Imperial College/General London Living Costs?

I have an offer for Chemistry starting in 2011 at Imperial. Having just firmed, I have started to consider accommodation, but during my consideration, it has only just struck me quite how insanely expensive it can be.
I was just wondering if there are any current or past students who could give me a vague estimate of living costs excluding accommodation, so I can plan where I'd like to apply for. I'd just like a vague idea of how much I can expect to spend on transport, food, liquids and other miscellaneous things per week. Bearing in mind that I'd consider myself a relatively typical 18 year old, who enjoys pubbing, and possibly, but very infrequently clubbing. I also am lucky in that I'm a competent cook, and can handle eating cheap crap for the 31 weeks or so that I'd be away.
Any thoughts or experiences would be appreciated! Thanks.
P.S. Any tips for choosing accommodation would be great as well

Although I am not yet living in London ( Reading to be precise) I am sharing a house with 5 people and got quite a bit of budget managing experience.
For £1200 (10 month) you can pretty much have a healthy diet ( Asda, Sainsbury etc are same everywhere, so are prices) but you have to cook yourself.
For instance:

Add some other stuff like sauce, cereal, milk, tea, sugar and it will be about £30 per week.

Razor pack is for 2-3 month so a good investment ^^.
Cloth
Primark is your friend
When you get some spare money - > Oxford Street
Pub
£7 for a beef burger with bacon and onion rings and a pint of beer + chips( love it ! )

I am looking at somewhere £7000 for 10 month (If you don't spend money on random crap). I am planning to cycle so no expenses on transport.

Donno about halls but I am choosing twin room.

it's 3Am now so I better go to bed !

P.S. London is expensive for its rents and transport but other things are about the same ( minor fluctuations)

I have an offer for Chemistry starting in 2011 at Imperial. Having just firmed, I have started to consider accommodation, but during my consideration, it has only just struck me quite how insanely expensive it can be.
I was just wondering if there are any current or past students who could give me a vague estimate of living costs excluding accommodation, so I can plan where I'd like to apply for. I'd just like a vague idea of how much I can expect to spend on transport, food, liquids and other miscellaneous things per week. Bearing in mind that I'd consider myself a relatively typical 18 year old, who enjoys pubbing, and possibly, but very infrequently clubbing. I also am lucky in that I'm a competent cook, and can handle eating cheap crap for the 31 weeks or so that I'd be away.
Any thoughts or experiences would be appreciated! Thanks.
P.S. Any tips for choosing accommodation would be great as well

I'm meant to live off £250 a month after accommodation.. and for me it's not possible. On the food front you should be able to keep costs down, but that's really not the main expense. In my opinion it all comes down to how often you go out and what you expect to do to have fun. Pretty much everyone I know gets far more money from their parents and is able to cope comfortably. I probably spend between £350 and £500 a month. As for travel, that's also a minimal expense.. just apply for halls which are within walking distance (most are) and you'll only have to use your oyster card for bus/tube when you want to go outside South Ken.
To be brutally honest, Chemists don't have a particularly thrilling social life from the department side so you'll do most of your 'going out' with hall friends and any sports clubs/societies. That means it all depends on what the majority of your friends want to get up to. In the autumn term I was going out fairly frequently to bigger more upmarket london clubs which are really expensive even on student nights, because that's what the majority of people in my hall did. Now I spend more time and money at the union and cheaper clubs after it closes (it closes early) but I still spend a lot. I spend masses on fried chicken after nights out, but that's a lifestyle choice I'm sure most avoid.

So all in all, besides food, my money pretty much goes on socialising and just a load of random regular expenses such as paying for the minibus to get to Harlington sports grounds, stuff for my course, a bit on oyster card. Thinking about it, it's actually really hard for me to put my finger where I actually spend all of my money (which is a bad thing). Some people budget a lot lot better.. with boring computer programmes which produce beautiful graphs for them, but they clearly have too much time on their hands

This probably doesn't help whatsoever.. sorry

I'm meant to live off £250 a month after accommodation.. and for me it's not possible. On the food front you should be able to keep costs down, but that's really not the main expense. In my opinion it all comes down to how often you go out and what you expect to do to have fun. Pretty much everyone I know gets far more money from their parents and is able to cope comfortably. I probably spend between £350 and £500 a month. As for travel, that's also a minimal expense.. just apply for halls which are within walking distance (most are) and you'll only have to use your oyster card for bus/tube when you want to go outside South Ken.
To be brutally honest, Chemists don't have a particularly thrilling social life from the department side so you'll do most of your 'going out' with hall friends and any sports clubs/societies. That means it all depends on what the majority of your friends want to get up to. In the autumn term I was going out fairly frequently to bigger more upmarket london clubs which are really expensive even on student nights, because that's what the majority of people in my hall did. Now I spend more time and money at the union and cheaper clubs after it closes (it closes early) but I still spend a lot. I spend masses on fried chicken after nights out, but that's a lifestyle choice I'm sure most avoid.

So all in all, besides food, my money pretty much goes on socialising and just a load of random regular expenses such as paying for the minibus to get to Harlington sports grounds, stuff for my course, a bit on oyster card. Thinking about it, it's actually really hard for me to put my finger where I actually spend all of my money (which is a bad thing). Some people budget a lot lot better.. with boring computer programmes which produce beautiful graphs for them, but they clearly have too much time on their hands

This probably doesn't help whatsoever.. sorry