My wife is Canadian which is one of the reasons we moved over here but we were also very tempted by the prospect of owning our house outright which seemed so possible to do here. So we picked a cheap area and thought "how can we fail?". But our experience has been where the cheap houses are is where the cheap jobs are too. I couldn't better $9 an hour and it isn't enough. No benefits with a lot of the low paid jobs in this area and we just were living beyond our means even without a mortgage or rent. The money you're talking about is a nice cushion so maybe it's more acheivable for you in Nova Scotia but now we're on the move to hopefully better things in Alberta but also no doubt with a mortgage.

Bearing in mind the consistent advice given here to people waiting 4/5 years to emigrate is "Don't put your life on hold" I'd say to you simply: Every £ you save in the UK will be worth almost twice as much to you in real terms when you get to Canada.

I used to be the same way and buy a lot of junk - when money's in the bank, you eat out, buy yourself a new tie/shirt (or shoes or whatever!!) etc etc. But if you know you're going to be going over there it really is a good incentive to stop being tempted all the time.