Moving to zone 1 in London, is this enough money?

CavendishWobble

McCloud1 - i think youve had some good advice on this but my view as a 28 year old living in zone 1 on a similar salary to you ....

Housing: Having a 1 bedroom place is always very expensive, even in the east end. If it was me i would look for a 2/3 bedroom house share with people of similar age if it came up. Iv had 3 houseshares in london and i never felt like i couldnt study or focus if i needed to.

Food: I see how you spend so much when you break it down and i did the same. However i made 6/7 meals i can make cheaply and put left overs in a container to each the next day (i.e. stir fry, beef and veg, sausage and mash etc). I also cut out take aways and eating out so much and saved like £300 extra.

Travel: You seem to have this sorted if you live where you do, if not then cycling could be an option or the bus is cheaper.

Other: Monitor what you spend your money on and look to see where you can reduce it (seems like food is the big one so focus on that, even in london i can live off £5 a day if i work from home)

Loanranger

Have you factored in the course fees to Birkbeck and textbooks?

Red-Squirrel_2

McCloud1 wrote: »

Well you live and learn...I shall bear that in mind, thank you.

Here you go to get you started! Your meals should be mostly plant based ideally, the good things is that's much cheaper than eating a lot of meat and fish!

https://www.bda.uk.com/foodfacts/HealthyEating.pdf

Candyapple

Thanks for filling out the SOA, however it would need to be done based on what you think your London rent would be - even if the rent/bills section is just a guesstimate for now.

You said that once your train ticket runs out that you will have to pay for it. Does this mean your work is rescinding the free travel? What about your mobile, will the same apply?

You also really should be putting a figure into the emergency fund column.

The £9k debt - is it all on 0% deals? When do they run out?

Given your salary and £1.8k 'spare' money each month, how did you manage to rack up £9k debt?

I think it's great you are giving this some serious thought and are open to suggestions. Definitely think you should start meal planning, downshifting brands and changing your supermarket to make the most of your first month of change and see how you fare.

steampowered

If you are horrific with money, you need to put in place a disciplined system which deals with that.

For example, set up a new current account. Set up a standing order to move your weekly budget from your main account into the current account.

The new account is the only account you are allowed to use for day to day spending with a debit card. No credit card. So you can't overspend even if you wanted to.

kinger101

If you work from home for three days a week, and only need to attend Birkbeck three evenings a week, you don't need to live in Zone 1.

Ebbsfleet is 20 mins from St. Pancras on HS1. And you have plenty of Zone 2/3 options.

For someone with take home pay of £3,050 and a rent of £575 to have no assets is bonkers. You need to take control of your spending.

Plus

A single colleague of mine purposely rented near Aldi, because he reckoned the saving over Sainsbury's was equivalent to about a £50pm rent cut.

It seems that there aren't many Aldi in London but there are quite a few Lidl. If you're living somewhere handy for one, you could find it reduces your food bills dramatically.

McCloud1

Candyapple wrote: »

Thanks for filling out the SOA, however it would need to be done based on what you think your London rent would be - even if the rent/bills section is just a guesstimate for now.

You said that once your train ticket runs out that you will have to pay for it. Does this mean your work is rescinding the free travel? What about your mobile, will the same apply?

You also really should be putting a figure into the emergency fund column.

The £9k debt - is it all on 0% deals? When do they run out?

Given your salary and £1.8k 'spare' money each month, how did you manage to rack up £9k debt?

I think it's great you are giving this some serious thought and are open to suggestions. Definitely think you should start meal planning, downshifting brands and changing your supermarket to make the most of your first month of change and see how you fare.

I will have a think and re-post.

Mobile will continue to be covered, but travel is no longer being paid as it was only part of the deal when I was in the office 5 days per week.

1 is a 0% balance transfer deal (the £3,000), the other 2 aren't, I just don't have the paperwork to hand.

My position hasn't always been great, I got out of 5 years of debt debt at around 23/24 but then quickly spiraled out of control again due to trying to keep up with wealthy friends, and by 25/26 I was heavily in debt again. Around that time my salary went up a fair bit and I got a decent bonus, I paid off the worst debts and brought the situation under control, but as you can see I've never really saved. I only have £4,000 in cash because I got my annual bonus last month.

You're right, if I don't make some serious adjustments then I will not make it a year in London, let alone 4 years.

m277

Can you work from your office location on the days you need to go to uni? Seems illogical to rent a zone 1 flat just so you can work from home and go to uni on the same day.

If you have to work from home then a possible alternative is to go to a co-working spaces in central London which would be cheaper than renting a flat.

zagubov

bouicca21 wrote: »

A colleague did a Birkbeck degree, whilst working in west London suburbia and living out in Essex. Another did it whilst working in central London and living in suburbia. Never occurred to either of them to move to central London. Birkbeck is dead easy to get to from almost any part of London or commuter route.

I did similar, living in suburbia, working full-time in Surrey and studying three days a week in zone 1 for two years.

Had to be a bit organised, but accommodation and shopping's cheaper out in the burbs.