Rat's enough! We're off to live in Mayo..

A FAMILY swapped their suburban house in England for a rural homestead in Co Mayo - and now grow their own food and chop wood for heating.

- JAKE MEESUS-JONES

Amy Johnson, 34, and husband Peter, 46, decided they'd had enough of the rat race during the Covid-19 pandemic.

So they moved their four children to County Mayo - buying a six-acre property for €230,000 after selling their previous property in Lincolnshire for €317,100.

The family now does its best to live off the land, growing fruit and veg and fetching water from a well.

They estimate they're now saving roughly €327 monthly on utility bills and hope to slash their current €500 monthly food shop to €200 after harvesting their crops. And Amy, previously a receptionist but now a full-time homesteader, said they couldn't be happier following the July 2022 move.

She said: "Throughout the pandemic we re-evaluated our lives. Wed paid off our mortgage of our first house and we realised we didn't have as much life satisfaction or job satisfaction.