Scared to go back to England

It really isn't, unless you're blind to beautiful countryside, amazing architecture and culture. There are ugly bits of course, like every country. People are mostly polite and helpful.
If you're on £35k OP, avoid the south east which is crazy expensive. Housing costs are a problem everywhere, whether you are renting or buying. Food is still pretty affordable, but going out to pubs/restaurants has got much more expensive lately. Public transport varies according to area but is more or less functioning, likewise the NHS. Generally it depends what you are comparing it with - compared to the current US, for example, I'd say it was pretty great.

Me and DH met after we’d both lived abroad in places where we seemingly had it all. What we didn’t have was family and I’d take a bit of wind and rain and a high cost of living any day if it meant I could have relationships with my parents and extended family. £35k is fine!

The whole of the UK isn't like that. Where I live in Scotland its lovely and you could live on that.

But it depends on how many are in the family for 33k if you're living or just surviving.

No it's an absolute dump, and an expensive dump. Worst of both worlds; everywhere else seems to manage a minimum of cheap and a dump or expensive and nice.

I love England. I live in outer London and am currently in N Yorks visiting family … such a great area. Yes there are grotty places but more nice ones. Beautiful landscapes, amazing food, free activities and places to visit.
public transport is often shit so it helps if you drive.
£35k plenty for one person especially up here, but definitely not enough for a family in London.

Brits are prone to putting a negative and miserable slant on things. You ask an American how they are and they’ll respond awesome. Same thing to a Brit and they’ll say well I’m not dead yet.

A survey came out the other day and the British ranked lower than people in the Ukraine and Yemen for happiness. Bearing in mind these are war torn countries it says more about British negativity than anything objective I would guess

But that is also the reality you are re-entering. A culture where people are very down in the dumps right now and feel that everything is failing, even though objectively it isn’t really. And you can still do things like have cancer and get treatment for free, broadly send your children to school and know that they’re not gonna get shot by some nutter, or higher rates of employment than many European countries.
Personally, I wouldn’t want to live here on 35K

Impossible to answer given the lack of details. Which area? Will you be buying or renting? How much savings do you have? How many children? Etc.

You would not be able to live off £35K in many areas, but in some you could!

Don't worry, I think Its just me that was chemically imbalanced 😁. Every Scottish person I met was indeed very cheery !

I'm having a blast here.

I was in the same position. Lived abroad for years and kept reading how awful things were in the daily mail (I know!). Moved back and haven’t regretted it for a second. I love being back.

I expect we are just accustomed to the weather and the darkness!
Although the thought that we might be chemically imbalanced by it has made me smile.

So many variables. Which part of England? How many of you? What is important to you? Career opportunities or cheap cost of living?

I live in London (outskirts) with my husband and two children and have a joint income of around £65k, it’s not enough for a comfortable life. We live in a shit area with high crime rates and our bills are barely covered by our wages. Anything to do with kids cost a fortune but you suck it up because you are set on them enjoying life/ experiencing things. I’d leave England in a heartbeat, for me the negatives outweigh the positives.
But it’s very personal, I have friends who love it here and would never leave. Consider what’s most important to you and what you’d be moving to.

Scotland is breathtakingly beautiful. Gorgeous country. Lovely people too.

But .... The weather and the darkness. We went last year in August and it was like being plunged into late autumn. In fact I honestly thought I had depression towards the end- I felt sluggish and really low In mood. Like I was chemically imbalanced 😬

Depends on how much your housing will cost you and where you are. I manage on a full time job just above minimum wage, as a single parent with one child, but my mortgage is relatively low. I wouldn't be able to manage if I was just starting out, with either a mortgage or private rent. As it is, my life is fine. I can afford to go out and don't particularly think about a budget when I'm food shopping.

Depends on what you consider to be a nice life!

I'd look at what you might want your nice life to look like back here and work out the costs of that nice life as part of your decision making.

We had a low key day out for family of 5 this weekend. Entry ticket, basic pizza lunch (basic cheese and tomato for all) and an ice-cream cost us £150 give or take a couple of pounds. It wasn't a spectacular outing or a theme park type or even a zoo and no, we don't live in London or it's outskirts.

Is it just you? DP? Kids?

Where do you live now? Many countries are substantially more expensive to live in than the uk- Australia, US, Canada, much of Europe, Asia etc. I am currently recruiting someone to work in a part of china where housing and transport are not dissimilar to uk prices but their salary is at least 20% less than uk counterparts. I don’t know why the uk is particularly scary compared to elsewhere

I think you should put together a rough budget of your potential income and potential outgoings based on either rent or a mortgage in the area you want to live and all other outgoings and then makes an informed decision.

I’m not currently in the UK either and whilst I am ready to move on, I am financially better off here (and the weather is much better), but there are also negatives to where I live too - nowhere is perfect.

I don’t think there’s a one size fits all answer and it really depends on your circumstances. But I do think there are bad things happening all over the world and generally this is what the papers report.

Currently live abroad, beautiful place but ready ro return to family. I keep seeing posts/videos about how hard it is now and how you can’t survive on £35 k per year (we’d be on around about this initially)

This depends on so many different factors it is hard to answer helpfully.

Will you be one £35k as one person? A couple both earning this? Do you have children? How many? Do you need childcare? Full time? Where in the UK would you be living-mirth or south? Do you have a deposit and want a mortgage or would you be renting? House or flat? Garden? How many bedrooms? Would you be running a car? Two cars? Paying for driving lessons?

Moved back from the US. Love love it here in the UK. We're on only just over 33k but manage absolutely fine.

No, it's not all that bad! What's more the weather is lovely and sunny and has been the past few days, and well into next week.

I don't have a massive income and I'm a sole parent (in the North if that's anything to go by!) Myself and DC are happy, most importantly healthy. Some people will just find the bad in everything and pick out anything positive people say to try and bring the mood down. Don't fall for that :)

It will be absolutely fine, OP. Millions of people live good lives, and often on .ess money than you have. Just stop reading nonsense, scaremongering articles.

Whether or not you can survive on £35k will be largely dependent on your housing situation as that's the major expense. Will you be buying or renting?

I think life is pretty miserable in the UK but if the news is to be believed it's pretty bad in a large percentage of the world.

Personally I think we have it slightly better up here in Scotland than down in England and I wouldn't want to move back down to England.

This👆