Will Twigger Content Editor and SWNSEmilyPhillips (Emily Phillips)
07:00, 02 Aug 2026
They moved earlier this year
A Brit family of six moved to Poland to live in a house more than double the size overlooking a forest – and say dinner out costs just £12.60.
Brittany Balinski, 35, her husband, 44, and their four kids made the move in July 2026, swapping their three-bed semi in north Warwickshire for a six-bedroom three-storey home in Gdansk.
After speaking with and visiting friends who had moved abroad and were thriving, Brittany also noticed her husband’s “quality of life” declining after years of working night shifts as a HGV driver.
Brittany realised with her remote job and business she could support their family wherever they were based.
With her husband a Polish national, and all four children holding dual citizenship, Brittany was able to apply for D visa which means she can stay for a year, applying for residency later down the line if she would like.
Selling her business – a shop – in December 2025, the couple also sold their house in North Warwickshire for £275,000 in just 24 hours.
So as not to disturb their children’s school year, they rented a friend’s home for £2,700 for the last 11 weeks in the UK until July when they made the move.
Gdansk is a beautiful city
Now, they pay just £1,400 per month rent for the new six-bed pad.
Brittany is “loving” that the home fits the size of her family and their needs, compared to their £850 mortgage in the UK.
Brittany, a content creator, who does not want to share where she moved from in Warwickshire, said: “I’ve never really considered I’d make a very good immigrant.
“I feel very British through and through.
“My husband has worked nights the whole duration of him living in the UK.
“After having our fourth child and the chaos of four kids – it’s like a creche – he was working really hard and I noticed a slight decline in his quality of life.
“It was a combination of things, my husband’s declining quality of life, my friends leaving and my friend who had settled in Sweden that made me turn a corner in my own mind and think ‘this could be us’.
“We visit Poland multiple times a year, at least twice if not up to five.
“Our kids are nine, eight, six and nearly four and when I said ‘would you like to live in Poland?’ I didn’t even finish my sentence, and all the kids were like ‘yeah'”.
In December 2025 the family took a “reccy” to Gdansk for three nights and found it “comfortable, safe and doable” as well as landing on a school all four kids loved.
After selling their home in January 2026 just 24 hours after it hit the market, the family lived in a rental cottage for 11 weeks – with Brittany’s husband hiring a £500 van to transport a few of their big furniture items over to Gdansk.
A family member drove the van home with Brittany’s husband following behind in a new car he had bought out there.
They paid £1,500 for a courier to take some other boxes, with Brittany’s husband driving to Poland in July 2026 with their eldest child and family dog, with Brittany following by taking a flight with their youngest three for £700.
“We literally managed it in less than £3,000,” she says.
“The house we owned in the UK we had lived in for 10 years and had focused on growing and raising the children and I wasn’t very precious.
“We didn’t have prized pieces of furniture which is the beauty of living in Poland now.
“Even though we’re renting and the property is signed on for a year I feel already more settled and at home in this property than I ever did in my own house.
“Purely because I’ve never felt more comfortable and have really made the right decision by my children is suppose.”
Brittany says relatively speaking Polish wages are “lower” than in the UK, and cars can be expensive but diesel prices are around 35-40p cheaper than at home in the Midlands.
Life is a lot cheaper in Poland
“It’s swings and roundabouts really, you choose what to put your money into,” she says.
“Days out are expensive.
“We went to IKEA on Monday and fed six of us for £12.60 at the restaurant and it’s closer to £24 in the UK.
“Poland is very old school and oldy-worldly with bills.
“In the UK it’s ringing every company and saying ‘I live at this new address and I’m the new tenant’.
“In Poland, no, the landlord physically has to take the new tenant to the office and swap over the paperwork.”
Enrolling in a Polish language course at a local college, Brittany is set to attend three times a week and says that driving there will help her with driving as she says she is “frightened” at the prospect of a left hand drive on the right side of the road.
Already she is “loving” the remoteness of their new home.
“I’ve lived rurally all my life yet there is no road noise, no vehicle noise,” she says.
“The houses are so far away from each other you can’t hear anything.
“It’s overlooking a lovely patch of forest, you can see all the pine trees in the distance and you can only hear the birds, it’s lovely.
“Our house at home and the garden was insanely tiny […] so it’s nice to be able to breathe in nature outside.
“Yesterday we drove 20 minutes and were on the beach.
“It felt like a holiday but it’s not, this is life now.
“There is no long-term plan and nothing set in stone but it’s already feeling like we’ve definitely made the right decision.”
Sharing updates of her move on social media, the response has been “overwhelmingly positive”.
Brittany said: “A few comments turned sour in terms of politics which I’ve had to ignore as it got overwhelming.
“It has nothing to do with anything going on in the world politically or culturally.
“That has absolutely gobsmacked me how much traction the comments have on what our reasons and motives are.
“It’s deeply personal reasons.
“This move works for us and is doable purely because my husband is a Polish national.
“I can imagine it’s difficult as a completely British family with no ties to Poland.
“People ask ‘why Poland?’ And it’s simply because we can.
“There aren’t other countries you can move to in the blink of an eye and so cheaply as well.”
Cost breakdownUK
Mortgage: £850 per month
Council tax: £200
Water: £100
Gas and electric: £200
Food: £230 per week
Family meal out: £80-£100
Vet consultation and prescription: £80
Litre of milk: £1.20
Butter (100g): £0.80
Poland
Rent: £1,400
Bills: TBC but estimate of £350 per month
Food: £170 per week
Family meal out: £45-£60
Vet consultation and prescription: £30
Litre of milk: £0.68
Butter (100g): £0.50
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