A family who fled Britain to live ‘off-the-grid’ in rural Spain claim they have trebled their savings and will never move back home. 

Georgia Kitson and her partner Jack moved from a tiny cottage in the West Midlands to a sprawling 36-acre farm in northern Spain in 2018. 

They now live in a swanky beach-side property worth £200,000, complete with its own swimming pool, solar panels, vegetable patch and well. 

And after eight years living in Tarragona, Georgia says she couldn’t think of anything worse than returning to Britain.

She told the Daily Mail: ‘I would never move back to the UK out of choice it would be a worst case scenario’. 

When the couple were living in the UK they were miserable, barely making rent, unable to pay for utilities and trying to get through the arctic winters with only a plug-in radiator to keep them warm. 

After having their first child, they were desperately looking for alternative ways of living to try and improve their quality of life. 

‘I was working as a holistic therapist and my husband was a Gardner and we were working non-stop,’ Georgia said. 

Georgia Kitson (pictured) lives in a swanky beach-side property worth €240,000, complete with its own swimming pool, solar panels, vegetable patch and well

Georgia and her partner Jack (pictured) moved from a tiny cottage in the West Midlands to a sprawling 36-acre farm in northern Spain in 2018

After eight years living in Tarragona, Georgia says she couldn’t think of anything worse than returning to Britain

‘We couldn’t afford to pay all the bills, we couldn’t afford to heat the cottage, we were thinking is this it are we stuck in this rat race for the rest of our lives waiting for a pension?

‘It was disheartening, we had a newborn baby, it felt like we were never getting ahead or never had money to do things, we were both self-employed and felt really trapped.’ 

Then, in what felt like a blessing and a curse for the couple, Jack’s grandmother died and they were given some cash.

With their new inheritance and some help from Georgia’s parents they purchased an £80,000 home situated on an olive farm in Spain. 

They decided to ’embrace’ an off-grid lifestyle, harvesting rain water, using solar panels to generate electricity and burning scraps of wood for heat. 

At the end of 2024, they sold the property for three times the original price and moved to their new home closer to the beach. 

Georgia said: ‘Property costs in Spain have gone up so then we invested every penny into this new property, right by the sea, which we’re renovating.

‘We just put a solar system in, we have a well, we have a few chickens, and grow our own vegetables.’

In 2018, the couple purchased an £80,000 home situated on an olive farm in Spain

Georgia is a self-employed virtual assistant and coach and she runs an online platform advertising off-grid properties

The couple say the biggest perk of their lifestyle is that they don’t have to work as hard. 

Georgia is a self-employed virtual assistant and coach and they both run an online platform advertising off-grid properties. 

‘We don’t need to work as hard because the outgoings are so low,’ she said. 

‘We’re mortgage free and our bills are low because we have a solar system, a well and heat the home from wood. It keeps our costs super low. 

‘We want to be more self-sufficient with food, so we’re developing vegetable gardens, it just is so much cheaper.’

Their two young children attend school in Spain but get to spend their afternoons by the beach. 

‘We have so much more time together as a family. The quality of life is beautiful, we spend our days on the beach our kids go to school and then we hang out at the beach, the cost of living is way cheaper, you can live off a very small amount of money. 

‘The Spanish culture is amazing all of the local people are welcoming, there is a big expat community out here, we even have a swimming pool.

‘For us, it was all about connection to nature we teach the kids how to grow vegetables, the weather is a massive thing it’s hard in the UK to have outdoor time it’s dark, dull, raining. 

‘From a quality time perspective we have loads of time because we don’t have to be out all the time working our butts off.’

Loving their new life the couple plan to renovate their property to become as self sufficient as possible while encouraging others to ditch the rat-race and do the same. 

Their company is called Off Grid Only and Georgia offers private coaching via her own website.