How is life in the UK ?

[Luke_Uk_Baggy]

bloody hell JCB

but i bet you get paid enough to justify that kind of cost?

Off course he does. You can't work somewhere, that costs you more to get there and back than the wages it pays (Or leaves you not enough to pay the mortgage / bills!)

You would just get a job in a local shop, work full time, and make more, and travel less.

Outside of London, agreed, the money isnt there (On the whole). You need to be specialist / have experience and / or be quite high up in a well established company / business to make a lot of money.

Sure there are lots of places around, if you look, that can pay in / around the minimum wage, but outside of London, in the majority, theres no 'big' money.

However, the offset of this, is that everything is cheaper. Especially house prices. In and around my area, there's some really nice countryside / settings, as well as being only 10 mins away from all the local amenities. A Detached, 3 Bedroomed house, with offroad parking, a garden and a decent location, you could probably pick up for £600 per month.

My friend rents a property on their own, (shared with 4 other random people) thats 30 mins outside of london by train / car - so not even technically in London. 1 bedroom / kitchen bathroom and lounge, no garden. £700 per month, and still has to pay bills on top, as well as food, transport etc etc..

Thinking of starting my own business up, but theres so much risk to it.

 

[ssc456]

Hang on just a sec, With no disrespect and of course i wouldnt dream of calling you a liar but are you saying thats £300 a day to commute????? on a train???

That doesn't seem right to me>? presuming yuor average 5 day week your travel to work costs £1,500 a week?

My mrs used to commute from Milton Keynes to London and the monthly train ticket including certain zoneso n the underground was £450.

I think the UK is one of the more expensive places to live in general when compared with the rest of europe (as a generalisation) and the US.
but when you think about it we have things pretty good in the UK, NHS healthcare, though we complain about it enough trying going to a country where you have to pay your own medical expenses then we will see whos complaining. Then there are the things like quality of roads, again we complain enough but really it's not bad at all, a few pot holes here and there but Meh!! live with it lol

But im a UK lover, i love my country so will be (can never spell this lol) Bi-hirst? or Bi-ist??
You know what i'm trying to say lol, England is great, expensive yes but we have an amazing quality of life here and the jobs will usually cover your living expense.

Unless of course your trying to get on the housing market for the first time . . . . . don;t get me started here but NOT an easy thing to do unless you can easily save a minimum of £15,000 but realisticly more like £30,000

 

[Luke_Uk_Baggy]

Bi-hirst? or Bi-ist??

Bias

I didn't really read it as detailed as you, I see he said upto £400 per DAY. Im guessing he meant week / or probably month.

Yeah, saving is a real pain for a house, although it does benefit you in the long run, as you can knock a big chunk of ££ per month, or a good few years off your mortgage payments with a big deposit. But that sort of money is hard to come by for the average joe.

I should be doing it now, while my outgoings are relatively low. But again, my wage isnt that high, and I like to live too! It might be a case of sharing with my friend outside london though, splitting their outgoings with them, and for 2-3 years working London way. I could probably double my wage..

 

[root]

that's really my way of thinking, im not taking a £200/week job in London if it costs me £300 a week to get there. lol

Hang on just a sec, With no disrespect and of course i wouldnt dream of calling you a liar but are you saying thats £300 a day to commute????? on a train???

it's funny how one person read it as a day, one person read it as a week... and I read it as a month

but read again. £300 to get to work, the underground is £7 a day, and increases the travel cost to around £400...

£7 a day increasing the costs by around £100 kind of tells me that this is a monthly travel cost...



For my work, I only live ten or so miles down the road, so it costs me about £3 a day in petrol to get there and back. (£60 a month! ) but once you start to factor in road tax, MOT service costs, buying a car, insurance etc it starts to not look so rosy for just driving yourself places.

When I do have to commute into London I take a bus.

I live in Oxford where there is a service called the Oxford tube, it costs £16 return and runs 24 hours a day (with free wifi onboard). then I pay £8 for a day travel card for the underground... (£24 a day to commute into London and back)
compare that to the train where it's a £50 return ticket for peak travel and it's closer to £60 a day...

if I were to work in London every day of the month (~22 days in most months) that's
£528 to travel by bus, or £1320 to travel by train...

it's not such a bad thing though because I generally only go into the London office once a month, and I claim back my travel expenses anyway.

I get a day travel card rather than use an oyster card that would be cheaper because it's far easier to claim expenses for a single day ticket, and it also means that whilst I only go from Marble Arch (where the bus drops off) to Bank (where the Office is) I can also go out to Data centres (we've got one in the Docklands), or get to client sites that are pretty scattered all over London.

If I had to start working in London everyday, then it's be tough for a month, but I'd expect to either be able to claim travel expenses, or get a pay rise to cover increased travel costs... if they just closed the office that was close to my home then I'd probably start working from home a lot more!

 

[Luke_Uk_Baggy]

The buses do factor out well if you buy a pass.
At the moment I bus to work to save money. It costs me £55 a month for a bus pass to use on any bus (well the main company around here does about 95% of the buses) at any time. It is a little bit of a pain, but with my work I can come and go when I want within a set time, so can plan myself around the buses. Factoring in holidays and what not, I would probably get 10 a year.

If i did this all year, probly £600 max. This about the amount I pay for my insurance on my car, not including Tax, Upkeep, nor FUEL!

By the way root, was in oxford last year. Really like it round there, the scenery / architecture is gorgeous. Could see myself working around there. I did pay about £5 ish though for a pint of Peroni in one of the bars/restaurant things off one of the highstreets! Normally £3-£3.50 here max!

Train commuting is only feasible for me when I do go to London way, is to book a good week (or longer is better!) in advance, and use reputable online companies. Can usually save about 50%.

In reply to the OP

Rent: Not too bad to be honest, unless you are close to city centres. If you dont mind commuting you can save.
Tax-Rate: Fairly High Tax rate, in comparison with most places although as mentioned you actually do see benefits for it, However, not many (in my opinion).
Expensive: See rent^^

 

[sniperviper21]

i can see me driving an F150 to work daily is cheaper then riding this insane expensive transportation in the UK oO

 

[root]

that's the crazy thing...

they worked out on some show, (I think it was top gear) that it was cheaper to buy a (crap older) car, insure it and fuel it and drive to Edinburgh from London than it was to take the train!

We have people telling us that we should be using public transport to save the environment, whilst on the other hand the economy is so utterly crap that most can't really afford to use the horribly overpriced public transport system.

of course, it's cheaper for you to drive your truck because petrol is about half the price per gallon than it is over here. (even taking into account the fact that the us Gallon is smaller than the UK one!).

 

[Raffaz]

This is why i cycle to work every day and have done for over 2 years, ive clocked over 1300 miles this year alone, so its saving me a fortune and its bloody good for my health (im getting on ya know) Im in the North East of the UK so dont know what its like in London but transport to work used to cost nearly £100 a month a few years ago for7 miles, id rather spend that on other things.

 

[strollin]

I know gas (petrol) is expensive in the UK (it's $4+ a gallon in the US currently). That's why I'm happy that I work from home. My commute is less than a minute and I don't even need to get dressed if I don't want to!