I’m Winging at Life!

Have you ever heard the term ‘your winning at life’? That has never applied to me.

I’ve never had all of my eggs in one basket, all my ducks in a row…I’ve always wing’d it because I’ve never liked the idea of settling in one place, doing one thing….it never usually works out well for me, meaning I’ve had countless crappy jobs and lived in places I didn’t want to live. But….for once, it seems to have paid off.

Before we applied for this visa, me and my partner had the serious ‘This is what I want from life’ conversation and it turns out we both kinda wanted different things. Thing is…we’ve known this from day one. It had worked for us for 7 years, so why would we let moving across the world change anything? That was our decision – again, we are gonna wing it. See what happens!

We also made a promise that we’d make a plan if the visa came through, so that when we arrived we knew the plan of what where how when why… flash forward to the day we left and we still didn’t know where we wanted to settle! But we made a promise to make it work and to compromise, and that’s exactly what we’ve done.

Things like that never usually work out for us…so you’d think we’d learn, however – winging it seems to be the best thing we did. It kept us flexible, adaptable to change, able to make quicker, better decisions and by doing so….we’re kinda where we wanna be.

So….we’ve winged it…. and less than *2 months* after entering the country, we both have jobs, we have an apartment with a pool and a balcony (life goals made right there!), and we’ve just managed to buy ourselves a brand new car. In the UK that would never be possible. We are now earning the money we need to have the things we want in life – and I can’t get over it. We ended up in Brisbane, not knowing anything about the city, the job market here or the cost of living…and yet here we are, loving life. Plus, it’s starting to feel a little like home.

Even one of my old friends commented on Facebook saying I was really getting my life together …and I thought, yes…for once, I am! (That kinda sparked this post, so thanks Bex!)

I might seem smug here, and that’s not what I’m going for at all – but I can’t get over how good a life we’ve got over here. I never really let on to people who knew me back home that life wasn’t as easy as it seemed. Money was REALLY tight for me (because of my own stupid mistakes with debt) for a lot of years, even when I went to uni – I made a last-minute decision to  go, not letting debts stop me and I worked 30 hour weeks alongside studying full-time, just to pay my rent and bills. I never quite found a job that got me where I needed to be afterwards.

I went travelling – winging that massively as we were skint within a month of leaving the UK, but we somehow managed to stay away for 17 months. When I came home, I worked and worked and even with a degree I struggled to earn more than £1000 a month, and when you have rent to pay, food to buy, debts to clear, a phone bill and a car to manage – it doesn’t get you far! I know that many people at home are struggling, with most 30 year olds now unable to afford to move out of their parents homes because living is so expensive.

It worried me from day one that we were gonna get over to Aus and be in the same boat, up shit creek without a paddle and nothing to hide behind, the cost of living over here is known to be quite high…but actually, it’s not like that at all. The jobs we have are decent jobs, on par with the UK but the wages are SO much better, yes..the rent is higher here, but you get so much more lifestyle for your money and the wage difference makes it seem like a breeze.
The other day I wanted a new pair of shoes…so I went and bought them. With money I’d earned the previous fortnight. That might seem like the silliest thing in the world to anyone who hasn’t struggled before, but knowing I could do that and not have to sit and worry about whether I’m going to be skint all month because of it – was such an incredible feeling. Plus here the job market is SO much better. People are flexible, open to you changing skills and going on courses to better yourself, it’s a better system for promotions and there are lots of opportunities to move around the country with businesses. It’s better. Plus having the sun on your back is a feeling you can not beat, its something I know to this day my Dad misses about living in South Africa.

The obvious downside to living so far away is not being around family, but they want the best for us and for now at least…I honestly believe that it’s here.

So it seems I’m winging at life! and I love it. 

So, for all of you who are curious – I’m going to do a comparison table down the line so you can see the difference between the cost of living in the UK and Aus. If anyone is thinking about making the move and your not sure about it – know that no matter how hard I found it, I have ZERO regrets about my decision.