Cost of Living in the UK

[NikLeica]

Hi there,

Would like to ask those of you who have been working in the UK, London
for a while what you think is a reasonable per diem in GBP per day for a short period of time (3 months)?

Thanks!

 

[justarius]

You've got an internship here? Or short working stint?

Do you already have accomodation sourced out? It's best to rent a room or a studio apartment somewhere rather than stay in hotels. Depending on the location, a room in Central London goes from around 100pds~200/300pds per week, and this is not inclusive of bills (gas, electricity, phone line). If you do your own cooking, groceries can be about 30pds-40pds a week, but if you eat out everyday, plan on spending 3pds and above per meal depending on whether you are grabbing a sandwich (ard 2pds), or grabbing a meal at the pub (5-10pds) or a fancy restaurant (10pds and up. Transport costs around 25-30pds for a monthly bus pass or ard 30-40pds fo a monthly tube pass depending on the zones covered.

At the bare minimum, you are looking at 30-50pds a day.

 

[NikLeica]

Will be there for a 3 month work stint and an single room apartment
made available there, hopefully with broadband and was told that it would be a service apartment around St. Paul's cathedral. It is within walking distance to work place......

Think only worry is weekend when I have to cover myself for all expenses, including transportation, food and laundry.....

BTW, any cheap and good laundrette for dry cleaning clothes there?

50 quid is a good start but dont think that is likely....

Guess will have to ask if they can include a laundry allowance in haha!

BTW, are you a Singaporean working there? would love to meet up
for some photo shoot sessions..

 

[Jed]

If your accommodation is already paid for (?) then I think you won't need £30-50 a day by any stretch of the imagination. I hardly earn that much forget needing it to live. As a very general guide, I think the cost of living works out same as SG if you calculate £1 = S$2. That is, it's not quite £1 = S$1, but it's definitely more expensive than £1 = S$3.0x.

Transportation... if you need it, it's expensive. Look at possibly getting a cheap old car (avoid if you're within the congestion charging area), if you intend to travel much. Otherwise walk to and from work. The underground costs from about £2 onwards even on short journeys. Alternatives are the monthly passes. Taxis are about £1 = S$1, ie very steep and you end up going longer distances than you would in SG too.

Cannot help with the laundry as I've always had access to a washing machine. They exist obviously but I cannot help price wise. Food wise work on £4-5 for a takeaway which will probably be your staple eat out option, unless you're going out with a group of friends in which case look at the prices Justarius has already listed.

In terms of eating in, it all depends on what kind of food and how cheaply you want it. If you are happy to prepare, then you can sort out very decent fresh food for about say £1.50 a pop, easily. Heck if you're happy eating chicken wings and thighs (ie not breast meat) then you can probably drop that value down some more. If you are lazy and want prepared stuff to pop in the oven/microwave the price goes up, but you can get a pub style meal from the oven for about £1 a meal (chunk of meat of your choice, veg, potato based dish).

 

[justarius]

Will be there for a 3 month work stint and an single room apartment
made available there, hopefully with broadband and was told that it would be a service apartment around St. Paul's cathedral. It is within walking distance to work place......

Think only worry is weekend when I have to cover myself for all expenses, including transportation, food and laundry.....

BTW, any cheap and good laundrette for dry cleaning clothes there?

50 quid is a good start but dont think that is likely....

Guess will have to ask if they can include a laundry allowance in haha!

BTW, are you a Singaporean working there? would love to meet up
for some photo shoot sessions..

I was being a bit generous in my 30-50pds estimate, but its better to over estimate rather than underestimate, yah?

If your accomodation is covered, you will need much less as Jed has already mentioned. And since you can walk to work, you wouldn't really need a bus/tube pass for daily commuting but it would be a good idea to have some Carnets (single trip tube tickets sold in packs of ten; its cheaper than buying one single ticket), or bus Savers (single trip bus ticket sold in packs of 6; likewise its cheaper) around.

Laundry is about 1-2pds (bring your own powder), and another 1-2pds for using the dryer. I can't remeber if there's any laundromat in the St paul area though. Dry cleaning is alot more expensive, think I saw some advertising 5 shirts clean and pressed for 5pds, and there are quite a few dry cleaners around your area.

And no, I'm not working here, but studying I'll be finishing up my masters this june (hopefully), and will be returning to singapore.

 

[NikLeica]

Thanks Jed n Justarius.....

Appreciate your advice.....been there in Feb for 3 weeks and it was
really expensive...could not bring myself to spend there

A pint of Guiness is over 2 pounds fifty and guess I would never become
an alcoholic in London at those prices...

In any case, it would be nice to meet up with either of you if you guys are
free and available during that period.

Cheers,

 

[leadwe]

A pint of Guiness is over 2 pounds fifty and guess I would never become
an alcoholic in London at those prices...

It's only S$7.50 for half a litre of Guiness and it definitely taste a whole world better than the Guiness here in Singapore....you can't get it any cheaper... (except perheps Ireland).

 

[NikLeica]

You are right.....Guiness will never be the same again anywhere once
you have tasted it in the UK.....

However, they have a habit of drinking it a little too warm for my taste... ;p

 

[Jed]

Keep in touch.

As for not becoming an alcoholic. Well the cheapest way of getting drunk is probably cheap wine. And you will become one because although a pint of Guiness costs £2.50 (erm, really? In London?), your soft drink will cost you the same...

 

[justarius]

hehe, student bars are the way to go! 50p shots and 1pd beer anyone? And yes wine is spectacularly cheap here.

 

[NikLeica]

sounds like I know whom to meet up with to get 50p a shot / 1 pd beers.....
hopefully I don't have to crawl too far to get back...

u guys have been a great help!

btw, would you think it is a good idea for me to bring some photographic
equipment to the UK to sell em off? Been thinking of doing that as I think the prices I can fetch are a lot better than in Singapore....any comments on this?

some recommendations on who to see in London would help as well...prefer to chat first and then confirm if they are worthwhile to bring across.

 

[justarius]

If you don't mind ebay, you can try that. It's true you can get better prices but it also depends on what you are selling. Jessops is a major camera chain here and they do buy and sell secondhand stuff but I don't think you can get a good price for it. Jacobs is another store you can try but again you wouldn't get good prices from them as compared to selling it yourself on ebay.

 

[NikLeica]

any chance of making a quick buck by bringing in new camera stuff to sell?

btw, was looking at clearing some underutilised stuff like my MF rangefinder, some lenses like (Nikon AIS 300mm f/2.8) etc

think got chance to get a good market there for things like that ?

 

[justarius]

I still feel ebay is your best bet. Check out ebay.co.uk for items you want to sell to see how much they are going for.

 

[Jed]

You're better off selling the AIS in SG. As to selling stuff here, generally, you'll get better 2nd hand prices here than SG (long lenses being the exception), but you will NOT get a profit selling new stuff from SG in the UK (because it will be used). OTOH there *is* some profit to be made from buying certain 2nd hand lenses in SG and bringing them over to flog here.

 

[NikLeica]

Ok thanks Jed n Justarius...

Could you help me with one thing? I understand that there is a serviced apartment in Kensington area called Frasier Suites or something like that....
I have searched the internet for that but to no avail....

Was trying to see if I can get something decent over there for about 2 - 2.2k
pds per month....a one bedroom apartment in that part of town would be good.....

Cheers

 

[justarius]

Ok thanks Jed n Justarius...

Could you help me with one thing? I understand that there is a serviced apartment in Kensington area called Frasier Suites or something like that....
I have searched the internet for that but to no avail....

Was trying to see if I can get something decent over there for about 2 - 2.2k
pds per month....a one bedroom apartment in that part of town would be good.....

Cheers

your budget for accommodation is 2-2.2k pds per month? I don't think you'll have any problems finding a house with that kind of money, much less a one bedroom apartment.

but I thought your firm is providing the apartment?

 

[NikLeica]

Yup they are and I am trying to see if I can save some money for them
by sourcing for a service apt in Kensington for that price instead.

Want some maid cleaning service, decent environment, good place with
broadband services etc....gas and electricity paid for of course...

Thats why the budget.

Cheers

 

[SzennyBoy]

Yup they are and I am trying to see if I can save some money for them
by sourcing for a service apt in Kensington for that price instead.

Want some maid cleaning service, decent environment, good place with
broadband services etc....gas and electricity paid for of course...

Thats why the budget.

Cheers

Do a simple google search for "property rental london" on www.google.co.uk and that will bring out a whole list of letting agents for you to choose from. What you are after are short-term lease one bedroom flats and service apartments.

As for broadband services, that will depend on the landlords and building management. Broadband services requires minimum 12-month contracts so unless the property owner already subscribed to it as part of the amenities for the apartment, its very unlikely that you will get it.

On selling secondhand stuff, you can try Aperture Photographic on Museum Street (opposite the British Museum). justarius and I have meet there a few times already and Patrick (the owner from Hong Kong) is a fair guy. He deals mainly in Nikon and Leica equipment.

 

[justarius]

yup, Aperture Photographic is good... where else can you oogle at camera equipment while slurping a bowl of ramen? Thanks to szennyboy for introducing the place to me!

ps we should meet up again sometime after my exam and before I go back to singapore, so that I can thank you properly. I've just got back a bunch of slides I used to test the 180mm and the pictures looks great! Guess the dust didn't affect the picture quality... :bsmilie: