AIBU to think that this country is doing my family no favours?

[TiredOfItAllNow]

I've NC. as it's all a bit personal.

I'm so tired of the struggle to get some decent standard of living in this country.

We are so poor.

We live in a 2 bed council flat, DH works very hard, full time in a non-safe job...he's a decorator.

I work part time because I can't seem to get another job which would work with school and we just can't see how we'd afford any childcare...I was hoping to get a 2nd job which might fit in with my first and with school but it's not happening.

We can barely make ends meet. We never go out anywhere...no days out, all my clothes are 2nd hand and the DCs are always bought in sales or 2nd hand.

Something unexpeced like a school book fair can arse up my finances for two weeks....I know the DC don't HAVE to go to the book fair and buy a book but you tell that to your children who never have a new toy unless it's a special occasion and whose entire library is 2nd hand.

And we work! Why shouldn't we have enough money to buy our children a book!

What's gone wrong that everything is so expensive?

We don't have any luxuries, I'm very good at cooking from scratch and all meals are cheap...we have some kind of meat once a week ffs! Because it's too expensive otherwise.

Some days there's no food other than pasta, flour and basics...I don't buy frozen food much as our firdge is tiny and the frozen compartment just about fits a bag of peas and a box of fishfingers in it.

I read on here about people booking to go to Christmas parks and going shopping for this and that and I just get disheartened.

We have the opportunity to move to Australia next year. DH has been offered a job...I told my sister and she was all "You can't be that poor...you earn alright money"

We don't! She couldn;'t be happy that we had a chance to get out of this horrible, tiny flat...

I was the poster who suggested any debt would be left behind in the move. It can certainly be seen as immoral but it is what it is.

Hmm, given the choice I think I'd rather be poor in Australia than poor in London. In fact I wouldn't want to live in London on even an average income. England in general is a tough place to be struggling, even with the NHS etc but I do agree that if your issues are largely self-generated then that's not going to suddenly improve on the flight over.

Not sure where your husband was Gerald but I'm pretty close to the centre of Sydney and I can go on long walks along the coast, bushland etc within very easy reach. Agreed the "countryside" is further out than compared to London, but then there are vast tracts of national park and bushland within Sydney, so I don't find that to be an issue.

I lived in Australia for a while and it is very beautiful, the weather and the lifestyle are great but oh my goodness I missed England so very much. It's such a personal thing though, I missed silly things like mud can you believe!

Wish that the OP would come back, I always feel when an OP deserts their own thread that it's like we've all been left behind in their kitchen talking but feeling slightly uncomfortable that the host is missing in action !

Surfs - we're not in London! Yes I'd take Australia over London on a normal income. (And we considered it at one point). But we both prefer non London living to Australia, partly for the easy access of outdoorstuf (and many other things.)

I love being able to drive from village to town to city here. In Australia it seemed you basically lived in one large city and had to fly to visit another one. We love country walks and old pubs etc. Of course this is all just personal choice and there's much we love about Australia too. Its just a lot of the assumptions people on the UK make aren't nec correct and a move needs to be based on reality.

Oh totally Giraffe. I mainly meant the OP was comparing Aus to London.

Choosing where you live is always going to be entirely personal and I really think comparing Aus to England is almost impossible, because what's good about one is not what's good about the other IYSWIM?
I could happily live in either (Gemini that I am) but DH is just too much of an Aussie at heart and just can't cope with the darkness.

The distances between things doesn't worry me - there's something quite the vastness of Australia. On the other hand the compact nature of the British countryside is also lovely.

When I first took DH to the UK we were driving through Wales and DH was asking me the name of the next village, it took me so long to work out a way to say it that we were though it before I realised we'd reached it! "Whats the name of the 5th next village?" DH asked! Here the village were we have our farm is half and hour from the next village, and that's not outback, it's 45 mins to a capital city!

I took some Aussie relatives to an old village when they first arrived and was asked, "is this a real village?" As in do people live here/is it a historical recreation.... Followed by , "so are there other villages ....!"

We''re really looking forwards to raking the kids back to Australia next year :)

YANBU OP. Too few people think about it - maybe too busy keeping their noses to the grindstone. I live in Edinburgh and I've got a reasonably well paid job and a reasonably nice home. However I often think this country, which I am paying a lot of tax to live in, doesn't really support the healthy lifestyle I want to lead.

Its an ordeal just to get into work, on ageing and awful public transport, the roads are falling to bits, theres constant delays, no metro service or light railway. Houses cost a fortune so I live in a two bedroom flat with no garden and a large mortgage. I can't cycle to work as I've known people who were killed doing that. The local council have billed me for compulsorily repairing my roof and we think they have over-charged, yet the council aren't interested in investigating it. Neither is our much vaunted parliament, which seems to pass so much legislation aimed at controlling every aspect of your life you don't know what will come next. Local government seems designed to conspire against you to make your life unpleasant and difficult rather than facilitating it. And the standard of public behaviour ie the amount of abuse that you get shouted at you, simply for being a woman, is awful. And I have to say, its not that friendly.

How do I know its bad? I used to live in a different country (Southern Germany) and travelled in to work on a quick, efficient S Bahn. I wasn't shouted at in the street (by Germans at least...). The roads were excellent. The local authority was organised and the equivalent of council tax was about £300 a year. There were excellent public sports facilities, either free of charge or at negligible cost (the local town maintained a small lake for free public swimming each summer - they actually dredged it of weeds and treated it at the end of summer. People were friendly - you would get invited to parties and weekends away in the Alps just because you were new and people wanted you to feel welcome.

I'm going to move back. Need to get a job there again.

I've known 4 people/couples emigrate from uk. 3 of whom are now back.

I wonder if you are running to something or from something.

Good luck whatever you decide.

I was just going to say have you thought about childminding I've just started and it's a good source of income. Pm me if you like

I dont think the OP pays huge amounts in tax at all but she has certianly taken out of the country and the state and is still complaining about not living the way she thinks she is entilted to.

Sorry - but I dont have a degree and have made the best of it. She on the other hand seems to have completely wasted it! We have two kids looking at uni in the next couple of years. 9k per year anyone? Yet the OP doesnt seem to have paid anything for her degree.

Still - if she thinks that a cash in hand decorator and someone who clearly expects to have a well paid job that will of course work around school hours is going to be better off in Oz. Off you go...

in the Op's position I would go to Australia.

Op says her husband 'works hard, full time.' and later says he works 'casually'. It can't be both.

See ChelsyHandy, I would really like to live in Germany too. I bet it's far more civilised with investment in infrastructure.

Nancy Casual work is not the same as part time work. Casual means that there's no contract or promise of permanent employment.

Chelsy good luck with a move.

I'm trying to persuade husband we should leave Scotland sooner rather than later. I suspect it's going to be the new Quebec.

I am feel that I'm somewhere to the right of Ghengis compared to the average mumsnetter but some of the stuff on the thread has surprised me.

Decorator wages - invoice value isn't wages for a start. London is a different beast to the rest of the UK so am leaving that to one side. I live in Edinburgh and you can rest assured I don't pay a decorator 1400 for two days work. Some people who one their own companies and / or who are willing to do hard graft earn well - a painter and decorator on a salary, not so much. If the earning was that good, how many people in shit jobs would suddenly find a calling to emulsion ceilings

Having said that OP, it does sound like your DP is earning far below what he should. It's not a time served trade, but nor is he doing completely unskilled work, so he ought to get more than minimum wage IMO.

I can't comment on your aspirations or expectations because I haven't been there, so I wouldn't presume to do so, but it sounds like you may have a decent opportunity in Australia provided you are comfortable that you've done the sums and are happy with the lifestyle on offer. It sounds like you have contacts over there who would help with that.