Hoorah! I've been offered a job, I start in London on Monday! Help.

[Raven11]

Tonight I've been offered a grad job in Canary Wharf starting Monday. Right now I'm living in the Midlands, have about £600 savings and I'll be earning 18k a year. I do have a fair amount of friends in London and they're in a similar position to myself. They've offered to put me up for a couple of days but they're obviously really tight for space/none of them own a sofa!

I don't really know London that well except for the touristy bits.

So a little about me, I love 'going out', not a fan of commercial, I do dress up but I never wear heels etc. I do love the hustle of cities and people usually think where I live is dodgy so I'm sure I'll get on anywhere. I have a basic idea of the cost of London and I know I'm going to be skint.

What areas should I be looking at? What should I know? Any tips? Ahh.

Id look around the Isle of Dogs/ Mudchute that way ... you'll still need someone to help you with your deposit etc. but spare room rentals are much much much cheaper in that part of town, and its handy for your office.

The shopping centre at Canary Wharf is good, and the cinema, but I'll be honest - it's a bit of a cultural wasteland.

The DLR is handy - get out to Greenwich as much as you can...

And when you're earning pots of money in a couple of years, fuck off out of Mudchute to (expensive, fun, young) East London and bloody enjoy yourself.

Is my advice take it from one what's been there (over a decade before *sob)

Spareroom is a good place to look but you need to be able to move FAST as the reasonable places go like hot cakes. This place would work at £600pcm and walking distance to work so no travel costs:

www.spareroom.co.uk/flatshare/flatshare_detail.pl?flatshare_id=4591275&search_id=580129870&city_id=&flatshare_type=offered&search_results=%2Fflatshare%2F%3Fsearch_id%3D580129870%26&

no way on gods green earth will you get a habitable houseshare in east London for 600 quid. I struggled to find something at that price before the olympics. Lots of my friends are still round there, still in house shares, and you're looking 750+ pcm, plus your commute costs.

honestly, look at the places on the arse end of the DLR. It's better for your office and your bank balance - its just not as cool.

www.spareroom.co.uk/flatshare/flatshare_detail.pl?flatshare_id=9191530&search_id=580130932&city_id=&flatshare_type=offered&search_results=%2Fflatshare%2F%3Fsearch_id%3D580130932%26&

Canning Town isn't great but close to Docklands (DLR and Jubilee line)

Congratulations!

I started on £18k a year on a grad scheme in London too, only that was 20 years ago Back then it was plenty to live in a house share in a decent area in Zone 3, but nowadays you will struggle unless you are genuinely happy living in a shoe box in a shared house.

You might want to look on Gumtree for flat shares, but be careful and try to take someone with you when you go to look around potential accomodation. As pp say, the deposit is going to be the problem, along with looking for somewhere to live whilst also starting a new job in a new place. Be prepared to look at some absolute dumps (which won't necessarily be the cheapest digs either) before you find somewhere reasonable - it can be a very depressing process

Hmm I'm not sure why I wrote £600 instead of writing no bank of mum and dad. I still have my overdraft of £1000 which I don't mind/won't have a choice but to tap into. There's some really good suggestions, I did look at Greenwich uni at 16th form and I did fall in love with the area so maybe I'll have a look there.

I'm going to have a look at all these places in the morning and make a day of it. Right now all I want is a room to myself in a little gem of London. Not quite the Bridget Jones flat I imagined as i a kid!

www.reddit.com/r/london/comments/4vrihv/does_anyone_commute_from_coventry_is_it_reasonable/

Get somewhere you can walk to work; it'll save you a fortune. Travelcards are expensive and buses are great but take ages and can be a bit unreliable.

Some of the areas discussed already are walkable: I wouldn't go further than you can walk in say 45-50 minutes. Mudchute would be ideal, actually. Join a library for the audiobooks and just start walking.

Renting flatshares is notoriously unstable, too - immediately save up enough money to move out again at short notice if you need to, don't be tempted to blow all your first few months of rent.

Try searching on the Openrent site. You can draw a search area.
Example www.openrent.co.uk/property-to-rent/london/room-in-a-shared-flat-rodney-house-e14/272258

I lodged for a while to give myself time to save up. Bearable short-term & also gives you a chance to get to know the areas you'd like to be in.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but with only £600 in the bank you'll struggle to find enough for the deposit + first months rent in even a commuter town, let alone London itself.

Congrats on the job!
As many others have already said you'll be looking at a flat share, though it's obviously great that you have friends you can stay with for a few days. You might need to see if you can get an advance on your wages. Have you considered asking around the office? There might be someone looking for a flatmate or who knows someone who is.

Lodging is a really good idea, at least at first.

But honestly, you're going to need to budget this really, really carefully - £18k is not a salary you're going to be able to survive on for long. It's achievable short term but you'll want to completely crack down on extraneous spending. And I think Greenwich might be out - it's pretty nice there, I can't see it being cheap enough.

I would forget living somewhere " nice" or with a cool scene and just concentrate on accessible and affordable. Travel costs can eat up your money so consider the different zones and the weekly commuting costs versus the rents in more central locations. If you're a biker it might be worth cycling but some routes have better cycle lanes than others and some roads are treacherous but it is an increasingly popular way to get around. ( although you'll need somewhere secure to lock up your bike at home). Other than that I would suggest you get acquainted with cheap food shops for your lentils and chickpeas.....thrifty recipes necessary I think. Good luck though.....go for it!

Lewisham is a good place to look, as PP said. Congrats on the job!

Move to Deptford, you’re straight into Canary Wharf on the DLR and you’re next to greenwich and brockley for your relaxing weekends
Perfect!

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-69752393.html

There are plenty of places around the Bethnal Green area under 700pcm.

Once you are in London you may be lucku to get your room bery quickly. But you must be quick 'cos good room go within hours

this is a sample search
www.spareroom.co.uk/flatshare/index.cgi?&search_id=580147696&offset=0&sort_by=days_since_placed

ask your friends if anyone has a spare room going and what to look out for

ideally you should walk, even if it is 30-40 min, saves time and money on travel card

you may have to borrow to live on in your first month

good luck!

Congrats!

In terms of your room search, get creative. The obvious places for Canary Wharf are probably Greenwich (so lovely, but mega expensive both in the village and in the north), the Isle of Dogs (Mudchute etc - more affordable, not so nice but you could walk to work), Canning Town (having been priced out of Greenwich I've just bought here, at the moment it's still got a very specific culture but gentrifiers like me are changing that for better or worse), the areas along the DLR towards bank (Limehouse, Shadwell, Poplar etc - for me these feel dodgier than CT but super convenient location), Stratford (rapidly pricing up) or Lewisham (still really affordable when I last looked, and a nice place in and of itself).

But you can also look to be a bit creative with a Canary Wharf commute. So, for example, an exDP commuted from the Walworth road (near Elephant and Castle) to CW whilst doing an internship by walking up to Southwark for the jubilee line every day. I did the same trip from Stockwell (2 tubes but quick and cheap at the time, though less so now 5 years on). I also know people who come up to Canary Wharf via the overground so e.g. Crystal Palace, which again is a lovely place and the travel isn't bad (overground to Canada Water and change) and New Cross (really studenty fun vibe).

I guess to summarise, I'd say: come up with a bills budget (rent, household bills and travel) and work out the total for any flatshare you're keen on taking all the whole set of those things into account. Don't just think about how you're going to get to work, think about what you're going to do the rest of the time. You'll be skint but there is so much free stuff to do in London as long as you can get to the right places. Also, think about where your friends are. It's no fun having to get a 90 minute night bus home every time you want to grab a drink with your mates.

There's also lots of stuff you can pick up as you go along, like for example I used to arrive super early at my first London job because I travelled off-peak (before 6.30am) to get the discount. And you can do pretty much any journey within zones 1-3 with one bus, if you work out the right walks to and from the stop. And pasta with spinach and a glass of red is pretty much a balanced diet....

you can NOT commute from Coventry. The travelcard is £10k!!!!!!!

It's not possible on £18k/year.

Try beckton for a room share. You can cycle into work very easily from there and cw has a lot of places to leave your bike.

Re the planned second job, you need to check your contract. Many financial services firms require you to get the permission of your employer for additional paid work.

Possibly it’s not a FS firm so not relevant but given its in CW it’s fairly likely.

With that amount of money you could get a room in a shared house, these days they normally aks for 2 + 2 eg two weeks rent and two weeks deposit. A lot of people posting here have not rented a room in London for years. Openrent do not answer the phone.
Look in shop windows of your chosen area.

Also there are several cheap hostels such as 'Safestay' Elephant and Castle or 'Smart' Russell Square or 'Londonears' Earls Court where you can get a cheap bed for a few weeks.

To save on travel, DO NOT live anywhere you have to travel through zone 1. The cost of the travel card really jumps up.