Moving to Quesada next year (early I hope)

Hello. My name is Ron and I'm intending to take early retirement early next year. I am moving with my wife Susan. I've got loads to do as we have not yet put our house on the market in Englandt. We have still not decided to move our worldly goods or purchase new in Spain, ideas welcome.

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Welcome Ron and Susan. You are at the beginning of a very exciting time. If you read through the various posts on this site, you will get quite an insight into various areas. Then the next thing to do when you have got all psyched up is to visit some of the areas and see which appeals to you most! Have fun!!!!!!

Julia

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Hi we moved to spain 5 months ago and we wish we had brought all our furniture from home with us as we spent an absolute fortune on it here.we practically gave all our furniture away including good quality lamps which i sold for next to nothing because of the voltage change in spain(i should have just bought adaptors).when i went to replace them here i found they cost a fortune.my in-laws are moving here in november and they have learned from our mistake.good luck.EILEEN,HURCHILLO

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Hi guys.

We moved a lot of our 'stuff' out to Spain when we initially bought. Take everything that you use in the UK on a regular basis. All Electrical items except the TV can be used in Spain. Electric tools are usually a better quality here than in Spain and are certainly cheaper here in UK. Just change the plugs.Furniture is always a good bet to take -  as previously replies suggest -  overall its cheaper to take than buy all new. Its certainly an exciting and busy time, with plenty to do in organising a move. In some ways it would be nice not to have to take current possessions to Spain but if expense is an issue then its cheaper to send than buy. Note that some of your possessions are 'personal' and cannot neccessarily be replaced. Hope this helps, and good luck     

 

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Hi , it's unclear from your initial post whether you already have a property or you have chosen the area you wish to live in.   Is it Quesada Costa Blanca or is there another area with this name?

I furnished my house from scratch, my neighbour took me to a store in Torrevieja and I bought beds, setee, fridge and washing machine.  As it's a holiday home I went for cheap and cheerful.  The beds I find uncomfortable but ok for the couple of weeks we are there each time.  Lighting we have added over the years, Ardy's have reasonably priced lighting and I bought a mother and baby floor lamp for under 20e.

When my neighbours moved in a couple of years ago they bought everything over, they have since swapped the 3 piece suite for 2 sofa's at a second hand store.  It all depends on the size of the property you have or are buying.  Most people seem to make the same mistakes and bring too much over that sit in the boxes never to see the light of day.

When you are next over why not wander around the local boot sales, you should then get an idea of what people didn't need to bring out to Spain

Also why not price up the furniture to see what it would cost to buy in Spain and then work out what it would cost to bring the same over. 

Washing machines are cold fill over here, recommend you go for the highest spin possible (winter) and they don't last that long as the water is very hard.

If you do bring lighting over try to get ones with screw in light bulbs, I was buying things for our house in Spain ages before we actually found one.  I'd found some bedroom touch lights and luckily when I eventually unpacked them in Spain I found that they were screw fittings.

Our house must have had a few English owners as the light went in the bathroom, when we unscrewed the large globe we found an English bulb inside.  Luckily a neighbour was going to an English store and got me a couple.  Should have realised before as the fitting is the same as we have here in UK.

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Great post semijubilada, couldn't have said it better myself.

BTW I was having a good look in Argos catalogue last night & so many light fittings nowadays sold in the UK take the screw in bulbs. (Look for fittings that say they take SES bulbs, look at these for example  http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4321761.htm ). It's not that you can't buy bayonet bulbs in Spain but they cost more & maybe will not be so widely available outside the larger towns. I know Carrefour outside Torrevieja sell bayonet bulbs. I would also think Ardy's & Garcia's in the same area do also. There's too many UK fittings in the area that will need replacement bulbs not to stock them. as I said before we bought ceiling fan/light units with the SES candle bulb fittings in Focus & table lamps in Lidl's with same fittings also wall lights from Argos so plenty around. In Spain the light fittings can cost you but then we found the most beautiful ones which, if we could've found these in the UK, I think maybe they'd be in shops we wouldn't necessarily frequent & therefore expensive anyway.  We have such pretty bedside lights & these were 40€ each which is expensive but I fell in love with them & just had to have them.

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Wow! what a response, cant tell you how helpfull all your posts have been. I did'nt really explain the position we are in: we bought a 3 bd corner house off plan in Quesada in early May. The property is expected to be finished and handed over late January 08.(I hope so, already booked the flights) I'm 60 in May 08 and my wife Susan is 58 in Jan 08 so no govt pension for a couple of years or so. The Spannish property will leave me about 35k Euros on a mortgage but hope to eliminate this on the sale of our house in England, prob 300k. I intend to invest this money, probably about 290k time I add a bond that matures  next year. I am hoping I can keep us on the interest without breaking into it too much untill my wifes 60 when she gets a full govt pension. At 65 I'll be ok with my pensions (I hope). I take in all you say about taking furniture etc so while I'm over there this month I'll be looking all round the stores. Great forum, Ron

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Hi Ron, their is also an auction that I believe goes on all day it is at the Country Club so I have been told, never been  they do say it is very good, I believe it is in the Quesada area could be wrong though.  But more or someone that has been to Spain more than me might know.  Their is a small one Wednsday afternoon in Benijofar think I have spelt that wrong.    Good luck     Hope all goes well Pat    

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Hi Ron & Susan

My husband & I are very close to where you'll be, we're just along the Lemon Tree road towards the N332. We completed April 2005 & are non residents currently although that could change as my husband is taking early retirement at 60 in March.

We, & other resident & non resident owners & owners to be, try & meet each other, whilst we're on our hols there so you never know. We're over next month for 10 nights then November for a week then December into January for 23 nights. There's a thread where you can add your hols if you wish to meet up with any there at the same time. Go look at WHO'S UP FOR A MEET, POST HERE ! 

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"Benijofar" is fine, Pat. (At least that's how we spell it ! )

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Well it sounds like you are thinking ahead and hopefully you will survive ok on your investments.

Someone reported on a forum that the pensions laws were changing and as long as you had 30 years N I contributions then you were guaranteed a full state pension.  Nothing more has been mentioned it about it recently so I'm still not sure when this change will come in to effect.  Dept of Works of Pension were supposedly writing to people inform them that they no longer needed to top up if they were not working to the required 44 and 39 years for men and women.

I mention this because from 60 to 65 a man is entitled to 5 years free contributions as long as they are resident in the UK, if you move abroad then these cease.  If you haven't already I'd speak to DWP at Newcastle and find out what the current situation is.  For women it is from age 55 to 60.

Also I'd recommend opening a Nationwide Flex account as soon as possible, once opened with a UK address when you move to Spain you can register your Spannish address and your cards can be sent there.  Your investment interest could be paid into this account and you can draw upto £300 a day from atm's at a business rather than tourist rate.

You can open the account via the internet , once it's up and running you can open a higher E savings a/c and you can transfer cleared funds between the two.  This will save you having to pay commission fees whenever funds are transferred to your Bank in Spain.  At a later date your pension could be paid into the account as well.

We have their credit card and have arranged to pay the balance in full each month from our flex account, so we are now set up for when and if we spend longer periods out in Spain.

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