Birmingham Live
·Jul 2026
We swapped West Midlands for country 1,000 miles away where bills are half the price
Brittany Balinski, her Polish husband and their four children moved from North Warwickshire to Gdansk in July 2026, exchanging a three-bedroom home for a rented six-bedroom house overlooking a forest. The family sold their UK home for £275,000 and now pays £1,400 a month in rent, while estimating lower costs for food, meals out, fuel, veterinary care and household bills in Poland. Brittany says the move was enabled by her remote work, her husband's Polish nationality and their children's dual citizenship, and was motivated by family quality of life, space and access to nature rather than politics. The family has enrolled the children in a local school and Brittany is learning Polish, although she acknowledges that wages are lower in Poland and that some expenses, including cars and days out, can be higher.