Immigrating to the UK

AdrianH said:
@Dave @Priapus @Tman*

So if an average 4 bed, 2 bath, 2 garage house in SA in the average suburban neighbourhood sells for R2mil, how much ZAR must a Saffer bring over to buy a similar size house in UK, which would be about £500k.

Let's do the maths....

R2mil / 24 (exchange rate give or take) * 6 = £500k
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Stop trying to directly convert and use rands for UK purchases, that’s the first and biggest mistake. When a person is working here they don’t get paid in rands…
 
Dave said:
Stop trying to directly convert and use rands for UK purchases, that’s the first and biggest mistake. When a person is working here they don’t get paid in rands…
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It’s the same mistake most Saffers make when they first get here: “OMG I just bought a box of smokes for R280!” Thankfully, it usually rights itself pretty quickly. Normally after that first fat pay cheque in £££ hits their bank account.
 
The Voice said:
It’s the same mistake most Saffers make when they first get here: “OMG I just bought a box of smokes for R280!” Thankfully, it usually rights itself pretty quickly. Normally after that first fat pay cheque in £££ hits their bank account.
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Anybody that says they didn't do this when they first arrive is either a liar or narcissist.
 
Priapus said:
Why haven’t you moved there?
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This is an extremely long tale which involves marriage, divorce, multiple SA businesses and quite a few local assets. I am busy unbundling my affairs, but I haven’t decided on UK vs EU for my move.

Tl;dr - was stupid, started a life in SA based on UK money and now it’s hard to change.

Tl;dr2 - stayed in SA for love, love didn’t last
 
Dave said:
Yes, gas and electric. Tracker has been a lot cheaper than standard over the year, even now it’s still only about 5p per kWh for gas. I’m sitting on about £400 in surplus credit after keeping my direct debit at £90 through the year.

Here’s my previous bills

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Thanks, very interesting and I'm going to keep it in mind. Looks like the obvious catch is that prices can go above the cap and if you then leave you have to wait 9 months before you can join again. Makes sense but also a bit of a gamble, however, those savings are great. Well done!
 
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Dave said:
Yes, gas and electric. Tracker has been a lot cheaper than standard over the year, even now it’s still only about 5p per kWh for gas. I’m sitting on about £400 in surplus credit after keeping my direct debit at £90 through the year.

Here’s my previous bills

View attachment 1627261
View attachment 1627263
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That’s really good. My bill this month was a little on the insane side. EDF without a standard debit is so ****.
 
The Voice said:
Previous place we lived in for over two years had no condensation on the windows in the mornings and no miff anywhere. Windows are soaked every morning here and have miff spots showing up now, so thankfully my new dehumidifier arrives tomorrow.

Double-glazing definitely does the trick - don’t have the heating on and it’s a cozy 20C.
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Opening up the curtains when we go to bed seems to help keep the condensation to a minimum and wiping down everything with HG mould spray keeps the mould away. HG says not to use it on paint but it doesn’t actually damage the paint at all.
Keen to know how the dehumidifier works. Haven’t no condensation is no doubt better than doing things to deal with it.
 
Brrr.

Love the scheduled warm up though...

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Paul Kemp said:
A good 10 minutes of scraping ice and warming up the engine on my old jalopy.
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Ja the neighbour is sitting in his car with the engine running waiting for it to warm up... Felt almost sorry for him


Even worse it's a diesel. They take forever to heat up compared to petrol. My diesel merc back in 1999 had an auxiliary heater that fired up below 8 degrees air temp to heat the cabin...
 
Sinbad said:
Ja the neighbour is sitting in his car with the engine running waiting for it to warm up... Felt almost sorry for him


Even worse it's a diesel. They take forever to heat up compared to petrol. My diesel merc back in 1999 had an auxiliary heater that fired up below 8 degrees air temp to heat the cabin...
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I’m in a diesel, another 10 minutes of driving before the heater is even remotely warm.
Once we get into the -6 region the engine actually gets colder when you sit in traffic. Bizarre.
 
Paul Kemp said:
I’m in a diesel, another 10 minutes of driving before the heater is even remotely warm.
Once we get into the -6 region the engine actually gets colder when you sit in traffic. Bizarre.
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Your thermostat may be stuck open...
 
Paul Kemp said:
I’m in a diesel, another 10 minutes of driving before the heater is even remotely warm.
Once we get into the -6 region the engine actually gets colder when you sit in traffic. Bizarre.
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Sounds like the thermostat is stuck in the open position. My Golf did the same thing. Got on the highway and the temp would drop.
 
I’m **** with the communication thing. What I meant was that the heater gets colder. WiFi odb plugged in and confirms engine temps stay fairly consistent.
 
Paul Kemp said:
I’m **** with the communication thing. What I meant was that the heater gets colder. WiFi odb plugged in and confirms engine temps stay fairly consistent.
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That's pretty odd, and I'm going to say perhaps your water pump is getting weak and it can't keep up enough flow through the heater core when the engine is idling. Does the situation improve if you rev a bit?
 
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