much hotter weather). Many Brits when living here in the beginning find it hard to switch off from thinking with their UK head and start with their Spanish head.

I'm not getting at you Matt, but I expect when you arrived you were younger and maybe did not have a family in tow, which means your needs were different. Also from what I know of you, you are a very determined young man who has ambitions and you work very hard to achieve them, not always so easy to do with a couple of kids in tow.

And all I said was you were very lucky then!

Do a search - Patsywhitehair is selling her place and on her site I think she is also advertising another member of the families house.

Rosemary

My hubbys like you Matt. We dont have jobs lined up, okay for a while financially, but he has never been out of work and never signed on either, I think if you really want to find work then you will, and we have a daughter who is 8 so its a bit of a risk, but hey why not!! I have faith in myself and my hubby to make it work. For the people that have went out there... at least they tried it, instead of sitting years from now saying " if only ". I am a gerat believer in whats for you wont go by you, lifes hard enough at the rest of the time so why not have a bit of adventure.. x

I know, I didn't take it any other way that the way you meant it.

Isn't that why most people leave? personal reasons...perhaps some of the newbies may find your posts misleading espcially as you have no location info, I for one thought that you actually lived in Spain until recently.
People reading your comments about arriving with a tenner, learning the lingo and finding work not being a problem, may be mislead into thinking that moving/living to/in Spain is a walk in the park. When the reality is far from that. As crispygirl said moving to Spain as a young free and single lad is very different than with a young family with kids in school trying to survive. We had no mortgage but when my fiancee was out of work boy did we struggle.

I don't live in spain but having just bought there I have been talking to loads of people from loads of different ages. The people on this forum and others who I spoke to in the area we bought did help me make the decision not to move there whilst we have children. We have a good standard of living in the Uk and, I feel, we would loose that if we moved whilst we still have dependent teenagers. The hours in spain are very long and for a lesser hourly rate than we recieve in Uk. However, if our children had been younger ie under 10 and we hadn't got very stable jobs here then I would have given it a go. There are a lot of pensioners living a better lifestyle than they would get in Uk and the healthcare they recieve is very good. Once the kids are settled in their lives and me and hubby are ready we shall be off.

That sounds like a really good plan, also you can rent out your place for holiday lets and have somewhere to go to every year for a holiday. Staying on the property ladder in England is good as well, as when you move to Spain you can rent that out and live off the proceeds.

yep thats what I was thinking.. I'm not as stupid as I look!!! LOL

unfortunately we dont have a house to sell here, so what do you guys think, is it possible to go there and start fresh, or do we need income from a property here to survive. xx

I only visit Spain so cant comment. But just talking to the german lady who rents the flat above me in Denia, and she said that after four or five years living and working in Spain, it is driving her crazy. I think cultural differences can make or break.

I think if you've got nothing to loose then go for it!

My wife and I both had successful jobs in the UK and bought a Holiday Home in Spain. During one visit, I was offered a job out here, so we seriously discussed all the Pros and Cons of moving our family (two children then aged 5 and 8) over to Spain for a change of lifestyle. We handed in our notices at work, rented out our house in the UK and drove down through France. The intention was to try it for a year and see.
Upon arrival, I found that the job offer no longer existed We muddled through on odd jobs and savings for a period of time, then decided to make the move permanent, so sold our house in the UK and used the money to open up our own business. We have been out here for two and a half years now and still have our ups and downs. Running a business and bringing up a family in Spain is so much different to retiring to the sun.
Should we stay or should we go - Whatever we decide in the long run, at least we can say we did it