Going the opposite way :-)

[MovingtoUK]

Hi everyone :-)

 

Well, my hubby, small children and I are planning to move from Adelaide to England next year. Reasons being we have more family over there for the kids (hubby's dad immigrated), change of scenery and life experience, and travel opportunities. Biggest one however, is I am a teacher and the work is so scarce here that if I stay, I will never have a career.

 

We we lived and worked in the UK a few years ago and it was so easy to gain employment :-)

 

My question is, what is the cost of living like over there? Because it is astronomical here. Do u get more for your buck?

[RachaelOs]

House prices/rent varys massively and as this is usually the biggest expense it will depend where you're planning on living as to how much income you'll then have for other things!

 

I think Gas/electric is more value for money in the UK and there's more choice in food shopping.

 

You don't have car rego but you do have tax and yearly MOTs and have to have insurance.

 

Childcare is expensive (everywhere!). Is there much difference in the wages here/there for a teacher? What does your husband do?

[snifter]

I don't think it's astronomical here. Not compared to the area we were living in in the UK. We are better off here for sure coming from the Bristol area of England.

 

Affodability in the UK, depends what part of it, how much you earn and so on. I think teachers are better paid here. Some parts of the UK are cheap to live but often salaries etc are less. It's all relative. Also things like public transport outside of the cities can be expensive and limited.

 

NHS is brilliant but being rapidly diminished and within a few years will be more like the Aus system I fear. Cars are cheaper to buy, fuel and MOT and tax, that costs each year. Household bills, council tax, all those things add up.

 

I dont think there is much in it shopping wise. I think the UK has a better variety of supermarkets to choose from but there isn't a massive difference in price any more. Clothing and shoes, cheaper. Day out, public transport, those are not cheap. I was shocked to see a day out at the zoo for 2 adults and one child cost over £60. Another trip to a castle cost £40 plus.

 

I think there are better free sports facilities here. And better sports facilities all round when paying also. Dining out, not much in it unles you are going for a bit of pub grub for the £10 deal or some such. Decent meals out cost. Ikea is cheaper in the UK I think but not always a big difference.

 

Don't expect to walk into a decent job in th UK teaching. Depending on what level/age group and what you teach, you may have limited options, it may dictate where you end up living also. The teachers I know in the UK struggle with the heavy workload and all the extra things that have to do these days. 30 plus kids a class (a friend tells me her kids have classes with 33 in as the school is so full). A number would love to stop teaching as it's become nothing like the job they trained for or thought it would be. I know here in Adelaide it's hard to find a permanent teaching post but time and again I hear teachers say that if the are jobs in rural areas but no one seems to want those to give them a couple of years under their belts before coming back to try again.

 

Also consider the weather may take some getting used to My Aussie hubby lived in Engalnd for 8 years and in all that time while he tolerated winters thanks to central heating and decent winter coats etc, it was a long dark wet cold winter that did it for him and he said he never wanted to spend another winter there again. Winter is 3 months, it can be cold, a couple of degrees and wind chill below that it can be wet and rain it seems constantly but spring can also be very cold and by cold I mean snow and sub zero in April or soaking wet for weeks/months and lots of flooding (seems to be getting worse each year now, even in places that didn't used to flood). Even summer does not really get out of the high teens low twenties much. I was there a month and it hardly got over 18c in high summer. And you should still need to sun cream up against UV as you do here.

 

I think it's great to migrate, go live in another country for a while or longer. It can be a great experience, it can also be hard work and financially tough. Also homesickness and all those things can factor in, does not matter where you move from or to. Give it a go, don't set anything in stone as in its a long term move or forever, go try it out, see how you go and if it's where you want to stay for however long, make it your home. The UK, well, much of it, is not a bad place to live But like here there are also things wrong with it and it's being patched up pretty badly in places instead of being fixed properly. All up, you can have a decent life there if everything works out for you

[snifter]

Agree with childcare being expensive in the UK. And places can be booked up way way in advance.

 

Plus nothing like OSCH exists as a norm in pretty much all the schools as it does here in Aus. At least none of the primary schools I know in England ran a scheme like that. The kids had to go to the local high school each day for that. Were picked up by someone from the childcare and walked over there, a 10-15 minute walk in all weathers. No before school care either.

[Hayshake]

A point of view from over there, (England), although we do not use childcare, yes it is expensive, but is I believe is often helped by a government payment.

Food is definitely cheaper, House rents I think are a lot cheaper, unless you want to live in London or a big city.

The view of whether things are more expensive or not depends on the exchange rate used for the conversion. We have found things in Australia expensive in recent years due to the fact that there were only A$1.55 to a £1, but now it is more like A$2.10 to a £1 things are now cheaper for us when we visit Australia, which we do most years.

Prices and costs therefore depend on earnings as against costs and these vary by exchange rates all of the time.

[MovingtoUK]

Thanks everyone with your replies! :-)

 

In regards to teaching, unfortunately even the country jobs are drying up in rapid pace. Unless you want to work in rural NT, it is still hard to get work in rural areas, and even if u do secure work it is contract and may not be renewed. And it's four years u need to be out there. I know that last year the government in South Australia alone advertised 500 teaching positions. 20,000 teachers applied for those! Workload for teachers here is getting more and more too.

 

I taught in UK 10ish years ago. Won a job in an amazing semi rural school before I even left Oz. We are moving to Norfolk this time round as that where our family is. I have a recruitment agency lined up, they assure me they can place me in a permanent position in the area I want before I leave.

 

 

l can only hope that my experience will b as positive as it was last time! It's all a risk either way I guess! Having family over there def helps :-)

[MovingtoUK]

Regarding weather, I find Adelaide weather absolutely freezing in winter as our homes are not built for it, and ridiculously hot in summer

[snifter]

Regarding weather, I find Adelaide weather absolutely freezing in winter as our homes are not built for it, and ridiculously hot in summer í*½í¸‚

 

Winter in England just seemed to drag on for 6 months, even though it was spring and summer was around the corner.

 

Houses are for the most part geared up to the colder weather there that's for sure. It was only in our last 2 houses we had central heating and I got a bit spoilt by it Give me central heating and double glazing that's for sure. It was more the cold and wet outside got to hubby. 3 weeks of sub zero mixed with rain/snow was horrible. Then more rain, flooding, cold, rain... Yeah that did it for us lol.

 

The thing I struggled with on my visit back was how cramped lots of places felt and the tiny new build houses. My sisters new build place is over 3 floors and her floor space is about half what we have here. Her garden is the size of our kitchen. Street is jammed packed with cars. Living in it I was used to it but it did jar when I visited after being here a while here.

 

Has things going for it, other things not. So long as the balance is a good one for your family that is all that matters. Plenty of people move that way, Aus to UK and settle well. Some return, others don't. No right or wrong, just what's right for you all I think it's good to try. The exchange rate isn't really relevant once you migrate as you earn £, spend £'s and all that. It's your £ earnings and expenses and if you can balance that out once living there so as to have a decent standard of living.

 

I like the UK, lived there happily and we left it on very good terms. Not disillusioned with it at all (apart from crap long winters) and we were very happy living there. I can appreciate why others would want to go back there or migrate there

[MovingtoUK]

In regards to the health systems, aren't the UK and Oz the same? One thing that frustrated me when I was over there was that it was really hard to get an appointment with a gp, where are here u can genuinely get in on the same day. But I thought each was a similar system?

 

what area did your hubby live in snifter?

 

one thing that I did miss while I was there was our beaches. SA has the most amazing, beautiful beaches. But now that I've been back for so long, I hardly ever go to the beach. It's amazing what u take for granted lol!

 

oh and iced coffee. I missed ice coffee. Haha.

 

We we also have a larger selection of Cadbury chocolate blocks here, not that that is overly important!

[snifter]

The UK and Aus systems are different. The NHS is something I think is an amazing thing and it's being dismantled at an alarming rate by the Government. It will end up being a private insurance system within a few years I am sure and with something like Medicare for those unable to afford private cover. I hope prescriptions continue to be priced so low but again this may change in line with something like the Aus system. Might not be a bad thing in terms of wasted medication and all that but it will hit lots hard to pay a chunk more for each medication.

 

How quickly you can get an appointment with a GP at your chosen surgery will depend on the area. Where we were living I could always get an emergency appointment at short notice on the same day but had to take whatever time they gave me in either the morning or afternoon, with whichever GP was taking the emergency clinic, depending on when I called. And it was only a 5 minute appointment for the emergency. If I wanted an actual 10 minute proper appointment with my chosen GP it was often a 2-3 week wait and for one GP, my own, it was usually a 4 week wait to see her.

 

Here re you can go to any GP anywhere, the UK it's a GP surgery in the area you live in you have to register with. Then the process to go through if you are given a referral etc unless you have private cover and can skip all that and the NHS waiting times.

 

My my hubby lived with me in the south west of England. We spent the last few years years living near Bristol, a lovely part of the world but expensive renting and buying house wise and also salaries don't often stack up with th cost of living. Unless you have 2 full time incomes and are not paying out for childcare it can be hard going to live in a decent area there.

 

Get used to missing iced coffee again :cute:Nothing comes close to FU according to hubby and he tried everything going.

[snifter]

Just checking here but have you applied for a partner visa already for the UK or citizenship in place? Just they changed the requirements a couple of years ago now and getting a partner visa can be tough going to meet the requirements or work out rather expensive savings wise.

Edited September 1, 2015 by snifter
changed wording

[MovingtoUK]

It is expensive, something like $1700 for me and then another $1700 per kid! But I qualify for Ancestry visa too. We will see, not looking into it till next year

[snifter]

If you qualify for the ancestry that will be a huge help. The financial aspect is what is catching many out, the earnings needing to be over a set amount and so on. Many couples are finding they are stuck in Aus and elsewhere as there is no UK job therefore no UK income.

 

Do the children not qualify for UK citizenship through their father if he is a UK citizen and born there (and if its needed, met the residence period requirement) etc. That would have to be easier and better (and cheaper) for them I'd have thought. I'd not bother with a visa if they can hold UK citizenship from the off before you depart.