Newbie looking at move to Ireland

[Defino]

Hi All
I'm a newbie to the site and wanted to ask for any advice/experience of relocating to rural Ireland from UK.
I'm looking to move to Ireland from UK with my girlfriend we would have a limited budget but have found a few cottages/small rural or semi rural properties within our price range that could be of interest. We would like to become as selfsufficientish as possible and would hopefully purchase any property outright so would need a no mortgage or loan but this would probably take most/all of our saving. We would look to grow as much as possible and keep a few hens and maybe a few livestock land permitting. We would have a small existing income of around €500 pm but would look to earn some type of topup income from Ireland but understand this may take time and wouldn't be easy in the current climate.
Does anyone with direct experience of rural living on a small income have any advice or can share experiences they have had.
All advice appreciated/welcome

[Green Aura]

No experience of that, I'm afraid, but welcome to Ish and I wish you well with your plans.

[Defino]

Hi Green Aura
Thanks for your best wishes

[Defino]

Hi diggernotdreamer
Thanks for your PM I tried to PM you a reply but I'm not able to use the PM think its because I'm a new member

[Green Aura]

No, sorry Defino - 25 posts then you have all privileges.

[Defino]

Thanks for the info

[MuddyWitch]

Welcome to ISH

MW

[Defino]

Welcome to ISH

MW

Hi MW
Thanks for your message and PM as well, can't reply yet via pm service as I'm a newbie

[Milims]

Hithere and welcome

[Potter's Farm]

Hi, we did exactly what you want to do 18 months ago!! We moved to a cottage with 2 acres of land near Adamstown in Co. Wexford.
We grow our own fruit and veg, milk our goats and produce meat from goats, pigs, sheep, ducks and rabbits. We also keep chickens and ducks for eggs.
We are in the process of starting a small plant nursery and visit markets and car boot sales regularly to sell. My husband makes bird and bug boxes from old pallets which we get for free, and we have joined our local country market co-op just this morning.
We would live a lot more frugally if it were just the 2 of us, but we have 3 kids, aged 15, 12 and 9, who make living considerably more expensive.
The only advice i can offer is to try whatever you can, but don't be afraid to change your plans if they're not working out.
Feel free to PM me if you want to ask anything.
Lisa x
P.S. We have decided to cut off our landline and broadband as it costs too much, and instead go to the library once a week and use the computers there for free, so if i don't reply straight away you'll know why.

[Defino]

Thanks for your reply potters
We like the sound of your setup in Ireland its the sort of life style we are looking at

[gdb]

Best advice I can think of is to "do everything your self". Even the impossible.

Because any money saved is like money earned.

Good luck!!!!

[adamaki]

Hi Defino,

From my limited experience of making stuff to sell, I would suggest identifying things that people want, not what you think they want. Otherwise you might end up spending lots of time trying to sell something that people aren't keen on forking out cash for! I used to make honey and it sold like hot cakes, but hand turned wooden bowls were a little harder to shift. Add value to things by processing them e.g. smoking fish, preserving fruit and vegetables. When you offer something for sale make sure it looks professional and high quality (good packaging is important). Start off with reasonable prices. If you hike the price up because it's organic and homemade, etc people just won't buy it. Set the prices so that you recover your costs plus a little extra for profit.

That's just a few suggestions from what I've learnt from my experience over the years. Hope that helps and good luck.

[merlin]

Hi and welcome, is there a specific reason you wanted to move to Ireland, family or other contacts? If not, you might want to consider moving to Bulgaria. An EU country, cheap property & land, long warm summers, no stupid laws about keeping pigs, goats and chickens on yoou own land, and with 500 Euro income per month you would live like a king while learning how to be self sufficient. P.M me if you want to chat :-)

[crepesuzette]

Hello, I moved to rural france nearly 5 yrs ago and its taken a while to get myself up and running partly because of the language difficulties (now much better) but also because work in a rural district is really hard to come by. I'm self-employed looking after secondary homes, childminding and cleaning and whatever other work I can find. If someone offers me a job I say yes and figure out how to do it afterwards! If you are the type of person who needs to know there is money in the bank to cover bills think very carefully. If you can be very resourceful, thrifty and adaptable all the better although however hard you are prepared to work and save, if the work isn't available you may struggle. I love my life here but it can be lonely. The upside is a very healthy lifestyle, beautiful area and very little materialism. People here have the 'make do and mend' attitude which suits me fine. I wish you happiness whatever your decision.