Want to move back but I'm stuck here.

It's making me really depressed and I have no one to talk to about it so hoping there is someone on here who can understand!  Been in the UK 12 years this year, married to British husband, we have 2 kids ages 2 and 5, live in a 2 bed council flat we bought 5 years ago to do up and sell, then market crashed, so we're stuck in this flat.  We don't make enough money to be able to buy a house, like EVER.  This started out as a fun expat adventure 12 years ago but is now just boring life in a country that makes you be poor forever and only the incredibly rich can ever own houses, these days.  I feel so oppressed!

I want to move back, I miss my family and we don't even have money to visit anymore.    This summer it will be 3 years since I've been back to visit, and we're not even going this year. 

Trying to save up my pennies to move back, dh getting a job there before going is out of the question I think, so I'm saving up money to live there for one year (rent, groceries, buy a car, bills, etc, etc, etc) while looking for work.  Then hopefully find jobs, get mortgage and actually buy a decent sized house which would be small by American standards but a palace to us!  A back yard and decent sized rooms would be my dream come true!  It will take 3+ years to save up that money, all the while, living in this crappy, oppressive, tiny council flat, the 4 of us.

And I don't even want to think about debt here: dh's student loans, renting out our flat, etc.  I feel like I don't even care, I just want outta here! 

Dh wants to go too but is the type who is happy no mattter where he is and doesn't have any inclination or motivation to do anything to get anywhere else, so it's ALL up to me.  So stressful.  So depressing.  I'll stop now or I'll go on forever and it will be really depressing!

If you can save up enough for a family of 4 to live on without working, then I'd think that would go a long way towards you affording to buy a house here, after selling your flat.

Sorry to hear you are so stressed out and depressed. Hope you can turn the corner soon.

Not saying things aren't tough in the UK. But the streets are still not paved with gold in the US. In spite of the media claiming the economy is on the mend, jobs are still tight in many areas. 30-somethings are still living with parents because they can't afford to live on their own. Prices of food and other essentials keep going up -- or else the boxes get smaller  My social security benefit plus minute work pension are not enough for me to live on -- let alone the resident 30-something.

So, keep on saving. And then save some more because you will need it.

I agree  that it isn't great  everywhere.. We have been  'back"  for  a few years now  and even though my DH makes good money here  (CA)  we can't afford  a house and it looks like  we won't for a  while.. It makes my DH  sad..He wants our girls  to have  a  backyard and  a place they can always come 'home" to.. We are in our 40s  and live in a two bedroom apartment by the beach.. It is not glamorous at all.  A lot of  our contemporaries  are living with their parents,.. So basically  small families are moving back in with the  grandparents..  It sure doesn't feel like  things are on the mend around here. I don't know what state you want  to move back to... It just isn't  wonderful anywhere..