Living in London as a placement student

I'm quite worried about my financial situation for next year as I've heard London is really expensive; I've also had a look at the property prices and it's a massive increase compared to here up north. I was wondering is living on 19k per year in London a comfortable life? Will it require really extensive budgeting? Are there any students here living in London who are getting by on less if so do you manage?

Cheers

There are definitely going to be students in London living on considerably less than 19k a year- but it sounds like you're not going to have access to student accommodation? Accommodation costs are obviously going to be a big chunk of anyone's budget and in London a lot of people have to make the toss up between having a longer (and potentially more expensive) commute and accommodation costs.

If you say where you need to get to for work/placement, others may have places where you can find slightly cheaper rents.

I think it depends what you mean by a "comfortable life"- I would have thought you would be able to afford everything you need, but you probably won't be able to go out as often as you might like, and you may struggle to save anything (which can be a problem if you're suddenly hit by an emergency bill).

But you should be able to manage on 19k, yes.

I'm actually not sure if I'll be able to get access to private student accommodation due to being on work placement, but I'm also still technically a student, probably something that I'll have to enquire about. And I haven't been given the location of my work as of yet (I'll be on various construction sites) do you know how much travel will roughly be along with food shopping for the year? It sounds like it's going to be a squeeze

Food shopping won't be hugely more expensive than it is now. You can still find discount supermarkets etc. in London.

On public transport if you're able to use the tube there is daily and weekly fare capping-
http://content.tfl.gov.uk/adult-fares-2018.pdf and you may be able to get further money off with a student oyster.

The good thing about London is that public transport is pretty good, so you can usually rely on it and it's not super expensive.

The things that cost a lot more are really accommodation and leisure stuff- expect to die a little bit inside every time you buy a pint.

You should try contacting some private halls providers etc to see if you can live in their buildings as this may end up being a convenient, cheap option, especially if all your bills are included.