Living With A Degree Apprenticeship Wage In London

Original post by Astray666

Hi I reside near North currently and was thinking about doing a Software Engineering Degree Apprenticeship In London. The advertised wage is around £25000.

Would this be enough to live in London, would I have to room share? Is it possible to even survive in London with this wage? I would appreciate some experience and insight into this topic.

Thanks

After you have paid income tax, NI and pension contributions I reckon you will have around £1700 per month take home. Almost certainly you will be looking at renting a room in a house and probably not in one of the more expensive areas. Actually that can sometimes be a good way of making friends in a new city. You will likely have to share the bills as well. So you are going to likely have less than a grand a month left after that.

Reply 2

OP

Original post by Slowprop

After you have paid income tax, NI and pension contributions I reckon you will have around £1700 per month take home. Almost certainly you will be looking at renting a room in a house and probably not in one of the more expensive areas. Actually that can sometimes be a good way of making friends in a new city. You will likely have to share the bills as well. So you are going to likely have less than a grand a month left after that.

Thanks a lot for the reply mate appreciate it.
With an income like that in a place like London surely there must be some help available, does it qualify for Universal Credit perhaps?

Reply 3

Original post by Astray666

Thanks a lot for the reply mate appreciate it.
With an income like that in a place like London surely there must be some help available, does it qualify for Universal Credit perhaps?

Well there are a number of online benefit calculators available. I assume you are a single guy though. So I doubt you will get anything.
If you know which part of London you want/need to be in you should be able to Google rooms for rent and give yourself a more accurate idea of what you are likely to be left with as disposable income. You won't be able to chuck money around but if you can make the numbers work you can decide if it's better financially than coming out of full time university with a large student debt and then have to compete for a job?
I made the move from the North to the London area and ended up renting rooms and sharing houses for the first few years. It was tough at times but I made some good friends doing that and had a right laugh.

Reply 4

OP

I am okay with shared flat or rooms, do you have any website perhaps where you looks for such places?

Reply 5

Original post by Astray666

I am okay with shared flat or rooms, do you have any website perhaps where you looks for such places?

I just googled these.

https://www.spareroom.co.uk/flatshare/london
https://www.openrent.co.uk/properties-to-rent/londo/rooms

I'm not saying I recommend these sites but they might give you some idea. As you can see the price varies a lot. Another alternative is to live on the outskirts of London and commute in by train. Plenty of people do that all their working lives. Property is cheaper to buy and rent but that has to be weighed against the annual season ticket and the time taken every day to commute. It's still expensive compared with othe parts of the country but cheaper than London.

Reply 6

OP

Original post by Slowprop

I just googled these.

https://www.spareroom.co.uk/flatshare/london
https://www.openrent.co.uk/properties-to-rent/londo/rooms

I'm not saying I recommend these sites but they might give you some idea. As you can see the price varies a lot. Another alternative is to live on the outskirts of London and commute in by train. Plenty of people do that all their working lives. Property is cheaper to buy and rent but that has to be weighed against the annual season ticket and the time taken every day to commute. It's still expensive compared with othe parts of the country but cheaper than London.

Thank you very much mate I'll have a look.
How did you find moving for you apprenticeship? Was it difficult at first? Did you face any challenge?

Reply 7

I didn't move for an apprenticeship. It was a job. Basically after having got my qualifications via day release and evening classes I got sick of waiting for dead men's shoes to get promoted and ended up taking a chance and applying for a new job with my company which meant moving South. I remember a lot of my mates thought I was bonkers. However it opened up a lot of opportunities I would never have had if I hadn't rolled the dice. I've no regrets professionally. Socially the first thing I did was join a Rugby Club. I enjoyed playing for them and made plenty of friends. You have to be willing to put yourself out there.

Reply 8

OP

Original post by Slowprop

I didn't move for an apprenticeship. It was a job. Basically after having got my qualifications via day release and evening classes I got sick of waiting for dead men's shoes to get promoted and ended up taking a chance and applying for a new job with my company which meant moving South. I remember a lot of my mates thought I was bonkers. However it opened up a lot of opportunities I would never have had if I hadn't rolled the dice. I've no regrets professionally. Socially the first thing I did was join a Rugby Club. I enjoyed playing for them and made plenty of friends. You have to be willing to put yourself out there.

I see thank you very much mate for all the information and all the best of luck.

Reply 9

OP

Original post by Slowprop

I just googled these.

https://www.spareroom.co.uk/flatshare/london
https://www.openrent.co.uk/properties-to-rent/londo/rooms

I'm not saying I recommend these sites but they might give you some idea. As you can see the price varies a lot. Another alternative is to live on the outskirts of London and commute in by train. Plenty of people do that all their working lives. Property is cheaper to buy and rent but that has to be weighed against the annual season ticket and the time taken every day to commute. It's still expensive compared with othe parts of the country but cheaper than London.

Hi, do you have any town recommendations that are in the outskirts of London?

Reply 10

I think Dartford is underated as far as commuting goes. There are three different train lines into London. You can get trains directly into London Bridge, Canon Street, Victoria, St Pancras and Charring Cross. Then either walk or get a tube or bus to wherever. Hopefully though with that number of stations you will be able to walk. If you can it'll save time and hassle. The house prices and rental prices are still high compared with the North but not as high as London. Depending on where you want to be in London expect to take between an hour and an hour and a half each way. I think the season ticket will be about £3k per annum. So clearly you have to weigh that up with the saving made on rent.

Alternatively look at Erith which isn't quite as nice but it has the reputation of being the cheapest commuter town and the train fare will be a bit less.

You might also like want to look at the outskirts of Essex. Decent rail links and again cheaper rent than London.

Stay clear of Surrey. It's nice there but expensive.

Really all you want is somewhere to get you started. I found that I made friends sharing and at work and we ended up clubbing together to rent houses for three years or so. Eventually we all got sorted with buying property.

Reply 11

Just to add no matter what you do it's expensive. Although I'd say still financially more attractive than full time uni living away from home. You will probably be able to get by if you budget properly. And come out of it free of student debt with work experience.
However maybe you should also be looking around at what apprenticeships are available within travelling distance of where you live. Being able to live at home would make a huge difference. Maybe there are other apprenticeships that might not be your first choice but still interesting to you?
Why not try to keep both options open and see what you get offered?

Reply 12

OP

Original post by Slowprop

Just to add no matter what you do it's expensive. Although I'd say still financially more attractive than full time uni living away from home. You will probably be able to get by if you budget properly. And come out of it free of student debt with work experience.
However maybe you should also be looking around at what apprenticeships are available within travelling distance of where you live. Being able to live at home would make a huge difference. Maybe there are other apprenticeships that might not be your first choice but still interesting to you?
Why not try to keep both options open and see what you get offered?

Thank you very much for all this Information.
Yup I am looking basically all around the UK nearby is Manchester but the most interesting one I have found so far is in London. I am still applying to Universities too just to keep my options open. Sadly staying at home isn't an option as my home isn't the best place to live so I am trying to move out no matter what. Thank you very much for your advice.

Reply 13

Original post by Astray666

Thank you very much for all this Information.
Yup I am looking basically all around the UK nearby is Manchester but the most interesting one I have found so far is in London. I am still applying to Universities too just to keep my options open. Sadly staying at home isn't an option as my home isn't the best place to live so I am trying to move out no matter what. Thank you very much for your advice.

Yes. It's a good idea to have as many options as possible and then just see what happens. Hopefully you will have more than one nice option to choose from. It's a big step moving away at 18 (I assume). Very best of luck to you.

Reply 14

OP