Cost of Living in England in 2020

The overall cost of living in England is pretty expensive, although plenty of students come here to study and work part-time and support themselves pretty well.

Schooling is basically free at government schools until senior high. University fees are expensive, often around £8k - 10k per year for British students and commonly around double this amount for foreign students. Even for British students, in order to get the lower fees they need to have lived in the UK for the past 3 years.

Housing varies enormously depending on which part of the UK you are living. Most of the big cities are very expensive and if your job is located in the city then you might need to find a place to live quite far away and commute to work. For example, many people working in London choose to live in smaller towns and cities such as Bright & Hove, Hastings, Guildford etc, and may spend an hour or more commuting into work.

Eating out in England is not cheap. There are places everywhere that sell take away food, even most supermarkets have a large selection of per-prepared foods, but these too are not cheap. So cooking at home is much more common in the UK in order to spend less.

Healthcare is basically free. You can have knee or hip replacement surgery or heart surgery and it is free. As one gets older this becomes more important as we become more susceptible to illnesses and our bodies wear out faster.

In England electricity bills are generally quite high because we need to pay for heating. Most homes also have gas for central heating and cooking.

These days trains have become quite expensive bus buses are still very affordable for getting around and important if you live in the city.