Moving Costs

Hummmm OK I think I have completely confused everyone including myself LOL 
See I find this whole moving process very misleading and confusing so this is why I joined this site for HELP

So for example, this is the website I found offering a house for rent at 650 pounds PCM (per calendar month right? So 30 days?).
Am I just not understanding how things work in this country for rent etc? HELP 

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/find.html?searchType=RENT&locationIdentifier=REGION%5E219&radius=0.0&displayPropertyType=&minBedrooms=2&maxBedrooms=3&minPrice=500&maxPrice=700&maxDaysSinceAdded=&sortByPriceDescending=&_includeLetAgreed=on&primaryDisplayPropertyType=&secondaryDisplayPropertyType=&oldDisplayPropertyType=&oldPrimaryDisplayPropertyType=&oldSecondaryDisplayPropertyType=&letType=&letFurnishType=&houseFlatShare=false&x=65&y=9

Well, £650 a month is about $1050 a month ($300 more per month than you estimated in your budget), which is on the cheaper end of rents for houses (although it looks like the cheapest house listed there is £700 per month). However, the properties listed on the webpage you linked to aren't in the nicest areas of the city and some are quite far out from the university. Personally, I wouldn't choose to live in any of those areas (mostly because of too much crime/drugs/unsafe at night/scary, drunk teenagers roaming the streets at night and intimidating people etc.)  .

I don't think it's that you're not understanding how rents work... it is true that you can find places to live that are cheaper than we've suggested, but they are likely to be inconvenient for studying at Bristol university (i.e. several miles away and not so easy to commute from compared to other nearby areas) and/or not very safe areas to live in (which is why they are so cheap). Even when I was renting a 3-bedroom, terraced student house in Exeter in 2002 we were paying over £700 a month and rents have gone up a lot since then (it is also cheaper to rent student housing than professional housing).

And yes I was referring to the maintenance fees when I said "required income" for my visa. I have the 15 K for tuition and roughly 6K saved so far for the maintenance fees and am hoping to save another 6-8K more this year. Which would be around 12-15K saved just for maintenance fees.

The maintenance fees are very strict though - if you have less than the required £5,400 for yourself and £400 per month for your husband (£9,000 in total), your visa will be refused... as of the current exchange rate, that means you need at least $14,500 for the first 9 months that you are in the UK If the exchange rate creeps up even more and approaches $2 = £1 again, you could need $18,000 in maintenance funds!

I will say that there are plenty of IKEA stores around the UK, so you should be able to furnish your house for under £2k if you can't find a house that is pre-furnished. 

Well, £650 a month is about $1050 a month ($300 more per month than you estimated in your budget), which is on the cheaper end of rents for houses (although it looks like the cheapest

Ok so now I feel like a total IDIOT!! When I was entering the $700 USD I thought I was entering hte "pounds" symbol!!! WOOOOOOWWWW Now I feel dumb!!!! LOL 

Ok this makes more sense now LOL, it is very helpful to have someone who lives in the area to ask I see on the maps that certain places are 10-15 miles from the Uni and here that's nothing considering my Uni here is about an hour commute one way (55 miles) so when I see 10-15 miles from town I often think that is nothing considering people drive EVERYWHERE in the US. I agree though I would so much rather live close to the Uni and be able to bike or walk to classes and work. Since my husband and I won't have a car this would work well for us if we find a place close to town, we don't want to live in a bad area that's for sure!!

I will say that there are plenty of IKEA stores around the UK, so you should be able to furnish your house for under £2k if you can't find a house that is pre-furnished. 

Good suggestion!! We don't plan on bringing anything with us except clothes and doggies when we come....sell everything at a garage sale and go!

We recently were in London and Bristol visiting the areas and did not see a lot of Costcos, Walmarts or Home Depots so it's good to know that there will be places we are familiar with around so we can buy home sruff

Thanks for all the suggestions!!!

We recently were in London and Bristol visiting the areas and did not see a lot of Costcos, Walmarts or Home Depots so it's good to know that there will be places we are familiar with around so we can buy home sruff

The equivalent to Home Depot is B&Q and Wal-Mart is ASDA (ASDA is actually owned by Wal-Mart, so you'll even see the familiar brands there like George)

Ok so now I feel like a total IDIOT!! When I was entering the $700 USD I thought I was entering hte "pounds" symbol!!! WOOOOOOWWWW Now I feel dumb!!!! LOL  

Ahh, no wonder we got confused, lol. Even so, £700 a month for a house is definitely on the low side in the UK (and Bristol is not a very cheap city to live in compared to other parts of the country). If you want a fairly decent house in a relatively safe area, you'll still be looking at around £1,000 a month upwards - for example, the houses you saw for £700 a month are likely to be very small (barely enough room for a double bed in the bedrooms, let alone any other furniture), falling apart (cracks in the walls, mold, poor insulation, thin walls, no double glazing etc.) and will be in not-so-great neighbourhoods.

Ok this makes more sense now LOL, it is very helpful to have someone who lives in the area to ask I see on the maps that certain places are 10-15 miles from the Uni and here that's nothing considering my Uni here is about an hour commute one way (55 miles) so when I see 10-15 miles from town I often think that is nothing considering people drive EVERYWHERE in the US.

I guess this is the main difference - driving is not such a big thing in the UK and is usually more inconvenient than in the US. We're very small so 55 miles is a long way in the UK and the commute would likely be a b*tch. There's also the cost of commuting to consider as well. I was considering doing my masters in London at one point and since it's only a 90-minute train journey from Bristol, I thought about living with my parents and commuting to London each day (to save money)... that was until we inquired about the price of an annual train ticket... £9,000 !!! It would have been cheaper just to move to London.

So, I went to Bristol University and lived 15 miles away - I had to leave at 7am every day to get to a 9am class... why? Because if I left at 7.30am (or later), the traffic would be so bad that the journey would take me an hour or more instead of 25 minutes and if I arrived in Bristol any later than 7.45am, there would be no free parking spaces left within a mile of the university. Parking is very bad in that area of Bristol - the university has no parking lots and the majority of the roads around the department buildings have metered parking or are permit only. As a result you have to find small residential roads to park on, but as there are only a handful of roads available and hundreds of cars looking for a space, you have to get there early. Not to mention the cost of gas to drive there in the first place (currently about $8 a gallon)! I also used to have to park nearly a mile from the university and then walk for 15-20 minutes to get to my department.

However, there is plenty of housing within 1-2 miles of the university and it would probably end up cheaper to pay a bit more for rent and walk/cycle in than to live somewhere cheaper further away and pay to commute.

I agree though I would so much rather live close to the Uni and be able to bike or walk to classes and work. Since my husband and I won't have a car this would work well for us if we find a place close to town, we don't want to live in a bad area that's for sure!!

The best areas for Bristol Uni students are Cotham, Redland, Clifton and maybe Kingsdown or Bishopston (but I'd avoid the Gloucester Road area if possible). Further afield, Henleaze and Westbury-on-Trym are nice, but would probably involve a bus ride as walking to the university would take you over an hour from there (or you could cycle, but be warned, there are some fairly big hills to tackle!).

We recently were in London and Bristol visiting the areas and did not see a lot of Costcos, Walmarts or Home Depots so it's good to know that there will be places we are familiar with around so we can buy home sruff

There are only about 22 Costco stores in the entire UK, but luckily there is one in Bristol (in Avonmouth) . If you have a US Costco card, then I believe it will allow you to use Costco in the UK.

A few years ago Walmart took over the UK supermarket ASDA, and the first ever ASDA-Walmart supercentre in England was opened in Bristol about 9 or 10 years ago (it's the one I mentioned near the out-of-town shopping mall). There are also 4 regular ASDA supermarkets and one ADSA Living store in Bristol too. In fact, the George clothing range at ASDA is British... it was being sold in the UK for 10 years before Walmart had anything to do with it.

As Becca said, B&Q is very similar to Home Depot (again in Bristol there is a massive B&Q next to ASDA-Walmart and the shopping mall) - it even has almost the same logo, despite the 2 companies not being related at all  .

I had a lot of other expenses that are not on your list. Each alone was small, but they added up.

I needed to pay for transportation from the airport to where I was staying. It took me 2 weeks to move into my flat, during that time I was at a serviced apartment (much more expensive than a house, and maybe impossible with pets). The first day I stayed in a hotel. My mobile phone require a deposit since I had no credit history. I spent a lot on taxis the first few weeks. My place was furnished, but I still bought new sheets and towels. I ate out a lot the first few days. I had to pay my TV stamp tax for the year up front. I have heard that some people need to pay to get utilities (phone and internet) hooked up. I joined a gym and had to pay upfront. I bought a bus card and a phone card. The few electronic things I brought over need new plugs, adaptors, transformers.

These are just the things that come to the top of my head. If you make a budget, make sure you leave some space.