Family reveals exactly how much they save after ditching UK to move across the world
A family who decided to leave the UK say they've 'basically replicated' their routine now they live in Thailand and they've saved over £1,000 a month in costs since the move.
Saskia Dalyanci, 27 and partner Ben, 26, were renting a three-bed home in Tunbridge Wells for £1,000 a month when they decided to leave the UK.
The mum, a former tutor, was already home schooling her children as she reckons her kids 'didn't require Ofsted-excellent rated schools', and when Ben got a job in Chiang Mai they decided to up sticks and move as they flew out on 7 July.
In the UK they were spending over £1,950 a month on their rent, bills, council tax and food, but out in Thailand their rent has almost halved and combined with the rest of their bills it comes to just over £735 a month for the family of five.
Advert
They'd also pocketed £4,000 by selling all their things on Facebook Marketplace and they plan to live in Thailand for the foreseeable future.
Family upped sticks to move across the world
"It was mostly down to my adventurous spirit and wanting to do something a bit different and outside of the box," Saskia said of the decision to move to the other side of the world.
"I wanted to give the children more experiences and it just sort of materialised from that.
"I didn't feel like I had to be where we were living and it didn't necessarily suit the lifestyle we wanted because we were in a very affluent area with incredibly good schools that we didn't need as our children weren't attending school.
"We were paying a lot of money living in an area where the cost of living was high with good schools we didn't require for our children. We wanted to make a move anyway and considered moving in the UK but we'd always dreamt about moving abroad.
"We thought, why not do that first and settle back in the UK afterwards."
"We have a bigger house for less"
Settling in Thailand on Ben's non-immigrant b visa, with Saskia and their children as dependents, they looked around different neighbourhoods to find one that suited them before landing on Chiang Mai.
"We have a bigger house now it's a three-bed property with a utility room, two reception rooms, a rice barn, added outdoor space and a dining room," Saskia says.
"It's been really great and we've kind of slotted in really easily. Overall the kids are thriving and there's a big community here of other expats.
"We met so many people each day. We've basically replicated the same sort of routine we had back in the UK.
"We're allowing time to socialise, do activities and have family routines at home. For us, there is no specific curriculum we follow and we fall into a sort of category of unschooling.
"Essentially we're following our children's interests and planning and facilitating around what they're interested in.
"We're still actively supporting their learning, it's just very different from a classroom."
Exactly how much they save
Ben earns £15,400 a year in his job at an international primary school in Thailand, with them covering the flights and visa to get the family out there, and they live in a bigger house than the one they were renting back in the UK.
He also gets £112 housing allowance a month, and since the cost of living in Thailand is significantly cheaper than the UK that £15k can go a lot further.
Where the family were once paying £1,000 in rent a month they now spend £534.55 on it, their monthly water bill is £2.67 compared to £80, electricity bills are down from £140 a month to £89.90, there's no council tax and the monthly food bill has dropped from over £500 to just £90 for the five of them.
They're still having to budget because they're living on Ben's salary and Saskia says it being cheaper elsewhere in the world 'depends how you are living'.
She said: "For us, there is no specific curriculum we follow and we fall into a sort of category of unschooling.
"Essentially we're following our children's interests and planning and facilitating around what they're interested in.
"We're still actively supporting their learning, it's just very different from a classroom."
While they're not sure if they'll stay in Thailand or return to the UK at some point they're aware they'll have to go through the cost of moving all over again if that's what they choose.
Joe Harker