Can DD work in central London and live on this salary?

[Memorybear]

DD, 21 has been offered a contract in London, very near to Oxford Circus.

Salary is 29k pa, take home pay around 2k a month. She would need to house share (hopefully within a 30 minute tube commute).

Looking on spareroom it appears that a double room share is £800-£1000 pm all bills included. she’d need a zone 1-3 tube card at just under £200 a month.

Other Outgoings would be mobile phone, food, clothes, socialising, I guess she’d need contents insurance?

She thinks it’s just about doable as long as she was careful and was frugal around food (take own lunch etc) but I’m not so sure, it’s easy for money to run away with you.

We can help her out a bit - rather than her turn the opportunity down as she’d love it. We’d be about 3 hours away by car to visit as much as we could. Does anyone else manage on this kind of salary?

I worry she’ll have a bit of a miserable existence in a shared house if she doesn’t quickly make friends although I guess it’s not a lot of difference in going off to uni.

Any tips please? This is all very new to us and she’s dithering a bit over what to do.

Similarly was on £17k in 2005/6.

It was totally fine, I lived in zone 6. Spent money on going out, don’t remember eating much as I was too busy working or partying. Didn’t buy much but don’t ever remember going without. It was a fun and happy time in my life.

I would definitely recommend considering the area she lives in carefully. Also the rental market is absolutely brutal, even house shares. It took dd ages to find somewhere suitable.

Yes, DS did that on £24k, he works in SoHo. He bikes in though, cutting out the £200 a month.

Ds started on similar and managed, but is fairly frugal!

Bond St also has Jubilee line. OP I'd suggest she prioritise the walking time/distance from Tube station to flat over the time of any tube journey. Coming home late or in the pouring rain, 15 minutes extra on the tube is nothing compared to a longer walk to the flat.

If she looks a bit further out prices do come down. A decent local bus route helps for when tubes go down.

I have a friends similar aged DC staying with me now whilst looking for a flat and they are finding decent rooms in Zones 2 & 3 for up to £750 including bills.

That salary is entirely doable if she takes lunches most days and is sensible on food shopping & cooking.

suggest she hires a cheap 2nd hand bike, mount a phone holder on it and then and cycles as her default. Using city mapper app you can see all the quiet routes that don’t have many cars at all and/or all cycle routes
practice the routes on Sunday to build confidence.
wear high vis, helmet, lights
not scary.
by far the fastest and most economic way around London and you don’t need to pay gym fees if you’re cycling everywhere.

I did exactly the same when I was young!

Sometimes you'd get tips too. The place I worked for did event catering - hospitality at F1, football, horse racing etc

Long days as you didn't get paid for travel but the leftover food made up for it

Can you afford the travel card each month for her? That’ll save her a lot and give her some ‘fun’ money.

Yes, we can afford £200 a month to help her out. There’s a flat share in Bloomsbury at £750 a month which she can walk to work from.
almost seems too good to be true. I guess SpareRoom is also open to scammers so she’ll need to tread carefully.

I worked in London on 21k in 2016 and managed to save monthly. It sounds very doable to me.

I'd find a house share a bit further from central London which might bring the rent down a bit. I never bothered with insurance when renting and had a cheap phone contract. Good luck to her!

Be aware that people will offer more than asking in order to secure a decent place. Dd ended up paying £100 a month more than the advertised rent in order to secure the house she's in now. (Hasn't had any rent increases for three years though so worked out well!)

:30m commute is a luxury in London, double the duration and that salary should work.

It's £200/week gor food, clothes & phone which is doable

I don't think you should help her out financially on a regular basis - its an important life skill to live on what you earn. The occasional £50 will then be much appreciated

Its just about doable but will be very tight

It's totally doable. Bus rather than tube, take lunch to work rather than buying it. Little things like that. Also, depending on where she ends up living, a travel card might not even be needed, more so if she's not based in the office every day.

She'll be fine on £29k.

I don't think so. I struggle on that and I'm not in London and my rent is less.

My DS is on a similar salary in London & his rent is nearly £1k per month in a shared flat ... it's tough but he's coping .. does a (very) part time job as well which brings him a little extra. He's an expert on charity shops, some app where he managed to get some small bits and pieces free for his flat, To Good To Go & yellow sticker bargains.

I can't imagine you could have any sort of quality of life in this situation, no. Hopefully she finds a job with a more reasonable salary

I agree with the majority - perfectly doable and normal. Yes, a tight budget but that is part of the experience and she will make plenty of friends doing the same thing. Please don't undermine her growth by subsidising her

Of course there is. You just learn to find the bargains. The pubs and bars that have the deals on, tastecard for dinners out. Bus over tube. Charity shops over high street.

Please don't undermine her growth by subsidising her

Plenty of young people are subsidised by their parents when starting off.

Monday and Friday night shift in local pub should provide a social life and some extra money, walking to work and taking sandwiches. Don’t subsidise, this is where she learns to do it on her own. Maybe send food parcels if needed. Very exciting times ahead for your DD!

Poor young folk nowadays :( I had few relevant qualifications and earned 24k back in 2002. Rent for my own place (studio) was £650 inc all bills and a zone 1-6 travel card came with my job …

Having said that … there are probably some newer ways to economise now:

1. no new clothes, get everything off vinted
2. food from eg Olio or too good to go
3. get a monthly pass for one of the e bike schemes, probably about a quarter of a travel card cost and very convenient as long as you are road aware and not miles out. Or buses only as someone mentioned.

it is doable but it isn’t going to be loads of fun and luxury.

It's doable at that age, although 30 min commute is pushing it. Most people at my work live further out whether on a high or low salary. Her friends are unlikely to all be earning loads more at 21. She should look for a job at a higher salary or push for a rise after a year or so though.

It is well above the London living wage, assuming a 37.5 hour week. Even at a 40 hour week it's still above that.

Frenchie - totally agree that you can have a nice standard of life ... my DS loves sport, he's got subsided gym membership through work so can do that most evenings, he watches 'local' games and gets involved in club level sport ... makes lots of friends that way and usually a cheaper bar, he loves walking round looking at the sights, parks etc.

No, he's obviously not going to the West End shows or fancy restaurants but there's plenty to do which doesn't cost a fortune.