living costs

Hammyman

lkmc01 wrote: »

so where is that is as local as possible

Depends on your definition of decent. Some areas of Basildon, Canvey Island, Southend on Sea.

Tilbury is a typical run down dock town.

lkmc01

my idea of decent is where you feel safe walking down the street my yourself in the dark, where you feel safe in your own house by yourself. A local park with little or no graffiti and no evidence of drug use. A local shop and a few takeaways. A school with above average ratings and a supermarket less than half an hour away. At the moment it would be too much to ask for for all the local shops to be occupied, but say less than 15% boadered up.

Obviously no open drug users, major litter problems. Ideally a good leisure center less than 20 mins drive away.

Don't think thats too much to ask for.

lkmc01

so should I be looking at properties like

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-31280084.html

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-29119879.html

Charis

You also need to factor in who will look after your child when he or she is ill, if you are miles from family and both of you are working full time.

lkmc01

Well if my son is ill I'd be looking after him. My partner works shifts like 4am - 2pm or 4pm til midnight with 2 days off on any day of the week so childcare would actually be different costs each week. the type of job would mean similiar hours where ever we were.

corbyboy

lkmc01 wrote: »

Well if my son is ill I'd be looking after him. My partner works shifts like 4am - 2pm or 4pm til midnight with 2 days off on any day of the week so childcare would actually be different costs each week. the type of job would mean similiar hours where ever we were.

Just another thing to consider is if you can get childcare that is as flexible as you need it.

You have a five year old so I presume child care would involve a childminder picking him up from school and watching him until you finished work? I think you need to be quite consistent with the hours you book.
For example if you usually book 3 evenings a week you probably wouldn't be able to have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday one week and then Tuesday, Thursday and Friday the next.

Just something else to think about.

lkmc01

well the childcare estimate of £7000 would be 7-9 and 3-5 during term time and 7am-5pm during the holidays at £5 an hour

steve1980

lkmc01 wrote: »

my idea of decent is where you feel safe walking down the street my yourself in the dark, where you feel safe in your own house by yourself. A local park with little or no graffiti and no evidence of drug use. A local shop and a few takeaways. A school with above average ratings and a supermarket less than half an hour away. At the moment it would be too much to ask for for all the local shops to be occupied, but say less than 15% boadered up.

Obviously no open drug users, major litter problems. Ideally a good leisure center less than 20 mins drive away.

Don't think thats too much to ask for.

lkmc01 wrote: »

so should I be looking at properties like

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-31280084.html

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-29119879.html

Errr, no! You really need to come down to the area over a weekend and spend time looking around the areas you *think* will be best.

lkmc01

so are you say that this house http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-29119879.html is in a unsuitable area? It looks ok to me. We would be coming down to look around for a few days, but will have to find the money for travel and accommodation first

Sambucus_Nigra

Have you ever been to Essex?