Getting Pulled Over in Portugal & Even More Updates

April 22, 2024June 22, 2024 / bashleyf / Leave a comment

So much has been going on the past few weeks and everything just feels like such a whirlwind. I’ll start with my favorite update- travel is back on! I guess I should take a few steps back first. So we heard back from the guy doing our taxes (he charged 185 to file the return) and it turns out I owe quite a bit less than I expected. This year work has been slow, so I have been trying to work as much as I can and save money because I thought we would owe way more in taxes. Work has been picking up the past few weeks and I even got a new contract that I’m really excited about. With that contract comes a lot of training, so I have been busy trying to get training in as well as learning the ropes of the things I will be doing in this role. So now that I’m not having to save so much money each month we can afford to travel again. I’ll talk more about that in a second.

The accountant we used charges 75 euro per month to do everything tax related. He will file all of my green receipts and social security. He will tell me how to pay my social security (and how much), and I can prepay some of next years taxes if I want to. We decided to go ahead and work with him because I still have not looked at how to file social security and clearly I need some help as far as taxes go. I signed a year long contract and that price will also include filing my tax return next year. I am relieved because the last 2 years that we have had to file taxes we scramble around in January/February tying to find someone who can help us file. It’s a huge weight off my shoulders to barely even have to think about taxes anymore.

I guess I should touch on the title as well! Kyle got pulled over a few days ago. We have had the car for a year so I am kind of surprised we hadn’t gotten pulled over until now. Two police officers were standing on the side of the road looking at cars and he said he knew he was going to get pulled over because they looked at his plate and then did a double take. They waved him over to the side of the road. They were pretty upset that he still has his US driver’s license, so we’re going to try to get started on the license exchange again soon. That’s going to be a huge headache. Kyle got pulled over because our inspection expired in December. We had thought we had more time but were wrong, so we got a 250 euro ticket. Ouch! Kyle schedule our inspection for next week.

The school closest to our house had a spot open for Leo. We went and got all of the paperwork and will have to bring it back to the school on May 6. We need Leo’s residency card so Kyle went back to the place I originally applied for it in Lisbon. The lady there said that they are really, really backed up and it will probably show up at some point. She gave us a paper and said to give it to the school. I didn’t translate it, but I’m assuming it says something about us paying and having to wait for them to send the card. I’m hoping that providing that letter as well as our receipt will be enough. I finally registered Sofia online today at the Portal de Matriculas, which is required from 1st grade on. It wasn’t too bad, though it did take me about 45 minutes or so because I had to Google a lot of things to understand them. Sometimes even when they were translated into English they still didn’t make sense. Once we (fingers crossed) get them officially registered I’ll make a post all about that.

We finally got the kids signed up for swim lessons, which is something we have been meaning to do for a long time now. They’ll stop going to school next week and won’t go again until September 1 at their new school. Hopefully they will have tons of fun this summer. They will go to swim lessons twice a week. Kyle just went to our local public pool and they had tons of options to choose from. I think it cost something like 128 for the both of them for 1.5 months of classes 2 times per week.

I have been busy getting back to vacation planning and have 3 booked for the year. In early June Sofia and I are going to Efteling. I have been wanting to go there ever since I heard about it. This will be our last trip together for a while. Leo and I will be going to Amsterdam in early July. There is a CenterParcs about a half hour outside of Amsterdam that we will stay at. He really loved CenterParcs and it makes things easier for me. For the Christmas holidays this year we are going to Disneyland Paris! We will be there the week before Christmas and we’re going to stay on site. I’m really excited because the kids are going to love it and it will be great to see Dinsey all lit up for Christmas. We haven’t gotten their school schedule yet, so fingers crossed they actually have the week before Christmas off. I have been trying to find out how many days of school kids can miss in Portugal but am not having much luck.

So that’s what we have been up to. And now I have to get back to my ever growing to-do list.

Pneumonia in Portugal & Other Updates

April 8, 2024June 22, 2024 / bashleyf / Leave a comment

I know it has been a few months since my last post, but we have finally gotten to a point of just living our lives and I guess it has been too boring to post about. 😂 There are a few blog posts I am going to make once things are done, but for now I can give updates as to the things we have going on.

I guess I’ll start with the title. The kids got sick a few weeks ago. They have had a lingering cough but nothing too bad. Kyle got sick and then he just kept getting sicker and sicker. By Friday it was looking pretty bad. Thanks to Doctor Google I figured that it was probably an pneumonia or maybe bronchitis. In the US we wait until we’re on death’s door to go to the doctor because of the cost. I knew Europe wasn’t like that, so this morning I convinced Kyle to go to the hospital to see what they say. I have been essentially a single parent for the last few days and I’m ready to have a partner again. I don’t know how single parents do this.

Anyway, we decided to go to the private hospital that takes our insurance. They don’t have an emergency room, so we found the information desk and she was able to make Kyle an appointment for 45 minutes later. Kyle paid 17 euro for the visit. Kyle went to visit the doctor, who quickly confirmed that it is in fact pneumonia. He gave us a prescription and we went to the pharmacy where we paid 20 euro for 4 medications including an inhaler and antibiotics. It has been 3-4 hours later and Kyle is already starting to feel way better than he has in a while. So overall it took just a few hours and 37 euro to get treated for the pneumonia! We are still working on shedding our American mentality and getting to the doctor sooner out here. I’m so happy that we were able to get that taken care of so quickly and cheaply.

On to update #2, which would be our residency cards. So I renewed mine, Kyle’s, and Sofia’s online and Leo’s had to be done in person. Everyone’s has arrived except for Leo’s. They said that if his does not arrive in 60 business days that there is a problem. It has been 67 business days, so we have emailed them and hopefully they can get this sorted out.

For update #3, we have been getting ready for school registration. Elementary school registration opens April 15. Originally the plan was to enroll Sofia in the public school right next to her current school. That way we could park and drop Sofia off at 1st grade and Leo off at kindergarten. Since Leo has already been going to his school for a year he probably wouldn’t be too upset about having to go without Sofia. Sure, it would kind of suck, but it wouldn’t be scary as he already knows the place. Well, his preschool recently announced that they are closing down on August 31, so Leo can’t go there next year.

We know that Leo and Sofia will be fine no matter what, but it would be kind of nice for them to be at the same school. It will also make things easier for us. Since we are looking for a combined kindergarten and 1st grade, that means private school. So I was expecting our expenses to go down by a few hundred euro a month since we were going to transition Sofia from private to public school, but now it looks like our school expenses will go up quite a bit instead. Arg. We found a great school somewhere in Leiria (I’m not familiar with the area) and we went to tour it. We love it but unfortunately they don’t have any openings for kindergarten or 1st grade. There is a school we always used to walk past and Sofia always wanted to go there. We see kids all over Leiria with their uniform, so we went to tour it and we like it a lot too.

There are pros and cons to each school. The one further away reminds us a lot of what an American private school would be. They even have a swimming pool and have lessons there included. They take regular field trips to the beach. The curriculum is very much to let the students take control and decide what their strengths are and what they need to work on. The school closer to our house means we would probably walk them to school a decent amount of the time. Their curriculum is more strict- actually the kids are a bit behind (especially Sofia) and they begin teaching them to read in kindergarten. Sofia has been learning a bit at home, but not enough to know how to read yet. Also if we go to the school closer to home we would walk into downtown quite a bit more as the school is on the way downtown from our house. The school further away would cost 415 euro each kid, and the school closer to us would cost 399 euro for 1st grade and something like 300 or 350 for kindergarten. I can’t remember.

Parents of enrolled students are currently having to sign contracts for the next year, so by the end of the week most schools will know what their fall openings will look like. The further away school has a waitlist and it’s doubtful that we will get an opening. The school closer to us already knows they will have openings for 1st grade as many of the parents put their 1st graders into public school. We’re not yet sure if there will be a kindergarten spot so we have to go next week to sign Sofia up and see if there is a spot for Leo. Obviously we hope there is a spot for him as he needs to go to school and we were hoping to keep them at the same school, but we just have to wait and see.

Our last update is about taxes. Maybe next year I will get everything right…? So last year I learned that I am supposed to be filing green receipts with the finincas. I learned how to do that and got it done last year. I also was able to get a social security number for myself. Now my next step is to learn how to pay quarterly social security taxes. Last year we found a big company to do our taxes for 400 euro. Their price this year is something like 600 or 700 euro. This year I really wanted to pay less as most accountants don’t charge that much. We dug around some Facebook posts and Kyle was able to find someone recommended that charges…I can’t even remember. I think it was around 200 or so, so that’s way better. He will file the return next week. I really want to see what we owe. Last year I used a bit more of savings that I should have and am a bit stressed about what we will owe for taxes this year. It will all work out fine, but I’m wondering if I owe what I think we will or it could be more, but it could also potentially be thousands less. Another thing to wait and see.

So that’s our life right now. I’m working and we are waiting to see what happens. No travel on the books right now unfortunately. We can’t afford it quite yet. I’m hoping that once taxes are paid we can have one last hurrah before the kids start school again in September. Oh, and we decided the kids will just finish out this month at their school, so they won’t be in school May-August so things are about to get a lot more hectic!

Budgeting Part 2

August 16, 2022August 2, 2023 / bashleyf / Leave a comment

Our weekly trips have been put on hold because we got sick again. It has been weeks and I’m finally starting to feel better. It was a bizarre sickness with pretty much every symptom I can think of, including what seemed to be pink eye. It started with Sofia waking up at 2AM to throw up one morning weeks ago. Leo was next a few days later. They were so sad and pitiful, I’m glad that part is over. Luckily by the time I got sick the kids were already feeling better.

I have done a better job of tracking our expenses and can break them down a bit more than my first budget post. We have added a few things to our lives that up the monthly budget. I’m trying to list most of our expenses because it was really helpful for us when deciding which country to live in.

Our neighbor has a friend who cleans her house and she recommended her to us. She only charges 6 euro an hour. She’s usually here for about 4 hours and we usually just give her 30 a visit. She does an amazing job and doesn’t mind our kids trying to follow her around.

Sofia’s preschool was 275 a month but they just raised it to 285. We think it’s a great deal since it includes breakfast, lunch, and an afternoon snack! They also keep Sofia entertained, which we really appreciate. We will probably start sending Leo sometime next year, after his third birthday.

I always struggle with food costs. We have gotten a lot better with eating at home, so our eating out costs are down to about 200 or less per month. Groceries and other essentials (cleaning supplies, etc) are probably around 600-800 each month. So 800-1000 euro for food/ grocery store supplies per month. I feel like that’s probably high, but that’s where we’re at.

We found a babysitter for 10 euro an hour. We haven’t used her yet, but if anyone is wondering how much childcare would be, that’s the cost for the babysitter to come watch our kids in our apartment.

Here is our monthly budget (keep in mind we’re a family of 4, including two toddlers. We also have an 80 pound dog).

•700 rent, •170 gas/electric, •60 water/trash, •157 health insurance, •65 phone/cable/internet, •60 house cleaner, •285 preschool, •50 Bailey (food and toys), •33 Bailey’s grooming, •1000 food (sometimes less, but let’s estimate high).

US expenses: $10 peacock subscription, $8 Disney plus subscription, $10.98 virtual mailbox service, $60 tutoring for me, $30 tutoring for Kyle. We have been using italki for tutoring. Different tutors on the site charge different amounts, but we’re paying about $15 per hour for ours.

There are a few US expenses I didn’t include, like student loans and my professional liability insurance because they won’t apply to most people. Also, I try to put away a few hundred or so each month for savings/traveling, but didn’t put that in the monthly budget since it will be different for everyone.

Apples from the Leiria Medieval Festival

So our grand total is about €2580 and $118.98 plus a bit extra for savings, student loans, and my professional liability insurance. Some months we don’t put any into savings because we’re using the money to travel.

We have some traveling coming up. Sofia’s school is closed next week, so we’re hoping to take the kids some places because they will go stir crazy at home. I definitely want to take them to Nazare. Next month we’re going to Spain for Sofia’s 4th birthday. I’m so excited to go see Spain! We have really loved exploring Portugal and we’re excited to see more of Europe.

Finances and our travel plans

March 14, 2022August 2, 2023 / bashleyf / Leave a comment

I’ve been meaning to write a post about finances, but I haven’t been tracking them as much as I should be. I know how helpful finance posts were for us when we were thinking about moving here, so I’ll try to put a few numbers out there.

Our apartment is €700 per month. No bills are included in that price. We have a T3 (3 bedroom) with 2 bathrooms, a huge balcony, and an enclosed 1 car garage. I don’t know the energy rating but it must be an A or B. We don’t have to run the heater. Here are some pictures. We still haven’t finished unpacking, so excuse the mess. Also, we have two toddlers and a dog. And I’m just kind of a cluttery person. So there will always be a mess, no matter how much Kyle tries to clean, lol.

Our patio with awesome sun exposure for drying our clothes

Our electric & gas bill is combined and has been around 100 euro per month. Like I said, we don’t run the heaters. We do run 4 dehumidifiers- a small one in each bedroom and a larger one in the living room. We haven’t gotten a full water bill yet. Our only water bill so far was for 6 euro but was only for 1 week of service back in January. I read somewhere that people pay the water bill for 2 months, so we really should be getting another one any day now.

Our health insurance is 150 euro per month for the 4 of us. Kyle and I are 39, and we have two toddlers. Our insurance is through Medis. Our cellphone/internet/cable is around 65 euro for two phone lines. It’s not unlimited data on the phones. I forget what it is, but we haven’t gone over our data yet.

Food is the one thing I don’t want to talk about, lol. We eat out waaaaaayyyy too much. Multiple times a week, but not every day anymore. We must spend a few hundred a week on food. When we get tired and burnt out, cooking is one of the first things to go. Luckily groceries are cheaper than we’re used to. So is eating out, though it still really adds up. We have been doing better lately, but eating out too much is something that we still struggle with.

We’re leaving for Lisbon in two days. We will only be there for 3 days, but I’m really excited to go back. We haven’t been to Lisbon since we first moved to Portugal. I may have gone a little travel crazy and planned a bunch of trips. In less than 3 weeks we are going to Aveiro for 5 days, and then in May we are going to Porto and Braga for a week. It’s so hard to be by all of these places I read about for years. I’m ready to go see them!