Prepping to Move to England. Again. | brokeGIRLrich
So if you follow my accountability posts, you may have picked up the brief mention in November’s recap that I did get into grad school and will be heading to England for the next few years starting in January.
Even as I write this, it doesn’t seem particularly real, but as I’ve done this once before I’m trying to dig into the recesses my brain to figure out what I’d like to do differently this time around.
In 2010-11, I lived in South Yorkshire while I got my MA in Sheffield. It was truly a half-baked idea with no real planning and I don’t feel like I made many smart financial choices.
That sojourn drained the $10k of savings I managed to amass at that point. Put me $20k in debt to my grandma, $3k in debt to SallieMae and about $8-9k in debt on my credit cards.
I also like didn’t really live for a year. If it cost money and wasn’t required by school, I pretty much didn’t do it, and in retrospect… I am not doing that again.
I also did a real lousy job of making friends besides my four classmates (who were lovely and I am excited to maybe get to see at least two of them occasionally over the next few years).
I rented a one bedroom apartment on my own, which was sort of nice, but didn’t do anything to help with meeting people.
And I only left England twice, despite weekend flights to continental Europe cost like nothing (I mean, not totally nothing, but definitely doable occasionally), and one of those trips was to Belfast.
In prepping for this move, I have significantly more saved up – enough to totally cover my tuition, if I can’t secure additional funding. I have several freelance sources of income that are both flexible enough to study while I do them online. I picked a school that, if all goes well, I can teach classes at after the first year to reduce my tuition.
However, I’m also moving to London this time as opposed to Sheffield, which like moving to NYC instead of Tulsa, price wise.
Also technology has advanced a lot over the last decade, both with the ability to work online/continue blogging and in the world of international bank accounts.
I signed up for a Wire account which is totally new to me but gives me British bank account details before heading over, which should help make finding a place to live and setting up a cell phone payment a little easier.
I’m also hoping to get approved for postgraduate campus housing for this first semester there, to hopefully get a little more connected to the campus community, but if that doesn’t pan out, I think I’m going to try to find roommates?
It also makes sense to me to start with the cheapest housing options and creep towards my own apartment again after a year or two when I’m sure all my financial plans are actually working out as I’d hoped.
I find I am a lot more invested in building a community in this case because last time I was doing a one year course, attached to the guy I’d been dating for ages even though he was on the other side of the planet, and intended to finish school and go right back to work on a cruise ship to pay it off.
As a plus these days, I’ve worked with quite a few Brits over the last 10 years, so I may have a chance to catch up with some of them, and I’m particularly excited that one of my best friend’s from ships, who married a Scottish guy, is going to London in February and we have plans to meet up.
This is the next three to four years, so it feels unwise to treat it like a temporary stop. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but seems like it?
I also notice that I feel a lot less rushed than I did last time. Like mid-twenties Mel rushed through everything she did to just get it done, and mid-thirties Mel is like… what are we rushing to? Just do the thing and try to mostly enjoy the time while doing it? I don’t totally know. This is a recent mindset I’ve started to explore.
Usually I’m a lot like the lunatic in this comic:
So, on that note, you can expect lots of content in the near future about the costs from this crazy plan.
We moved from NYC to the UK in July. Honestly, just about everything is cheaper in the US except food! In particular, buy all the electronics you need in the US but check they are 120/240V 50/60Hz. Most are except kitchen stuff and hairdryers etc. Register with the NHS as soon as you have a UK address. Can’t help on cheap London, it’s been 25 years since I was a grad student there 🙂 PM me if you want to ask anything.
Thanks! And good to know. I was waffling on packing my second monitor vs buying over there but it seems like it’ll be smarter to just buy a new cable, despite the space it will take up. I lived in South Yorkshire for grad school 11 years ago, but I feel like trying to plan a move for the next 3-7 years versus a little less than 1 year has my mind a little more jumbled.
My wife shipped her monitors; I bought a 13” screen from eBay for ~$110 which was easy to pack. I bought a bunch of UK ‘kettle’ and ‘figure of 8’ style power cords with UK plugs from Amazon UK which have worked perfectly with those monitors and other items. I also bought a bunch of Ceptics US-UK power plugs from Amazon US for things where I couldn’t switch out the cord. We sold or gifted or donated everything mains-powered for the kitchen plus hair dryers, straighteners, etc. We bought a TV in the UK because it was unclear if it would work ok plus it would have cost a lot to ship. Beds are different sizes between the UK and US, therefore fitted sheets may not work.
We signed up to Traveling Mailbox and redirected all our mail which has been excellent. Credit card signup bonuses and benefits are minimal in the UK, so stock up while you can (especially as you’ll have a lot of moving expenditure). Taxes have been an absolute nightmare so so we found professional help an absolute necessity as most US preparers won’t understand the complexities.
Hope this isn’t too obvious / patronising. We planned for months and months because as you say, it’s hard to get your head round how much changes.
No, this is amazing! Thanks! Especially how you did your electronics. I’m going very back and forth on my living arrangement plans too, so that gave me a bit to think on (renting furnished vs unfurnished). I went furnished when I lived in Sheffield for the year, but I think the price difference over 4-7 years makes it a bit negligible this time – though there is the headache of furnishing vs. getting there the first day and having a bed ready to collapse in waiting for me 🙂 And the credit card tips are great too. I just opened a US Bank card to put my tuition on for the year, and had planned to do the same each year, but I think I’ll look into opening one more this year to cover the moving expenses because I’m sure it’ll wind up being a few thousand no matter how I slice it. My current hope is to keep it all between £2-3k.
Whoa congrats!!
NZ Muse recently posted…5 steps to crush your money goals this year
Thanks!