Scared to go back to England

[Valleygirlaccent]

But i’m desperate to.

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)
I’m going back to a ‘Naice area’ and although have a lovely lifestyle where we are, we’ve often lived month to month as wages are low, so I’ve learnt to cut my cloth accordingly.

Is it really that bad?

*To

I think it is great personally.

Is it all a load of scaremongering? Are people able to live a nice life?

Yes people are totally able to live a nice life.

Where are you moving to?

I think the UK has its share of problems and advantages, much like any other country. £35k salary - can't comment as too many variables. If you have 4 children and need to live in Richmond Upon Thames it won't be enough. If it's just you, it will probably be fine.

It depends where. We have a nice life but my husband earns well.
I earn £33k and couldn’t survive on my salary, maybe to support myself but not 2 children and I wouldn’t be able to afford any luxuries or holidays.
It’s expensive, cold and wet. I wouldn’t return from somewhere warm to come back here

However the weather has been v pleasant this week!

This👆

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.

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?

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.

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 :)

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

Which area?

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?

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.

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

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?

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.

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 😬

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.

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.

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'm having a blast here.

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