Money Matters - January 2009

Money Matters January 2009

At last I have something to be pleased about, the 2 suspicious looking envelopes that dropped through my door yesterday were actually bearers of good news for once. It would appear that my Child Benefit for Raphael, is to be increased to £20.00 weekly and very happily our mortgage payment is to be decreased, imminently.

I have noticed too that our telephone bill this quarter seems to be extraordinarily small at only £44.00.

Argos impressed me when the VAT cut was announced. I had purchased my goods, instore, paid the price quoted and off I went. In the post a couple of days later I received a voucher for the discount earned from the VAT cut. Now that’s good customer relations. Thank you ARGOS.

Eric and I have been following the property movement in our local area and nationally and occasionally, worldwide. I find a certain fascination with owning or “dreaming of owning“, some perfect pad in a far off hot place.

A couple of times we have nearly made it across the water to become property developers but our judgement and research proved we made the right decisions by staying put. Property and land in Bulgaria looked EXTREMELY lucrative and profitable a couple of years ago. We were so excited that Eric even went to Bulgaria to research the country and its culture. He discovered that YES there was plenty of affordable land ...

A run down shack, unbelievably being sold as a dwelling in Bulgaria!

...but the country as a whole appeared to be rather corrupt and unstable. Bulgaria have since joined the EU, easy passage for all Europeans, and the builders. I read recently there are now to many half built apartment blocks, but insufficient buyers to snap the developments up.

But Eric did say that Bulgaria was a very beautiful country and this was one of the spectacular views he took whilst travelling through this wild country.


Spain is a country I have dreamed of moving to for years. As a family we have spent many holidays there and have toured most of Southern Spain, inland and costal.

Competa, Andalucia, Spain

We looked on the internet endlessly at bars, hotels, restaurants with a view to buying and running in our new dream life. Television programmes in the cold winter months in the UK show perfect couples going in search of a new life in the sun. It all sounds and looks very tempting. I bought books for learning the language, books for running businesses and spent many hours dreaming of our idyllic life in the sun. I had not really considered seriously how we were going to be able to afford everything. I did some sums and realised that maybe, just maybe we would be better off staying here in England. The only thing that seemed to be missing from my life here was sunshine.

I talked to Eric endlessly, bored him silly and in the end aggravated him to the point that he went off the idea completely of moving to Spain for good. I suppose I had more or less realised that it would have to remain a dream for now.

Nerja Beach, Costa Del Sol, Spain

My notes I had made giving reasons to stay and reasons to go helped me a lot, a lot cancelled each other out. I really did seem to have my head in the clouds. OK so England rains, we know that, but when it does get warm and sunny we all appreciate it 100%….then after 2 days of a heat wave we are all complaining!

Another plus for staying in England is that Eric likes it here, has lived here for the last 7 years and really APPRECIATES the cool weather. He is originally from hot hot Lebanon and can’t understand why I should ever want to move permanently to a hot country! I guess that’s the English in me and the perception that “The grass is always greener on the other side”. On hold for now.

I watch the currency falling…. No longer is it cheaper to go to the Continent as today the Euro is 1.110 to the Pound. I can remember many years ago, very clearly on our annual holidays to France, that the easy calculation was just to half the Euros to get the equivalent Pounds. Today the cheap cigarettes are no longer “cheap”. If you search you can find almost anything on your own doorstep.

So, just a few thoughts on the money front for January, lets see what next month has in store. Thinking…. property search here in the UK and the value of OUR home.