SaffasintheUK

The one thing that surprised me about life in the UK, is the massive cost of childcare, specifically for younger kids and the very little ones.   Coming out of SA, we are mostly used to a nanny, or a formal childcare environment, but we seldom break the bank on paying for it.   The staggering cost of childcare if you have kids of an age that need care while you are working, is literally that.   Bank and wallet breaking.   If you read this article , you’ll quickly see how childcare can swallow up a major part of your income, if not all of it.   £1,200 per month, give or take, is a hard pill to swallow!    Depending on which part of the UK you settle in, you may earn higher wages but childcare will also be higher. But what if you need to work? What if you just can’t manage on one income? Well, you have a few options, thankfully the UK is a lot more progressive with offering work to families that have children to consider. NB – if you ch...

The question I get asked often is “do you ever get homesick?” To be honest, the answer is actually no.   I don’t get homesick, I don’t long for Johannesburg or Africa at all. But I miss home anyway.   So what is it exactly that I miss?   It’s hard to describe really, and what I feel has been called homesickness I suppose but I don’t think that I’m really pining for the city I left behind.   What I miss is familiarity. Quirky traditions and behaviours that I know and understand. A collective understanding that makes you feel like you belong in a place.  Like you've always been there. I miss knowing every brand, and which ones I prefer in the supermarket.   When you first arrive it takes hours to do your shopping because you are browsing so much, and then it takes weeks to work out which washing soap you like the most because you have to try them all.   It’s tedious and makes you feel a bit like an oaf.   I miss knowing the chain...

Beach huts on Bournemouth beach Getting settled in the country means wanting to see more of it, travel a bit and explore, especially if you have an adventurous spirit like we do. But money is always the big hurdle, travelling is expensive and it can cripple your plans to get out and have a blast.   So how did we manage to enjoy a 3 day bank holiday weekend on just £200?   I’ll share a few of our tips, if you share your stories with us! Firstly, not included in this sum of money is accommodation and a National Trust family membership.   For accommodation, we booked early, and by that I mean we booked in the dead of winter when not a soul is even dreaming of sunny weekend breaks.   I start searching for self-catering accommodation in November and eventually settle on a privately rented mobile home in a resort park.   I negotiated with the owner to pay our booking off over a few months and managed to secure the brilliant rate of just £80 a night for a...

Our two boys on the day they arrived, testing their new beds We were one of those families that made the decision right from the get-go that our pets would move with us to the UK.   This was non-negotiable for us and as we started our plans and built a budget, the costs of the pet relocation was always included.   Taking your pets with you is a massive decision.   So is leaving them behind.   Right from the outset, I want to stress that, if you choose to leave your animals behind, please let them go to new homes immediately.   Don’t drag this out, don’t use any lame excuse for keeping them with you, don’t, whatever you do, leave it to the last desperate minute when you put out pleas on social media coupled with threats to drop them at the SPCA.   That is not fair.   But if you choose to move without them, and choose to rehome them as quickly as possible, giving you and the pets a chance to adjust (and for you to make sure they are really in a...

Having been on holiday this week and with a  bit of spare time on our hands, we took a meandering drive to nearby Basingstoke to do our shopping at ASDA.  In the nearly 2 years that we've been in the UK, we've never been inside an ASDA, so we decided to go to change up our routine and just for curiosity sake really.  If you aren't already living in the UK, ASDA is one of the very large grocery retailers, probably on a par with Tescos in terms of price and not too different to President Hyper in Gauteng. I still find it fascinating to wander around the stores and look at the products for sale, touching and seeing what is on offer in this amazing country.  I find it helps me to ground myself a little and every visit to a grocery store makes me feel more at home as more and more products become familiar to me.  Before you wonder why it's taken this long for me to venture into ASDA especially as they are widely found across the country, it's because we live in a v...

**disclaimer** To anyone British that happens to be reading this, I apologise for the liberal use of Saffa slang.   Ask your friend to translate the bits you don’t understand. Make sure you are ready to braai, when you do ;-) I have found myself trying to explain the South African braai culture to my colleagues and friends, and recently got to thinking….what is it that makes a braai so special to us.   Why is it not “just a BBQ”? And that is, of course, the very response I get when I describe a braai to one of my colleagues…”oh we do that when the weather is good.   It’s a BBQ!” Um, no. And FFS stop saying that. Please. But what is it then that separates the braai from the BBQ….the men from the mice so to speak?   Why are we so bloody special that our tradition is so unique when it is, at face value, literally a BBQ?   I can say that a braai is so quintessentially South African that it is to us what tea is to the British. I can say that it’s a ...

We have asked a few Saffas living in the UK, or just moving over to share their stories with us.  We'll share these every Monday for encouragement to those still making the decision or in the middle of their leap. Our first friendly voice is Julie Hall, who tells us a bit about herself and her new life: 1.        Tell us who you are and where you are from originally Julie Hall ... born in the UK emigrated to SA, aged 5 with my parents. 2.        Where are you settled now? I chose Overton in North Wales, as I had support with accommodation moving here. I am from the North of England originally and I have family not too far away although they weren't my support to start off with. 3.        What is the route you took to the UK (ie, British passport, ancestral visa, tier 2) I have a British passport 4.        How long have you been in the UK? ...