I'm pretty much set to leave the UK for Portugal now, with the intention of having an explore, finding some land to buy there and then living on said land.

The whole idea behind this move is to reduce my day to day cost of living expenses, ideally halving them from £1600 a month, which is roughly what they are now, to nearer £800 a month.

I've just calculated that the total 'capitalisation' cost to get everything prepped for me to move abroad is around £3 400, and that's so far, with only my very basic needs covered.

This means that if I spend nothing else and I successfully reduce my monthly outgoings by £800 then the move would have paid for itself within five months.

However, given that the plan is to buy land, that £3K figure is likely to go up considerably, probably reaching nearer £15K in the not too distant future!

Budget moving expenses breakdown

I've included a more detailed breakdown below, but the main categories are as follows:

• £2050 to prep the house - a few things needed doing! NB I know the bar shows £1450 but I just remembered I forgot the cost of the new carpets I had fitted!
• £550 'off-grid' purchases so far - mainly a tent and solar stuff
• £400 - roughly what I'll need to pay the management company up front to get renting my house (ouch)
• £440 - travel to Portugal, including a luxury 8 nights in an Air B and B when I get there.

The house is by far the main expenditure

If I add on the carpets then yellow and green below are around 70% of the total cost of moving.

However, prepping the house for rent does involve a fairly substantial income of several hundred pounds coming in every month! NB The income isn't enough to cover the cost of maintaining the house for rent, mainly because I'm on a rapid repayment term on the mortgage, and it does keep my options open if I want to return. So pricey, but it's primarily about security!

The total breakdown

Without colour or carpets soz!

Final thoughts - £3.5K to move abroad is pretty good!

I'm quite pleased with my costs so far - £3500 to prep the house, get it rented, buy some basic gear and sort out my basic living expenses is OK by me, much better than the £11K it cost me to sell my flat and buy my house back in 2018.

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