We each pay £130 per month for a train ticket and I have added two hours onto my

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We each pay £130 per month for a train ticket and I have added two hours onto my working day through travelling. That said, I do get to work from home sometimes, and if I plan my journey at the best time, I can reduce the time it takes." Catherine Johnson, 27, is a senior PR consultant for Trimedia Communications. We were also fed up with the traffic problems in the city"Their new home is about 35 miles from where they used to live and work "It was a good deal. We sold our one-bedroom flat in Glasgow for £100,000 and got a detached bungalow with a large piece of land for £140,000 We also save money on leisure. We don't feel the need to eat out as much because it's not part of countryside living, and we tend to stay home at the weekends, looking after the garden or entertaining visitors."The commuting costs are the biggest downside. "Some of the work that's been needed on the house has been really expensive, but it's also been exciting and a great challenge.

You need patience, money to fork out for when things go wrong and a willingness to learn about DIY yourself."He is also quick to point out that property prices aren't necessarily cheaper in the countryside. "I moved here in 2002, but prices have rocketed in this area since then and they're not dissimilar to Cardiff now." Likewise, estate agents report that in many of the Home Counties, as well as northern counties, including Cheshire, rural living may not be as cheap as you thought.According to Julian Ferguson, 45, who works for a management consultancy in Richmond and moved to a hamlet in Wiltshire three weeks ago, the best news for his family's purse strings is the cost of living out in the sticks "Electricians, plumbers, gardeners, cleaners, childcare.. I'm finding they're all much less expensive," he says. I'm more likely to be wearing old clothes and wellies here than gladrags."'We were fed up with traffic hassles'Kathleen Travers, 44, is a manager at learndirect Scotland. Six months ago, she and her partner moved from Glasgow's West End to the little village of Kinbuck, just north of Dumblane."I've worked in Glasgow for most of my life and recently, at weekends, my partner and I found we were increasingly escaping to the countryside," she says. "As a result of getting more and more fed up with having to use the car to get there, we decided to move out.

"You may have to pay out for things such as a septic tank," she says.Rhodri Ellis Owen, 34-year old chairman of a communications company, adds that home improvements can be costly. "I moved to a 17th-century derelict thatched cottage in a small village in the Vale of Glamorgan, after living for a number of years in modern flats in Cardiff, where I still work," he says. By using local farm shops, you avoid supermarket prices."Lucy Crawford says that leisure is cheaper too. "Things such as walking and fishing are free, whereas in London I'd have to pay for a day out, say, to look round Kew Gardens or go shopping," she says "And I save money on clothes, too. "The food's cheaper too, not just in restaurants but in shops.

"We moved out to Essex in February, not because we had any connections with the area, but because we both love the countryside," he says. "But the commute is a complete nightmare and my wife just hasn't found the people friendly. If we didn't have a year's lease on the house we're currently in, we may well have moved back already."Other potential downsides include the cost of home maintenance, cautions the City and Country Group, which assists many city-dwellers moving to the countryside. Spokeswoman Jo Ridehalgh reports that people often forget that the more rural you go, the less likely you are to have access to general utilities. "Every night I get home and remember why I live here: the peace and tranquillity, the fields and streams surrounding me are wonderful.