Introduction - Need Some Help Please

[patbateman]

hi everyone,
i'd like to have myself briefly introduced.
my name is Astrid and i'm Austrian and i've been living in Austria all my life. but since my now husband and i went to Scotland for our first visit in may 2009 and got married in Edinburgh, we've been considering moving to Scotland - just because we immediately felt home!
now as for thinking of moving to another country and actually doing it, that's ususally a long way to go, so of course it took us a while to really move on to the next step and meanwhile we've been visiting a lot of areas in Scotland and exploring the country further, six times so far.
now, we decided to actually do it and our plan is to move in september, since a lot of things are still to be done.

now as much as the prospect of moving is exciting, it still is a little frightening for me, so i hope that some of my questions regarding the possibilities of living in Scotland can be answered with your help.
first of all, we're considering Edinburgh to be our first choice, not only because it's a beautiful city, but also because it's best for visits from our friends and families and because i think, being a native german speaker, i think i could make use of my german as well because of a lot of german speaking tourists.
i have been working for H&M here in Austria for more than 8 years and unfortunately cannot just change within the company, but i guess i have a good chance to get a job at one of the shops in Edinburgh again, but there still are questions concerning if i'd earn enough for a living there.
so, can anyone tell me how much i might be able to get and also how about health insurance and tax? i'm afraid that i don't know much about all those issues, so i really can't say if it would be possible for us to have a nice, little flat.
my husband is working for H&M, too, but he wouldn't mind doing something else. he used to be a chimney sweep before he started working in retail 3 years ago.

the plan so far would be to have enough money to just fly to Edinburgh in september and live in a hostel until at least one of us finds a job and then we could get a flat or a room in a shared apartment. meanwhile we could have our stuff loaded and sent to our new home. does that sound reasonable? i'm thankful for all input! thank you so much!

i'm excited and happy to be here and get to know everyone!
cheers,
Astrid

[Linhe]

Guten Tag.
Hope you will find what you are looking for.

[patbateman]

good day to you as well!

[tig]

i think if the both of you are working in shops then youl find it hard to get a really nice place as shop staff here get not much above the minimum wage,
so most of your pay would go to rent im affraid....it is still possible for you to rent a house and have a decent standard of living tho...i know a few couples who work in bars/shops and theyre not rich by any means but they get by and seem to be doing ok.

an example is: if you both manage to get full time work 35 hours @ £6.50 an hour (2x35x6.5)= £423 before tax and national insurance(taken off at source) ...which will leave you about maybe £300/350 per week.
your rent will be AT LEAST £300/350 per month plus council tax/bills.

but if any one of you doesnt get full time or gets less hour then you might struggle a bit

[patbateman]

i think if the both of you are working in shops then youl find it hard to get a really nice place as shop staff here get not much above the minimum wage,
so most of your pay would go to rent im affraid....it is still possible for you to rent a house and have a decent standard of living tho...i know a few couples who work in bars/shops and theyre not rich by any means but they get by and seem to be doing ok.

thanks for the quick reply. well, i know that retail-jobs are usually not paid that well, so of course i don't expect to have a luxurious life and we're both ok with renting a small place.

an example is: if you both manage to get full time work 35 hours @ £6.50 an hour (2x35x6.5)= £423 before tax and national insurance(taken off at source) ...which will leave you about maybe £300/350 per week.
your rent will be AT LEAST £300/350 per month plus council tax/bills.

but if any one of you doesnt get full time or gets less hour then you might struggle a bit

i'm glad that you made this example as it gives me a bit of an overview on how much we can expect. generally, i think that this sounds all reasonably ok.
the only thing that worries me a bit is whether it's going to be hard to find jobs for both of us. how would you assess the chances nowadays and especially for foreigners? i have never felt more welcome anywhere else than i did in Scotland, but you never know how things are living in another country.

[tig]

alas the job market is a bit grim at the moments so you might struggle to get both of you in full time work.
i dont think being a foreigner will make the slightest bit of difference to your chances....if anything it might even improve them

[patbateman]

why do you think it might improve chances? because of the language?