Why Its Good To Make Friends With Your Neighbours

Our van broke down - again - yesterday and the first garage we took it to said that it was probably a serious problem that would cost about €1000 to fix.  Now bearing in mind the van is about 10 years old this is a huge amount of money and we have to decide whether it is worth spending that  amount or somehow finding the money to buy a new one.

So we went home to think about it and told our friendly neighbour who said that was absolutely ridiculous and that he would get his friend to have a look.  His friend discovered that it is actually just that no fuel is getting to the motor and is probably just a blocked filter or fuel line.  They came to our finca and he is bringing the mechanic to fix it here and it will probably cost less than €100.

Now if I hadn´t been friendly with our neighbour, we probably would have gone with the garage and spent the best part of €900 difference!  OK so this isn´t something particular to Spain and the exact same situation could have arisen in any country.  The difference is that you might be more reluctant to spend time getting to know your neighbours because of the language barrier.  Yes, it can be hard but you don´t need to fluent and the benefits could be huge. 

It is not just about saving money, but about having someone that you can turn to if you have any problems.   If your car breaks down, or the electrics go in your house etc. you don´t have the usual support structure of friends and family around that you can turn to.  And calling a professional can be a minefield if you can´t understand them properly.  Having a neighbour who can help you with these sorts of problems can take a huge weight off your shoulders.

Make the effort - its worth it.