How much do you need to earn to live in London?

[BJG1]

MajorProblem said:

Didn't think of that.

Drink driving

Parking

Congestion charge?

You'll presumably have a tube season ticket anyway, so that's 'free' for the meal out - you can get the tube there and back, they run until midnight. Soon they'll be 24 hours. You can also get the night bus.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

MajorProblem said:

Exactly it's FA. A meal and drinks is gonna be minimum £100 for two unless you go to maccy d's.

Utter rubbish. There's more great value restaurants in London than anywhere else. A stroll thru Chinatown will yield about 50 places where you can eat as much as you like for under a tenner.

And if you get on the internet for offers and vouchers, you can eat like a king for peanuts.

The 4 of us (me, wife and 2 kids 16 & 18) recently got special offer at a Burrito café just off Covent Garden, we each had a burrito the size of a rolled up sleeping bag, churros with chocolate sauce and bottled beer each, for £32 all in. We could hardly walk at the end.

[DanL]

MajorProblem said:

I love a very average life in the north thanks ... Re the £100 meal, your going to need a taxi / tube there and back plus drinks plus meal gotta be £100 easy.

This explains your confusion. You're comparing living out of London with living in it, and making some assumptions about travel, etc. that don't hold.

You'd get the tube in for a meal, and that's effectively free as if you live in Lobdon you'll already have a travel card to get to work. Public transport in London is generally very good.

Meals out - if you want, you can spend lots. Equally, £25/head plus wine is easily do-able and can be very nice, particularly if you look for offers.

[MajorProblem]

DanL said:

This explains your confusion. You're comparing living out of London with living in it, and making some assumptions about travel, etc. that don't hold.

I agree, I do not know that's why if asked.

[JohnSW20]

I think if you live in London you know where to go if you want a decent meal at a decent price. The problem is for people who visit London and get stung by going to the tourist places the same as in any big city. Take Prague £3.50 a pint around the main square my mates local is £0.86 a pint for the same stuff.
The good thing about London is there is so much choice you can pay through the nose at the top end places or you can always fine a great meal at what ever price your budget is, if you know where to go.

[anonymous-user]

MajorProblem said:

Didn't think of that.

Drink driving

Parking

Congestion charge?

A night out doesn't have to involve drink.
Plenty of free parking after hours.
Only applies during the day.

Your go.

[TEKNOPUG]

MajorProblem said:

ferrariF50lover said:

Just so we're all clear:

MAJORPROBLEM IS CONSIDERABLY RICHER THAN YOU. I SAY AGAIN, MAJORPROBLEM IS CONSIDERABLY RICHER THAN YOU!

I love a very average life in the north thanks, oh and my Bentley seems to be a £500 honda civic pushing 180k miles.

I just find it fascinating the amount of you need to live down there.

Re the £100 meal, your going to need a taxi / tube there and back plus drinks plus meal gotta be £100 easy.

A lot of these things simply aren't London specific. Sure, you could easily spend £100, 200, 300+ on a meal. But then my sister lives in Hull, which is one of the cheapest places to live in the country and there are plenty of places there that will happily charge you the same for dinner. £20 a head is plenty to spend on a good meal in London and there are so many, many places to choose from and so many different cuisines. Obviously if you want to start buying £50+ bottles of wine then it's going to cost more. But that's no different to anywhere. So I don't think it's expensive to eat in London - there maybe a lot more "expensive places", but equally there are a lot more cheap places than the rest of the country.

Cars - cars cost the same wherever you live - how much you choose to spend is entirely up to you.

Taxis and travel - taxi costs depend upon how far you need to travel. If you live in zone 1/2 then a cab home will cost you £10-20. I found taxi's in Bristol to be a lot more expensive. A monthly zone 1-2 travel card is £120.60 - for that you get to travel anywhere in the centre of London, 24/7 on buses, tubes, trains, overground etc. You certainly wouldn't want to drive anywhere. Or just pay as you go and a single trip is £2.20. Or you could just walk or cycle.

Drinking can be expensive - plenty of places that will charge you £5/6 a pint. But then search about and you can easily get drinks for less than £4. Or drink at home/friends.

Parking permits are expensive.

Obviously property is the real killer but buying somewhere is totally dependant on how much of a deposit you can put down. So it's somewhat moot. To rent, you're probably looking at £1200 per month for a one bedroom somewhere nice. Obviously you can spend more depending on size/location. But then you will no doubt be earning more in London.

So for a couple, I'd suggest £60k joint minimum but ideally £80k+.

I've lived in 8 or so different places in London over 12 years and never been stabbed, shot, assaulted, mugged, burgled or any other kind of crime victim.

[Du1point8]

MajorProblem said:

DanL said:

This explains your confusion. You're comparing living out of London with living in it, and making some assumptions about travel, etc. that don't hold.

I agree, I do not know that's why if asked.

London is vast... if you want a specific meal type, most people will use:

http://www.opentable.co.uk/london-restaurants?forc...

If I wanted Soho tonight for 19:00 I can look here:

http://www.opentable.co.uk/s/?DateTime=2014-08-19%...

Then choose on budget/style/offer alone.

[BrabusMog]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

No commute to London, I'll be going from Caversham to Camberley without a hassley drive down the A3/M25/M3

[TEKNOPUG]

lepetitoeuf said:

750-sq ft flat in Zone 2 with parking and outside space could be anywhere between £500k - £1m, so lets say £750k, minus your 20% £150k deposit = £600k mortgage.

So, based on your lifestyle, you would need to earn approx £200k a year to live in London, otherwise you wouldn't be able to secure the lending to buy the flat that you claim you need to live in London.

He might have a 50% deposit though. Or larger.

[fido]

JohnSW20 said:

my mates local is £0.86 a pint for the same stuff.

It's doubled in about 10 years .. remember buying 40p pints a few stops out on the red tube line .. that was like heaven! Back on topic, if you want to live in London cheaply you'll have to do what the art students, migrants and EU visitors do i.e. Weatherspoon pubs, supermarket or buffet-quality stuff, and live in similar areas - then even 25k p.a. will cut it.

[lukefreeman]

Am I missing something?

Can you not just cook your own food, and chillax at home?

[TEKNOPUG]

lukefreeman said:

Am I missing something?

Can you not just cook your own food, and chillax at home?

[TEKNOPUG]

lepetitoeuf said:

TEKNOPUG said:

He might have a 50% deposit though. Or larger.

But... he said 20%

He's fked then.

[djc206]

According to the BBC today the average salary in London is £39k so I would suggest that constitutes making do. With your entertainment budget and car requirement you're going to need £60k ish each as a couple to achieve your property aims. That's the biggest thing with London. If you're prepared to rent you can live on a lot less, if you want an 80% mortgage you need a big headline salary to be lent the money.

Two different questions really, how much do you need to live in London? And how much do you need to buy a home in London?

[Petrol Only]

lukefreeman said:

Am I missing something?

Can you not just cook your own food, and chillax at home?

You could. But then you might as well live somewhere "nice". Nit just expensive.

[Pebbles167]

Threads like this are ridiculous.

So many people come out completely overestimating everything and say you need a popstar wage to live well. It's bks, you simply dont.

[NNH]

Pebbles167 said:

Threads like this are ridiculous.

So many people come out completely overestimating everything and say you need a popstar wage to live well. It's bks, you simply dont.

I think there's a few of us who've suggested that a gross household income (whether single or couple) of £60-70k gives a pretty decent lifestyle in London. It would be quite hard to enjoy the benefits of London on much less than that, though.

[Disco You]

MajorProblem said:

ferrariF50lover said:

Just so we're all clear:

MAJORPROBLEM IS CONSIDERABLY RICHER THAN YOU. I SAY AGAIN, MAJORPROBLEM IS CONSIDERABLY RICHER THAN YOU!

I love a very average life in the north thanks, oh and my Bentley seems to be a £500 honda civic pushing 180k miles.

I just find it fascinating the amount of you need to live down there.

No, you like plucking big numbers from thin air and then saying "LOLOLOL LONDON IS EXPENSIVE LOLOLOLOL."

[anonymous-user]

Pebbles167 said:

So many people come out completely overestimating everything and say you need a popstar wage to live well. It's bks, you simply dont.

Do popstars actually need a wage?
I thought all they had to have done was appear on Top of the Pops between 1972 and 1984, let the Mirror and CPS work their magic and hey presto, free board and lodging for life!