Welcome to the Forum.
I'm glad you have found useful tips on this site. As you say, it is often the little everyday things that cause problems. The things that 'everybody knows' except the thousands and thousands of newcomers to this country.
Although I have been here for ever and a day and would never want to go back to GB to live, I can really understand your wife's reluctance to take the plunge and change domicile yet again only too well. The 'spouse', who comes to work here, has a good reason for coming and automatically makes contacts with his fellow workers. For a 'trailing spouse' (I had never heard this phrase till I joined the Forum) it means being torn out of friend/family circle and trying to make a new life, each everyday task being a new challenge (if you are young and full of excitement at living in a new place) or a frustrating business (if you are no longer quite so young, settled in your ways, and simply don't fancy starting over again).
The language is a real barrier in making contact with neighbours and like-minded people in social events. Youngsters are, by their very nature, prepared to bolt off into the blue. I, for one, am not.
There is a Thread which included lots of folks experiences and tricks for settling here. "Tips for Trailing Spouses" - shy and retiring as I am, I might as well say straight out that I started it, but the ideas are mostly not mine. They come from lots of different people who had lots of different problems - and found ways round them. Maybe your wife could read it through.
Other than that I can only say that the Forum is a fantastic help to folk who are settling in. A listening ear on the one hand and often solutions to problems on the other.
Enjoy your time here. Perhaps your wife could be pursuaded to come and have a look.
and currently commuting once or twice a month to London. 
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