A couple have admitted they couldn't be happier since they swapped their 'normal, boring life' in the UK for sustainable living in rural Hungary.

Julia Pryke and Gareth Shone didn't speak a word of Hungarian when they bought a dilapidated farmhouse for £3,000 in the small village of Gadacs.

The pair decided to leave their lives in Berkshire - where Julia worked as a hairdresser and Gareth was a cobbler - behind to start again with a life of austerity.

Scroll down for video

Julia Pryke and Gareth Shone didn't speak Hungarian when they bought a dilapidated farmhouse in the small village of Gadacs, where they now live with their dog

The couple searched the internet for a home they could afford with £5,000 and found this property which had been empty for five years. They bought it for £3,000 leaving them £2,000 to spend on repairs

Now the married couple live simply in the remote property with their dog Pepper, and have endeavoured to carry out the extensive repair work needed to the house themselves.

They only have an outdoor shower despite the cold climate in winter, use solar panels for heating and have one outside water tap.

The toilet is a compostable with an additional urinal made from a fermenting bin.

When they first arrived, they had to cook by creating and lighting their own fire, but now they have a wood-burning stove they bought for £70.

Gareth admitted: 'When we got here I did have a panic attack and wondered if we had made as stupid a decision as everyone in the UK said we had'

Their outgoings are currently £6 a day and they intend to reduce this further by cutting down their food bill by growing their own vegetables and keeping their own chickens and rabbits on their 18sq ft plot of land.

Gareth admits when they first arrived at the rundown farmhouse, which had been abandoned for five years before they purchased it, they wondered if they had made a massive mistake.

'When we got here I did have a panic attack and wondered if we had made as stupid a decision as everyone in the UK said we had,' he admitted to Ben Fogle as the couple share their story on his Channel 5 show New Lives In The Wild.

The couple's bedroom with a curtain to separate it from the living area. They have a wood-burning stove for cooking and use solar power

'The first months were the hardest as we battled to stop the building falling down.'

The couple admit their parents in particular disapproved of their decision to up sticks to a sparsely populated area of Hungary.

Julia, 30, admits it is a complete departure from her own upbringing, which was a privileged one in Johannesburg, South Africa, and her mother would find their new way of life 'absolute hell'.

The pair have an outdoor tap for their water and this outside shower for washing in bracing temperatures during the winter months

Her parents drove her around in sports cars, paid for her to have horse riding lessons and expected her to go to university to get a high flying job.

Julia confessed she struggled with their high expectations when she was a teenager and began to rebel, dropping out of university and changing her appearance by shaving her hair and getting tattoos.

She said: 'When I told my parents I wanted to drop out and become a hairdresser, it was like I said I was going to join some rebel force. They thought I had to go to uni to be successful in life.

'That was the beginning of the end of who I used to be. It was disappointing to my folks.'

Julia met Gareth in 2008 after she moved to the UK and once they moved in together, they quickly fell into a routine of working hard to pay their bills.

Ben Fogle visited the couple on his Channel 5 show New Lives In The Wild and admitted he didn't envy their remote location which he found a little 'creepy'

Julia said: 'I suppose in England we had a normal, boring life. The excitement was missing. We had to have the jobs to pay the bills and you had to pay the bills as that's what you were told to do.'

The couple decided they wanted an adventure and a complete change of scene so they checked the internet to see what they could afford with their savings - £5,000 - searching all of Europe.

'Lots of properties came up and with the Hungary one, we thought "let us see what Hungary is like",' she said.

Ben was put to work chopping logs for the pair's wood burning stove. When they first arrived, they had to cook on an open fire they build and lit themselves

They spent £3,000 on the property before they had even seen it in person, leaving them £2,000 to spend on repairs.

Julia admits the desolate location 'is a little like a Stephen King movie when the weather is bad' but they love their new way of life.

'I like not knowing what tomorrow holds and what challenges we will have. Gareth excels at challenges,' she said.

The TV presenter said he found the rural part of Hungary a bit of a 'ghost town' but admire the way Julia and Gareth proved 'with the dream and vision you can make a life anywhere'

Julia and Gareth told Ben they currently live on £6-a-day and intend to lower this sum by saving on food bills by growing their own vegetables and keeping chickens and rabbits

She added she would much rather live away from the materialism of her youth.

'I have found the less you have, the better off you are, as you can focus on who you are and what you want from life,' she said.

Ben admitted he didn't envy them their location, saying he found the 'ghost country' where they were a little 'creepy' but he wished the pair well.

'This is a massive leap of faith for both of them. The change of lifestyle here is so dramatic but they have this extraordinary positivity,' he said.

'They have hurdles to overcome on how to earn a permanent living but the key is they have each other.

'They are proving if you have the dream and vision you can make a life anywhere.'

Ben Fogle New Lives In The Wild is on Channel 5 Tuesdays at 9pm