Is £17500 enough to live in London?

I have been offered a job in London, but the salary is making me think twice - would I be able to survive on this in London?

I'm from Leeds so would have to move into my own place but after looking on right move there is little under £600pcm, and I am aware that after tax I'll be taking home around 1200 a month.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me please? Thanks!

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

M1011

Possible yes, but pretty tight to live on your own. Ideally you'd probably get in on a house share to try and keep costs down. Don't forget to factor in the cost of travel in London.

Reply 2

moutonfou

I earn about that and live in a northern city in a £400pcm flat with free bills which I additionally share the cost of with one other person and I just about break even every month. I have to cut back on everything as well - only going to the cinema on Orange Wednesdays, making drinks last when I'm out, always taking packed lunches to work, never getting takeaways. It's a bit depressing but then on the other hand it's a lot less depressing than being unemployed and there are worse salaries!

What you need to do first is take the cost of everything that has a fairly fixed price - rent, utilities, travel, etc. Then add to it estimates of roughly what you spend your disposable income on - groceries, going out, etc - and work out how much a month you would have left. If it's physically feasible, then consider whether the job opportunity is worth the cut-backs you would have to make. I.e. is there prospects, does it enable you to get a foot in the door of your chosen career path? As long as you can survive and there's a chance that within a year or two you will get a better salary then it may be worth it! But if you can't physically afford to live then it will be pretty difficult.

Reply 3

alibee

Original post by moutonfou

What on earth are you spending your money on? If you have £800 a month after rent and bills, you have a tonne of disposable income... When I first moved out of home, I was taking home about £1000 a month and I lived just fine in a northern city. I was able to save up a fair portion of my wage.

OP, I reckon that wage is just about liveable in London but only if you're willing to flat share. Your own place isn't really doable on that money in London. Money will be tight and you'll need to be willing to live within your means and budget very carefully.

Reply 4

suzannataylor

Hi,

I think it would be possible if you shared a house. I am a student in London and I receive the maximum maintenance loan and grant from student finance plus a bursary from my university, this comes to about £9500 a year. In my first year I was in halls, but in my second year I shared a very nice flat with two others in a nice area of South London, paying about 500 a month not including bills, although we didn't have to pay council tax. I don't think you would be able to live in zone one, however there are plenty of very nice places a little further out. This does of course add a commute but if you use the train or tube it's pretty quick, and if you choose to go by bus you can save money.
I don't think food shopping is any more expensive that anywhere else in the country, but going out etc is. I didn't go out every weekend, mainly because I didn't really want to, but I was able to go out for dinner and to clubs and pubs fairly regularly. I didn't have loads of money but for the most part my friends and I felt that we weren't struggling.

Reply 5

/dev/null

IMHO opinion no unless you are going to live in a house share. I earn rather substantially more than that and I would still struggle to find somewhere to my standard in London.

Best option is to either live further out and commute or as above find a house share. Then you're still going to be out of the action I guess so perhaps losing the draw of working in London if you live too far out.

Reply 6

moutonfou

Original post by alibee

Sorry, I meant free bill as in gas and electric! I.e. still have to pay council tax, phone/internet, water, home insurance, then have other things to pay for such as mobile phone, train season ticket (biggest cost probably), rising cost of food, etc. I too look at what I earn and think I should have way more left but I honestly cut back on everything and can't remember when I last bought new clothes or a DVD I fancied :frown:

Reply 7

James222

It would be very difficult, you have to think about Tube,bills etc

you could get about £1,000 in housing benefit annually and 75% reduction in council tax if you live alone. Unless its a major promotion or helps your career, I would advise against it.

Reply 8

Wiskerz

There's a ton of if's and but's here.

I was living in London last year while I was on placement with a company earning a modest £16k. I got by absolutely fine.

Like M1011 says, getting a house share will make things alot cheaper! To give you an idea, I shared with 3 other placement students (we were all earning a similar wage) in Ealing West London, and our bills and rent came to roughly £600 each per month (Each paying £550 for rent and £50 to cover bills).

How much it costs you will depend on where you live; on the fringe of London you could perhaps get a house share on £400 a month - ranging all the way to more central London, where you're looking at at least double that.

Unless you're coming up for promotion or pay rise within 18 months, I'd recommend against it. In our experience £16k was just enough to exist... Sure we all went out and stuff, but we were constantly having to budget carefully. It was only for 12-months so it wasn't that bad, and we stuck with it.

Reply 9

Bill_Gates

You should be fine if you live within your means, no problems really. If you live lavish then i'd carefully consider it. I know people who have lived on less!

Reply 10

nase14_aldayz

Of course it's doable.

Reply 11

suzannataylor

Original post by Wiskerz

Unless you're coming up for promotion or pay rise within 18 months, I'd recommend against it. In our experience £16k was just enough to exist... Sure we all went out and stuff, but we were constantly having to budget carefully. It was only for 12-months so it wasn't that bad, and we stuck with it.

Yeah, I think it depends on whether you're okay with budgeting a bit. As a student it's what I'm used to but I can easily see why a young working person without a family might not want to have to think about money all the time!

Reply 12

Quady

Original post by Wiskerz

Presumebaly excluding council tax?
I'd have thought that'd push the bills number up by at least another £30 a month.

Reply 13

Quady

Original post by James222

Say wut? I think you mean 25%

Not that a council tax discount of any amount would offset the additional cost of living alone in London (or anywhere really)...

Reply 14

Wiskerz

Original post by Quady

Presumebaly excluding council tax?
I'd have thought that'd push the bills number up by at least another £30 a month.

Yup. As we were technically fee paying, we still qualified for council tax exemption. However the £50 each we set aside more than covered the energy, water, BB - so it'd probably be another £15ish per month added to bills to cover council tax.

Reply 15

Quady

Original post by Wiskerz

Ah actually I hadn't noticed you were a share of four (thought it was three), yeah that makes sence.

Reply 16

Tokyoround

Just get an all-inclusive houseshare in Bethnal Green or west like North Acton or something, will be fine.

Reply 17

alibee

In an HMO, the LL is normally responsible for the council tax. Their costs are obviously rolled into the total rent amount you pay.

Reply 18

redferry

Original post by Charlottey!

You can but it will be a poor quality of life.

I have a PhD in London and I am worried about living off 15700, and that isn't even taxed.

At the moment I live in Leeds on a salary of 11,000 a year and can basically afford to do what I like. I'm also managing to save up.