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Living economically

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  • Living economically

    Good afternoon. I live with my wife in a street where there is only one other occupant and he is kindly showing me how to use a computer and the internet to pass the time. My nearest neighbours have become our best friends and without them, I am not sure how we would survive here.

    My wife and I are both old age pensioners and realise now that moving to live in Spain was the biggest mistake we ever made. Still, no looking back now and we just have to get on with it. The pension is less every month because of the dropping pound and so we have devised methods of making it stretch. We do not smoke and only have the odd bottle of wine. We do not go out eating either and share meals with our nearest neighbour for a change and play cards. We lost a lot of money on television installation and so cannot afford it back on so read and listen to the radio and watch videos kindly loaned to us. To save a little on the groceries, we get up late, have a late breakfast or early lunch then an evening meal. Two meals a day instead of three saves quite a bit.

    We are not asking for charity and having made our bed so to speak, have to lay on it. Others survive difficult times and so shall we.

    Now, please may I ask a few questions:

    Does anyone know if there are any charity shops we can visit that sell warmer clothes, video films and books ? We have been offered a lift to any in the area.

    Are there any libraries or similar around here ?

    We never had a Lidls near us where we were from. Here, we have always shopped at Mercadona but have been told Lidls is cheaper. We wondered if it was from people's experience ?

    Many thanks in anticipation for replies received.
    Editado por última vez por Thomas39; https://torrevieja.com/forums/member/3011-thomas39 en , 13:17:04.

  • #2
    Firstly not eating out is a mistake.

    You can get excellent Menu del Dia everywhere including Chinese food and this cannot be beaten even by cooking at home. Most cost 9 Euros or less and include bread, drink (including wine) salad main course and dessert.

    The Chinese at Punta prima centre even give you a second bottle of wine to take home!

    There are loads of Lidl and Aldi also Plus which are very cheap and good quality.

    There is a very good help centre in San Miguel and they help out with all of your requirements I cant remember the exact name but am sure someone will know

    Pound exchange rate is probably temporary as the currency markets are in flux at the moment

    Look on the bright side you will not have massive heating bills this winter and can look forward to blue skies in December!

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    • #3
      Living economically

      What area do you live in? If you are close to Torrevieja, there is an Alzeimers Charity shop in the town, just by the church square and they have lots of winter woolies and nice clean clothes for the winter and videos and lots and lots of books, plus Torrevieja also have Help the Aged charity shop and also the Cancer Research do too (not too sure if that one is up and running just yet). The markets are your best bet for fruit and veg, you don't have to buy a pack of 6 apples you can just buy 2 if you wish and Lidl and Aldi are probably cheaper than Mercadona, you can buy a whole chicken in Lidl for 3 euros and for the two of you, you could probably make 3 meals out of that, apparently as you get older you don't eat as much.
      As already said, a visit to the local Chinese restaurant is very good value, if you go lunchtime they often do a special price and it can be under 5 euros each including wine.

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      • #4
        Agree about the chinese very good value. Try different bars for a change of scenery most bars have house wine and olives or nuts for about €1.10 or 20 they do round where we live. It's nice to sit in the late afternoon sun for an hour a day and have a drink, also many have English papers you can read for free. Ask around re swapping books there's about 6 or 7 of us swap round here also jigsaws. Your winter fuel allowance should more than cover your heating. look in the local free papers for clubs near you depends on your taste but they seem to cover most interests. Don't buy everything in the same shop prices vary so much. If you are not already on it switch to Europa for your internet and phone calls even if you go over your monthly allowance of €15 you are still only charged 1 cent per minute to the UK and they give you a number for your friends and relatives to use so they can ring you for just the cost of a local call in the Uk, so they have no excuse for keeping in touch.

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        • #5
          If you have a problem with Europa a friend showed me Freecall which does the same thing. It's wonderful to be able to phone people at home for virtually free.

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          • #6
            As for T.V why not just get a 85cm dish and receiver total cost around €100 (from Leroy Merlins) ask Englishbullterrier (from this forum) to help you install it,
            you will be able to watch for free, BBCnews,SkyNews,BBCi(for sports) 4 English film channels,travel channels,various other watchable channels.

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            • #7
              Quick question, why arent your family helping out?

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              • #8
                Many thanks for the helpful comments and suggestions. Increasingly, my wife and I realise that we have made a terrible mistake and so, very fortunately, our son, who we supported through University and so on has agreed to help us move back home and the house here is to be auctioned off for the best price. It will be a great relief for both of us. We came on a sunny day to see the area and made the mistake of thinking that we liked it. My wife now hates it here and I suppose difficulties surviving on the pension and loneliness have added to that sense of despair. I never realised life here would be so difficult and we have noy coped at all well with things not made easy by the difficulties with our house and area and the enormous bureaucracy. I wish you all well.

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                • #9
                  Living Economically

                  Depending where you are living there is an Age Concern shop/office on Calle de Purcell La Siesta also there is a charity library o Calle Weber La Siesta one day a week not sure of the day but they always advertise in the free papers
                  Hope this information is of some use to you.

                  Regards
                  Pete

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