Salary negotiations - how much do I need?

I received the offer for work and now I have to decide is it enough money to live and work in the south of London?  Give me your ideas about what is enough - cost of living wise - the offer is about 14 pounds an hour, with 5 weeks leave time.  How much is a loaf of bread? movie tickets?  oil change?  a martini?  gallon of milk?  these details might help me, too

This isn't much help, but in Leeds that'd be a great wage (well, depending on what it is you do.)

Congrats on the offer. I hope one of our many londoners will be able to help you out.

1)  Before or after taxes? --- taxes are pretty big here

2)  How much were you planning on budgeting for rent/mortgage?  There was an article in the Evening Standard in the past few days where the reporter was looking for something in the £800 ballpark -- all she found was SCARY and unacceptable.  She did end up finding a place to live -- but it was more than what she originally planned.

3)  London is expensive! (well - not just London -- pretty much all the UK) Martini? -- try a pint of lager instead -- you'll stay in the £2.10 - £2.70 range --- but there are places where you can get a pint for £1.80!

Bread -- .60 - .78 - depending on where you shop.  Gallon of milk?  Never bought more than 2pints = .58

You might want to factor in cost of transport to and from work -- travel card/bus pass.  Will your employer subsidize this? 

£14 an hour and 5 weeks is GREAT!

Good Luck!

I don't know why I didn't think of this yesterday -- try looking at Sainsbury's online store(www.sainsburys.co.uk)  to try and get an idea of a weekly grocery bill.

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£14 is about $25.40, that seems pretty good to me   I live in Surrey, so I'm not too sure about Leeds, but as the other ladies said  that sounded like a great wage compared to the cost of living.  But do find out about taxes and such since they tend to be high here.  My DH takes care of all that so I'm again not much help.

http://www.ttm.ie/UK%20Docs%20General/UK%20General%20Info.pdf

Have a look here for general information about costs of living in the UK.

London is SO expensive, but it can be done! That wage sounds pretty darn good to me!

Driveupcoffee is right - rent is what really destroys your soul when you first move here. But looking a bit outside of London helps if you're willing to spend a half hour or so on the train. We have a two bedroom semi with a big garden for the same that we'd probably pay for a one bedroom in a crummy part of London - but it's about 35 mins by train to Marylebone station....

Another thing that's helped me a lot is to do the weekly shop online 'cause then you can see what you're spending and adjust it accordingly before you actually check out.... My average weekly bill is somewhere around £40 for two people (one of them being a very big eater!  )

Cocktails are going to set you back a lot - I'd aquire a taste for ale, lager, or "dry white wine" as quickly as possible (off topic - why do so many women drink "dry white wine" in the south? Visiting my friends in Leeds always makes me so aware of how uncommon it is to see girls drinking pints down here!) 

You mention oil changes - I would personally avoid having a car if you're going to be IN London - it's a necessity if you're outside a big city, but in my experience London just doesn't require a car. Besides, gas/petrol is SO expensive, plus MOT (the yearly test to assure your car is road worthy), tax, and insurance - it's pretty outrageous. Public transport passes are expensive too, but pretty darn convenient.

Cheap entertainment isn't super easy to come by, but it can be done, and it's fun exploring around for reasonably priced places. I use the Itchy guide to London - it's full of restaurants, bars, etc. and has loads of great recomendations of places off the beaten path and more reasonable in price.

I received the offer for work and now I have to decide is it enough money to live and work in the south of London?  Give me your ideas about what is enough - cost of living wise - the offer is about 14 pounds an hour, with 5 weeks leave time.  How much is a loaf of bread? movie tickets?  oil change?  a martini?  gallon of milk?  these details might help me, too

Sauf London is supposedly cheaper than North London although it obviously varies for certain areas.  Your wage will certainly be liveable on.  You probably won't be going out to buy a 3 bedroom Victorian terraced house anytime soon but you should be able to find a reasonable flat to rent.

loaf of bread is usually anywhere from 60p to 1.15 (fresh baked organic)

movie tickets tend to be about £6 in the evening, maybe a couple quid less during matinee.

martinis can be pretty darn expensive, in fact, spirits tend to be rather pricy here.  Go for wine (£2.50 upwards for a bottle) or beer (£1.50 upwards for a pint)

assuming you'll need a car which you very well may not, they tend to get serviced every 10,000 miles, believe it or not!!  I was completely gobsmacked by this when I came over here but it is EXTREMELY common, unless, of course, something goes up.  These services tend to be £100-200 for oil change, plugs, engine cleanout, etc.  A lot of small cars get 40-50 mpg and some diesels get upwards of 60 mpg.

gallon of milk - impossible to find.  Biggest is generally 4 pints - 65-70p.

Will you be working near where you live or traveling into Central London?  Don't forget season tickets for trains, you can get up to an annual ticket which can be hundreds or even well over £1,000 pounds.

Matt

gallon of milk - impossible to find.  Biggest is generally 4 pints - 65-70p.

You can get six pint cartons of milk too, but you'll usually only find those in supermarkets as opposed to corner shops.

We get our milk delivered at about 45p per pint for semi-skimmed.