How to save money in Spain

How to Save Money on Fuel in Spain

More and more supermarkets and businesess in Spain are beginning to hook up with petrol stations, and offer discounts. Carrefour offers 4% off with Cepsa, and you get your 4% back in your Carrefour club card. The good thing about this scheme, is if you also have a Cepsa card, you will still get points towards your Cepsa card balance.

Dia supermarkets also offers a 3% discount with Shell petrol stations. Shell also offers a loyalty card called Clubsmart. For every liter of fuel that you put in your vehicle you will get one point. When you sign up, you initially get 200 points towards your balance.

Check Your Supermarket Receipt

How often do you check our supermarket receipt? The other day as I was paying for my grocery bill in the supermarket, I thought it was a bit high. When the check out assistant gave me the receipt, I stepped to one side and checked it. To my surprise, I had been charged for freezer bags that at Euros1,41 I had never purchased, and I had also been over charged by 60 cents on avocados that I had bought. Funnily enough, the lady behind me had also been charged for freezer bags that she had never bought. In total I had been overcharged by Euros 2,01.

Not everyone leaving the supermarket checked their receipts, but I keep on wondering if they had been charged for freezer bags as well. One hundred shoppers would have mean another extra Euros 141,00 for the supermarket without anybody having bought them.

Get Coupon Savvy

One of the best ways to get more vouchers from your local supermarket, is by being disloyal. Two eeks ago, I was “disloyal” to one of the supermarkets that I do my weekly shopping in. The next week, I was given a 10% discount off their meat counter. As they had some really good offers on, I popped into to claim my discount. My purchases from the meat counter came to Euros 12,10 and yes, I did get my 10% off at the till. A fantastic saving altogether with good prices on meat and my extra 10% discount.

You can pick up saving coupons online in Spain. Check out sites such as www.cuponesespana.com. Sign up for their newsletter, and they will let you know when they have coupons available. They also have a sister site where you get free samples.

Buy Generic Medications

If you are not entitled to the Spanish National Health, you may be paying out a small fortune for medications. Saving money by buying generic medications is a good idea, and most pharmacies do stock generic medication. It is just a matter of asking for it. The most popular pharmaceutical company here in Spain is called Normon, and they are based in Madrid. All of their products are produced in Spain, and are excellent qualities. If you would like to know more about Normon, check out their website.

Saving Money on Currency Transfer

No, you don't save money by transferring your money in between the UK and Spain using Paypal. It is actually a very expensive way to transfer money in between two countries. I know that a lot of people advocate doing it, but it is really expensive. If you truly want to save money on foreign exchanging currency, you should use a specialist such as an expat currency transfer company. Yes, a local paper recently recommended Paypal, but it is way too expensive. Another service similar to Paypal called Propay was also mentioned. It can work out expensive so check things out carefully before you proceed. All in all, it is better to use a professional foreign currency exchange service. You will be able to speak to somebody in your own language, and the company may even have an office near you.

Private Expat health insurance is becoming more and more popular. Lots of people now think that national systems such as the NHS are close to collapse. The truth is that many national governments are under huge strain and are having a tough time offering good quality medical cover. But, is health medical insurance worth it and how you can save money on your expat health insurance policy? Should expats rush to take out health insurance to ensure medical cover before Brexit goes through?

Are You Healthy Enough for Your Expat Health Insurance Company?

If you are considering taking out expat health insurance, it is worth considering your "good points". That is a funny statement to make but it is very true. So, what are your good points? If you are a non-smoker, you can certainly consider this as being one of your good points. Most insurers will load, or make your expat health insurance premium more expensive, when you are a smoker. 

Another good point which can help is being the right weight for your height. Obesity, and overweight, brings a whole host of health problems. Most doctors will tell you to lose weight if you are overweight, so make sure that you are a healthy weight when you take out private health cover.

If you are a regular gym goer, or exercise a lot, it may help you to get lower premiums. It is well known that people with a healthy lifestyle suffer less health problems. Also, don't forget that alcohol comes into it. Your insurer is much more likely to offer you a better rate when you are not a "big drinker".

How to Self Insure for Expats

This sounds really funny to most people, but I came up with the idea when I lived in the States. In the United States health insurance is a real minefield and very expensive. Even though I was young when I lived in the US, my health insurance used to cost me a lot of money per month. 

To reduce cost, I reduced cover but I started to put money into a savings account instead. The money was meant to build up, and help me to cover any extra medical costs. Fortunately, I never needed it, but I have kept the idea going and I still put away a little bit of money every month.

How to Pay for Expat Health Insurance

How you pay for private medical insurance can save a lot of money. If you are able to prepay for a whole year, you may find that you will get some better rates from your insurance company. I pay for mine a year at a time, and I do this by saving money in a savings account. When my premium is due, I simply use this bank account to pay for my health insurance. This way I do save a lot of money by the end of the year. 

Expat health insurance is a very competitive business, and don't forget to get several quotes. Make sure that you compare the quotes from expat health insurance providers. It is all about value for money and making sure that you are getting the right cover for your circumstances.

Saving money is a bit like a journey. When you go on this journey, you will find many different avenues to explore and you will learn a lot. Not everything that you learn is complicated or very involved or complicated. If you try to make it too complicated, you often don't end up saving any money at all.

Supermarket Loyalty Does Not Pay

One thing that I have learned is that supermarket loyalty does not pay. Since the middle of last year, I have been a very disloyal supermarket shopper. One week I have been going into Carrefour, the next Consum and then Mas Y Mas. Not only have I been able to build up loyalty bonuses, or cash back on my supermarkets cards quicker, but I have also been issued with a lot of discount vouchers off my next shop.

In other words, I have been playing the field. Going into different supermarkets every week, has meant that I have been issued with a steady stream of discount vouchers off every day foods such as meat, fruit, vegetables and fish. It has really helped me to cut down on my grocery bill. At the moment, Carrefour seems to appreciate their disloyal customers more than the rest, and I have been getting 20% of daily necessities.

But my biggest saving was on dog food in Consum. I was giving a Euro 5 discount voucher for their own brand dog food. They already had a special offer on 10 kilo of dried dog food, so I walked out with 10 kilos of dog food for Euros 2.85. That is what I call a saving!

Generic Products Are Good

Not all generic are great, but many of the are good. I have started to use a lot of generic cleaning products for my humble abode. Has it saved me money? Yes, it has saved me a lot of money. Needless to say, it is worth looking out for offers, but I never go for offers like buy one get one half price. I find those offers confusing.

Once again, it is Consum that has come out on top. I have no other ties to Consum than my loyalty card I hasten to add, but it seems to work for me. Now when I receive my “descuentos personalizados” (personal discounts), I get personal discounts on washing up liquid, laundry detergent, floor cleaner and fabric softener every month. The products are not more expensive than other supermarket's generic products, and every bit as good. Those little extra discounts add up to about Euros 2.50 per month.

With my other personal discounts from the same supermarket, I end up with a bonus cheque for at least Euros 6. Somehow it always pays for my washing up liquid, detergent and conditioner for the next month. It is a bit like being “carbon neutral” on important household items. If you like, they cost me nothing to buy.

Ask for a Better Deal

I have learned to ask for a better deal. There is nothing like the power of almost walking away from an electrical shop. My beloved steamer and microwave both decided to pack up this year. As we all know, electrical goods can be expensive in Spain and do not seem to last as long.

Any way, I can't live without either gadget, so I had to spend out some money. At first, the guy in the store was playing hard ball, so I told I would come back another day. Low and behold, a fancy new microwave which would have cost Euros 70 ended up costing Euros 54. I did have to pay full price for the steamer, but the guy seemed to be keen to clear his stock of microwaves.

Next time I need something, I will try to be a loyal customer and return to the same store. Who knows, he may even do me a good deal as well. After all, he asked me for coffee...

Yes, so you can certainly save money when you try. Remember that disloyalty pays. Before I go, a bit of a heads up. The supermarket chain Eroski seems to be having a bit of a crisis moment. They have sold off some of their stores to Carrefour and some of the company's franchise stores have closed down. If, you happen to have an Eroski loyalty card with money on it, make sure that you spend that cash. They seem to keep it rather quiet when they close a store down leaving you with a card balance. On top of that it is not easy to spend your Eroski loyalty cash online. All too often a message pops up, informing you that they do not service or deliver to you area. The end result is money lost and nothing to show for it. Please note that this does not affect any Travel Club points that you may have. That scheme carries on functioning in the same way as before.

How is climate change going to affect your economy? Is it going to make daily living costs more expensive, or are energy costs going to go down? Some argue that we are going to spend less money heating our homes, but I am not sure if that is going to have an effect. Perhaps we will spend more time cooling our homes instead.

Will Climate Change Affect Food Prices?

Knowing how climate change will change daily living costs is hard to predict. Food prices keep rising all of the time, and I wonder if they will rise more when climate change really takes hold. After all, it could become more difficult to grow fresh fruit and vegetables if more UV rays reach the earth. It could mean that more more and vegetables would have to be discarded. The alternative is that we would have to invest in giant growing centers. Who would end up paying for those? In the end, I am pretty sure that the consumer would end up paying for them.

Taxing Energy Use

Energy is another thing that is likely to occur further taxes. Some countries are talking about putting an energy tax on even green energy to make sure that we implement more energy saving ideas into our homes. Of course, insulting your home against a hotter climate using environmental friendly materials is unlikely to be cheap.

Will Climate Change for a Tax on Water Usage?

Water is yet another issue. If there are less water available for us to use, the price of water will go up. So will the cost for waste away. Pay as you use meters are likely to become more common, and some even talk about a water usage tax.

How Much Tax can You Afford to Pay?

How much tax can you actually afford to pay? We pay a lot of tax already, and it seems that it is only the very rich who can afford to find the right tax exemption advice. It might be a good idea to plan ahead and maybe even start to save towards future living expenses. One thing is for sure, the future is not going to be cheaper.

It is time to find out how you can save and make money. Keep an eye on foreign exchange rates and perhaps put them to good use. Saving in the traditional way is not doing us a lot of good at the moment. Taking a look at creating your own investment portfolio. It can be made up out of foreign currency investments, pensions plans and online trading portfolios. Stock trading online could be an excellent way of saving for the future.