Cost of living differences

The first question we are asked when we tell people we are going back is, "but isn't it so expensive in London?" to which we always kind of shrug and say, "no more expensive than here..."

When asked to elaborate, we explain that the rent will be less, especially because we will be getting a 1bed instead of 2 (of course all that depends on location and necessity). There will be no car, so no car related expenses, which at the moment are into the thousands with payment, insurance, fuel, repairs... Food is cheaper -- especially produce. Going to the Farmer's Market here can easily be a $60 trip! There, we could do a weekly shop of veg for under £20. And the beer... In London, I could go out and have a great time on a tenner. Here, that is one drink plus tip... One can't go out in LA and pay under $20 for a night out. Hell, that's just the cost of parking for some places!

So for those of us coming from big cities, London can be a breath of fresh air. Sure, we earn less, but I feel my cost of living is less. But I can really see how it might be hard to adjust to London prices when you are from a place where the cost of living is so low.

Anyone else have cost of living culture shock? Or in the case of us... Not?

I can't get over the high wages in the UK. That may not be a popular comment on here. I won't give numbers but I see them from time to time and I wish I could make that kind of money.

I moved from New Jersey, which has a pretty high cost of living, to Scotland, which has a pretty low cost of living compared to other parts of the UK. 

When I was on my own, I would spend $40/week on groceries in the US where I would spend £20/week here.

I could get a semi-decent, empty room in a shabby apartment in NJ for $500/month where I could get a nice, furnished room in a nice flat in the West End of Glasgow for £275/month.

Petrol is more expensive here, but used cars are cheaper and car insurance is way way way cheaper.

All my prescriptions are free and there's no co-pays when I go to the doctor.

I can walk into a pub and order a Malt of the Month (usually a pretty nice choice of whisky) for £1.80-£2.  The same drink would cost me at least $5 in NJ, at a dive bar.  If we went to a nice place, or a restaurant...forget it.  I was charged $12 for a Glenmorangie in Philly. 

A return ticket for a 30 minute train ride on NJTransit into NYC was about $20 last time I checked.  A return ticket for a 50 minute train into Glasgow from where I live now is about £7 off peak and £10 peak.

It's just plain cheaper for me! 

Though, I'd imagine if someone came from a state where things are much cheaper and moved to London, they'd be singing a completely different tune from me!

I moved from New Jersey, which has a pretty high cost of living, to Scotland, which has a pretty low cost of living compared to other parts of the UK. 

When I was on my own, I would spend $40/week on groceries in the US where I would spend £20/week here.

I could get a semi-decent, empty room in a shabby apartment in NJ for $500/month where I could get a nice, furnished room in a nice flat in the West End of Glasgow for £275/month.

Petrol is more expensive here, but used cars are cheaper and car insurance is way way way cheaper.

All my prescriptions are free and there's no co-pays when I go to the doctor.

I can walk into a pub and order a Malt of the Month (usually a pretty nice choice of whisky) for £1.80-£2.  The same drink would cost me at least $5 in NJ, at a dive bar.  If we went to a nice place, or a restaurant...forget it.  I was charged $12 for a Glenmorangie in Philly. 

A return ticket for a 30 minute train ride on NJTransit into NYC was about $20 last time I checked.  A return ticket for a 50 minute train into Glasgow from where I live now is about £7 off peak and £10 peak.

It's just plain cheaper for me! 

Though, I'd imagine if someone came from a state where things are much cheaper and moved to London, they'd be singing a completely different tune from me!

That's amazing considering those prices include the dreaded VAT where as in NJ you had to ad the sales tax.

I can't get over the high wages in the UK. That may not be a popular comment on here. I won't give numbers but I see them from time to time and I wish I could make that kind of money.

What? I'm definitely under the impression that wages are a lot higher in the US than in the UK. Or, at least, wages in the NY Metro area are a lot higher than in Southeastern England.

Well, I moved from somewhere 'cheap' (Ohio) to Scotland and cost of living is lower for me as well. I live in a two-story, 3 bed flat with a garage and shared courtyard for £495 a month, I pay under £400 a year for car insurance, about £30 a week for petrol to commute and go places and less than £40 a week for 2 people for groceries. Our utilities bills aren't too bad and council tax is lower than what property tax would be in the area where I grew up, plus we'd still have to pay separately for rubbish uplift and water/sewage (both included in council tax). The main thing, though, is health care. I'd probably be bankrupt in the US or at least totally broke because of health issues, whereas here I don't even have to pay for prescriptions.

I can't get over the high wages in the UK. That may not be a popular comment on here. I won't give numbers but I see them from time to time and I wish I could make that kind of money.

That is definitely not the usual comment one hears on the boards too often! But I think it is completely fair. For what I do for a living, the amount of experience I have and where I live, salaries in the UK are disappointing. But since I find the cost of living to be less, it doesn't bother me. It's all relative at the end of the day.

All my prescriptions are free and there's no co-pays when I go to the doctor.

Oh yes, then there's this! I completely forgot about cost of health care. Luckily my employer pays for the plan, however I'm just waiting for the bill for my recent MRI. I have a feeling I will be not be pleased.

A return ticket for a 30 minute train ride on NJTransit into NYC was about $20 last time I checked.  A return ticket for a 50 minute train into Glasgow from where I live now is about £7 off peak and £10 peak.

Don't get me started on rail travel here. Although the Metro is much, much cheaper than the Underground, taking the train is highway robbery. And takes forever. Going to San Fran next month from LA? $108 and 12-14 hours later... Going to Edinburgh from London on the same day? £57 for 4.5 hrs.

For someone about to retire, the cost of healthcare is going to make a big difference. Even with Medicare and post-retirement coverage from work, there are premiums and co-pays to take into consideration. And a big chunk of my social security and work pension would go towards real estate tax and running a car.

Prescriptions are free in Scotland? There's a co-pay in England. It amounts to more than my co-pay in the US, too. Slightly.

Food is eye-wateringly expensive in the UK, though we do buy a better class of food than I usually did in the States.

DH is a freelance writer/editor and he says American magazines pay absolute crap rates, so there's that.

You could go item-by-item and find all sorts of variations, but my Rhode Island to rural England experience makes it much more expensive in the UK. Though there is some apples-to-oranges about my lifestyle.

Prescriptions are free everywhere but England. 

I find food cheaper here, but I don't know if that's a regional difference. We buy local and organic/free range as much as possible, which last time I was shopping in Cincinnati was either unavailable or cost much more than here.

  i'd say save your jubilation at the 'cheapness' of london until you actually live here...  we are a family of 4 with a high standard of living and at that level, london is definitely more expensive than our NJ suburb of nyc.  it certainly depends on lifestyle, but housing in london for a family gives very little value for money.  comparative food is not cheap, especially not eating in restaurants unless you are going to the fantastic ethnic places in london.    

Food is eye-wateringly expensive in the UK, though we do buy a better class of food than I usually did in the States.

This is what I cannot get over. Food. I want fresh fruit that is more than 20 blueberries for the price that I could get pints and pints for in the States.

I am grateful for NHS, free prescriptions, etc. but all of that is just a dream right now; I haven't actually gotten to use it yet and I had to bring months worth of medication over until I can actually see a doctor. So thus far, my experience is that things are much more expensive with the exception of clothing if you want to shop at cheaper stores, which is a decent option.

I've also heard (again, have yet to experience) that the job market is more "fair" here than in the States. For example, even if you work part-time, you get to accumulate time off? Is that true? If so, I appreciate that, as in the States, they seem to try to hire you part-time so they don't have to give you any benefits at all.

I've also heard (again, have yet to experience) that the job market is more "fair" here than in the States. For example, even if you work part-time, you get to accumulate time off? Is that true? If so, I appreciate that, as in the States, they seem to try to hire you part-time so they don't have to give you any benefits at all.

I've worked part-time and full-time since I was 16 and I've always had at least 4 weeks paid leave per year from the word go. There's a law dictating a minimum legal amount of time off per year for all employees and companies have to stick to it (http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/Timeoffandholidays/DG_10029788).

When I was working Saturdays as a teenager, I got 4 'weeks' (4 Saturdays) off each year as paid holiday. Then when I worked full-time in retail as a student, I got 5 weeks of paid holiday per year.

Now I'm a civil servant and have been in my job for 10 months... I automatically get 25 days of paid leave, 8 bank holidays and 2.5 paid privilege days per year (1 day at Christmas, 1 day for the Queen's Birthday(!) and 1/2 a day for Maundy Thursday). I can also carry forward up to 10 days of holiday from the previous year, so this year I actually get 6 weeks of paid leave instead of 5 .

You are encouraged to take all of your vacation days every year - I even had one of my old managers ask me if I'd like to take a week off sometime just to make sure I used up all my vacation days before the end of the year!

 i'd say save your jubilation at the 'cheapness' of london until you actually live here...  we are a family of 4 with a high standard of living and at that level, london is definitely more expensive than our NJ suburb of nyc.  it certainly depends on lifestyle, but housing in london for a family gives very little value for money.  comparative food is not cheap, especially not eating in restaurants unless you are going to the fantastic ethnic places in london.    

Ugh, I can only imagine how expensive it is for a family! Having no children, we are blissfully unaware of those added costs. I'm curious, are you in a London suburb or more central?

we currently live in london, near the city, but moved from a suburb in kent.  we were surprised that grocery prices are the same in suburbs and london, when shopping at same stores, for example.  in the US, like for like items were much cheaper in NJ compared to manhattan.