Is it possible to live a country village life if you aren't rich?

[salviapages]

DH and I (together 11 years got together at age 14) have done lots of talking and soul searching and decided what we want is to live in a countryside village. Both raised in a city in Sussex. Inspired by another post on here today thought I'd post and ask...where is this possible??

We're from East Sussex so everywhere is expensive here but we'd be willing to live anywhere in the UK for the lifestyle we want. Both have jobs that can be done anywhere (teacher and dog walker). But as you can tell from our jobs, we don't have tons of money.

Is there anywhere in the UK where a nice country village life is possible without putting down hundreds of thousands for a 3 bed family home? How can we find where we want to start our family?

(I know lots of you will say we'll regret it with teenagers, we've considered this. May have to move when they get older but can still have over a decade of the village life we want)

If you're happy to go up North and rural you can do it easily.

Yep. Just do your research.

But I would rent for a year to check its working

I live in a 3 bed flat in a town so small I'm an outlier in not calling it a village (we have shops! And a library! It's not a village!), with views out across the hills. Currently worth about £115k. There are some higher costs associated with living out in the sticks, mainly petrol and the fact that lidl is not convenient, but we are not rich by any stretch of the imagination. The local teenagers seem happy enough, they can drink in the park and shriek at each other just as well as they could in a big town. This is rural Scotland, within an hour of Glasgow.

Easily done around here in South Yorkshire. We aren't completely rural though... just a village not far from a town (with a regular bus service into town for when DDs are teens!)

No. I think of you aren't rich and live in a country village, you usually end up feeling isolated and becoming 'rural poor'. The standard of living in the UK is not all it's cracked up to be.

You can buy a house very cheaply in many ex pit villages in the north of England. But there’s a reason those villages are cheap (and others nearby are not).

@raspberrymuffin that's kind of what I'm thinking with teenagers...we grew up and a city and people still just hung out in parks. Not sure how it would be much different in a village

@Aroundtheworldin80moves I've actually been looking around south Yorkshire as we have friends nearby. It's so hard to look online though if I don't know names of villages and where to put in the search bar! Hard to tell online where's a nice village and where's just a few houses clumped together

You need to get away from areas that are ‘easily commutable’ to big cities….think far west beyond the Cotswolds, up north, Welsh borders etc…

Yes its definifely possible but you do need to think things through a lot and do your research. What is your budget? We live in a country village life and love it including the teenagers and house cost about half that of London house, beautiful chocolate box cottage with beautiful garden and far nicer than London one. But I did ensure we could walk to shop, good schools and kids activities close by and safe area.

Easily done in the North. Nice villages near where I live on the Fylde Coast and towards Preston where you can get a 3 bed house for around 150 grand.

I think it's perfectly doable and you don't have to be wealthy. You may not end up with the Chocolate box cottage, but there are plentt of more modern houses in villages around the country that don't go for quite such high prices. We are south west, just outside of the Cotswolds and paid £395000 for a 4 bed 1970s semi . Pricey compared to the north, but a good price for what we got. But it does need work.
You also need to take into account your travel cost, which will be higher. You will need two cars, possibly more when the kids are starting to drive. You need to drive almost everywhere you go (unless you're keen cyclists). Some villages are well connected, but many or not. We are ten minutes drive from several shopping areas, but public transport is non existent.
You also have to be a bit more organised, or don't mind driving to grab something youve forgotten!
Villages are very varied. Ours has a big community with lots of activities, a primary school, a community shop and a pub. Peoe are very welcoming and social - we feel we've got the jackpot. Other villages are much quieter and have no resources and it can get lonely quickly. Some say they are villages but are really just on the edge of suburbia and have problems with anti social behaviour and increased poverty. You really do have to shop around to find one that suits what you are after!

Try North Wales or the Rossendale valley.
Very easy to live more rurally there quite cheaply. Of course as pp said, there's always a reason so parts might be quite run down.

Easier to be poor in a village than in a city imo, far less to spend your money on and far less need to keep up with the Joneses.

However, there is also far less need for dog walkers.

I think it also depends on how you define "nice country village life".

To me it means lots of open space to explore, long country walks, community events, weekly nights out down the pub and generally a more relaxed, slower way of living.

To some people I know it means all this plus regular country pursuits such as hunt balls, shooting parties etc!

No. I think of you aren't rich and live in a country village, you usually end up feeling isolated and becoming 'rural poor'. The standard of living in the UK is not all it's cracked up to be.

Don't you think that depends on where you live?

We live in rural Bedfordshire and we're not rich . We're 'ok' though. There are people much better off than us living here and people who are worse off. It's a lovely village.

Not for people in ordinary paying jobs who live in those 'cheaper' areas (at least not the chocolate box idyll anyway). I grew up in the countryside; my single-parent mum was a part time secretary and later a cleaner. There's no way I could afford that now and I'm a teacher and not a single parent.

Wherever you go make sure you account for all the costs of living rurally - petrol, the cost of running two cars, potentially higher heating costs if you don't have gas, maybe needing to pay more for groceries - not just the house. A house that seems like a bargain might not work out that way and you don't want that to come as a shock. Also think about the job options - yes you can do those jobs anywhere but not with the same ease and options, possibly. The teacher may have a very small choice of commutable schools and the dog walker may find making the business work profitably much harder if the clients are much more spread out.

Of course it's possible, to answer your question. There are so many former pit villages here in County Durham that are still suffering from Tory decisions in the 1980s; where a lot of the people have next to nothing and don't leave their home village much, partly as transport is appalling in expense and frequency. I'd imagine other areas of the country have their own levels of rural poverty, such as Cornwall out of tourist season for example.

To be honest it's less village life we want and more green space and proximity to countryside. We've created lots of veg patches in our suburban garden instead of having open grass, DH's mum had chickens and we'd love to get them. We want the space to grow our own ans go for country walks more than we want a community village life.

I mean both would be lovely, but I imagine both would be out of our budget wherever we went!

We’re in SW. Large 3 bed semi in a village for £320 a year ago. Sibling also SW 3 bed end of terrace in a village £275 also about a year ago. None of us rich. No school in either village though, too small.

Op I'm not sure it really depends on so many factors.
With our limited budget I found life with small dc hard enough in a town. Trying to keep them entertained in winter for instance if you don't want endless walks all weekend. I would have found it sooo much easier somewhere like London with endless free museums they could run around in.
But with ££ in country and a good garden, and things to do it would be managebel.
I'd be very cautious.
Moving them again with teens esp.
It's very tricky I don't know what the solution is

Also consider dog walker job would be as lucrative in a rural area. If the area isn’t affluent then dog walking may be something they have cut back on. Also in rural areas it is probably much more likely that doggo will come to work with you.
I have often thought it is harder to be on lower income rurally because the infrastructure to help just isn’t there, for example you may HAVE to have a car each because public transport is not sufficient or doesn’t exist. The corner shop may be expensive, no Lidl around, chemist in the next town, etc
I have just left a rural village, not affluent, and saw people struggle every day. Nothing for older kids either except church youth club or whatever entertainment they made for themselves. Drugs were rife in certain age groups.
But the air was clean, no one locks their doors because there is no need, and the community was fab. But it’s not without struggles.

@ThirdElephant

If you're happy to go up North and rural you can do it easily.

Depends where up north. Parts of North Yorkshire are really expensive.

Durham dales or the borders of Scotland are more affordable.

Come up North, anywhere really 🥰.

MIL lives in a 3 bed house in an East Yorkshire village and pays £300 pcm rent. So very cheap. But I do not know why the fuck she wants to live there as there is nothing to do, it's miles from anywhere and very flat and unscenic. I'd rather pay more and live somewhere else.