My hubby does this goes to the UK on friday morn back mon night.Sounds blinding but has down its falls,delayed flights are the worst,hanging around at the airport is not much fun,as we have no property in UK he stays in hotels.And many it is not a healthy way to live.
A lot depends on what you do,also when we first came over the exchange rate was brill now its shit we have lost about 1500 euros a month.
He cant carry on doing this forever so we are returning to the UK.
look up airport website , tell you if there on time are not , well close to Alicante , i get the person to ring once thaat land airside off the building so take 20 mins to come throught
Sputnik I know a lot of people around here (Costa Blanca) that do it, but many not out of choice - ie due to the exchange rate they have had to revert to one of them being on UK wages just to survive. You have to budget travel costs carefully, flights vary massively through the year and there are all the costs of to and from airport travel both ends, plus accommodation etc - I know some people who make it work very well, and others who are very unhappy with it and seeing it as a stopgap whilst they sell up and move back. I also know some kids who are finding it very hard not seeing one parent for days at a time, which may or may not apply to you but needs thinking through very carefully.
Good luck whatever you decide and I think the important thing is to keep it flexible - could you do more of your work remotely / find local clients for what you do? You’re going into it the right way thinking what kind of lifestyle can I create, rather than what is ‘normal’ or predictable!
For what it’s worth, I think doing this week in week out would be such as a grind as to outweigh the benefits of spending a long weekend in Spain. As one of the previous posters has suggested, why not try to work remotely (if possible) and only travel to the UK once every two weeks?
As far as travelling is concerned, I am sure you can get a good deal if you block book your flights for every weekend, but there will be significant seasonal variation and you could be looking at ?40 return off-peak becoming ?200 on-peak. Have you figured out transport to/from the airport - what will that cost?
It is interesting to note that some people in Spain are HAVING to work back in the UK just to earn enough to survive whereas I had always viewed it as an ideal opportunity to improve my lifestyle by spending more time next to the sea, swimming, eating good food, etc.
Good luck whatever you decide and please let us know how you get on.
Yes every week may be a bit of a bind but like I say I have done alot of travelling in the past so still considering it I could also possibly just work 3 days in the uk and the balance in Spain.
The reasoning behind this is that I am not able, due to personal circumstances, to move to Spain full time but would consider this “halfway house” approach for a short time fix until I can take on a job in Spain.
the people I know who currently work abroad and live in Spain do not travel on such a regular basis.
Several work on the oil rigs and such. So 3 weeks working, 1 week in spain. If you stretch it out like this you would also be able to dodge the peek holiday times and save on the substantially higher flights fees, etc…
airline work on Mon up 12 noon hight prices thr fri up 12 noon hight prices all day sat sun ..... tue wed thr eveings are cheap prices
but ryan air have sale again two day
Me and the wife have been working out what we want to do and want to move to spain. However, what with the credit problems and recession its dented our plans somewhat.
However, I work in computers and my company allows me to do 2 days work at home and 3 days in the office (although I can do more at home if need be). This is quite flexible as I can be home for personal deliveries, cook lunch, etc. I am now thinking of making a proposition to my bosses about possibly relocating to Spain and making frequent visits back to the office for such things like meetings.
They can’t tell me that distance will be an issue as I have already proved that distance isn’t a problem as I am in the middle of being responsible for managing projects which we offshored to India to save money. They are doing the same work which I do (albeit in a bad way but thats another story - don’t offshore to India!!!).
As long as I can get broadband and am not too far from a main airport (e.g. madrid or barcelona) it wont be an issue. The problem I have is that I need to speak with them (my bosses) of my intentions which is practically showing my cards on the table so to speak. I’m willing to take a pay cut as my day to day expenses will be cheaper. I could even chnage from being permanant staff to ‘contract’. Only question is how frequent I need to fly back and the costs of that plus hotel in uk.
I would like advice from those who do something similar. Is the travelling too much trouble? Is the cost of living in spain no different to uk nowadayss? Is it worth the risk of even asking my bosses? Remember, I’ll be letting them know my intentions and we’ve already have several spates of redundancies at work so its high’ish risk. They might just say no and wait for me to resign knowing they wont have to make me redundant (as they think I will leave eventually).
What should I do??? Would love to do my current job in Spain as it would allow us to earn an income over there until we try and get our business plans up and running after the recession is over.
Too risky to ask? Or stick with working in the uk? Or just quit the job anyway and come over to spain?
Is the travelling too much trouble? Is the cost of living in spain no different to uk nowadayss?
I think Spain is still cheaper for most things, but the difference is now fairly marginal. Earning in sterling and spending in euros will neutralise most of what you save, although hopefully the pound will bounce back a bit in coming months. The difference in cost of living between one part of Spain and another is even greater than two areas in Britain. You’re talking about Madrid and BCN, which are unsurprisingly amongst the most expensive places to live. Flights aren’t getting any cheaper, either. As for the hassle of travelling, small airports are much less stressful. We use Granada and Almeria on a regular basis and they offer a relaxing experience compared to somewhere like Barajas, or even Malaga. As for your job in the UK, my inclination would be to keep my head down for now and think myself lucky to be earning and saving towards the launch of my business in hopefully better times - but maybe it’s different in your line of work.
Steve you are in a similar position re your business associates to that I found myself in a year or two back- except that the business climate was very different then. I was able to make a good case for how my relocation wouldnt impact on the business at that time - and guess what, since I moved business has declined massively. I don’t think anyone would be naive enough to say that’s due to my move but it doesnt look good! I know I’d have a much harder time convincing people now, and so far as my business partner is concerned I am sure the jury’s still out.
For myself I am still very glad I stuck with my plans, the move has been a good one, although obviously with the exchange rate I have less in my pocket than I anticipated in the planning, life is still a bit cheaper and happier here than in Surrey. The broadband has been reliable (more so than for some of my UK colleagues snowed in in January!), the time difference is only an hour, and some of my clients still don’t know I’m here..! I have made one trip back, packed in a load of back to back meetings, and plan to do the same every quarter at least… everything else can be done by phone or online. All my colleagues work from home anyway so my day to day interactions are unchanged (I just irritate them with MSN icons of beaches and palm trees). Shopping around carefully for flights, flying at unpopular times, and staying with all the friends who fancy free hols in Spain, help keep costs down.
Feel free to ask any questions that can help, I reckon if you can then go for it - but have all your business case arguments well planned before you bring it up. At the end of the day you are gambling on how important you are (and your wellbeing and remaining motivated) to them… tricky one to take a punt on. Is there someone you could confidentially sound out before putting all your cards on the table..?
Yes, its a tricky one this. I don’t really have anyone who I can speak to about it apart from colleagues at the same level as me. The fact is that most of my work related colleagues spend time at home as well and all communique is done either by phone, email, or MSN (oh, how I would love to display pictures of my own sunny villa 😉.
Buenasdiaspet, I’ve been reading your blog on your webpage - respect to you, but I’m sorry to hear your business back home is slowing down.
(oops, sorry sputnik for sabotaging your original post - hopefully the responses will be all relevant)
