Cost of Living!

Work is going well at the restaurant.  I have been there for a good few days now and although the season, here in Spain hasn´t yet started, we have had a busy few days.  Last night was good.  We cooked for about thirty people.

​The customers were mainly Norwegian.  There is a large Scandinavian community here in Gran Alacant.  Not as large as the British community, but more or less on a par!

Scandinavians are also very different people.  They are firmer, more vocal and opinionated.  This is more about the nature of the people who live in Northern Europe.  To put it quite simply, it is the way they are!  They can come across rude, but this is not the case.  It´s harsher up north as they say!

Zest GA

I am fascinated, why there are so many different enclaves and groups of different nationalities, especially in Gran Alacant and indeed Spain as a whole!

​From what I believe, there are mainly two main reasons.  Northern Europe is of course colder, a lot colder, so it is a natural thing for those who can afford to, to buy second homes here, or relocate to sunnier climbs on the Mediterranean .

​Pensions are also a lot higher in  Scandinavian countries.  On average the state pension alone is worth about 2000€ a month.  That is a huge difference to the basic state pension in The UK, at about 700€!  One Scandinavian pensioner recently told me, they couldn´t possibly spend all of their pension, whilst living here in Spain!

When we finished work, Jamie and myself popped out to Zest for a drink or two.  First day down, it was time to celebrate.  Normally you see familiar faces in the bar but with the season more or less under way, there were a few new faces , so we got totally drunk, or rather Jamie did and I just helped him get home!

Cost of Living!

We bought a car, finally to get round the area.  It is only a cheap run around, as the process of buying cars here in Spain, like everything else is long and tedious! 

Cars are expensive to buy for a start.  Due to the hot weather, they do tend to hold their value.  Often after owning a vehicle for two years, you can still get the same amount of money you paid for it, when selling.

​Like everything else here in Spain, when you buy a car, you have to pay tax.  The amount of tax you pay is based on the value of the care.  Not how much money you paid for the car, but based on a data base of values held by the Government.  There are also a number of other fee´s you need to pay and like everything else here, the process itself is long.

​The Spanish do like their paperwork.  They like paperwork on a massive scale and the different departments, that deal with paperwork at an official level are vast and many.  No single department communicates with another and, it does seem as though one spends ones whole life filling in forms and jumping through official hoops.

​This is really just nothing more than the Spanish way of doing things.  They have always done things this way and it is the way the system actually works.  Well I say works, what actually happens is something completely different.  It works to a point, but actually, in practice it is adding to a very sluggish, economically bad and non people friendly Country, that does need a lot of change in order to move forward successfully, in Europe!

​This all sounds very anti Spanish, doesn´t it.  Well it is not meant to be.  It is about discussing the need, for Spain to change drastically, in order to be the success it deserves.  The high rates of unemployment here, as well as the extreme levels of red tape, is the major stumbling block to Spain building a successful economy, long term.

​Like all major European States, there is much that Spain can do to alleviate its problems.  Sometimes the Political will power, is just not there.  One needs to be bold and brave enough to actually get to grips with what is actually needed in conquering the instability and problems that exist in Spain, making it one of the worst Countries in Western Europe to find a job.  These factors need to change!

​So we bought a car or rather, we have started the process of buying a car.  I have no idea how long the full process will take, God only knows.  It will take as long as it takes. We are in Spain after all.

Mañana

Mañana, probably the most famous of Spanish words, translated into English,  means tomorrow.  The word mañana is used as a derogatory term, meaning ´Put off what you can do today, to tomorrow` Claiming the Spanish are lazy.  ¿But is this really the case?

​Unemployment is high here, it hovers at around 20-25%, which is a huge number of people not working in Spain.  This is the fault of The Government, not the Spanish people.  The antiquated employment laws here in Spain, do not make it easy to gain and sustain employment.  The restrictive contracts and expensive get out clauses are not congenial to long term, credible jobs and needs to be revised.

​Spanish people want to work and those I have had contact with, who do work, work hard, long hours and with less protection than their European compatriots. Mañana  is wrongly contributed to a whole race of people, because it is the way we perceive things here in Spain.  Nothing could be further from the truth!

​Life is harder here.  In fact from my travels and knowledge of Southern Europe life is very different in many ways.  Wages are much lower, up to about 50% lower in fact.  You must factor in the low cost of living, in order to get a true picture of what is actually going on here.  In relative terms, even with lower wages, people are much better off living here in Spain, that is a fact.  When one considers the high costs of housing in The UK.  A similar sized property, where we lived in Southampton would cost on average, 1300€, here the cost is 350€.  You can immediately see, just how much cheaper it is to live here. 

​We have no travel costs  at all, working close to where we live.  Even if we want to go into Alicante, it costs 1.50€ on a superb bus service, you can only dream of in Southampton.  This is for a half an hour journey, which in the UK would probably cost 6€ equivalent.  Food is also cheaper, a lot cheaper here.  For three people we probably spend about 60€ a week, compared to 110€ in the UK.  Petrol costs 99c a litre and 1.50€ in The UK.  The disparity in costs also has its down sides.  Electricity costs three times what it does in The UK and water costs slightly more.  Road tax in Spain costs 70€ a year in the UK it costs 320€. We pay 25€ a month for Wifi here.  In the UK, you have to have a line rental and we paid approximately 45€ a month. The biggest difference in cost are the price of cars.  You can pay 40% more here in Spain for a similar car. 

​There you have it, the cost of living here in Spain.  Life is certainly cheaper.  You absolutely work much harder, but you also enjoy the benefits of living in such a gorgeous Country, with 320 days of sun a year, now that can´t be bad.  We are looking forward to a productive future this year, with more work than we could possible do and we have the satisfaction of knowing that we have finally come home to Spain, left the dregs behind and are finally happy in life!

​Peace and Love always!