Living on a budget...

Okay, I've been lurking about for a good time now, and as my decision is now upon me, I feel I desperately need some input.  I have been offered a 2 year position in London.  I would be bringing my family of four, being my wife and two small school-aged children.  I've looked through the boards, read several posts about whether the salary would be sufficient or not, etc., and there seems to be a wide variety of views.  That being said, the key appears to be whether I can budget appropriately.  Thus, I would appreciate any input on how reasonable my estimates are - (also any suggestions on where to live outside London with good transport into the city AND good schools...).  I'm assuming a 2 BR furnished flat rental somewhere in reasonable approximation to the city.  All amounts are in pounds -

Phone           15
Internet        15
Gas/Electric   50
Water           25
Food            300
Rent            850
Council Tax   125
Transport      ?? - I will need an annual tube/bus pass but don't know the costs.
Total excluding clothing, miscellaneous, etc. - 1.380

Is this reasonable?

IMO you have underestimated your living expenses. Others might not think so but 300 pounds a month on food for a family of four is really stretching. Also 850 in rent per month near  London will be tough unless its an ex council flat or something worse. I think line rental for a phone comes out to about 35 pounds per quarter alone. Transport costs are not cheap. A monthly tube pass for zones 1/2 is 85 pounds per month. Things like school uniforms etc will factor in. London and the surrounding areas are expensive. London is not a good place to live if you are broke. That aside I dont want to come over all doom and gloom. Living in the Uk is a wonderful expierience. It was the best choice I made. I have loved every moment of my 14 years in London. Good Luck 

I have to admit, I agree with Cicero.  I think you will find it difficult to find a 2 bed flat near London. 

Not sure how familiar you are with the city, but if you take the tube network...it operates on a Zone system, zone one being central london and zone 6 being about an hour outside the city (Heathrow is in zone 6).  I live in a two bed flat in Zone 3.  A nice, but not trendy residential area.  Very working class family.  We pay £1100 a month and I have a feeling that is a good deal. 

My monthly tube pass is £99.  You can estimate your travel costs on this site:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tickets/2006/index.shtml

The farther out you go, the more expensive your monthly pass will be.  And the further out you are the more likely you are to need a car.

It's not impossible, but I personally would budget in a bit more for the expenses.

 

We have 3 small children and spend more like £400 a month on food, practically always eating at home. 

Is school tuition a factor? 

I think you might have a hard time finding a decent place to live with the rent budget, but I honestly don't know areas all that well.  It just seems low.  Have you done any searches online for housing?  Ok, I just looked up my postcode on findaproperty and there are some 2-3 bed flats in the £850 range, so I guess it's possible.   

It sounds like you're thinking you won't have a car, which might work out fine, but that further restricts where you will want to live because you'll need easy access to everything you need to get to.

I think the utilities are about average, although you don't have anything budgeted for tv. There are phone/internet/cable deals or basic satellite isn't very expensive, but maybe add £20 to factor that in.  Mobile phone expense?

I also think you are way underestimating expenses.  I tried to do all that before we moved here and despite working in finance I still underestimated things.  It's much easier to think of the worst case scenario now and then see if you can still afford it.  I think all your numbers need to be jacked up - some more than others.

agree with the other londoners... those numbers are slightly low even for a non-londoner like myself... i'd estimate the following:

Phone           15
Internet        15
Gas/Electric   50
Water           25
Food            500 (including going out)
TV Licence    15
Cable/TV       30
Rent            1000
Council Tax   200
Transport      ?? - I will need an annual tube/bus pass but don't know the costs.

You could rent a 2 bed flat in my area (Cricklewood) for around 1000/month (which is approx £230/wk...a month is equal to 4.3 x the weekly amount).  The tube/train/bus pass into Central London is around £100 from here (zone 3).  Food - you can do around £400 per month if you don't plan on going out...I'd budget for more.  The rest of what Meggles put sounds close...

Season tickets on the Tube are going up the 1st of the year.  Monthly pass for zones 1-3 will go up to about £105 and it is around £1,000+ a year if you buy a yearly pass.  Good news is, many employers will offer interest-free season ticket loans.

I'm going to be moving to the Collier's Wood-Wimbledon area, a 2-bedroom flat there, nothing fancy, is around £800-900 a month.

Worldfrog - wherabouts in London will you be based?

Vicky

You gas and electric is likely to be higher w/a family of four.  Also your council tax and rent.

Internet as well.

I agree w/the others, you're underestimating your living expenses.

Yeah, I am about 1 1/4 miles from the nearest tube in Streatham, though I am very near mainline station.  A decent two bedroom furnished flat here runs £1000 PCM.  We looked all over the Balham/Streatham/Clapham area and anything nice enough to live in was at least £230-£260 a week.

We are in Lambeth and our council tax runs about £180 per month.

Most professional positions in the UK include a transportation/car allowance.

The very first thing you need to decide is how far out from Central London are you willing to be?  Where will you be working?  In the City?  Docklands?  West End?  I'm about 1 hour from Marylebone in northwest central london but if I had to go to Canary Wharf and the Docklands area I'd be pushing that closer to 1 hour 45 mins, it can make a big difference.

You could probably do a bit better, especially with a house over a flat in zones 5/6 as they will be the outer part of Greater London.  There are fairly leafy areas in places like Pinner, Northwood and parts of Hillingdon in west London that are on a tube line.  A lot of south London (south of the river) are served by mainline British rail stations because of the nature of the land not being so suitable for underground tube service.

Phone           15
Internet        15
Gas/Electric   50
Water           25
Food            300
Rent            850
Council Tax   125
Transport      ?? - I will need an annual tube/bus pass but don't know the costs.
Total excluding clothing, miscellaneous, etc. - 1.380

Phone and internet services have come way down so you're probably not far off on those.  Gas/Electric has gone the other way and you could easily pay £75-100/month potentially.   Water has been going up although where I live I'm still paying just £15/month so you might get by with 25-30 with a family.  Food could very easily be a couple hundred pounds more.  Rent could be much higher as well.  Council tax probably isn't too far off for a 2 bedroom flat or 3 bedroom house but it's down to which council you fall under.  I'd probably beef up your monthly total by about £500.  If you budget £2000 you should be well within that target.

We live relatively close to Matt - just a bit closer to London and we pay just under 900 for a 2 bedroom house. Council tax is 155. But transport is VERY expensive. My season ticket (all zones + train to Marylebone) was 2340!

All - Thanks very much for the input...

I had put that budget together based on 2 things - estimates I had seen, and the actual offer I had received.  I had planned on living probably in one of the more distant zones, but based on everyone's feedback, I declined the initial offer, as the budget I posted was basically what I would have had to live with.  Thanks to you guys, they renegotiated and offered me another 9k/year, which should allow me to work everything in, including much higher living expenses, as you all have suggested.  I will probably still put together another budget shortly and post again.  For those of you who have asked, I am expecting to work in Southwark, although I may also work in the city itself, and would be living somewhere a bit more distant (originally had thought Heathrow might work out okay, but now given increased budget, may try to get closer).  Thanks for all the input...although I do recall seeing somewhere a link for estimating taxes - if someone could repost that, I would be extremely grateful.