I swapped UK for stunning paradise island where villa is £40 a week and petrol costs £2.50 – you could do it too
EVERY single weekend after a morning dip in the sea, Sarah Burghard enjoys her breakfast at a local restaurant before heading to get her nails done.
Following a relaxing beachside lunch, she’ll have a massage or a facial because this is what her life now looks like after she decided to move to a tiny idyllic island on the other side of the world.
But regular lavish sun-drenched days like this never break the bank because Sarah, 57, originally from Bristol, has lived in Lombok, Indonesia since last October.
The cost of living is astonishingly low on the island, located off the coast of Bali.
A tank of petrol for her scooter sets her back just £2.50, lunch on the beach costs just 70p and she can get her nails done as well as a massage for as little as £10.
A coffee and breakfast for two costs less than £1, whilst a soft drink is 50p.
And, while she’s still undecided about a return to the UK in future, she says: “I love it in Lombok, it’s cheap and beautiful with a slower pace of life and I’m not like so many of the friends I have back in the UK who are finding life so tough because everything is so expensive.
“A massage is £5, so you could have three or four a week. If it’s £7 for dinner, I can go out every night.
“When I speak to friends at home, they say, ‘Don’t come back!’
“It feels like the financial living crisis in the UK is getting worse.
“One of my main motivations is to help others find a better work/life balance and maybe make a move like mine.”
A recent survey by the Office for National Statistics found that 87 per cent of adults in the UK describe the cost of living as an important issue, with around one in four reporting they would be unable to pay a large, unexpected bill.
Yet Sarah doesn’t share those worries – her current rent on a two-bedroom villa costs £166 a month which she pays annually, and her gas and electricity bills total £50 a month – with air conditioning.
They’re both a fraction of the monthly outgoings she used to pay.
She explains: “I rent my new home for £2,000 a year, paid upfront – vastly less than the £800-a-month mortgage I was paying in the UK.
“My prescription costs me £2.50, the same amount I pay for a tank of petrol for my scooter, while a breakfast for two could cost as little as £1.
“Having my food cooked in front of me on the beach only costs 70p.
“It’s pretty incredible when you think about it and when you compare it to the UK.”
And having pivoted to including online work during the Covid 19 pandemic back in 2020, the cheap living costs mean Sarah’s work as an interior designer has very low overheads.
She says: “The key factor is being able to create an online income.”
Sarah, who was married for 20 years and divorced in 2013, decided to re-evaluate what she wanted out of life after her mum Sue, 87, died in 2023.
She had previously travelled widely before having her sons, aged 26 and 22.
Having my food cooked in front of me on the beach only costs 70p. It’s pretty incredible when you think about it and when you compare it to the UK
After multiple visits to Lombok over the years, Sarah says she was drawn by the “peace, beauty and culture” of the place – and also the low costs.
At the end of last year she decided to make a more permanent move.
She will be able to stay in the country until the end of the year on her current visa and can then choose to renew.
‘Felt refreshed’
Lombok has a tiny population of around 4,000 and if Sarah decided to move there permanently, the process would take around five years.
“I reflected on what a wonderful time I’d had there and how good it had been for my soul – I felt refreshed,” she explains.
“I spoke to my sons and said I didn’t need their permission to move, but I did want their blessing.
“They could see how vibrant and happy I was and they both told me to go for it.”
Packing up her life in Bristol, Sarah rented out her harbourside flat and made the move, via a 14-hour flight, in October 2024.
Approaching pension age “without a big lump sum” behind her, Sarah felt it was the right time and she’s thrived in her current location since.
“Here, living costs are a tenth of those in Bristol and my mental health has 100 per cent improved because I don’t feel frightened of the future or have constant worry over money,” she explains.
“An hour-long massage costs £10, while in Bristol it would have been £90 for 45 minutes. Even a luxury cinema visit costs £5, including reclining seats and waitress service.
“I spend £40 a week on food, half of what I spent back in the UK.
“My repeat prescription costs £2.50 while at home it’s £9.90 – how is it so much more expensive for exactly the same product?”
Meanwhile, UK residents were warned last month of food and energy price rises in the near future.
One of the luxuries a lower cost of living has bought Sarah is time, and freedom from worry.
It’s not looking great for someone my age collecting a pension in the UK, it’s not going to go very far
She says: “When I was younger, I accepted life was a grind and I took on that responsibility, but at what point do you have the freedom to enjoy life?
“My days could be short – no one knows- and I wanted a change.”
Pension concerns also played a role in her decision to move across the world.
She says: “It’s not looking great for someone my age collecting a pension in the UK, it’s not going to go very far.
“The irony is people here would love a plane ticket to go and live in the sophisticated Western world where they would earn a minimum wage of £12 an hour, the daily wage here, so it’s a complicated economic system.”
Despite the distance, Sarah knows she could be back in the UK within 24 hours in case of family emergencies – but six months in, she’s not ready to contemplate leaving yet.
However, although friends and family are very supportive of her move, they haven’t been able to visit.
She says: “No one can afford to take the time off work which is why friends and family haven’t visited yet. A lot of people don’t have flexible work environments which mean they can take time off.
“But we speak regularly – sometimes more than if I was in Bristol.”
She adds: “I’m doing what a lot of people think they want to do. I want to encourage others to take the leap and give it a go – these are my golden years.
“I’m not saying I’ve quit the UK, I’m taking it step by step.
“Right now, it’s the very early days of my adventure here.”
- Follow Sarah’s adventures @sarah_burghard_designs on Instagram