Location...

hobbledehoy.

I used to drive the 80 miles into the heart of South East London every day. Did this for 6 years. It used to take up to 2 1/2hrs to get in which meant leaving home at 6.30am. I should have finished at 5 but never did because of the rush hour. I used to leave about 6.30pm and would be home no earlier than 8. My employer never compensated me for those extra hours. Dinner was always cold on a plate so needed to be microwaved.
Hardly ever saw my children except for weekends.

By 10pm I was tired and went to bed only to get up at 5am to start all over again!!

Why, it was a job - either that or the dole!
What with travel costs I was on less take home than if I had a job round the corner on NMW!!

The DWP expect all JSA claimants to look for jobs that have a travel distance of up to 1 1/2hrs each way! They say that that is acceptable.

MrsManda

Mazzawa wrote: »

One thing I should mention, and perhaps may raise some other opinions, is that where we are looking to move to is in the process of having a railway direct to the city centre reinstated (completing in about 2014...lets see about that!). A 10 min drive to the station followed by a 50 min train journey it would change to.

So the next question is: would you commute for 90 mins every day for 3 years or more to get the house you want, changing to the more direct train as soon as possible? Would you put up with such a horrid commute to get the house and location/lifestyle you want or would it just ruin everything for you?

The longest commute I've had is 1hr by train and a 15 minute walk which I find quite reasonable. But if it'd all been by car I wouldn't have done it.
I wouldn't be convinced about buying a house on the basis you can cope with a 90 minute commute for 3yrs whilst the trainline is being reinstated because too many things can happen which could mean the reinstatement is put back or even cancelled. But it depends on the precise situation I guess.

jennifernil

We are retired now, but when working would never have considered a commute of over 45 minutes.

We actually moved closer to town (to a much more expensive area) to reduce the commute to under 30 minutes.

spottydog

What would happen if one was working late (unplanned), would the other one hang around on a cold wet night or take the car home then drive 50 minutes each way again to pick the other one up. If you have kids, with childcare, this could be a problem even if the working late is only half an hour.

Also what is the park and ride car park like, is it full, are they building more houses which could fill it further, is the transport already at capacity?

We have always assumed that we will travel to work separately with chances of traveling together a bonus. Having done the long commute into work for a couple of years I now live closer in to spend more quality time with my other half than with all the other commuters on a train and eating and going to bed only when I get home

KarrieBee

OH and I live in the country and commute to different cities in opposite directions - about an hour and 20 mins for me and an hour for him. We really love the area we live, housing is cheaper, the surroundings are lovely. Even if we ever did work in the same city I think we would still live in the country.

BUT - we commute by train which is much less stressful than driving, we don't have children yet and when we do i would never be able to do the job i do and manage the commute I have so will have to compromise my career pretty drastically for the ilifestyle we have ( this doesn't bother me but it may be a factor for you).

Also, If you have a lot of friends in the city would you see them a lot less? Are you prepared that nights out will end early or involve staying in the city?

Despite the negatives it is worth it for me (I'm a bumpkin at heart!) but these are the issues living in the country and working in the city threw up for us.
HTH

Mazzawa

Hi everyone

Thanks again for all your replies!!! Although we still love the idea of living in the area we are looking at, I think your posts have really brought us back down to earth. The social side of city living doesn't bother us - we're pretty boring people anyways who rarely go out, mainly because our friends now live all over the country and the world (not flying to australia for a night out!). What is most important to us is our family life, being able to walk the dog (which we WILL get!) and a good education for any kids we do have.

Our next plan of action is looking for prime areas in the city we're in and working out the compromise areas (has almost everything we want apart from the countryside bit and lovely houses...boo!) that have the best primary schools in the catchment area. We'll also look at areas just outside the city (commuter hotspots) that we can get the bus or train into town from, work out what we can afford there and if the schools etc are what we want for the little 'uns when they hopefully appear! What your posts have done is plant the idea in our minds that perhaps we can have our country house in this area (just outside the city) as long as we're happy to drive to the nearest rail station - this would be a really good compromise on the area we hoped to move to, although the primary schools wont be as good as inner-city ones (going by the league tables) and the house not quite as big as the ones further away, its perhaps a good start with the view to move in 10 years or so to our dream house. This would cut our potential commute almost in half (say 10 min drive to station, 20 min train?) giving us the best of both worlds.

Now I'm just thinking out loud...maybe I should stop typing!!

Thanks for all your help, I'll no doubt be back at some point in the future looking for your wisdom again!

Mazz x

Yorkie1

That sounds like a plan, good luck in your search

chucknorris

I thought that I could never face commuting and continued working in the West end and living in Battersea until I really just got so !!!!ed off with London. I stayed there until I retired early at about 42 (but still running a couple of businesses) and moved to Dorking. But after I sold one of the businesses I realised I needed to do something else so I started lecturing at a London university (3 days a week) and I had to commute (but half the time I can avoid the rush hour).

Personally I do not think I could hack commuting full time in the rush hour, but my opinion is flavoured by the fact that I don't need to work. But moving to Dorking is one of the best decisions of my life, next to getting a dog (but don't tell the wife I said that).