Then, two years ago, Jackie and Jeremy realised that they could no longer afford their Spanish lifestyle, and would have to sell up to move somewhere cheaper. “We had left England knowing that we were going to live a frugal life that was richer in other ways,” she explains. “But we weren’t prepared for it to be that frugal. We watched it happening to our friends and neighbours. Day by day, another family would disappear. There were so many people leaving that it became a joke – everyone worried they would be the 'last man standing’. Whole communities were devastated. There were people leaving home in the middle of the night; ditching their cars at the airport and never coming back.”