Rachael, we have learned that the best way is to have a small(ish) garden, but with what we call a 'borrowed view! Ditto the best way to have a swiming pool is to have a friend who's got one (learned that in Australia!)
Our borrowed view;
our garden stops at the low wall you can see.
Oh Sir Jasper!
Steady on Norman !
A cold shower usually does the trick !
Ah Peter,
those were the days, button-up boots and when the sight of a pretty ankle would send us into spasms of delight! When it took an hour to undo a bodice - oh my stars!!! I remember having no difficulty is discerning between the sexes, and being captivated for hours by many a delightful derriere walking in front of me.
Must have a quiet lie down now, not good for me these memories.
Inevitable BM, we can't escape the 21st century tho' city planners could be a bit more stringent maybe ? Rue St Catherine is becoming more and more 'plastic' & 'neon' with each visit.
Never drive in myself,the public transport is fantastic. Agree on the architecture, the river front is superb. Area around the station is a mess though, some 'welcome' to Bordeaux. Quite like the place though, mind you I catch a whiff of '21 century - any city, anywhere in the world' creeping in.
Quite agree with your assessment Norman. I would imagine the 'men of your age' are far too busy with their mistresses to be roaming the streets hence their spouses being let loose !
A mish-mash of architecture with the opulence of the opera house and the like and some pretty nondescript stuff otherwise. I love the river frontage with the merchants houses and well appointed admin buildings, quite unique in France I think ?
Traffic chaos indeed and a few road signs would help too !
Norman, I have one of those push mowers, no power, cheaper than going to the gym to build up arm muscles! The OH uses an electric one, but I prefer my one. Luckily we have a very small garden! :)
Hi Peter, to be honest I was a little disappointed by Bordeaux, probably because I had taken a higher expectation with me. Not that it was a bad place at all, but architecturally a bit of a shambles, when I was expecting a more composite 'whole'. What did stand out negatively was when we wandered into the Arab quarter which was filthy. One side of the road across the bridge was clean and the other not, very obvious and surprising.
On the good side was the transport system, not that we used it as we walked everywhere. We found some good restaurants and ate in two of them. The shops seemed hugely expensive from their window dsiplays, but as it wasn't a shopping trip in any sense that was just interesting. Traffic in the centre was chaotic which meant that it took a clear hour to get to the airbnb appartment we had booked. This was good, but inconveniently located for public transport, so personally I felt it wasn't worth the €110 per night. That was our choice though as I suppose we thought we might spend a bit more time in it, but as it was hot and we walked upwards of 6-7 hours both days, it was just 'crash time' on our return!
On the positive side we thought the people of Bordeaux were a positive delight and so friendly and even eager to help us. We only hd to produce a map of the City to attract a 'can I help you?' approach - and NOT by anyone begging at all. Overall it felt like a wealthy city, with predominantly young people (everyone seems young to me these days!).
Having said that there were a considerable number of very smart, even elegant older ladies who were a delight to my eyes at least. However I was struck by the apparent lack of men my age. Maybe a chance for an old dog yet?
In summary, interesting but I won't be rushing back in the near future.
Hi Norman, how did you find Bordeaux and where did you end up staying ? (Appart Hotel ?)
Rachael, it is funny how some things become so entrenched you forget they were bought on economy grounds. An example I forgot is my motormower which is powered but not geared, so is still push along. It is an Eco job, but I bought it online from Germany over ten years ago and it still works fine - and helps me with some exercise too. I has a one litre petrol tank, and our mowing land is about 800m2. I fill the tank every FOUR mows, which seems pretty good to me.
Sounds great Norman. I love to hear about ways to reduce costs. Our house is full of treasured vide-grenier items. I adore my "puce" clothes, they go with my slightly eccentric nature. I love mending things too: patching, darning, restoring, rehashing, repainting.... I am currently looking to cut down on food costs...I admit I am guilty of laziness when it comes to cooking, which means we spend a little too much, but I hope to improve on that count. Wish I had more time for veggie gardening (I have a few things growing), but in the main that will have to wait until retirement too.
Rachael, well I suppose everbody's circumstances are different, but having now been 'retired' for over ten years - although I do still work but happily, if not very profitably, for myself, I have found the opposite. In fact 'retirement' means not having to own a suit or 'look' the part - and I was in marketing and advertising where image was almost everything. It also released me from the exes of City dwelling, transportation, entertainment (personal and business) which were always a major part of my living costs.
It was interesting a coupl of weeks back when we indulged in a weekend break in Bordeaux. As I said to SWMBO it was fascinating to walk around and see all the things I can do without! It was refeshing to look at Jeans in shop windows that were priced at €2-300 (really!) knowing I could buy the same things for a couple of euros in a Puce. For the price of a cinema ticket I could buy a dozen DVD's etc. Ditto with books.
I am now a retailer's worst nightmare! I am a Price Comparer in all things - it is my new(ish) hobby. Find the going price at retail then search the web for cheaper prices - never fails.
My laptop is going on for 8 years old now, and still going strong since I learned how to clear out 'cookies', back up external hard discs and dvds. I can now fix most things that go wrong, simply through trial and error - plus learning the magic 'Systeme Restore' button! A whole new world has opened up to me and I have the time and inclination to pursue the alternatives that I never had when I was running my own 'proper' business.
Plus oddly, the onset of Diabetes 2 made looking at what I ate more sensible, plus I had the good fortune to have in place a very good French Cook who was already essentially vegetarian, and makes great and tasty meals which I never knew existed before.
Same principle applies of course, if I can't afford it or really need it, then I don't buy it except as laid out above. I genuinely don't find that hard to do.
Great advice Norman! I do a lot of these things too. Will have to be a lot more strict at retirement though :)
My husband and I don't eat meat. God knows how much our food bill would be if we did. We are doing ok moneywise.
My mate gets sheltered accommodation during the winter months like many other SDFs. I believe he gets some kind of APL or allowance for accommodation tho' i'm not certain. He gets help of some kind. Even SDFs have rights as well as their pride like any of us !
Another chap (plus dog called 'Cravate' because of his white neck) was telling me his usual spot early mornings and late afternoons was slap bang central Limoges where he 'caught' the people going to and from work plus the tourists and passers by. He told me he could make up to €50 per day in the 'good old days' ( a couple of years back) but now he would be lucky to make a tenner ! "Times are hard nowadays" he explained and "people just don't have the spare cash".
Until this year, when my wife received her delayed pension entitlements (she had to stay registered in the system for a further 5 years owing to time spent out of the country and non-documentary supported) and following the refusal of Australia to pay our pensions, we lived on a net €580 a month i.e just under €7,000 a year. We DID receive free medical cover from France and also help on the tax d'Habitation, but that was it.
Plus factors (negatives?) we owned our own house outright, we had no debts whatsover and never have had even before these shocks. 'Can't afford to buy then do without' being our motto. Plus and it is a MAJOR plus we had put away savings during my working years. Not a huge amount but not too bad, and put into two Livrets.
How to save? Well here's a few of the things we did;
Stopped buying meat (expensive and non-essential) Ditto re 90% packaged food products. Reverted to a largely vegetarian and fruit diet. Make our own muesli for example - better and cheaper than Supermarkets.
Use the Puces as direct sources of clothes and even entertainment - eg cheap dvds. Even bought 'entertainment centres' such as CD and DVD players from these sources. Retained the Digital TV bought over 15 years ago and it is still working. Check online for deals on EVERYTHING - can even be fun! The amount of no-charge stuff online is amazing - check archive.org for free music, ebooks, radio shows, films - TOTALLY legal. Buy 100 blank DVD's or CD's and make your own music and film libraries for centimes each.
You will not die of shame by not owning the latest Plasma TV or other gismo. If your friends are those who judge YOU by what you own then p*** them off, you don't need these people.
Moved shopping largely to Lidl, and use the car once or twice a week. Yes, it is easier as a Pensioner in this regard, and having no children, but the question was how to reduce outgoings. Sometimes this takes a certain amount of financial investment daft as it sounds. Buy a breadmaking machine and produce bread at a fraction of the retail price. Buy a blender to make soups etc better and cheaper than packaged products and so on.
OK essentials apart from these. Check your car and other insurance rates EVERY year do not it as granted you are a 'favoured customer' 'cos you ain't! Get a good combined TV,Internet,Telephone rate. Use Skype to contact your family not mobile telephones. Do you REALLY need a mobile or smartphone? I doubt it.
Switch off lights! Put all heating and water heating on timers to get cheap rates - do it once and forget about it. Look at the Eco+ or other bottom shelves for products, look for products on "special' or just past sell- by dates.
Harder in towns to reduce meeetings in restaurants and bars, but advisable. Have animals? They are not as fussy about what they eat as you might think they are - look at the various prices for cans and note the contents are exactly the same at 40 centimes and 80 - and your animals can't read!
That's just a few for starters.
That's interesting Peter...I always wonder where these folks manage to sleep, get their clothes and themselves clean, whether they have free vet care for their pets, etc. As to the 'Romany' beggars outside (here) Lidl and Leaderprice (not the more affluent supermarkets!) we also have stopped giving to them, as we also observed them with tablets and mobiles we can't afford, and begging in two cities very far apart from each other, ie it's a business. Sometimes we do give something for the dogs of the SDF's, and stop for a chat occaisionally. As to the supermarket drives, we are finding these more frequent, so now donate cheap basics such as pasta, rice and spaghetti that we'd eat as a norm here to bulk up a meal, as times is 'ard for many of us now.
As to living on 3K a year, I can only assume if it's per person it's a big family that own the home outright or live rent free!
I believe it was written about 1900, so back then no because that was the Kiez, equivalent of the East End of London.
I chap I know quite well is an SDF and 'works' out of Limoges. He and his mates don't get 'moved on' Jacquie. They go where they choose and where they believe the best income will be. He's a lovely chap, always clean and tidy and polite. He prefers his lifestyle for better and for worse. He and his dog usually head to the south-west (walking or hitching) to the tourist areas like Biscarosse and stay the summer cos' thats where he can earn a living. Limoges is usually his base the rest of the time tho' two winters ago he and his dog called 'Rescap' (the escaped one or the saved one) went over to Lyon for the winter. I've known him for about five years but i've never given him money or food though I did give him an old coat a few years back. I always find something for his dog and he is grateful for that.
