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Earning a Living
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 06/05/2008, 20:44
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blackcat
Joined on 16/04/2008
Posts 30
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Re: Cost of Living for familes in France?
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Agree renting is the best way to go, but only plan to do it for as long as it takes us to find a suitable property. We will still have a property in the UK to come back to if things dont work out (I would be inclined to give it 18 months to 2 years based on my friends experiences who have moved away).
We are selling one property in the UK to finance our french home. We have another property that is being rented out in the UK. If we buy in France and decide to return then we will still have a nice holiday home in France and a home in the UK
We are looking into the financial implications, which I guess we wont be fully up to date on until we are there and have established our residency. There are a couple of ladies that have kindly e-mailed me, their husbands work in the UK and they are offering advice for which I will be very grateful for!
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07/05/2008, 8:30
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blackcat
Joined on 16/04/2008
Posts 30
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Re: Cost of Living for familes in France?
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Hi citygirl
I see that 2000 euros a month is a more realistic figure, thanks. My husband is a senior construction engineer, his average UK wage (for his senior skills) is £40k - £45k. He is looking into acquiring inspector status which would pay more but would take him to other countries aside from the UK, which is his dream.
Me, my mum and the kids just want a nice base where we can enjoy a quiet life, keep a few chickens, plant some veg, make some wine, the kids are really looking forward to it, maybe a B & B in years to come or a nice small family business. Ive been brought up in an italian family where this was the norm.
My mother in law has also decided to come out and buy herself an apartment. Our uncle is also looking into buying a holiday home nearby as he has just sold a property in Italy and has 2 UK homes.
We have a uk property that we will make £1000 per month in rental profit, which will help towards our income. If we needed to return to the uk then we would live there, its quite big and has loads of potential to extend.
We will definitely sell our current home as we want to use the equity to buy our french home, along with the investment my mum is making. She is able to support herself very well. Although we do plan to rent for as long as it takes to find suitable properties, we may want an outbuilding for mum to convert. To find an apartment nearby for my husbands mum too, all this could take a year easily, so hopefully we will have a good idea of french life by then.
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07/05/2008, 13:46
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Fi
Joined on 14/08/2006
Posts 11
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![Smile [:)]](/cs/images/emotions/smile.gif)
Re: Cost of Living for familes in France?
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Hi Sara, have read your thread with great interest and am glad to see you stuck with the forum - I totally sympathise, I too got a little prickly when I felt my simple question on another thread (about schools) led to some fairly judgemental comments. However I think you have generated some really interesting responses and a really interesting thread of discussion. I'm afraid I have nothing of value to add - I'm interested purely from the point of view that we intend to make the move as well so to establish an average cost of living is something of great interest to us. It sounds to me like you have your head totally screwed on - you have a plan and you are being 100% wise retaining one property in the UK. We have a house which we plan to sell, however we have no mortgage on it so we hope to use the equity to buy a place outright in France eventually and to buy a place in UK to rent (probably with a small mortgage - depends on how much the French budget is stretched). However we have decided to rent for a year first - purely to give us time to see if we really like the lifestyle and to have time to thoroughly research areas and schools. So we may well just rent our home in England first - as long as rental income covers rental outgoings (and hoepfully some more - am looking at renting a 3 bed place with a pool for a year for £550 a month - our house in UK should generate £1000 income). The increasing Euro is a concern and is another factor in waiting to buy - while the exchange rate may add another £50 a month to rent it could add £50,000 to a purchase price! We did buy a load of Euros when it hit 1.5 to the pound - sadly though they are running out as we use these for holidays. I am the one who may have to occasionally commute to UK to work as I am an IT contractor - we also have the same idea, hopefully a 3 month contract here plus what my partner could earn, will keep us - it may work, it may not - we can but try.........the main thing is that give our kids (mine will be 6 and 4) a far better quality of life than I think they can. My partner is in the building trade and has been for 30 years but nowadays in the UK earns less than he did 10, even 20 years ago, and is finding work harder and harder to come by due to the increase in immigration and cheap foreign labour. He is very good at what he does and is very practical so hopes to do some property development.
Anyway good luck to you - these forums are great but they can be equally helpfull and confusing. At the end of the day you have to just go for it and as long as you are sensible - which you clearly are - if it doesn't work out then you haven't burned your bridges and you can always say you have tried it
All the best, Fi
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08/05/2008, 14:30
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blackcat
Joined on 16/04/2008
Posts 30
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Re: Cost of Living for familes in France?
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Thanks, the limousin area, I have come across some lovely cheap properties on recent searches and am now very interested in visiting that area too. Thanks for your reply. When there are up to 8 of us all looking to relocate then pin pointing an area that we can all focus on is going to be very interesting! We have set a target for ourselves of 18 months but dont mind if things stretch out a bit in order to give us time to make the right decision.
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09/05/2008, 10:57
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Deby
 
Joined on 23/08/2004
Posts 634
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Re: Cost of Living for familes in France?
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In the Uk we have large mortgage (over £1,000 a month). by selling up and moving to France we will mortgage free with our equity so wont need that extra £1k a month.
Sara, I've not read through all the comments given here, but had a quick look at yours. Please do not fall into the trap by trying to resolve your UK problems a move to France is the solution. It might temporarily solve the UK ones, but you will uncover a whole set of new ones here in France. Where is your love of everything French it does not appear to be mentioned. The language constraints, cultural differences, all these appreciations are questions that need to be asked to. I have friends in France who have made their lives successful, but it has been very difficult, one in particular husband has to work 5 weeks on/off - their marriage is suffering. Others still have other problems too personal to mention here. All those things you are saying that you are unhappy with in the UK can be addressed in the UK - why not downsize? Re-locate to a less expensive area? A move to France may appear to be a short term fix, but that is what it can be.
I only say these things because i've seen far too many families or other folk try and do what you are doing only to discover that life in France has its own set of problems. What will your 17 year old do for a job. I sat on the plane 4 days ago next to a young french girl who now lives in London, she tried in vain for a year to get a job and found nothing. She moved to London and got a jobwithin a week. 3 years later she is a manager in the creche she works in. She says she was surprised at how many opportunities there are in the UK where there is a limited amount in France. Her brother now lives in London too. I asked 'will you move back' - 'yes probably ' she replied 'but when I want to retire!' The other thing she volunteered was that she plans to do some further education in a couple of years - something she could not do in France - she really appreciated this opportunity.
You would be wise to rent first and keep your options open. I am trying to give you a balanced view here and not be negative but realistic.
Deby
http://www.chateau-de-clerac.com
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09/05/2008, 11:07
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Deby
Joined on 23/08/2004
Posts 634
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Re: Cost of Living for familes in France?
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Fi sent you a pm.
http://www.chateau-de-clerac.com
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09/05/2008, 23:32
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Ginger
Joined on 04/05/2008
Posts 8
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Re: Cost of Living for familes in France?
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I've just caught up with this thread. Sara, we (family of 4) moved to France three years ago with the same idea as you, that my husband would be able to cut down drastically on his work but sadly it hasn't worked out that way at all. Last year he only managed 12 weeks in France. The rest of the time he was working his backside off in the UK. We had children in private schools so we thought that without those to pay, we'd be laughing. Personally I've found France to be more expensive than the UK in many areas. We couldn't live on 1500GPB in a million years and bearing in mind we rarely go out as he's never here, I've been amazed at how quickly our money goes. Our monthly bills for heating/electricity/wood, health insurance, telephone, broadband connection, taxe d'habitabtion, taxe fonciere, social fund, car insurance, house insurance, school meals, school bus, school insurance, extra curricular activities for the children comes to over 1000 euros just for the basics. That doesn't include food shopping which I think is more expensive in France compared to my visit to Tescos a couple of weeks ago, petrol which is now more expensive than the UK, miscellaneous weekly expenses, etc. Whatever you think it's going to cost you, add on another 30% or so and you'll be nearer the mark.
We have been hit hard by the exchange rate which has wiped about 17-20% off our income which is all UK derived, which means that this week my husband will probably have to work all year. He works in the film industry and is well paid but despite all our research I think we really underestimated how much things would cost.
On top of that as someone has already said, it can be very lonely being in a foreign country on your own and hard going through all the traumas of starting school and starting a new life without the support of your husband who may be working in the UK. We budgeted for my husband to take 3 months of work during our move to help us all settle in. The money ran out in about 5 weeks and he had to go back to work. Like you I've been used to being on my own a lot when husband was away on location but it's another think entirely in a different country.I have some great friends here but sometimes you get sick of going everywhere on your own, no babysitters (although it looks like you may be bringing yours with you!) and I can assure you that it's no fun splitting logs in a freezing barn all winter, having to deal with all the problems that arise either at home or at school on your own if it happens at a time when your husband isn't there to help out. I find it pretty exhausting. On top of that I don't think we've ever been so hard up. Our lovely 200 year old farmhouse which we bought already renovated is a complete money pit and swallows our money as fast as we can earn it. I speak fluent French but can't find a decent job - or any job in fact!
We are now planning to move back to the UK and I can't wait. I wouldn't discount returning when we are older but many people told me before we moved that France is for retired people, not for people with families or who need to work and sadly I think they were right.
Good luck though - just because it didn't work for us doesn't mean it won't for you
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France Forum » Living » Earning a Livin... » Re: Cost of Living for familes in France?
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