As the end of the year is approaching, I thought I'd do a little tally of #whatBrexithascostme THREAD. 1/
For many reasons*, my Scottish husband & I left the country in Feb. The move itself & the cost of setting up a new home has cost us around £4000 (we had just done set up a home together in London 12m before so this was a duplicate). 2/
* see elsewhere for extensive explanation
For the past 11 months since we moved, I've spent around £4000 on flights & accommodation to commute to London because that's where my team is. This is flying weekly with Easyjet & staying in the cheapest places possible & at my kind mother-in-law's place. 3/
On top of that, my business had to set up a subsidiary here - mainly to make sure I have access to healthcare. Yes, that's right. I went for 7 months without being officially covered in any country. Good thing I'm pretty healthy, eh? 4/
The cost of the subsidiary is around £2000, plus ongoing costs. I probably spent £5000 worth of billable time researching everything, energy away from my *British* business. Could've spent that on biz dev/R&D, creating more corporation tax to benefit *British* citizens. 5/
We're up to about £15 000 of costs now. Pretty neat, huh? Yeah, I've really enjoyed spending that money on something I didn't want to do. Oh, and I'll keep spending money on commuting for the unforeseeable future. 6/
Now, that's just the cold, hard cash. I've also lost friends because hey, 153 days on the road in 11 months doesn't leave much time for a social life. But who needs friends, eh? At least there's family. 7/
Speaking of family, my husband now sees his mum 3x year - we used to live 30min away. Since moving I've been to Finland ONCE, b/c being in London weekly means I'm already away from home so much I can barely afford more time for travel. That's for the unforeseeable future too. 8/
OK, so we've done money, friends and family. What's left? Oh yeah, me. I've gone up a dress size this year because of my nomad lifestyle - I have little control over my diet most of the time so airport snacks, microwave meals at work & takeaways it is. 9/
Going to the gym? I'm home only half the time. Having hobbies? Well that's out because I have 2 week nights at home & tbh I'd like to see my husband too oh & maybe the gym. Oh, and everything is in Dutch so lemme learn a 7th (!) language to access social life here. No biggie! 10/
This reminds me that next year I'll hopefully have energy to invest 3h/wk on learning Dutch. That'll be c.150h for a pastime I didn't choose - I'd rather learn something else. But I don't want to live on someone's country without speaking their language coz that's just rude. 11/
Which brings me to the biggest thing Brexit cost me: a sense of belonging & feeling home somewhere. I used to think living in another country was exciting - now I'll never shake off the feeling that there is something wrong living outside of the country you were born in. 12/
After almost my whole adult life away, Finland is no longer my home - Britain was. Now I don't have a home anywhere, don't know if I ever will. 13/
So cheers, Brexiteers and Bregretters! Your vote has cost me dearly and until you crowdsource the funds to give me my money back, I will wish you an extremely shitty 2018 and many crappy returns. I look forward to seeing you pay for your choices, too. /ends
