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.

Just another suggestion for looking for flat shares - move flat.com. Don't be put off by the basic looking formatting of the site, it has great places and is a bit different from the other sites as it goes into so much detail. I've been in London for 13 years and always found the most amazing housemates through that site!

Area-wise I'd check out east London - so bow, mile end, Stepney, Stratford, shadwell, Limehouse etc - and think about getting a bike as that will save you a fortune in travel costs.

You know what @Raven11 don't take advice from MN on where yto live in london. You are young, and want to have fun. Most people here have kids and are much older than you and their priorities are totally different.

Just live near your friends or ask them where woudl be good.

Or pick up the cheapest lodging arrangement you can for 6 months whilst you find your feet.

Not at all SilverSpot - the jubilee line and East London lines are 24h lines at the weekends and there are a load of night buses. Also easy cycling/ taxi distance from central London compares to some mentioned. £12-15 Uber ride from West End at night compared to £££££ to get back to places like Stratford or new cross.

Lewisham is rough - avoid

With your budget I would head east to Barking. Rents are cheaper than elsewhere because the area's poorer than most places in London but there's a big regeneration project going ahead where the whole riverside is being revamped like a mini Barcelona, so it's on the up. You can actually see Canary Wharf from the Barking shore.

www.homesandproperty.co.uk/property-news/east-london-regeneration-zone-east-london-regeneration-hotspot-will-have-5000-new-homes-with-a111836.html

Nice room here in Canada Water going for only £775 pcm inc bills. Worth a look

Sofa surf with your friends and ask them to keep a look out for a room in a house share.
Remember you'll get paid in arrears, so it's not just a deposit and rent upfront you need, but a whole month's worth of cash, depending on your employers pay-cycle you may get a weeks pay at the end of November.

lso easy cycling/ taxi distance from central London compares to some mentioned. £12-15 Uber ride from West End compared to £££££ to get back to places like Stratford or new cross.

I'm super surprised at that price. Seems v cheap for corssing the river nad going so far east. Maybe I had my view of SQ coloured pre-night tube! :-)

I'd prob try and spend no more than £650/month on room inc bills on your salary. Loads available in mile end at that budget.

I'd avoid Ilford and Barking if you aren't used to them, but Romford is ok and cheaper than living further in, if you want to save your money for going out.
I don't feel unsafe walking home from the station at 10pm. Can be a bit rowdy on a Friday and Saturday with the clubs, but I've never had any issues.
You can get a zone 2-6 travelcard for £158 a month, which should get you to Canary Wharf (train to Stratford, then you can get the DLR).
If you are out in London late, you can get the night-tube to Newbury park (Central Line) and then its about 20 minutes on a night bus.
There's some nice parks, and easy access to Essex countryside if you are outdoorsy/like country pubs.

Congratulations on the job OP. Defintely think about lodging or house share- am still close friends with the first people I shared with in a gritty hovel in London 30 years ago !
London is a fantastic city when you’re young. Be prepared to move house/ flat quite regularly as your needs change. But most of all enjoy it.

Arrange to stay for a few days with as many people as you can, one after the other (if you can loop round and go back to the earliest people, then that would be a huge bonus). Spin this out for as long as you can- it is much easier and cheaper to find a place in London from London than online at a distance.

Also see if anyone know’s anyone going home early for Christmas who might be able to let you stay there/sublet whilst they are way.

Then find the area you want to live in. Spend some time each evening/at weekends visiting areas you think are in easy travel distance or like the sound of. Go there on the tube/bus/train nd take a walk around. If you like an area, then go for a walk down the local high street or wee streets off it, looking in shops for cards advertising places (sometimes in windows, sometimes inside, often newsagents). These are often way cheaper than stuff advertised online. Look out for newsagents close to tube stations, they often have these cards.

Also get friends and colleagues to ask around for you.

Definitely look at Deptford, it's a little bit creative and attempting to be up and coming but you're super close to lovely Greenwich. One of my friends recently moved out of a relatively decent flat share there for under £500, so it can be done!

On 18k you might be better looking for a room share (rather than a flat share) for a couple of months at least. I would be wary about going into your overdraft at this point because on that salary you won't have much leftover each month to repay debts. Also try to look at places you can cycle to work from. Anywhere within walking distance from canary warf will be out of your price bracket, cycling opens the net quite a bit wider.

Join the FB page Isle of Dogs and Canary Wharf residents and ask for rooms. It's a page run by a local councillor and is quite busy. You may also be able to ask if there are any babysitters required or local pubs wanting help.
Look for housing in Poplar. Not that nice but easily walkable to Wharf.
You can also walk to Greenwich and into centre of town along the river. Great libraries (called Idea Stores) in Canary Wharf and Poplar.
There is a cheap market at crisp street in Poplar. Bus to Stratford and you can hang around in the Olympic Park for free.
Enjoy the new job and congratulations!

"WitchesHatRim

Where in the Midlands as I might be tempted to commute depending on the location if I was on £18k.

18k wouldn't be enough to commute either tbh."

You would from Nuneaton and Rugby as rail prices are almost artificially low there.

South of the river will be cheaper, though if you wish to remain in civilisation, then try somewhere in East London. Areas such as Hoxton or Camden with lots of nightlife are likely to be too expensive.

Good luck with your new job.

Lewisham is not especially rough.

And certainly not rougher than anywhere else people can afford on starter wages.

Young people (and those of us that are older) cannot always afford the nice leafy middle class areas that many MNers seem to cling to while declaring everywhere else 'rough'.

Plus Lewisham the town covers a very wide range of housing types and areas, and the borough even more so.

And Lewisham has good transport options into the Wharf.

I had colleagues living in Stratford and Walthamstow who always said despite having slightly rough reputations they were lovely places to live. As long as you're not expecting a leafy Hampstead type setup you'll be fine on that salary. Don't forget to look at tube and bus routes when considering where to live, and think about what shops and markets are available to you locally. That'll help keep costs down.

As for commuting from W Mids, if you've got to get to Canary Wharf it'll be a massive ballache. Getting into London is easy, getting across London, especially the DLR, not so much.

What kind of grad job is this ?

The midlands big places like jag Severn Trent and eon etc all pay like 30k starting on grad schemes

Why is London so much less?

Is it an apprenticeship ?

Congrats.

I suggest looking for house-shares in E14. Not the nicest area once you're away from Canary Wharf but fairly affordable and you can save a fortune by walking to work.

I'm a intrigued by this salary as well as it is approximately what my friends got on graduate schemes in Canary Wharf when we graduated in the mid-90s. If you really like Greenwich then I second Deptford as it is quite close and a lot cheaper.

There is a student accommodation block in Greenwich (Opal?), where they are allowed to have a certain number of non-students. Might be worth looking at?

Congratulations.

OP posted recently about degree classifications for graduate schemes (as she got a Third and the specific scheme she was interested in was looking for a 2:1), so I suspect this might not be a grad scheme as it might be generally understood, but possibly an apprenticeship or internship. Which would tally more closely with the salary and is still a very legitimate way to get on the ladder and gain experience.

(Though I still think £18k starting salary in London is pretty criminal!)

Hey everyone, thanks for all the recommendations. I decided to not go for this role as they seemed too desperate/disorganised. While the starting salary was 18k, the role was heavily commissioned based with 92% of 'graduates' on a minimum of 35k in the first year.
But I do have two more interviews this week at more reputable companies with a higher base salary (abeit not that much higher!)

Thank again ladies, I have lots of places to have a look at when hopefully I get a role in London.