Cost of Living

I'd like to plan a projected monthly budget/expenditure for me and my partner (Unmarried Partner Visa).

Does anybody know where I can find the cost of living in London or in the UK? I couldn't find it at http://www.statistics.gov.uk [nofollow] .

For projected income, I'm using ONS numbers from 
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_labour/LFSQS_0405.pdf [nofollow] , table 35 (avarage £497/week for female) or table 36 (£589/week for professional occupations).

And how do I deduct the taxes? Is the following right?
- National Insurance = 11%
- the first £94 is tax free, the next £40 is taxed at 10% and the remaider at 22%

Thanks!

Hi vs,

Well firstly, there is no 'set' amount on the cost of living in London or anywhere else. There are simply too many variables to consider.
Secondly, overall, the average salary across all industries is just over £23,000/year - trying to break it down into male/female catagories doesn't really fit in with the research levels you're mentioning in this post, so for you to try and 'estimate' a budget at this stage is incorrect. I'd suggest a different route in your research process.

1. Evaluate your OWN career/job/income potential - Check various sources into how much your industry pays in the UK, then compare it to your level of expertise and be realistic. Maybe 'potentially' guess your earnings somehwere in between the lowest and highest advertised jobs posted. This will give you an approximation on how much income you can realistically get here in the UK

2. Evaluate your OWN lifestyle standards/requirements - Write down what you 'must' have for daily living and then research into the costs of those. Then check your secondary 'discretionary' expenses (car, gym membership, satellite telly, mobile phones etc etc) that you do want to have. Then finally, check you long term financial standings. How much would you like to save? how much to invest? etc etc

3. Compare your possible income with the outgoings you'd like. Adjust accordingly what you can 'do without' if your expenses are more than your income. Re evaluate.

4. Only then can you 'see' if the financial element of moving over makes sense for you.

5. If you do get a job offer and an 'actual' amount you'll be paid, re assess the income (known) Vs the expenses list again.

6. Create a budget at that point in order to effectively manage you income Vs Expenses in order to achieve your goals.

As for working out Tax and NIC deductions from your paycheque have a look here http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/employers/more-iwtworkingout.shtml if not, do a search for tax ad NIC calculators online.

have a little look around on similar posts here on this website as others have posted their yearly salary and a breakdown of expenses to get an idea of others who are or have been in a similar scenario.

Hope this helps !

Cheers ! Dennis! West London & Slough UK!

Hi Dennis,

Thanks for your help!

I'm worried about the ECO, what they would accept as income and outgoings and wouldn't argue with.
I guess if my outgoings are not based on any "oficial" statistic, they can argue with and ask me where I based my budget on.

The budget is really not for myself, but for the ECO. 

Thanks!

Hi,
I found this International Salary conversion calculator which compares what salary would be required to achieve the same Cost of Living between a US city and an International city:
http://www.homefair.com/homefair/servlet/ActionServlet?pid=500&homefair&to=ActionServlet%3Fpid%3D244%26cid%3Dhomefair&pagename=199&internal=T

I'm not sure how accurate it is, though, as I put in my previous city, Washington, DC and compared it to London and to Gatwick.  It actually listed Gatwick as a higher cost of living.  I find it hard to believe that Gatwick, albeit with only a $4,000 difference, is more expensive than London.

When comparing New York to London it claimed that New York was quite a bit more expensive to live in by about 25%.

London is a particularly difficult one to pin down as it's not clear what they're defining as London.  Some would say it covers all of Greater London, ie nearly everything inside the M25.  Others might say Inner London or the "compass" postcodes while others would say strictly Central London, roughly that covered by the Congestion Charging area.

You could probably say the same thing about New York, is it all of the boroughs or just Manhattan or what?

I think Dennis has nailed things on the head.  If you compare what kind of salary you might get here vs where you are in the States and what kind of rent/housing costs I think that will cover a bit portion of it.