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?

Hospital parking is free for everyone here! (Scotland).

I can get into central London in less than an hour, but it costs me almost £2,500 a year for a travelcard for the privilege.

CM is £6 per hour, some are up to £8

5 years ago daycare nursery was £60 a day, think it's even more now.

Our small 3 bed house cost £450,00 to buy, and we have spent another £100,000 fixing it up.

Not many markets for fresh food, they all tend to be farmers markets so expensive. When we lived in SE London we had loads of cheap markets to buy food from. Food costs in Surrey are much higher.

Plenty of people commute from Leeds to London (season ticket 13k pa ).

Season tickets for cities in the north that are about an hour apart on the train are still 2-3k pa (eg Leeds/Manchester/Sheffield) and there are lots of people that commute on those journies.

It's a vicious circle, because people travel to London for the higher salaries, and then you have to pay people more to attract them to pay the higher cost of living.

The SE is a very wide area. And, contrary to what some people here seem to think, there are cheaper areas within it.

We live in the SE and know several people who've got jobs 'oop north', and assume that they'll be able to live mortgage free, etc, etc, only to find out that, actually to live in a nice area they'll actually have to pay out more.

Alderley Edge in Cheshire, for example, will be rather more expensive to live in than Chatham in Kent.

The 'golden triangle' of north Leeds/York/Harrogate certainly dispels the myth that all northern property is cheap too.

Boots meal deal?? Really? Aren't the big chains the same everwhere?

Paying for services such as house cleaning, gardening etc is i think more expensive too. But even within london there is difference. I am in zone 5 and when i told my friend the window cleaning price she nearly fainted. She pays a lot more in a posh zone 3.

I dont know about food. Supermarkets should be the same, markets i dont know, delis should be more expensive here. We have one nearby that gives me heart attacks.

Eating out might be not different? Lots of competition here.

Most of the big chains that have flexibility in pricing adjust for London costs - when I worked at Boots many years ago I think all London prices were about 15% - the system was automated for the shelf strips and till prices to be higher in certain stores.

It's not just Boots that do this though.

I think you OP is right, but services, cleaner, gardener, trades, activities cost more, probably half as much again.

But these are things you can mostly do yourself or find alternatives for.

I'd like to know how much lower wages are in the North.

EVERYTHING is cheaper up here, apart from second hand cars. Big cities up north are more expensive compared to where I live too but I still don't think its as bad as when we visit DH's grandparents.

Almost everything is more expensive down south.

OTOH lots of free museums and talks, school children in London travel free on the bus, most places in London are walkable and you don't need to own a car.

It's really interesting...

I love in very inner london, and I've noticed somethings are quite cheap. Perhaps subsidised? But my dds gymnastics classes are very cheap in comparison to a friend in the Home Counties. Ditto the weekly price of intensive gymnastics classes.

I also find the price of food generally so cheap compared with my home country (Australia) and the general cost of living: kids clothes, toys etc.

I'm not at all doubting that eating out, childcare and alike are much more expensive, but I'm surprised that I can find pockets of 'value' in london (eg, free museums and things like childrens art classes during holidays, but if I went to a smaller museum outside of london, I might have to pay and their art/activity classes would also attract a separate payment).

In the Outer Hebrides where I used to live petrol this week was up to 142.9p/litre for unleaded.

Property isn't as cheap as it used to be either!

I'm in the south east:
Rent can be as low as £550 for a 2 bed flat
Petrol at the local supermarket is 127p
Childcare is an extortionate £6 an hour for a childminder and as much as £60 a day for nursery
Food prices are standard supermarket prices

Depends where you live really

Car Insurance
Contents Insurance
Both hugely more expensive than where other family members live.

Calling a plumber, getting a decorator, getting yur car serviced - all much more in London.

Tickets at central cinemas - extortionate.

My Mum lives in a rural / coastal place, and food in small supermarkets (Budgens / Spar etc) is incredibly expensive compared to the big Sainsbury's and Tescos in London.

And there is always something new, free and exctiing happening in Londn, you can entertain the kids very cheaply if you plan and take your food with you, use an Oyster card and take advantage of free travel for children.

Its more expensive down south but the wages are also higher.

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.

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.

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.

Not everything.

Its colder up north and heating is expensive.

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

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.