We all coool

Play nice now :jeje:

Saludos,
jer...

Without jumping into previous discussions, the following identifies the differences in budgeting preferences people might have...something currently happening in my family. It is an extreme example of differences, so keep that in mind. (Edited by Paul, it was WAY too long)

Next month, by coincidence there are two family reunions (different sides of the family) being held at Lake Tahoe (California/Nevada border), 50 kilometers and 4 days apart. We found out about these reunions even before planning to go to Spain this past March. Due to the remaining vacation days I have, we could only attend one:

Deluxe Reunion - Country club, golf course-side condos, fancy restaurants, casino gambling, expensive activities...very pijo...$100 for fly fishing lessons... (plus, no one in my family plays golf). Sorry, no thanks

Simple Reunion - Campground, hike/bike/fish/swim, campground meals (good cooks), handcranked ice cream, stories around the campfire. our choice

I like family reunions and like people from both groups, but the available cash flow made the choice easy. Wait a minute...maybe we could do the deluxe one if we cut out the tapas bar crawls, museums, restaurants, multimadrid get-togethers, etc., out of the Spain trip. Would that be worthwhile? �ni modo! Not to Irene and me!

However, who am I to judge that it might be for someone else? Neither my nor their lifestyle is necessarily better, just different. One budget does not fit all people, what works for one does not necessarily work for another. Obviously some of my relatives see golf and fly fishing lessons as important social activities.....however, for $100, I could have several very nice bar crawls in Spain, then borrow a library book to learn about fly fishing. (Actually an uncle taught me 20 years ago...all I had to do in return was clean the fish he caught that day :jeje: )

Whatever your budget might be, realize that living or traveling with someone that has different budgetary values can be challenging...on an overnight train to San Sebastian in February, my flatmates wouldn't pay $8 for a litera. When returning from the WC, I found them sprawled across both seats (thus no place for me to sit). Luckily I then got the last litera on the train. These guys spent the whole next day asleep in the hostal, while I spent it outside enjoying the only fair weather day on the 3 day trip. It poured the next two days, and they spent the whole time complaining about it. I valued getting enough sleep to enjoy some rare nice weather in San Sebastian out of season, while they valued saving $8 on a litera.
(OK, I really just needed an excuse to tell the story.)

My points (and yes I do have them) are:

• When making your budget (especially the discretionary portion), be sure the budget reflects and is skewed towards what you value most. "Alhambra, Sagrada Familia, and tapas bars = valuable to us" but "fly fishing lessons and green fees = not valuable to us".
  
• What someone else budgets for (a reflection of what they value) might be different than you. Not better, not worse...just different. For us, paying the same for a 4-night stay in a golf course-side condo as we paid for our Spain airline tickets seems crazy, but hey...different strokes.
  
• Try to reach the optimal solution based upon what you value, which usually means comprimises. For us, "optimal" meant being able to go to Spain, as well as spend several days being with relatives that I don't get to see very often. :cheers: Our comprimise is staying in a tent instead of a country club condo. (Actually I like camping and that side of the family better, so it was an easy comprimise :jeje: )
  

Maybe some of us with Spain travel or living experience can work towards a budget range to help people out, including qualifiers that indicate expectations of level of living, activities, etc.

Paul

PS My mom and dad will be driving up from San Diego to attend both reunions. For the deluxe reunion will probably stay in a campground a few miles from the country club...at 76 and 71, they still think camping is fun!

Hey Redwood!
Can you share any of your killer soup recipies!

I'm thinking we could add cost cutting tips to swap with eachother for those looking to live well, and cut corners where it matters!

For example: with some stuff like certain cleaning products and buckets, and cleaning towels, I have an aunt that swears by the 'chinos' the 1euro shops. You spend LOADS less on certain products for the same thing! They have this one cleaning product- anti grease that's AWESOME! Better than the name brand stuff. Its safe- I even have a friend whose father works for a company that cleans chemical spills and the hulls of big ships and they buy the same product in mass quantities! So imagine how well it cleans! So def. look to these places for certain items

Espe3,

Of course we can exchange soup recipes. I LIVE for the CHINO stores. They are like our DOLLAR TREES here. That's another way of saving money and you can get many things for the piso there like knick knacks and pots and pans.

I forgot about that. Thanks for reminding me. I also think that it would help if we could report just for one month a budget that we used that would give people an idea of how we are living. I could give a report for the month of July.

Shawn

Paul!!! As usual you have come up with the goods!!!!! I absolutely agree completely with your post

Redwood- I think that's a really good idea

I'm still about a month and a half (hopefully, I'm keeping my fingers, toes and just about everyting I can think of crossed!) from being able to finalize my trip details (I'm shooting for September), but I could totally do that when I get there.

The Chinos- yes, and for many many useful and necessary items for the home What will they think of next?!

I'm off to do some research- taking advantage of my days off! More to report later!

quote:

El Corte Ingl�s supermarket and Champion also accept credit cards while D�a & Lidl DO NOT

Jer, I think it depends on the store (Dia/Lidl) that you go to. The D�a near me accepts credit cards (well, at least a debit card and generally where they accept one they accept the other)...and when Chico goes shopping, he uses a credit/debit card and has never had problems using it at Lidl.

However, at D�a (at least) there is a minimum purchase that you must make (I think 12-15�) if you want to use the credit/debit card.

aaaaah! So ok, I did the great idea of the virtual Corte shopping trip and it was going very well until I realized that this brings up a whole NEW issue about grocery shopping: I have no idea how much is a normal amount of fruit or fish! HELP! Is 1kg of fish a lot? is 1kg of fruit a lot? I am definitely going to need help with this part, and then I realized that I have to write all that stuff down for the gym too! All of the amounts I lift at the gym, gonna be totally different aren't they!?!? AAAAH! hahaha Anyone?? Anyone??

1 kilo- depending on what you're buying IS alot!

1 kilo is 2.+ pounds (I'm not sure the EXACT conversion someone help me out here!)

Think more along the lines as far as cold cuts go... 250grams or even 500 (which is alot) the kilos you'll use more for bulk items, fruit, potatoes, even meat (depends on what for so fish could be either also...) etc. I wasn't thinking and ordered 500 grams (that's ALOT) of jamon york one time.. won't do that again! Depends on how many people you're buying for. If I can find a conversion scale somewhere, I'll post it so we'll have a working reference

Found it!

U.S. to Metric
Capacity Weight
1/5 teaspoon =1 milliliter
1 oz = 28 grams
1 teaspoon=5 ml
1 pound = 454 grams
1 tablespoon =15 ml
1 fluid oz=30 ml
1/5 cup =47 ml
1 cup =237 ml
2 cups (1 pint) =473 ml
4 cups (1 quart) =.95 liter
4 quarts (1 gal.) =3.8 liters


And Metric to US
Capacity Weight
1 milliliter = 1/5 teaspoon
1 gram =.035 ounce
5 ml = 1 teaspoon
100 grams =3.5 ounces
15 ml = 1 tablespoon
500 grams= 1.10 pounds
100 ml = 3.4 fluid oz
1 kilogram =2.205 pounds
240 ml = 1 cup= 35 oz
1 liter =34 fluid oz or 4.2 cups or 2.1 pints or 1.06 quarts or 0.26 gallon

That should help!

Queensita and for those of you not as acquainted with the Spanish shopping culture as you would like to be (or think you are)...

Let me share a story of mine...true!

So, when we were living in El Espinar (Segovia) I loved the charm of going to all the individual stores to get the shopping done.... the fruteria, carniceria, panaderia, pescader�a...you get the point.

The first few times I went, I was at a total loss (measurements..I already had them down pat). Being a small town, everyone was extremely sociable..stopping to chat on the street, catching up on the gossip...what Mar�a in the piso next door was doing, when Fulanito, who was building a new house, was going to be finished...yadda yadda yadda...

I would enter in one of the above mentioned shops (take your pick) and be confronted with a gaggle of women all yammering about the mundane things they found oh-so-important in their lives. And above all this din and chatter, the pescadero or carnicero or frutero or panadero would shout "next!" (siguiente!) and invariably one of the women would separate herself from the gaggle responding "me!" (yo!)

Ok, so I couldn�t figure out, how the heck they knew who was next. Afterall, there wasn�t an orderly of line of people patiently waiting their turn... Oh-noooo....just a gaggle of women pushing and shoving to see how fresh the fruit, fish, meat ....etc was..all while laughing and chatting each other up.

Arrrghhh!

One day, as I was trying to patiently wait and figure out who was the last person in line, another woman walked in after me and said a simple word, "last?" (la �ltima?)...immediately the woman who was drooling over the half lamb--cut open laterally (medio lechal) spun around and said "yo!". And the newcomer responded with something along the lines of, "Ok, I�m after you then".

It took me a split second realize how this line organizing thing worked and quickly jumped in to say "no, sorry, I am the last one" and then kept a sharp eye on lamb-woman so I wouldn�t lose my "place in line"..

When I told my friends and family of this shopping experience, they totally bust out laughing. Can�t tell you how excited my mom was to go shopping with me last summer, and although she doesn�t speak a lick of Spanish, I gave her enough clues that she could be the one shouting "yo!" at the appropriate moments. And she was just so pleased with herself!

So, the moral of this story is...when you go food shopping and you see a group of people (an unformed line as I call them) and you don�t see a numbered ticket machine (or people holding little slips of paper) just ask "la �ltima?" to find your place in line (and then quietly snicker if it�s a man who responds to your question! :jeje:

Hwy Chica, great story!!!

Actually, you had it easy with the "�la �ltima?" since that is much easier to understand than the phrase I was exposed to in my shopping inauguration MANY moons ago.

You see, I am the main shopper of the family (Ena & I :l: ) and I am the one to hit the fruter�a, carnicer�a, panader�a, pescader�a...etc... on Saturday mornings.

Ok, the phrase I heard was "�Qui�n da la vez?". This pretty much means "Who gives the turn?" or in other words, "who is the last one?" but it threw me for a loop as it is more complex than "�la �ltima?".

Saludos,
jer...

p.d. I also take offense when I am amongst the gaggle of "marujas" :jeje: and another arrives and asks �la �ltima? simply because I am "el �ltimo"

So, �Qui�n da la vez? is more gender nuetral

I don't feel ofense at all when some ask 'la ultima', in fact I enjoy it. It's a kind of joke to ask always for 'la ultima', specially when there are no women.

hahahah awesome Chica, yeah, that I have experienced while going shopping with Spanish mom, no worries. I am ready for the "ultima" part! I'm just afraid I'm going to order like 4,000 strawberries and have everyone being like "WHAT" hahaha. We shall see! I think Spanish mom is gonna have to give me some lessons...

Well, Chica. I found that out the way that you did. It was funny and I remember those special things. I even tell that story to my students and my other situations in Spain and they laugh. They like seeing the human part to study abroad.

Shawn