We escaped "rat race" of UK to start a new life in Costa Rica - life is much simpler over here
Naomi, 31, and Johnathan Jules 30, decided they wanted to leave the UK behind them when their daughter was just two-months-old.
The pair put their three-bedroom semi-detached house in Darlington on the market, and bought one-way tickets to Guanacaste, Costa Rica. They are living in a two bedroom apartment with a swimming pool for £900 a month with bills included - saving them £330 a month compared to the UK. The family moved to live somewhere which "isn't materialistically driven" and are loving their new life packed with sun and outdoor activities.
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Hide AdTheir daughter is due to be enrolled in a jungle school when she is old enough and they visit the beach and local market most days. Naomi, who is on a career break from being a health and safety officer, originally from Darlington, County Durham, said: "I have wanted to do this for years, but my husband wasn't always on board. "We have been raised to go to school, college, university and then onto jobs. I am a free thinking person and I haven't been happy in this system that we have been brought up in. I had a goal to get out of the UK and when I got pregnant that feeling intensified.”
She added: "Life is so simple over here which is what we wanted - it is not driven by fancy cars or money. It is not materialistically driven, which is lovely. I was living in my overdraft. We never bought anything for ourselves - I never bought new clothes. We were living to work and not getting any enjoyment from our lives.” "The cost of living out here is only a little bit less than the UK but the quality of life here makes up for that." In May 2024, Naomi and Johnathan bit the bullet and put their £215,000 home on the market. Naomi and Johnathan were on a plane from Gatwick Airport, London to Costa Rica to start their new life, earlier this month - and are now loving life.
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