How to get a new family abroad.

[Stevo]

... in response to What a Joke . . ., posted by Dan on Jan 6, 2003

ggg

[Dan]

... in response to You'd rather have OPINIONS than FACTS?....., posted by Stevo on Jan 6, 2003

n/t

[Stevo]

... in response to Someday - - - Maybe - - - You Will Post ..., posted by Dan on Jan 6, 2003

ggg

[Dan]

... in response to Too bad...n/t, posted by Stevo on Jan 6, 2003

n/t

[ChrisNJ]

... in response to No kidding..One guy I know sends at leas..., posted by Stevo on Jan 4, 2003

Ask him to send some my way.  Jeez...what a dope!!!

[Pordzhik]

... in response to How to get a new family abroad., posted by Horoshij on Jan 4, 2003

Getting the Christmas gifts over there ain't a problem as my wife has settled into her regular visits, about four times a year. Always she spends Christmas here with me and New Year in Kiev (she's there now).

My wife works part-time and earns decent enough money for the few hours she puts in, so can pay for her flights herself (about £210 each) and leaves her family with some money each time. A couple hundred pounds (I think) X4 times per year = £800 yearly thats $1280 for our American readers. That extra $100 per month makes all the difference for her family.

Which was what I was going to post about. How do the rest of you married guys and wives help her folks back home?

Actually the cost of the flights are near self financing as she always brings back a case full of Ukrainian folk art which she will sell on a sunday market and a couple of 200 cartons of ciggs which she sells for £50 here. I get the bottle of vodka to myself!

We havn't had any dramatic problems, except the back wall needed rebuilding on the dacha, which had been worrying her mother some until I rebuilt it last summer.

[Michael B]

... in response to I was about to post something along the ..., posted by Pordzhik on Jan 4, 2003

FIFTY pounds? Fifty BRITISH pounds? For 200 cigarettes? Let's see, in US money that's about $80.00....and that's on the black market? Just what the &^%*# kind of taxes do you folks have to pay over there? They only cost $25 to $35 here (Texas) depending on the brand, some of the real cheap brands are only $18.00. Heck, I just RYO and make 200 of them for about $11.00. When I was in Colombia last year, they had packs of 10 and 20, depending on the brand, the 10 packs of the cheap brands (which actually weren't bad at all) cost about 15 or 20 cents, a 20 pack of a premium brand was maybe 60 cents. I saw that many street vendors had 3 or 4 open packs of different brands and their customers would buy only one or two cigarettes at a time.

[Pordzhik]

... in response to Re: I was about to post something along ..., posted by Michael B on Jan 4, 2003

I said two cartons of 200 per carton, the allowance we can bring in from non-EU countries.

For quality brands; cost is £4.50 ($7.00 US) per pack of twenty ciggs.

Thats £45.00 per carton, so she sells them for £25.00 per carton.

Yes we do have some of the highest duties and taxes in the world, including petrol (gas) at £3.50 per gallon.

[Jski]

... in response to NO NO NO Read again!, posted by Pordzhik on Jan 5, 2003

Yep, I was dying with those prices when I was over there.  I was having mine shipped through traffic at work for awhile.  I got a bill one day from DHL in my hotel.  It was for 6480 Pounds duty for 2 cartons.  When I called they sheepishly explained that there was an error, it should read 6.48 pounds.  Nearly had a heart attack.

[Michael B]

... in response to NO NO NO Read again!, posted by Pordzhik on Jan 5, 2003

I thought you meant she sold EACH carton for fifty pounds. Still, 4.50 pounds per pack is outrageous, except for taxes, they only cost about 30 or 40 cents to manfacture in the US, even much less in 3rd world countries with lower labor and raw material costs. Speaking of 3.50 pounds a gallon gasoline, I heard on the radio last week that a lot of people in GB are mixing 50/50 diesel and cooking oil in their diesel cars to beat the taxes, the food grade oil is actualy cheaper than the (taxed) petrolium. Is that ture? Heck, then let's just run the gas models on potchin.

[Pordzhik]

... in response to Re: NO NO NO Read again!, posted by Michael B on Jan 5, 2003

that began with one family in Wales using cooking oil, actually the difference in price is pennies. I've not seen any of it around here. It's a big risk, £2000.00 fine and car destroyed for first offence add to that six months imprisonment for 2nd offence.

I run a diesel, that gives 40+ mpg it's turbocharged so gets over that slow pull-away, mind, we have more cars per mile of road than anywhere in the world, so performance can't really be used. I aways tank-up when I'm in Calais as it's much cheaper.

[Pordzhik]

... in response to I was about to post something along the ..., posted by Pordzhik on Jan 4, 2003

Having mum-in-law 1300 miles and a whole different language away.

[Cold Warrior]

... in response to And the up-side is, posted by Pordzhik on Jan 4, 2003

Your wife is a resourceful woman. She might do good making some "shopping trips" across the chunnel. I heard they are no longer confiscating cars there. I did a trip once with a friend, got some booze and fags which was resold for a handsome profit.

[Pordzhik]

... in response to Wow, posted by Cold Warrior on Jan 4, 2003

We are close to the Channel ports and our French trips are more than self-financing. A bit of a bonus for those of us living in SE England. The Customs can and do still confiscate cars if they can prove the goods were for re-sale. Not only the car, but you'll find yourself in some real trouble if you overdo things.

[vagn]

... in response to And the up-side is, posted by Pordzhik on Jan 4, 2003

LMAO