Living off Grid but no Longer Under the Radar

Living off the grid and under the radar has been fun and easy.  Just the initial round of registering on arrival in Spain for personal numbers to allow us to buy the house and get residency cards, but not too much interaction with officialdom the rest of the time.  There wasn’t much point in announcing ourselves too much, we had nothing to give the tax man or the social security office so played Russian Roulette with hoping we never needed a doctor.  Exciting but I wouldn’t recommend it!  Luckily, so far antiseptic cream, aloe vera and tea tree oil has satisfied all our health care needs, but I know we are pushing our luck.

Now that the online work is starting to pay off we have signed up for everything we should and are officially still off-grid but very much on the radar.  Self sufficiency is all well and good, but a desire to actually contribute and benefit from society as a whole is part of our nature I guess, and lets face it if you are paid in virtual money you have no choice unless you want a run in with the tax-man ten years down the line.

Officialdom, paperwork and the authorities are not to be sneezed at anywhere, but here in Spain they are so over the top as to require an entire class of legal bods that will deal with all your paperwork.  These aren’t highly paid solicitors, and they aren’t even just for those linguistic failures that have difficulty with Spanish official speak, which would definitely include us).  Nope, these guys are used by everyone.  Even buying a car involves so much paperwork you can pay these guys a tidy sum to sort it out for you.

I have had help with much of the paperwork involved in setting us up as self employeed.  But now that’s done organising state health cards would be a doddle (particularly as our helpful man had filled in the forms for us), so I would do it myself, saving money and proving my abilities to do something for myself, and in very dodgy Catalan too!

Yesterday was “Register with the Social Security office” day.  I was pretty sure I knew which office I needed to go to so didn’t triple check which was exceedingly stupid of me.  On arrival I was pointed to the similarly named office next door.  Once there I was politely advised to visit the real social security office somewhere across town near the railway station where I should head for and then ask for directions.

So third office lucky, not even a very large queue and a rather surprisingly helpful security guard who inspected my bag, waved me through the x-ray scanner and then pressed the right code for me, so my ticket would usher me to the correct set of desks that dealt with my kind of enquiry – result!

I didn’t even have to wait long, ten minutes and it was my turn.  So I unpacked my application forms and accompanying identifications (with photocopies), and proof I belong to a particular village (with photocopy) and proof I have indeed declared myself self employed  and that the tax office know of my existence (yes with photocopy).  And some time later after signing further forms to declare my parents names and my phone number I was presented with all my photocopies back, plus photocopies of my application and two forms to say I have indeed now registered with the Social Security office and have a Social Security number.

Result.

Then we went through it all again for MrDB’s application (he failed to realise the fun he could have had by accompanying me and stayed at home).

Once complete, my file bursting to overflowing with multiple copies of many different forms and identifications the lovely lady behind the counter asked why I could possibly want to work in Spain.  The system, she said, is totally mad.

I believe she may have a point.

I believed quite wrongly that along with my social security number would come a health card (without which one may not enter a hospital unless accompanied by a suitcase full of cash).  After all I was registering to hand over hard earned cash to the Social Security office to qualify for free health care (oh and an exciting and mysterious percentage of a state pension one day too).   Don’t know where I got that idea.  Sadly I get that from the first office I visited inside a hospital where busy nurses thrust more forms at you, requiring more identification and signatures.

I gave up.  We still cannot be ill for a little while longer.  But next week I am sure I will be not only on the radar, but also able to be pretty poorly if I feel like it.  Self sufficient health care is not something I would recommend unless you just happen to be a doctor…

I have to say, paperwork, photocopies and linguistic misunderstandings aside I really appreciate European health-care and all its simplicity (once you have the card).   Living without health-care as two extremely healthy youngish adults has been a little nerve-wracking and I really cannot imagine what it must be like for all those people that have no real possibility of their health needs ever being looked after properly.

4 Responses to “Living off Grid but no Longer Under the Radar”

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  1. Jan says:

    I’m glad to see you’re back, I thought you were so busy we’d never see you again! We haven’t done the social security thing as we don’t work… not paid work anyway… but the paperwork load sounds pretty typical. Getting a health card is pretty easy and, even though we went armed with umpteen copies of everything, we didn’t need them because they took their own copies! So it was one trip to the police station at Reus and another to the local social security office. You did ought to, you know you did!

    • Oh yes I’m back for irregular ramblings! And I know I oughta – I’m doing it next week. I have the form just need to translate it over the weekend. Would’ve been easier to do if we’d paid stamp recently in UK, but now we are officially autonomo they cannot deny us – no matter how tired of paperwork they make me!

  2. Teri says:

    “stumbled” onto your site………..it’s been a dream of mine for a long time to be self-sufficient and independent of the present society. don’t even know where or how to start………..53 year old single woman, with no pension, etc. i’m presently living on unemployment that does not cover my monthly expenditures. i’ve got debts up the yin/yang. i’m even relying on a local food bank. anyways, i would like to transmute my present circumstances into a self-sufficient life and want to start gathering information and suggestions to get from point A to point B………….creative suggestions all welcome! i am willing, but cautious, about giving out my email……….

    • Hi Teri,

      Sounds like you’re on the right track if you are collecting info and even thinking about it. I guess debt is a bit incentive and has to be your main priority. We are lucky to not “need” to be self sufficient in quite the same way we once did. But key to coping when money was really hard to come by was dealing only ever in cash. Take out what little money you have to spend each week and leave all plastic at home. It’s hard but counting up your grocery bill is the easiest way to save. When you add it up as you go along you can’t help but put things back on the shelf you don’t need and make do with different items.

      Our second biggest money saving was relying on pulses rather than meat for much of our protein. Just be sure to buy in supermarkets or ethnic stores rather than health food ones who bump up the prices. Invest in a range of spices in large bags with low prices from ethnic stores too and get creative with your lentils.

      What meat we bought was always used to its fullest potential. Boil up roast chicken carcases or other bones for tasty stocks and stews. Get every last scrap of meat off it and make a pie. A little meat in something stewy will flavor the whole dish, so even if you’re not eating huge hunks of meat you’re still enjoying a meaty meal. If you have a freezer, do freeze down all leftovers. There may not be enough bolonaise sauce for an evening meal, but it will be great for lunch on a jacket potato, or bulked out with some bulgar wheat or cous cous another day.

      Depending on how much outside space you have, growing anything for yourself will help. It may mean you “enjoy” cabbage with every dinner for a few months followed by a few months of beans, but it is healthy and extremely cheap.

      Good luck with it all. We can all make do with a lot less than we think we need and that is the important thing to keep in mind.