RETIREMENT

Floella what's the point of living like a church mouse in Spain... All the people I know and associate with in Spain live on expat urbanisations ...basically for security of a expat community .and the home from home feeling that they get ...all of them will tell you the only thing Spain has to offer ..that is better than the UK is the sun ....I also totally disagree with you on the cost of buying good's from a Spanish supermarket ..even if it does have a Spanish label on it is still more expensive in Spain for the equivalent product's in the UK. ...as far as eating out in Spain ...that can also be expensive try picking up the bill for 3 adults and 2 small children for 5 very basic meals with one drink each and you would have to part with €64 in Mazorron .I took 5 adult's and 1 child out last Sunday   lunch 2 course meal with all trimmings and a drink and in came to €60  in your language the restaurant was right on the sea front in Swansea it is called the Mermaid it is what you would call up market (not a caffe) check it out on line  ...personally I think you are trying to convince your self it is cheaper to live in Spain because you live permanently ...if you live like I do with 1 foot in the UK and the other in Spain you would be able to give a up to date comparison .…if you preferred a pub lunch in my home town you can get 2 good meal's for £10 and I don't mean egg and chips .a pint of lagger can be bought for £2.00 from any of the big pub chains... you can also check this out on line.

Floella what's the point of living like a church mouse in Spain.

Disagree, if like you go to Spain for a week here and there then yes you can get through money because basically you're treating like on holiday, if living in Spain, you have low overheads, sun, and pretty much should treat the place like day to day living back in the UK but with the occasional meal out, say once a week or more if the need arises.

I have quite a lot of friends living in Spain 24/7, one my mates of many years when I questioned him about the costs of the two houses he owns, knocked into one still double the exe's, every time he has told me he never has spent all his pension money and gets to save some, (It is not like 1500€ a month either, much less) which he never could do in the UK, we go out a lot when I am in Spain and I am carefully not to go to somewhere I think might wreck his monthly finances, not once has he said no, couple of the restaurants we go to he goes weekly, and they do not live like a church mouse.

£2.00 for a pint of larger, and two meals for £10,00 has to be Wetherspoons, tried it once, should have known better. I took one Daughter, her fella and me to a country pub, pint of Guinness, glass of red wine, small coke, gave over a twenty, got back a plastic Five and some metal, pulled him up over that I gave him a twenty but it was correct. The meal for four, three courses, wine, coke came to well over £100.00..Same pub. Same / similar meal plus coffee in a very good, much better / superb in fact, restaurant in Spain came to 71.80€

Oh, Windtalker, you do make me smile. What a load of hot air you do utter

Some of us left UK to experience another culture not to live on a Brit urb like Campasol where coffee costs twice the price and the local Spanish shopowner speaks good English but with a northern accent !!

Do you still have your holiday retreat in Turkey ?

I lived in Surrey and when last in my home town, almost 2 years ago, I bought a pint of cider for a friend and nearly fell of my bar stool when charged almost a fiver. Plus paying for my hosts' weekly shop , in Waitrose, cost me 2/3 as much as it does for a month in Spain for 2 people.  And ( cheeky ) cheese is only a very small part of my diet of fresh salmon, fillet of pork for chicken fillets, duck breasts and lamb. Admit eating beef is rare because not as good here as from the Highland cattle.  Vegetables so fresh realised it wasn't age that had destroyed  the taste buds but the length of distribution time.

It is obvious to those of us who reside in Spain, at least spending sufficient time to pay tax here, you have no idea about C o L in Spain. Actually not sure you know much about living in UK either because your views on the C o L contradict all those of my Brit friends and what is discussed in the media.

Mazarron, Aka little England.  

Windtalker,am surprised a man of your intellect doesn't  realise that in peak season ( mid June - mid Sept)  the restauranteurs, as in most Spanish coastal resorts, take full advantage by ditching the m del d always on offer for the locals in preference of making some money.from the tourists.  Perhaps your next visit should be between Oct and June and instead of heading for the coast try Totana, Lorca or Murcia city.

i can advise you of some brilliant restaurants in my area....not transport cafe in sight....where for between €10- €17 you can indulge in a 4 course delight........that is if you bear to eat Spanish cuisine.

Crickey, where are you lot buying your social pleasures from!

We use our local butchers, have fresh wet fish delivered from the catches in Grimsby, visit our local pubs and use resteraunts we like to eat at.

I havnt fallen off a bar stool recently (well there was that time in Cornwall, but nothing to do with the price of cider).

When we go to Spain we love to get around the markets and local hostelries for eating out, we like to stay in also.  I dont see very much difference in the cost of living in the 'normal' areas.

If you want to live on all day breakfasts and drink in the tourist bars, take more money.

Mickyfinn I don't think for one second ...that you really believe any of your last post ...rents in Manchester are 83% higher Alicante  average rent for a 3 bed apartment =€500 per month ...+83% higher in Manchester =approx €900 per month I don't think so. The remainder of your post is also pure Fantasy ....I think you must be a Spanish estate agent .

Floella I can honestly say ...I cannot remember when I last had a full cooked breakfast... My favorite is 2 soft poached egg's on toast lovely( I kid you not.).

Windtalker, it was briando55 who mentioned " cooked.breakfasts " ,not I. And certainly never serve with baked beans...Very down market ...lol

However just for a change you really should try Tostada con tomate. €1 for half a toasted French stick in a bar or for DIY buy barra de pan in Spar (  2 for 55c ) and pot of rallado ( grated tomato)€1.19 ( located in supermercados with the salad items) .

Served with oli and salt. Very healthy and  inexpensive breakfast as it is enough for 1 person for for 4/5 days.....and very Spanish.

Floella  sounds good.. I will try that when I come over next months. I also have a passion for any type of sea food .

windtalker - I think you must be a Spanish estate agent .

That is the greatest insult you could ever make. The figures are not mine but taken from a cost of living comparision site called Numbeo. Read the post please.

Mickyfinn sorry if I insulted you ...but when you mentioned Manchester ...I immediately thought of Moss side and Long sight ...say no more... anyone from Manchester want to tell us more.

floella

However just for a change you really should try Tostada con tomate. €1 for half a toasted French stick in a bar or for DIY buy barra de pan in Spar (  2 for 55c ) and pot of rallado ( grated tomato)€1.19 ( located in supermercados with the salad items) .

Served with oli and salt. Very healthy and  inexpensive breakfast as it is enough for 1 person for for 4/5 days.....and very Spanish.

My favourite. Although I don't buy the pots. I get 3 large barras from the local Gama (a euro for 3 and still warm) and cut them into 6. Freeze the rest and cut one. Fresh onions, a tomato and a small amount of tomato puree in the blitzer blender and then spread it on the half barra cut in half. Then put it in the electric parilla until the bottom is brown. Yep, olive oil but only about a third of the salt I see the Spanih putting on it. I also have one for lunch sometimes if we're out. Nice little local place with coffee at a euro and the same price for the pan tostado con tomatoes. (Hubby likes going there because they speak Spanish to him unlike the tourist spots where they answer him in English).

Don't go for those exotic, imported baked beans (apart from the Norwegians I think the Brits are the only ones in the world who eat those) but hubby does like his fresh croissant (again, 3 for a euro at Gama or 29 cents each from Lidl). 

I must admit I do still like my tea (which I get sent via Amazon) but hubby gets the fresh roast coffee (250g pack for 2 euro). 

In our local last night a pint (well, 500ml) of Estrella Damm and an extremely large glass of white wine at €4.30 so I don't think that'll be breaking the bank. And menu del dias have been around all summer here despite it being quite a sizeable expat area although I think the Scandinavians are now outnumbering us Brits. 

Oh, and for those who can't go without it, Iceland have Sharwood's (not Patak's I'm afraid) curry mix at 1 euro a 2 person jar. (we only went in because hubby wanted the Guinness at a euro a can if you buy a dozen) Much prefer to make the curry myself with beef and chicken being so cheap over here along with the chillis and spices. Ternera segunda at Gama for €4 a kilo and it really is lovely. 

For dinner tonight we had fillet of pork mignon (whole fillets of pork really are cheap here at about 3 or 4 euro and you should get six steaks and the ends left over for Shish Kebabs). Cut the fillet into two inch steaks, coat the outside in salt and pepper. Fry in olive oil in a hot pan for two minutes each side then transfer to an oven proof dish and put in the over (170C fan) for a further 5 minutes. Lovely with a home maid bearnaise sauce and asparagus (which they seem to be throwing at us at the moment).

After a starter of Jamon Iberico and melon it's a dish fit for a Rey (or Reina).

Mmmm. Lovely mariedav.    And all I had was scampi and chips and a pint of Timothy Taylor's 😐

For me it is  2" chunk of pork fillet cooked on BBQ and served with pepper salsa. 

Another very inexpensive favourite is panceta, not sliced but bought as a joint, and roasted in the oven. The copious amount of crackling is to die for.

Have found both these joints work out about €1 pp. 

Our favourite tapas is magras con tomate. In our local bar/ restaurante it only costs €4.40 pp for a large racion, bread, dish of chips a beer and a coffee.   Filling meal which in Uk  would = a Starbucks coffee.

I reckon Starbucks and costa will overcharge and rip you off in any country, that's an unfair comparison. 

But the general advice of leave the chain coffee houses alone is good advice.  

Most English pub food has come on leaps and bounds in 20 years, leaving the old berni inns etc miles behind.  English restaraunts serve Michelin star quality food in greater numbers than other European countries now.   You can also get some two meals for £9 which are good standard if you want them, or you can visit the local tapas, Italian, Thai, Indian, Australian breakfast houses.   Basically you can pay what you want to afford and receive the food you desire  

our last BBQ we had 20 people and had burgers, sausages, bought and prepared leg of lamb Moroccan pulled style, had kebabs on skewers and ended up with too much food!  All local butcher best quality, all wonderfully cooked (by us) and all for £60.  

Oh and we had sunshine all day ha.  It's a truly wonderful country when you make the most of what it offers.  I'm sure people of both nations feel blessed in many ways eh. 

This message was last edited by briando55 on 17/08/2017.

Now you have made me feel really guilty by mentioning Starbucks ...😩 Briando55, ....lol

Next time you have a BBQ ..forget the Burger's try fresh fish stuffed with fresh red / green peppers and onions wrap in foil slow cook on the BBQ  and serve with mixed side salad and rice.

Not tried that yet but heard it's good 🤗

I wonder if some guest could cook it on the car engine on the way ha

I wonder if some guest could cook it on the car engine on the way ha

Don't laugh but we used to do this on our miltary vehicles when out, put various foods on the engine exhaust manifold, we got pretty good at it that we roughly knew the time different foods took to cook, made more then a complete mess once though with soaking wet boots and socks, found out that they don't survive this treatment very well at all,  thankfully we never had a parade that day.

Any advise for AMERICANs wanting to move to Spain on the Costa del Sol? We have enough money saved to live on till we start collecting our Social Security and mostlikely even further. What are the rules for Americans? We don't really plan on working. But maybe later if we get bored of Not working we are in our mid-late 50's. Bringing a small 12lb. dog. We are giving ourselves 2 years to get our house ready here. We will either sell it or rent it. Not bringing much with us. Plan on a simple life, downsizing to an apartment (from a 4 bed 3 bath house - kids are all grown)visited this year and we LOVED it. Any advise would be great. Maybe experienced Americans?

Firstly, you need to apply for a visa from your home country. You can't come to Spain and then decide to apply. If you want to stay less than 90 days then it is a Schengen Visa and is valid in any Schengen country for up to 90 days. If you intend to stay more than 90 days then you need to apply for a Residence Visa, again from your home country. You cannot enter on a Schengen visa and then apply for a Residence visa when here.

You will need proof of medical insurance and a certificate stating you have no previous criminal convictions along with loads of other paperwork 

You have to prove you have an address (either owning property or a long term rental contract) and the proof of income is quite high for a non-EU citizen. I think someone on here mentioned €32,000 per year for a couple and an extra €8000 a year for each dependant. Rather more than a EU citizen who requires around 6000 euro per person.

(I have found official figures which state €2130 per month plus €532.51 for each dependant so about €32000 a year per couple is about right.)

Other things like having an international driving permit (don't be fooled by the international driving licence adverts, there isn't one. You should be able to get it from your local AAA) along with your US one, 

Have a look at this link International Living

Best of luck