Is living in Spain really that bad now???

Sanchez - those same chickens that pollero sells for 9 euros, he buys from Lidl for less than a third of that. I have seen him in there  with trolleys full.

Susan

Ah, but does he buy them uncooked and then cook them?  He obviously has to add on his bit for preparation, energy costs, etc. - foodstuff usually has a whopping profit margin!

I'm with the "cook it yourself" mob!  Or just eat out - you can get a menu del dia for about the same!!

Five years ago he could afford to pay the same price for them and sell them on for six euros so I cannot justify the mark up unless his rent has gone up.

This bit of Pats post is priceless

somehow material things are not so important over here, it is the more laid back, generally stress free lifestyle that is important to us. We drive an older car here, in the UK we had a lovely Daimler, over here we drive an ancient  Jeep, but the Daimler would not get through our village streets and the mountain road would have buggered it anyway, so there was no point in bringing it over. I don´t think that Spain is the place for people that are materialistic, surely peace of mind is priceless and I´m sure you will agree with me on that.

I was fortunate enough to drive brand new mercs and jags for 10 years when in buisness in the uk, now I drive a fully legal beat up 02 ford focus called Betsy, I love her to bits, couldn't care less about price of chickens!

Steve

Nice to see a bit of humour on this thread for a change we need more of the same, keep it coming and long live peace of mind.

This is why I love reading the posts on EOS, the digression from "is living in Spain really that bad now" to the price of ready cooked chickens....  It is more expensive here now, so we all have to shop around for the better deals.  The better deals are slowly arriving, I just changed from the ridiculously expensive Vodaphone which I had been a customer for nearly 8 years to Telitec and halved my mobile phone bill in one month. For those that live here, we moved for our own reasons, we either like it or lump it, its never going to change for us, maybe we should change our ideas....

Dear All,

clearly the people forced to leave have done all this, shared the bravado, searched for the bargains, gave up what they could, chickens, greeting cards and w.h.u.

but in the end with no income, they had no choice, however unwillingly they left.

just as all of you will if you are not financially secure against it, no question.

you can't all work for EOS.

count your lucky stars and enjoy it while you can.

wonderful news on the Priors, if there is no endless appeals.

meanwhile if you are passing by and hungry I am sure I can stretch to a chicken or two.

please avoid the "blame them as idiots" scenario that you have dished out to us losers in the past, it rather looks as if the returnees are likely to get the same treatment at the moment.

It may seem gloomy but I don't believe things have bottomed out yet, so be careful whatever you are driving and eating.

Regards

Norman

Norman

We have not crossed swords yet so I will post in reverse, you have come in for much criticism over the months, some justified and some not in my opinion,

I am sorry you have had a bad experience with your purchase. least you still have your health, wife, children and grandchildren.

The price of  chickens is irrelevant.

Steve

Norman

clearly the people forced to leave have done all this, shared the bravado, searched for the bargains, gave up what they could, chickens, greeting cards and w.h.u.

but in the end with no income, they had no choice, however unwillingly they left

They shouldn't have come without proper plans.

just as all of you will if you are not financially secure against it, no question.

Those who planned will be ok, and so will some that just have the knack to get by.

meanwhile if you are passing by and hungry I am sure I can stretch to a chicken or two.

I'm sure your chickens would be delightful

The world is in recession(still), its no different in Spain or GB property slump,, no work much, food prices rising, but Spain is not the Pariah you make it out to be.

Life goes on

Steve

Normansands from your reply it would appear that they are all the same then. I can only speak for what I know and a couple of years back the place was , imo, a cross between butlins & blackpool. Why anyone would want to live in such a place I have no idea. But at times the place had up to 30 break-ins a night. Why anyone chooses to live on an 'urbanisation' I cannot comprehend.

"Sanchez - those same chickens that pollero sells for 9 euros, he buys from Lidl for less than a third of that. I have seen him in there  with trolleys full."  He should go to Aldis, they're even cheaper than Lidl's. lol.

No, I didn't come here with advance planning , I wish I had done but then we might have bought somewhere different with increased costs. Some people live the same as they did in the UK, & if you haven't got the income to support it it's all going to end in tears. Yes, I do things here that I wouldn't have entertained in the UK, cutting wood for the fires,picking olives,pruning trees,etc; Do I enjoy it , some things yes others no,but they've got to be done. Our total outgoings for electric,gas bottles,water,irrigation water, rubbish, council tax,insurance, car tax,ins.Vets bills, etc. Everything except food & diesel is less than 52e a week. Which, in total,is what my council tax bill in the UK was. Is it as cheap as it was,no, but it's still cheaper than the UK. Would I go back ,no never. Even the thought that I might have to go back ( I haven't been back for 5 yrs. )for some reason one day fills me with loathing. I have the opportunity to go back every 10 days as the lad next door delivers produce to the UK & n/ europe and is always asking me, to the extent that it's now getting embarrassing and I might have to go just to placate him. It's definitely quiter her in all areas than it was even 2 years ago,lots of the coastal places are like ghost towns during the week when even a2 yrs. ago you could always see someone. I prefer it but it's not good for the businesses. Still the chickens here have far more taste than anything I ever ate in the UK.

Dear All,

thank you both, great info.

However I suppose no one actually plans to be out of work unless the pot is big enough.

I doubt that Techno could survive without Justin and his long term tenants.

Justin in turn tells us there are no jobs except a few in Gibraltar and he himself cannot find work in his profession.

Gus we may have similarities in that being retired I can afford to play around in the mud (at the moment) looking after family horses, tending to the paddock pumps and the watering with field pipes frozen, plus many extras.

Part of the shock for me was to find that the absolute top luxury closed holiday complex I thought I was investing my life's savings in was, in fact, nothing more than a poorly built council type flat on a scruffy urbanisation, open to all and their unmanaged dogs etc etc etc. They even get visiting swimmers in their little pools and are busy trying to fence themselves in. The 425k price tag was to me almost worthless.

If I cannot wow you with our chickens what about a bit of free range pork, I could stretch to that, I get it in lieu of wages.

I don't actually make out Spain to be anything it is just what is reported here, once I learn to switch the sun on you wont hear from me again.

Keep up the struggle as long as you can.

Regards

Norman

Team GB - Hi Steve. Give our regards to Betsy and long may she reign. Our jeep is much older than that, a few years older and it would have carriage lamps on the front.

Guslopez - I can´t think of anything worse than the ´Blackpool with sun´ situation, obviously a lot of people are happy with that but it is certainly not our cup of tea, that is the reason that we bought inland in a very small spanish village (approx 800 inhabitants).

Norman - Once again, I can´t think of anything worse than the community you tried to buy into. Either a bad choice on your part or very bad marketing on the part of the developer/agent. I can´t think of anyone who would choose to buy there had they been given all of the information and facts. I can certainly see why you have such a negative outlook. Incidentally your life in the UK sounds a better option with ´the horses´and ´the grandchildren´. Hope you eventually get your spanish problem resolved, as whilst you ´won your case´ it is still in limbo and far from satisfactory.

Dear All,

human nature being what it is, you can see the drift.

We who did not complete are idiots, just to begin with, for believing the developer/lawyer/agent/brochure in the first place.

Secondly we are spineless wimps who are not showing the British bulldog spirit and buying in to the fraud, rolling our sleeves up and attempting to salvage the impossible dream.

Dismissed and ignored by the many who are showing that spirit and "making the best of it" regardless.

Though they almost all admit they were conned and only completed because "THEIR" lawyer threatened them with the inevitable (under Spanish Law) loss of their deposit.

Then when they fail because they cannot actually change anything, just tidy it up, they are condemned for not doing their planning, they should have planned for no rentals and ever rising community charges on their miserable urbanisations.

So that is it, we condemn everyone except ourselves.

Oh dear.

Regards

Norman

TeamGB

I have to disagree with this:

The world is in recession(still), its no different in Spain or GB property slump,, no work much, food prices rising, but Spain is not the Pariah you make it out to be.

The majority of the world is now out of recession (including the UK), except for the basket cases like Spain.  The situation in Spain is a lot worse than most other countries as the economy is continuing to deteriorate and unemployment is at almost 20% and is yet to peak...

Dear All,

just a point about community charges.

Our holidays in France have always been in the rural areas where community tax is very low compared to the towns. It may be some sort of agricultural dispensation.

Does this exist in Spain?

It seems that here houses are banded whereever they are, though the district valuer may vary matters a little according to amenity.

this should be taken into account when comparing both countries perhaps.

Regards

Norman

I think it is really sad the way Spain is going, it has basically chopped off the hand that feeds it.

Let look at what the current situation is with all the building/corruption problems it has recently:

A lot of the regeneration has come from other European communities moving or holidaying in Spain and yes a lot of it has come from the Brits.

We were sold this phenomena mainly by the British press and TV who couldn't make enough programmes about how every other country in the world was better to live and work in than the UK! How wrong they were and now all we see on the TV are programmes about all the poor souls who are trapped for various reasons mainly because they can't sell their homes as Spain is seen to be so corrupt nowadays who would want to start a business here and move their family and capital lock stock and barrel?

Lets look at what all this corruption has done for Spain regardless of the economic downturn.

The scenario is someone flying to Spain to buy a holiday or  main home to purchase.

Some of the services they use are as follows:

Flights to Spain

Car hire  or purchase of a car

Tax, Insurance and Petrol  for that car

Restaurants/Bars meals out entertainment

Solicitors

Lawyers

Shops for fixtures and fittings

Builders/Carpenters/Joiners etc

Interpreters

Clothes shops

Purchase of food stuffs

Contributing the local economy via community taxes etc

The list just goes on and on -  does the Spanish government realise the knock on effect this has on jobs? Obviously not.....

They seem more concerned about making peoples lives a misery by threatening to knock down 1000's of homes for whatever reasons they can think of!

Is the Spanish government listening to any of this? I think not.

Shame on you Zapatero.

"We were sold this phenomina mainly by the british press and TV who couldn't make enough programmes about how every other country in the world was better to live and work in than the UK! How wrong they were and now all we see on the TV are programmes about all the poor souls who are trapped for various reasons mainly because they can't sell their homes as Spain is seen to be so corrupt nowadays who would want to start a business here and move their family and capital lock stock and barrel?"

As much as people should not have beleived the hype in the first place they should also disregard the doom and gloom programs now being repeated weekly on British TV.

If you take that much notice of what was on the TV in the UK  then you would only leave the house under armed guard!!!

Spain is hard work,always has been, always will be.

But it's worth it!!!!

KP

yes, well said. Shame on Zapatero indeed. There is no excuse for this abuse, but sadly some of those in a position to change it are very much part of it. The media needs to increase pressure to get this dreadful situation sorted out.

Dear All,

can even the weather be relied upon.

our 30+ year friends in Estepona say it has changed for the worse.

Justin reports two months of rain.

Friends who went to La Quinta for ten days at Xmas say it rained every day.

I recall swimming and sunbathing 56/57 two days before Xmas leave in Gibraltar.

Was that the "good old days".

Would starvation turn us all into bandits I wonder.

Regards

Norman

Brilliant post Norman

As usual you have hit the nail on the head.

your insight is amazing

that 2 weeks rain aweful Im coming home to Blighty

Can i move in with you and help you look after the horses.