Yasmina2005

What is the minimum salary for two people to live decently in London?

What are the best affordable areas to rent in London?

Thank you

Y

ozzieeagle

Abbey Wood is the cheapest, so I'm reliably informed. I reckon you would struggle under 35 K for a joint income... could be wrong though.



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Yasmina2005

Thank you Ozzieeagle for your reply. Let's wait for others' input..

Orangepants

To live decently I would say about 70K. Dont know about cheap areas sorry.

ozzieeagle

Never crossed the river eh ? Thats a huge chunk of London you must have missed.

My Aus Daughter and her then Boyfriend lived ok on circa 38K in South Woodford.... that apparently is not regarded as a cheap area.

Orangepants

Yes I have to admit I dont know South London at all, dont really know London. I left UK straight after uni but I worked in the City for a year in 2007 on a transfer from the US and commuted in from Hertfordshire but was astounded at how expensive everything was (by that I mean going out, leisure activities etc.) but then I did hang around with people who were making 100,000s a year and I do like the good life!

ozzieeagle

LOL... Good luck to you

Got to admit my Daughter was well peeved at all the nice things she couldn't afford to do.

I may involve my South London based Board with this thread if there are no more replies soon.

Squirrel

Our joint income is £45.5. We live in SE London (Crystal Palace). We are in a lot of debt so don't manage that well, but if we weren't in debt we would be fine. We have two extra mortgages and pay about £950 mortgage altogether per month. I spend £120/month on my travel card (goes up to £128 when I renew next month), this is deducted out of my salary (many employers do season ticket loans). DH gets the bus to work - he works one week (7 days)on and one week off, nights, so buys a weekly bus pass every other week at £18, he uses Oyster pay-as-you-go for any odd bus rides the week he isn't working.

We only have a one-bed flat. They are currently about £150K in our area. Our council tax is £100/month, gas/electric £70, water £36, phone (landline £25), my mobile £22, DH has pay-as-you-go mobile, £10 lasts him a year! We pay £40 ground rent, £12 contents insurance, £50 to the vets (we have an arrangement because we have small pets but for cat or dog you can get insurance for much less), food £400, the rest goes on personal loan/credit card/catalogue payments, without which we'd be much better off.

As a rought guide, after my season ticket loan is taken from my salary, I get £1561/month for a £29K salary (but I buy 10 days extra annual leave/year or it would be more, and I pay pension, charity conts and union). DH takes home £1160 on a £16.5K salary (no pension, just tax and NI).

HTH

Basil Brush

Thanks for the above post squirrel - this has helped to give ma an idea of our monthly costs. We are moving back in Aug to the Yorkshire area (after 10 years in Aus), so I'm basing my costs on your costs for London, so that should cover it. I've just increased our contents ins and also food slightly as we have a teenage son.

Does anyone know what the cost is to fill an average hatchback car with fuel (maybe 1.6L or 1.8L)?? Not sure if we'll have diesel or petrol but I hear they are priced similarly these days.

Squirrel

No probs. Can't help with cars though, neither of us are drivers, even my American DH has never had a licence!

Squirrel

Oh other insurance - I get worldwide annual travel insurance for us both with my HSBC Plus account, £12.99/month, and life insurance is £16 for me, £10 for DH (I had high blood pressure when we took it out. We were about 35/30 years old at that time).

The HSBC travel insurance is great as they cover my diabetes at no extra cost!

Englishmum

I rented a car in March from Heathrow airport - it was a large hatchback, a Vauxhall Zafira and very spacious inside and it was approx 40 pounds to fill the tank with petrol.

http://www.vauxhall.co.uk/vehicles/v...ira/index.html

(I rented it from National cars - aka Europcar. I paid for the rental online before arriving in the UK and when they check your driving licence you just go to a lane which they designate for that 'group' you have paid for...and you can choose any car in that lane. The Zafira was the largest one and as I had two large suitcases it was a great choice. The version I rented was the 5 passenger version, but the boot was very roomy).

aries_bird

It cost me £52 to fill up a 1.4 hatchback (petrol) at Tesco the other day. It does seem to have a big tank and it was very very VERY empty. Made it to the station on fumes I think. OH has a 2.0L 5 series (diesel) and it costs £90 to fill from fume level.

Not cheap.

nwtrucker

Wow, that must be a tiny fuel tank on the Zafira!
2.0 mondeo from empty to full you won't get any change from 80 quid! That'll get well over 600 miles but still feels like a good kick in the b**** every time I get fuel!!

Basil Brush

Okay, so I'll average it out at 70 quid a tank - so I'm saying roughly 300 quid per month for fuel.

Can somebody tell me what a TV licence currently costs per month?

Also any ideas if my 500 quid per month is a good estimate to feed a family of 2 Adults and 1 x 17 y/o (effectively 3 x Adults). We do tend to eat chicken or meat most nights (even when we have pasta we put chicken or meat into it, which one of my Aussie friends thinks is weird as she thinks we should just have pasta with sauce on it!!) I'm intending to do a fake shop on Tesco online at some point soon, but if anyone has any ideas that would be great

This is what I am thinking so far - is there anything obvious that I'm missing?

Rent / Mortgage £800.00
Food £500.00
Council Tax £120.00
Gas / Electric £70.00
Water £36.00
Phone (Landline) £25.00
Mobile - 1 £22.00
Mobile - 2 £22.00
Ins - Contents £20.00
Ins - Building £0.00 (while renting)
Car - Finance £200.00
Car - Fuel £300.00 (Based on 1 tank per week)
Car - Servicing £50.00
TV Licence £15.00
Entertain/Dining Out £200.00

TOTAL PER MTH £2,380.00

Wow, money goes nowhere these days!!