Hypothetical costs in London. Find the best salary

Hi! I just want to ask you about salary and cost of life in London.
At the moment I'm in Italy, Milan, one of the most expencive cities in Italy.
I am graduated, I've a job and working as furniture developer, something like interior designer but more technical, closer to production than design.
I am 31 and I earn 26000 eu/year but with taxes payed are little less than 15000 eu/year.
I have a property flat and not pay the rent.

If I plan to move to London, and I rent a room in a shared flat, what should be the right salary to live in London, as I live here in Italy now?
What do you think?

hypothetical costs in London:
rent of room, food, transportation, free time, cinema twice a month, pub once a week, etc...

Hello denat, do not hesitate to take a look at the different threads of the forum, it may help.

There are also some articles in our participative guide.
Here's the link > http://www.expat-blog.com/en/guide/europe/england/.

Good luck,
Harmonie.

Well it all depends on how much you want to spen don luxuries really.
A single bed in shared accom will cost around 350/400 per month, if you want a double room you can add anything upto 600p/m often you will find all bills included and all you need to pay for is your phone and internet. Phone obviously depends on your usage, Tesco Mobile offers a 35pound/permonth which is what it says on the box and rarely goes over that amount. (my experience) You can get a reasonable internet connection for 20 pounds a month. You may be able to split the cost with other flat mates.

I guess about 50Pounds a week would do you for food. Dont know how much dicount you get on an oyster card but the day ticket I bought the other day was 12pounds with a return to Slough which is just outside of London.

Cinema varies for where, what time, what day, what movie you see, they range from early bird specials at about 3 pounds to peak at about 12pounds.

Same again with the pub, its free to go in but of course how much are you going to drink and what? A simple orange juice can cost 4pounds in some places

I guess you can easily spend 700 a month and not really have anything to show for it. And thats with a single room.

Hey there,

London is an excellent city to live in, and as the other guys and girls say, if you don't mind sharing accommodation you can get a place about £500 a month inclusive of all bills...if you look in areas such as tooting, streatham or other south west areas.  The only problem then I that you will need to spend a little more on travel into and out of the city.  A zone 1 to 4 travel card is about £30 a week, so it's not cheap, if you can find somewhere more central and eliminate the travel costs this would be beneficial.

Salaries are very variable, but you do tend to get paid more in London than you do in the rest of the country.  Jobs are fairly difficult to come by at the moment due to a shortage, but if you are good at what you can do and are confident you should not have a problem.

The life here is expensive, but a lot of fun.  Drinks and living costs are high, but if you re travelling from Europe your initial costs will be reduced due to the good exchange rate.

Hope you manage to achieve your goals!

Londonenglishguy wrote:

Salaries are very variable, but you do tend to get paid more in London than you do in the rest of the country.  Jobs are fairly difficult to come by at the moment due to a shortage, but if you are good at what you can do and are confident you should not have a problem.


Your salary is not relevent to you location. Yes you may get a couple extra thousand a year but be in absolutely no doubt that if you earn 30k and live in wales and earn 40k and live in london. You will be better off in Wales ... been there and done it and genral idea is that the further you are from major cities the better off you are. So if you can get work in one of these areas then you will be well away. It is as simple as a place to live I had a 2bed rent in Watford at 760 no bills, and a 3 bed in hay on wye at 420, still had bills to pay but its a hell of a difference