Moving to save money

[Beansandneedles]

I live in a city in the South. The cost of living crises means we're not really making use of it, much more likely to either stay at home or pack a lunch and head to the countryside or coast for a day of free fun. Even things like dentist appointments feel like a luxury right now. We're having to be very very careful with our money.

As my partner and I work remotely we're questioning the sense of living here vs somewhere more affordable. However, this would be a big move. Affordable places are all hours away from where we currently are. Also, we have no idea where to start. With no family or work ties there's no location to hone in on. Honestly it feels very daunting to even just think about it!!

There's an established circle of friends here, so a steady flow of loved faces and also support for babysitters and playdates. Also, I know this place really well having lived here on and off for most of my adult life. But knowing there are houses out there which are half the price of ours (and often bigger) feels like something which should be considered carefully. If we moved we'd be very unlikely to be able to afford to move back. I've suggested we rent first to see how it goes, but my OH isn't up for it. He has a point, if we move then we're uprooting the kids and doing that potentially twice feels like a lot of upheaval.

pros for staying

• our friends /support network are here
• we know the area well
• we love the school (DS is in school, DD starts in 2025)
• lots of employment opportunities here (thinking about the kids in 10 years time)

pros for leaving

• will be instantaneously better off and therefore wouldn't be needing to watch every single penny. We'd be able to do more day to day fun things, go on holidays, save, invest in pensions etc so also securing our future
• we're not really using the city anyway, and are outdoorsy people, so we'd move somewhere with more activities that we gravitate towards right on our doorstep
• we'd buy a bigger house so wouldn't be tripping over each other, and have a second loo which feels like something which would be very nice to have as our family grows

We're nice people, we love to host and join community activities so I feel like, with time and effort we would make new friends. But it still feels huge and it's making me pendulum back and forth.

I guess the question is, better the devil you know, or risk it all in the hopes it'll be better?

Anyone been in this situation? What did you do? Where did you go?

I'd be loathe to do this, as you seem to be so well established where you are.

Is there any option for you to increase your income at all? Think about the effect an extra £100 or £200 per month could have.

Realistically, how many years is it until you could downsize where you currently live anyway? Kids probably don't stay at home forever.

My children are 5&2. Based on my sister's situation we could be looking another 22 years 😂 at the moment we only have one loo in the house, which is already a bit tricky with two very small people. Feel like it could be jolly uncomfortable with teens or adults!

I've no idea how to make more money right now. We both work so hard, and then the kids with no help around for childcare etc. The thought of a second job is exhausting. We thought the additional childcare funding from the government which kicks in this month would be helpful, but other bills rose by so much the childcare being cheaper has basically got us back to the base line.

Appreciate what you're saying though, that's my gut feeling and I didn't know if I was just romanticising the importance of friends over finances.

We moved from the South East to the North West so that I could be a SAHM.

If you're friendly and outgoing I'd do it tbh.

What would your budget be?

Oh, I see, the children are quite young still.

I'm also in a house with 1 bathroom and 2 adults and a teenager. It's not ideal!

It would depend on how much you could save and if anything happened to your jobs would you be able to get something else with remote working easily amd is your current financial situation going to improve through pay increases soon.

I would probably move because I hate it when money is so tight. Atm things are tight for me but it’s only temporary in 6 months time it will be much easier

Before l bought my daughters house for her (Yorkshire).she was paying £850 a month rent for a new build four bedroom .
Garage .
Small front garden.. medium size back.
4 bedrooms.. main with en suit shower..a family bathroom with bath..
Downstairs loo and utility room.
Living room with open plan dining room then kitchen.
She's on her own with 3 teenage boys.. they are all happy with the size of their bedrooms.
Lovely quiet tiny estate of new builds.
Cost 350 grand to buy out right.

As your children get older you might regret living in the countryside- you'll be a taxi, they may be bored.
Moving also costs quite a lot- around 1% to the EA, stamp duty, solicitors, movers. You have to take that hit out of your purchasing power

We moved out of the South East. Kids were a year or so older than yours. If you are going to do it, get it done. We spent a couple of years dithering, which I regret. Looking it back it feels like we didn't live in either place during the dithering phase.

I would also say that it isn't a case of south = city and north = deep countryside. Villages can be hard work and rural is a lot of effort with teens. We chose a town that had the amenities we wanted within walkable distance. This meens less taxi-ing, less reliance on (vanishing) public transport. We are pretty outdoorsy - but you don't need to live in the deep countryside to enjoy it.

It was a brilliant decision for us. We have more financial slack and a better quality of life. We made new friends and kept the best of our old friends.

Your children are tiny, so I don’t think moving schools should come into it at all, you also don’t sound like you have family support which would be a big reason to stay.
Do you have any work restrictions at all? If I had free rein based on what you have said I would go to Shrewsbury or Malvern. Both beautiful, Shrewsbury has good train connections to Birmingham and Manchester. Malvern has good connections to Birmingham and is within easy reach of Worcester which is a lovely city.

This resonates, certainly feel like we've not been invested in our life/house here during this dithering! I'm so glad it worked out for you! What county did you wind up in?

Also very much not considering deep countryside. I grew up in a rural place and it wasn't much fun as a teen. Totally agree with you about villages! We've been looking at everything from Worcester to somewhere outside Newcastle. It's hard to narrow down a basic area when there's nothing stopping you going anywhere! So yes, considering towns which have the amenities we're used to, but also closer to big hills/mountains or the coast. Doesn't have to be on the beach, but closer than 1.5 hours drive to a decent one would be nice!

Genuinely no work restrictions, no family connections, just the friends and memories we have here vs more disposable income somewhere else. Thanks for the recommendations, I'll have a look! I went to a jazz festival in Malvern once as a kid, remember it being very pretty :) Worcester is also picturesque.

£250k or there abouts would mean we weren't paying off the mortgage into our 70's. But would like four bedrooms and an office space, which feels crazy outlandish where I currently am but very feasible in many other places! Especially as we could go anywhere.

Don't want to be in the middle of nowhere, would like to have shops and school/s in walking distance for example, but there's still several places which can offer that within our budget. Just struggling to narrow down even a general starting point so we could go there for a long weekend or something and have a look.

Well done being brave enough to make the move! How did you decide where to be?

Decided on the basis of price and the fact one of us had wider family in the area.

Places like Accrington in Lancashire would get you a 4 bed, 2 bathroom place for approx 200k. I have never been there so not sure whether its ok or not, but I know it's fairly cheap. The weather might put you off though.

Lincolnshire also good for cheap properties.

Okay forget about my first suggestions, too expensive for the amount of space you need. What about Scarborough? I must caveat that I’ve never lived there, but have in other part of N.Yorkshire and it’s beautiful (not all of it is that cheap though despite being north!)
something like this:
Scarborough

We went west rather than North and aimed for access to M4 for "ease" of travelling back to SE for in laws and Wales for my family. We drew a rough corridor on a map of 45 mins to M4. Decided to aim for a walkable town with 15-30k population, train station, one secondary school (to avoid situation where you "have" to avoid one of them), swimming pool, a theatre/museum/arts centre/town hall with events/WEA that was active, access to countryside by foot directly from the town. Then we applied our budget to the long list of towns. Quickly ditched anything with a direct train to London as this really put up the prices and ended up with a nearby train station rather than a town train station. Secondary school thing didn't work out either, but we decided to avoid any town that had a grammar as it has such an effect on the non-grammer school option locally and DC were too young for us to be confident about academics. Visited the top three, narrowed it down to one then made a couple of house viewing trips. Once we made the decision to move, we worked fairly quickly. Having a shopping list and a spreadsheet made it straightforward for us - but DH is very data-driven! It felt like a joint project rather than an ordeal.

If you are looking at Worcester-way, I quite like Ledbury and Malvern as well. Better value if you go more north than we did. But frankly we were in such an expensive bit of SE, that it still worked out for us - ended up with two more bedrooms, two more bathrooms, bigger garden, nicer location, better local schools for half of our previous mortgage. This was 12 years ago.

I moved to Yorkshire from London and it was a great decision. Moved on my own and it took time to settle in but the people are friendly.

For your budget, how about Hornsea? Good beach, not too much rain and esy reach to Beverley and Hull,

I like this house.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/146080163#/?channel=RES_BUY

The OP hasn't said anything about moving to 'the countryside'.

She is likely looking at one of the many other large cities elsewhere in England

@Beansandneedles , i dont have suggestions of where to move to but i just wanted to say i think any move you and your family make will work out fine. You sound very friendly and outgoing and as your kids are young you can get involved in toddler groups/bookbug etc and meet lots of people. Good luck with it all.

We're basically doing this now. Leaving the city for a house in Yorkshire with a much larger garden and the moors a stone's throw away. The new house has more space, more loos(!) and is close to much better schools. We are very excited.

Leaving your support network isn't something to do lightly, but equally living paycheque to paycheque isn't going to be easy either.

If you want advice on how to choose an area, we used schools as our deciding factor. Everything else fell into place once we decided the area based on our school needs.

So yes, considering towns which have the amenities we're used to, but also closer to big hills/mountains or the coast. Doesn't have to be on the beach, but closer than 1.5 hours drive to a decent one would be nice

Leeds and the surrounding area could suit. Both Yorkshire and Lancashire coasts around 1.5 hours away, you can be in real wilderness in under an hour as accessible to Peak District, Yorkshire Dales, North York Moors and Pennines.

Plus you have all the big city opportunities and amenities.

Some examples of houses that might fit your brief.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/144169175#/?channel=RES_BUY

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/139055552#/media?id=media0&ref=floorPlanPage&channel=RES_BUY

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/145868540#/?channel=RES_BUY

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/144029969#/floorplan?activePlan=1&channel=RES_BUY

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/145687070#/floorplan?activePlan=1&channel=RES_BUY

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/142735559#/floorplan?activePlan=1&channel=RES_BUY

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/143188760#/?channel=RES_BUY

Our neighbours did this. They moved from South East to Overton (village in north east Wales). They did it a few years ago and seem very happy. Is there anywhere you have an affinity with? I always think if I home worked and kids weren't so happy in their school, I'd like to move to Montgomery. Not sure DH would agree.

I'd consider all the places you've visited and where makes your heart sing.

That's such a nice way of phrasing it! Maybe I need to visit more places. We're planning to spend the rest of this year doing staycations to places we're considering moving (when we work out the shortlist, which should be asap), so perhaps that will help.

Gosh thank you so much to those who took the trouble to send rightmove links, you are lovely!!

I'm data driven, would love to see this matrix!! Currently putting one together for us, but then translating that into actual towns is a big project!

Absolutely 100% go for it. Your children are young and you will easily make a network of friends in the right place. For countryside I'd be tempted to head west as it gives you access to Wales. Malvern, Ross-on-Wye, Shrewsbury etc.

Good luck!