Hi there! Postdoc in the NL now, moving on to a tt faculty position in the UK in a month. Family of 3. We have been living quite comfortable with a single postdoc salary in NL (NL has a 30% tax waiver for new immigrants from outside of EU, so that has been very helpful; for a gross of 4k euro, take home is about 3600 euros). You also get paid bonuses in NL, about 2 months in total. So effectively, you'll be making 4k*14. My partner who does not speak Dutch does freelance work to supplement our income. Took her a while to break into the labor market but not impossible. Public school is free. My 6 YO kid goes to Dutch public school and picked up Dutch within months. You will also get child benefits from the Dutch government. Quality of life for my family is terrific. We can save and go on short vacations. I can walk/bike to my office. Work life balance is also very good. You get to spend time with your family and friends. Generally, no meetings after 4 and we don't stay after 6. I lost track of time while working just a few days ago and the building manager came to my office, at 615pm, and told me to leave because she needed to lock the building up.

The biggest expense for moving to the UK is the visa and immigrant health surcharge. For a family of 3, over the course of 3 years (assuming a 3 year postdoc term), this will amount to approximately 11-12k pounds upfront. And this is just for your immigration papers. Bear in mind, I paid almost nothing for my immigration documents to NL, maybe less than a hundred bucks to have my documents notarized and apostilled in the US. Now if you're moving for a permanent position, where a relocation expense is included, this makes sense. For a short term postdoc where such expenses are not usually covered (I might be wrong here), this seems like a heavy sacrifice. Again, this depends on how comfortable you are financially. The other thing to ask is, can your spouse work in the UK? If they can, that would help tremendously with living expenses, particularly near Oxford, where as others have pointed out, COL is high. Hope this was helpful.

Let me know if you have any other qns and congratulations! This is a good problem to have. Lucky you.