Me (27F) and my partner (28M) have been living in Surrey ever since we came to the UK (9 years for me and 5 for him). It wasn’t a conscious choice, we came as students, started working after graduation and never moved out.
Whenever I read news or any stats about the quality of life I am marvelled to learn that, apparently, I live in peak comfort and the world is my oyster. Nothing further from the truth. We pay an obscene amount of rent, council tax, bills and only shop at Lidl and Aldi to stay on top of our food spending. Eating out is a very rare occasion (every few months) and do virtually no activities in order to afford short trips abroad to visit family instead. We used to be quite sheltered from these realities as we worked in Hospitality with a very demanding schedule, but a decent salary. We decided to step away from this industry last year because it was draining our health and it was completely unrelated to our degrees. And so the struggle began.
My partner got a good starting job in a German company with £30k a year, but has been made redundant after 10 months so now he’s back in the job hunting loop which is dreadful (hr doesn’t show to the interviews they scheduled themselves, companies freeze hires mid process, getting ghosted at late stages or simply never hear back). I am employed in our town for a silly salary of £25k, a job I accepted after months of searching and saw as a stepping stone into something more meaningful in the future, but the future seems bleak. Salaries are consistently low across the board and even if I was to realistically progress to 30-33k, I can’t see how that would sustain a good long term lifestyle. Right now we are in the position where we scrutinise every penny and while an increase of a few thousands per year would give us more wiggle room, it would also mean increased tax, nhs fees and student loan payback so I can’t see how we could save enough to purchase a home and stop paying thousands in rent.
As this is my experience, it’s very hard to understand why this area is portrayed as a world of possibilities when all I do is survive. More job opportunities? May be, but when they all have hundreds of applicants and your CV doesn’t get looked at, is it really any help? Better transport? May be, but when commuting rivals rent, is it sustainable?
We’ve explored the option of moving out, but smaller towns only offered a marginally lower rent which paired with the commuting cost for my job would bring us to the same amount we pay now. Remote villages have lower rents, but would force us to buy a car which again, brings a load of expenses and tbh I would not enjoy living in a rural location.
It’s clear enough that we need to make a change, but I’m lost at where to start. We only hear ghost stories about the North regarding safety, the weather, salaries etc. and are advised to build a career here. How?? I’m currently debating if this is a country wide issue and if we should consider relocating to mainland Europe or I’m just caught in this bubble of misery?
Lastly, we were considering opening a small business, since being employed is leading nowhere, but are concerned we might be burrying the only money we have in a deadend.
Apologies for the long rant, I tried to paint an accurate image of our previous 12 months. Any advice is welcome and if you’ve been in this position before, I’d love to hear your experience.