Salary questions

My husbands work has told us a position we are considering pays 70K (+ 10% bonus paid quarterly) per year there (London outskirts, Hayes & Harlington stop). We are a family of 5 (3 boys - 11, 8 & 5). Is this enough to live comfortably and still be able to travel?  I have done a little budgeting and it appears net monthly income would be just under 4k( not including bonus), bills would add up to about 3k including food. This would leave us 1k GBP for spending money & travel per month. We would then use anything paid from bonuses to travel outside the immediate area (Paris...) Does this sound reasonable to you guys?

I am not a high maintenance kinda girl. I realize we wouldn't be eating out a lot. Oh, and I was looking around the Ealing area, maybe Hillingdon - so zone 3 or farther. Opinions please!

Hi,

I just posted up in this thread about another person looking to potentially move and they're mentioning a salary of around £64,000 - take a look;

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=76840.15

You'd be able to save some by living further out and with the extra £6K in salary, that'd also help in providing you some extra funds. As only you and your better half and family know your specific requirements, you can judge more if the salary is enough for you or not, I'd expect your food bills for a start to be significantly more/substantial!

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

Thanks! I did see that thread and read it all. I posted under housing about living in Ealing area for this budget and got a great response, so I feel pretty good about living on that salary. I allowed 600 GBP a month for groceries. Does that seem fair? We spend about $600 american on food here. I am estimating that 375 ish GBP + cost of London increase = 600GBP, I think... We have 3 boys, so it is only going to get higher

I tried to estimate on the higher side for everything to be safe. Some things are markedly more expensive, but others are less - like cell phones & internet! It actually  seems to work out fairly well. Biggest difference being no need to have two cars!

I am estimating that 375 ish GBP + cost of London increase = 600GBP, I think... We have 3 boys, so it is only going to get higher

Is food really that much more expensive in London?

Quite a few people here on UK-Y have commented in recent months/years that groceries actually seem to be cheaper in the UK than in the US.

According to the handy cost of living calculator I found online the other day (http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/comparison.jsp), bread, milk, potatoes, fruit, water, wine and beer are all cheaper in London than in the US city my aunt lives in (in the south). However, chicken, eggs and local cheese are more expensive in London  (obviously it will differ between US cities though, so it depends where you live in the US).

Just thinking about how much my family spend on food (outside London) - when my brothers and I were all living back at home (after university), we used to spend about £400 per month on groceries...and that was for 5 adults. We weren't in London, but I don't think groceries cost that much more there.

My experience is groceries are way cheaper in the UK than here where I live (in the South- which is a cheaper COL area of the US to begin with.)

it does depend on where you live in the US.  we recently moved from London to a NJ suburb of NYC and spend 10 - 15% less on food now.  we have similar shopping patterns in both countries, shopping every day or so for nice fresh food at nicer markets. i did go to lidl in the UK for certain items, and certainly miss it here:(

Another vote for groceries being cheaper in the UK.  I used to spend around £40 a week in the UK and can't get out of the US grocery store for less than $100-$120.  I even eat worse in the US than the UK as well (i.e. less fresh foods more frozen or convenience foods).

Why don't you do a shop on one of the big websites like tesco.com and see?

http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/

£600 a month sounds like an awful lot. I'm a massive foodie snob and have almost 100% given up on supermarkets, I've started to get all my meat hand delivered to me from a bloke via smithfield/billingsgate market twice a week and even I think that's a lot of money.

it does depend on where you live in the US.  we recently moved from London to a NJ suburb of NYC and spend 10 - 15% less on food now.  we have similar shopping patterns in both countries, shopping every day or so for nice fresh food at nicer markets. i did go to lidl in the UK for certain items, and certainly miss it here:(

There's a few Aldi shops in NJ, but I've never been to one so I can't vouch for how good they are!

As for the topic, I'm another who found food in the UK to be cheaper. In Scotland, I was spending maybe £20 -£30 a week on myself whereas here I'm lucky if I get out spending $60. Usually more like $80 - $100

Same here for grocery prices UK v US.  (for reference:  Boston area to London area)

DH came to the US and did a shop for me and was astounded at the price of groceries in the US.  The price for 1 onion in the US could have bought a bag of 5 in the UK.  It still tickles him to this day.  

We budget less than £200 per month for a family with a baby.  That's including his nappies and formula milk.

I think it depends on what type of food you expect to purchase. DH and I spend about £400/month on groceries (including cleaning products, toiletries, etc). Sometimes more a month. However, we eat a lot of fresh meat and vegetables. We don't eat rice, pasta, potatoes, or bread. I'm a beef eater and he's a chicken eater so steak, nice beef roasts, extra lean mince and boneless chicken breast is what we usually purchase.

I find groceries are cheaper in the UK - we buy mostly basic, unprocessed foods and cook from scratch.

I have been hearing that due to the drought in the US this summer & so many crops having burnt up in the fiercely hot weather you had, the price of grain is skyrocketing - which is going to mean big increases in the price of groceries, things made with grain & also meat etc.  Wondering if people in the US are starting to see this already?  Also curious how much impact this will have around the world?

I think I will try a mock up order online just to see the difference. We too eat more meat, veg & fruit, nuts, not very many grains & very small amounts of processed foods (mostly lunch items for the kids)... Most food I make from scratch. So that may in fact be way overestimating, but it is the one area I am unlikely to compromise with cheaper items.

I grocery shop once a week here and budget $150. I happen to be shopping this weekend. So I will try to do a direct comparison on Tesco's website after I do my shopping this weekend.  I will post my results later this weekend hopefully!!

70K + 10% (77K), even in London, is a wopping big salary for anyone. I'm a UK and US qualified lawyer from a top law school and with a few yrs experience to boot looking for legal work in London, and so far companies/firms willing to pay in the 20-25K range are the only ones who've shown the slightest interest - as long as I am willing to come/move to London before an interview. So I'd be very happy if I were you. Seems like US expats in the UK make slightly more money than locals than UK expats in the US do. I bet your husband is probably in IT combined with mgt, or similar, wise choice. You will be having a good life there on that income.