I’m changing jobs and starting again from the bottom for a year.

26k before taxes and will be renting but I’m put off by the high rents of £9K etc.

But it’s better than being unemployed?

Anyone done this? Or am I better off looking north instead?

I moved to London and lived off 24k a year, I guess it depends how much of a quality of life/expenditure you are used to and what rental properties. there is cheap stuff out there, i lived in a lovely 6 bedroom Victorian house in Herne Hill for £308 a month.

That’s pretty good. I’ve only looked at websites with £350 a week!

The work will occupy my life and probably the gym. I don’t drink anymore and just want my year experience and get fit again.

I guess it will be an experience.

Been down a year now, initially was paying £800pcm Inc council tax + utilities. It was tight, but that my only really expense, and I was on slightly less and living on my own.

Now paying £1300pcm and living with the girlfriend, lot of money but coping fine and loving it! 🙂

You don’t want to get a room in a shared house – or be a lodger? I would.

You’ll be fine on 26k, especially if you don’t drink. Don’t expect to be in your own flat in Kensington though, but you should be able to get into a nice flat share in zone 2 or possibly a 1 bedroom much further out.

Do it, London is awesome.

It’s perfectly doable, you just need to have reasonable expectations of lifestyle choices.

26k-low wage.If you think thats low wage mate you should come and visit the Teesside job market.

£9k!?! what kind of a place and where are you trying to rent? Loads of nice places eve in central for much less than that.

Monkeycmonkeydo – thatd be some commute though to work in london – pointless comment of the thead goes to you

– 9k a year rent is 750 a month and thats easy on 26k if your single/no kids I was paying 550 a month on 11k a year – that was tight

Just have to be reasonable in your expectations

Echo above – if single flat share / become a lodger

to be honest 26k is not a low wage even with Londons inflated costs. It isn’t a lot of money mind so don’t expect to be pissing money up the wall, but with care you’ll be fine. The question is do you really want to go to London, is the job only available there, are the prospects better, friends, family, assuming you ride a bike, are you willing to compromise the riding, etc, etc.

i’m on much less than that, working in a bike shop helps fund my bike addiction, but i rent my own one bedroom flat and live perfectly ok, I have a cat which needs feeding, internet, sky & a small car without sacrificing my social life…

you just have be smart with money and don’t be too fussy on which neighbourhood you live in.

£26 not loads but it’s doable if you’re sensible and realistic.
London’s a great city and IME more chance of a job here than anywhere else in the UK right now.
A £750 in rent is loads. I have a whole 2 bed flat in Sydenham for £1000, and if I bought it the mortgage would be £800.
You can easily get a room in a shared house zone 3 or 4 for 5-600. won’t be a yuppie flat but will keep you out of debt. look at the less fashionable parts of SE london like Camberwell, Peckham, Denmark Hill, West Dulwich, Crystal Palace etc. Perfectly nice places if you get the right street but a lot cheaper than the trendy places cos you’re not paying the trendy/popularity premium that Clapham, Wimbledon generate…

The average wage in London is about £28,000 so you’ll be fine.

Approach it as “student life” and you’ll be fine

Approach it as “student life” and you’ll be fine

Squatting?

Live in Croydon. Your money goes further and ib London you DONT need a car.

youll LOVE it. Awesome place 😀

Been squatting in London for 8 years. I couldn’t survive on my wages otherwise. 26k would be a dream for me.

Why not stand up straight? It must hurt your kness.

Live in Croydon. Your money goes further and ib London you DONT need a car.

youll LOVE it. Awesome place

croydon isn’t london. you may as well live in the grim north, there is a seething undercurrent of chavness hidden by a veil of daily mail middle class respectability that is equally insalubrious.
although now you have left it’s possibly a better place to live.

when i first came to london (a long time ago) i didn’t have much disposable income but what nobody has mentioned is the amount of free stuff there is to see/do.

My nephew currently in Surrey on 15k per year renting a room at 100 per week. That’s not living its called getting by

Mrs Windsor, and her family have quite a few spare rooms at buck house, she cant charge rent as she lives on benefits

26k-low wage.If you think thats low wage mate you should come and visit the Teesside job market.

I’ve been living in Teesside the past year, previously I was in Reading, assuming you want to live somewhere reasonably nice (so not Eston or Whitley Wood in TS or RG respectively) then house prices are about 1/3 of south east prices (£90k Vs £250k for 2beds in a nice street), rent’s not so good(I’m paying £500 for what would be ~£850 in RG), but still about 2/3rds.

what nobody has mentioned is the amount of free stuff there is to see/do.

Out my front door it’s all downhill to the best Surfing beach outside of Cornwall and out the backdoor it’s uphill to the North Yorks Moors, you can keep your natural history museum 😛

you can keep your natural history museum

that’s for grockles like you. and madame taussauds/carnaby st/camden lock/harrods/covent garden 😛

I started in London on less. That amount is fine if you’re house/flat-sharing, which is cheaper and generally gets you more space. Shop sensibly, cook your own meals most of the time, make your own lunch instead of spending £5 a day at Pret, etc and that will give a fair bit of disposable income to enjoy yourself with.

Ride to work if you can, if you were going by tube and buying travelcards that’s £112 a month (z1-2) gone straight away. Likewise it means you don’t feel such a need to live near a tube station and that opens up quite a few pleasant and cheaper areas that aren’t so well connected to transport.

Or am I better off looking north instead?

maybe, have a look at sheffield/manchester/leeds, they’re ace. lots of jobs too.

+1 for Croydon, you could go and see the Palace 🙂

APF

North? I sorely miss the south. Ive always said try London once in your life.

you would have to give me a gold pig each week to make me live in London

and yes I’ve tried living there

You guys live in fairyland.In most of the towns in the North,Scotland and Wales low pay or no pay has been the only option for generations.With the south-East Bullingdon shit in charge and planning to introduce regional pay,this situation will only get worse.

Yes but the thread is about London, not everywhere else.

In 95 I started on less than 1/3rd of that. It was fine, but then I didn’t eat out 5 nights every week, I didn’t own a car, I didn’t feel that I had the right to have to go out every night, or buy expensive clothes every month, or live in a fashionable area.
£26k is perfectly doable, as long as you manage your expectations.

I’m visiting London right now & I can tell you that all the benches and doorways have been taken.

Very sad 🙁

In 99 I started on 12k. I also had my student debts etc but my God did we love it there (even then).

You guys live in fairyland.In most of the towns in the North,Scotland and Wales low pay or no pay has been the only option for generations.With the south-East Bullingdon shit in charge and planning to introduce regional pay,this situation will only get worse.

Either you’re a southerner with a perjudiced view of the north, or a northerner with a heck of a chip on his shoulder!

I missed that. Why not hop onto a train then and work somewhere else?

People in India travel thousands of miles for a better life.

You’ll be ok on 26k but your money would go much further elsewhere obviously. I wouldn’t expect to run a car or live anywhere decent unless you plan on renting a room in a house though. London is a great place, enjoy it.

i have a room to rent in my house in shepherds bush FYI, £560 pcm +utilities if it’s of interest?

Describing £26,000 as a low wage does display a lack of awareness about lots of people’s situations, and is borderline insulting to those who earn a lot less.

An income of £26,000 (assuming no kids and council tax around £1000 a year) makes you better off than 83% of the population, according to the IFS calculator.

Figures on average wages are massively skewed by how much a few at the top earn, so don’t reflect most people’s reality. Of course STW is full of IT consultants on at least £500 a day so probably not the best place for some perspective.

The thing about london (and other big cities) is that there’s lots of shared accommodation available and its possible to cycle everywhere you’d need to go so your transport costs will be zero.

Other than accommodation, most stuff isn’t really much more expensive then elsewhere.

The biggest pain will be flat hunting. But thats the same whatever your budget.