Well we moved up to the Sunshine Coast from Melbourne in July last year. We were there for 7 years.

As a born and bred Sydney girl I actually thought Melbourne was pretty good in terms of traffic. I was sad to leave my friends and I miss the restaurants.

But we hadn't been able to afford the restaurants since having kids and dropping back to one income. We were only surviving in Melbourne, not living and we had what DH was calling a slow leak in our finances, we were nibbling into our offset and we weren't ever going to get ahead.

And we just didn't think Melbourne was "it" for us...we met overseas (DH is a Kiwi) and we both like the outdoors and we were a bit sick of the footy and the weather - we just felt there was more to life than what Melbourne was giving us.

We moved to give our kids a sunscreen and gumtrees childhood, a slower pace of life and an easier financial ride for ourselves.