To think the cost of living in the SE/ London

[Elfina]

Is just mortgage/rent and childcare? Or are other things up north cheaper than I realise?

[manicinsomniac]

School fees are more expensive in London

I disagree with that. You can get a really good/famous/prestigious all through to 18 day school for £12000 a year in London.

The Prep I teach at in the home counties is £15000 a year and we only go up to age 13!

[ThinkAboutItTomorrow]

unrealhousewife Most stores where the pricing is set electronically so that they just print shelf strips to price it set them higher in London.

I know this from when I worked at boots - London was about 15% higher than everywhere else.

I don't think clothes stores do this so much but the supermarkets certainly do.

[dreamingofsun]

my husband found eating out and beer was often cheaper in pubs in and around london than in the south west where we live. i think as someone mentioned that was due to more choice in london. in wales both are much cheaper though

[unrealhousewife]

Eurotrash consumer goods from chain firms are not set at different rates in different parts of the country. The rich just buy pricier goods but goods are the same price from one store to the next, surely?

And there are really cheap markets in London, and Lidls everywhere.

If you don't need childcare, have decent housing and do your own cleaning, gardening and DIY London is as cheap as anywhere else.

[WireCat]

It is very expensive.
On paper we should have lots of money.
In reality, we don't. And neither of us are big spenders.
To be fair, my husband is supporting 5 of us on 1 wage.
When we get visitors, they notice price differences between where they're from & where we are. So it's true that supermarkets price according to area.

[catherinemm]

I can only really compare london to the West Midlands (but rural bit) as was comparing for moving purposes recently. We decided to stay in london incidentally as the higher wages mean we are just about better off so we're going to stick for a bit. I found:
Housing and childcare - obv way more in london
Most food the same (supermarkets) but some produce cheaper in the midlands as I would buy at farm gates and cheaper farmers markets (meat, eggs, veg)
Council tax quite a bit higher in the rural midlands ( and services worse!)
Fuel and water bills about the same
Travel more in the midland because we don't own a car in London and would need to there plus public transport more
Nights out cheaper in the midlands cos of ridic cost of a pint in london BUT eating out strangely more due to the wide range of excellent cheap eats in london

[EurotrashGirl]

unreal consumer goods are food, clothing, books etc. Basically anything that you buy in a store.
Retail rents are generally lower outside of London and the SE. Also, wages are lower. This allows stores, even chain stores, to charge less for their products in these areas.

[unrealhousewife]

Hairdressers, cleaners, gardeners, trades all charge more in London, they have to.

[imip]

goodwood you're right! I now recall quite a few people mention over the years that they get their hair cut outside of london, e.g., the town their parents live in. Because it was the price of getting there and seeing parents and the cost of the cut was the same as a London cut.

[HayDayQueen]

Of course supermarket goods are different! Not all, obviously, but enough, because they price match their local competitors.

[EddieStobbart]

I paid £11 in council tax when I lived in Battersea. £11! £33 between the three of us.

The free museums and galleries in London are amazing and there are places where things are cheap (Chandos pub near Trafalgar Squ used to be a bargain, great Japanese place round the back of Sth Ken station and my local greasy spoon in Surrey Quays was cheap as). Overall though there is mark up on most things, as earlier posters have said, higher rents must push up the baseline for most businesses.

[CharmQuark]

There isn't any London postcode above D in that Car Insurance scale and most are E-F. I live in a 'refer' area - even though I am in a civilised residential area. ('refer' I presume to mean 'off the scale')

The cost of housing though is so extreme, it must be an over-riding factor. I think the 'higher wages' is a very selective benefit and lots of people do not feel that effect. No London Weighting in my sector, for example.

[unrealhousewife]

I don't understand how the price of a tshirt in Norwich Primark can be different to the price of a tshirt in London Primark, ditto Tesco groceries, anything else that you buy in a chain. Any time I've been to Norfolk I'm shocked at the supermarket prices, far higher than London.

What do you mean by 'consumer goods'?

[Goodwordguide]

Transport definitely cheaper in London, especially if you have children - a family ticket day return from our village to local town in Suffolk (about 6 miles) is £15!!! And at my mum's place in Newcastle, it costs over £10 to take the children I to the centre and back, a distance of about 2 miles.

Otherwise many things are cheaper outside the SE - not haircuts and coffees but also building work, call out charges, even stuff like vets etc. I think people are more skint outside London so aren't prepared to pay as much and local businesses have lower overheads so can charge less.

[unrealhousewife]

Chunderella what do they include as measures of cost of living for expatistan? It looks a bit OTT to me.

[EurotrashGirl]

I moved from outer London to Norfolk last year and the prices of consumer goods are much lower here. The only thing that costs more than London are single ticket bus journeys. However, the price of an annual bus pass is a fraction of what it would be in London.

[whatsthatcomingoverthehill]

I think for some things the gap has come down, e.g. eating out in London doesn't seem that much more expensive than Leeds these days. Drinks don't seem that different either. Housing is the biggest thing though, and that gap is widening.

[wannabeveggie]

Can I just point out that the SE does not consist of London alone< hoiks bosom>

[wannabeveggie]

Not everything.

Its colder up north and heating is expensive.

[fedupbutfine]

fuel is definitely cheaper - I moved back north after 20 years down south about 5 years ago now. Eating out is cheaper. Drinking is cheaper. It is far friendlier. More people smoke here (that is something I still haven't got over!), more of us are overweight (or so it seems), we earn less and we have less staff turnover which means less opportunity for promotion.

[JassyRadlett]

I travelled up to a city in Yorkshire to buy my car from a brand dealer. Even with the train fares and night in a hotel I was quids in, about a grand difference for the same 4 year old car, slightly lower mileage.

[Morethanalittlebitconfused]

I honestly found it more expensive living in the midlands than I do here in the south. Possibly because the cost of living was the same but wages were lower.

I think I kept my salary and moved like for like up north I'd be quids in but If I did the equivalent job up north I'd be on a much lower salary but the same expenditure.