How much is enough to live on temporairly?

When DH, DS and I move over I will be the only one working until DH finds a job. I will be bringing in a little over 500 GBP a week with my job. Will this be enough for us until DH begins working? We are planning on moving to SW area of London (nothing fancy).

Thanks in advance!

Oops, forgot to say the 500 GBP is after taxes per week...not sure if that makes a difference? Thanks!!

It should be fine depending on where you'd like to live in SW.  It includes some of the most expensive real estate in London, particularly north of the river and some of the cheapest.  Where would you be working?

ETA: These should give you an idea:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/
http://www.zoopla.co.uk/ (this came up when I searched for property finder...does anyone know if they went out of business or changed their name?)
Gumtree

Figure at least £50, probably more like £100 pm for gas and electric (you will probably have to be a bit more careful with these than in the States, but maybe not)
£100-200 pm council tax...landlords or agents can give you an exact figure before you sign a lease
On top of that you will have tv licence, internet, phone, cable/satellite (if any), mobiles, water (if not included in rent), commute, food. 

is that after rent? Depending on where you move and what kind of place you get in SW London you could be spending all of that in rent, not counting the extras like council tax and utilities, food, etc. Its hard to say if 500 per week will be enough without more information.

We are looking in areas like Colliers Wood, Wandsworth, Balham...just a 2 bedroom not paying more than 850PCM...works out that i would bring home about 500 PW after taxes...so that's roughly 300 PW to live on and pay utilities until my husband finds a job.

Legs Akimbo -- re gas/electic are you saying I should allot 50 pw or pcm to this expense?

Julia_Atlanta -- I feel quite envious for those people who can pay 500 pw on rent on their salaries...that is amazing...but no we are looking at spending no more than 200 pw on rent

Thanks!

Per month, but this is really up to your usage.  Some of this is controllable by you (shutting lights off, turning things off standby, turning down the heat, air drying clothes outside when it's nice out), but if you're renting a drafty, single glazed, high ceilinged flat with little or no insulation, you will pay more for heat when it gets cold. 

Things like phone, digital tv and internet can be relatively cheap (cheaper than what I was paying in the States).  For instance, to have a pretty extensive package from Virgin, you could pay around £50 for phone, cable broadband, and almost all channels (except for things like Sky Movies).  There's also Freeview and Freeview plus (Freeview with a DVR) which (as the name suggests) is free after you pay for the box.  With that, you could probably bring your phone and internet down to £30-35 pcm.

The other thing I forgot about is contents insurance which you might need to get as a part of your lease (sometimes, not always).  It's not expensive though.  You're looking at under £20 a month, and likely closer to £10.

IMO, you could easily swing it if your rent is that level and you are relatively careful with your energy use, nights out, groceries, and your commute doesn't cost too much.  I am not familiar with the rents around where you plan to move, but those sites I gave should give you an idea if you're not sure.

I think you will struggle to find a 2 bedroom in Wandworth or Balham at that price.

Thanks Legs Akimbo for the information; it was quite informative. I checked out the sites you suggested and found 3 flats in Wandsworth, 30 in Wimbledon/Merton/Colliers Wood for 900 PCM and under...we can go as high as 950 PCM but i would like to keep our rent down to 215 PW...I appreciate your help! We'll def look for a place with double-glazing!

You won't find anything decent in Wandsworth or Balham for £900.  You might try Tooting, where you can find a 2 bed for £900-1000 at a push if you're lucky (and get the timing right...).

If you stay in the Wandsworth borough, your council tax will be significantly cheaper than anywhere else.

Aless -- we really would like to live in or near wimbledon or as close to as we can and we have found several in the 900 PCM range that we'll look at in February when we visit. I have heard of Tooting but wasn't sure of the area. We really want a place in a green area/suburb feel. Any other suggestions of areas in the SW?

You'd be surprised how much things can cost. My relocation agent was trying to show us 3-4 bedroom places for 2000pcm. Our 3 bedroom (read 2.5 bedroom) place was 1300pcm and that was the cheapest we found in kingston for a semi-detached (we had 2 dogs) with a yard.

I'm sure you can find something for 850pcm but the pictures on these sites can be deceiving, so just keep that in mind. You might see a bit of a different picture in person. Try to look at averages in the areas you are looking in and don't fixate on a few at the low end (not saying you're doing that) but the SW is one of the more expensive areas in London, especially closer into London.

You should try typing out a budget and posting it here so we can see what you're considering to make sure you're thinking of the incidentals. I think you'll need to budget closer to 100-120pcm for gas/electricity. You might start out on a plan for 50 but it will get bumped up for sure in the winter. Are you going to have cable, internet, cellphones (how many?), what kind of entertainment do you expect to do, incidentals, water, tv tax, council tax, etc etc. I think alot of people can get by with 2000pcm but it really all depends on what you are expecting. "Is this enough" is a loaded question without alot more info. I'd, for one, hate to tell you yes and then find out that its not because we assumed alot about you.

Thanks Legs Akimbo for the information; it was quite informative. I checked out the sites you suggested and found 3 flats in Wandsworth, 30 in Wimbledon/Merton/Colliers Wood for 900 PCM and under...we can go as high as 950 PCM but i would like to keep our rent down to 215 PW...I appreciate your help! We'll def look for a place with double-glazing!

I live in Wimbledon and if you are seeing 2 beds for £900, I can attest they will be gross.

Thanks julia_atlanta for the info. I will def note to be aware of internet pics not necessarily being accurate...I used to do casting in LA and funnily enough rarely do people look like their pics, maybe like 7 outta 10 lol.

As for expenses, this is what I have so far:
Rent 900 -950
Gas& Electric 100
Water 20
Cable, Web Landline 65
Cell Phone 50 (for/DH)
Council Tax (includes trash)   120
Commute   220
Food 300
Spending roughly 300 btw 2 adults
Misc expenses 100
Leftover for savings --750?

We're not big on nightclubs or anything like that as we have a 4 yr old. We go out to dinner maybe twice a month and same would go for going to a pub. Also, my salary alone will be minimum 2200 GBP after taxes monthly. Once my husband begins working we expect to add at least an additional 1100GBP after taxes monthly to our income. The above numbers are based on DH's additional salary. We'll need to live frugally until he finds work although we do have quite a bit of savings to help with that.

2200 pm after taxes is a good wage. £950 seems a little cheap for that area, so as a previous poster said, you may not want to stay in that particularly flat after DH gets a job, but those are good neighbourhoods, so it's likely to just be parking/size/decor/access/view/closeness to railway lines, etc that are the reason for the cheap rent.

Yeah, I lived in Wimbledon for 3 years ago until last fall and I can promise you that they will not be nice if they are under 900gbp. They probably also aren't really Wimbledon, more like Colliers Wood or Mitcham.