To wander how is cost of living cheaper outside of London

[where2now]

So I get rent/Mortage and childcare will be cheaper out of London especially further north. But what else is cheaper?? Everyone keeps saying cost of living is much cheaper up north. AIBU not to understand this? I mean supermarkets surely have the same price food all over the country right? And even retails stores ie clothes shopping??
I'm really wondering as we are considering moving out of London due to this but I just can't get my head around it.
Can anyone help and give examples I'll be very grateful? Thanks all

More. Never considered Leeds thought it was too north but will take a look. £1k cheaper a month that's shocking

Rent, council tax, food, services like tradesman etc. Are all cheaper out if the SE.

Gardengeek sounds fab even though I don't drink lol

I've lived near Newcastle before and loved - really beautiful coastline and nice city. Liverpool as well or Manchester are great cities. There was loads about London I loved but in reality you cannot replicate that completely in other cities. If I were you I'd write up the things you really enjoy (and actually do frequently) and go off that. For instance, I theoretically loved all the cultural things about London. How often did I actually go to a museum or art show? Maybe every three months if that. A train from Manchester to London takes around two hours, which is only just under twice as long as my usual commute around London so not especially taxing.

I loved wondering round the great buildings and architecture but that is replicable. Also I have found I equally enjoy wandering round forests and up the Welsh hills.

Most things in the London area and main cities have higher prices than elsewhere. Cinema, bakery, plants even. 100 miles can mean 70% lower prices.
Partly due to population tho - prices have to be reasonable as there isn't the footfall to support higher prices.
London has a very young demographic, whereas it's far more varied elsewhere. Those with families/responsibilities will have less disposable cash (which is why they left London and moved to the provinces).
There will always be people happy to pay £7 for a cupcake in whatever the current trendy part of London is. Try that in a small struggling market town and see how many you sell...

More that's a good point, we don't really do museums much and don't do galleries at all. With kids it's mostly eating out, cinema trips, shopping centres, soft play, theme parks etc. So none of the 'London stuff' really.

We live in zone 5 so very much the outskirts of London. Out of curiousity earlier I was looking at rental prices - for the same as it would cost here to rent a large, modern but fairly basic 2 bed flat, we could rent a 5 bed detached house in the W Midlands.

Petrol and food (eating out) costs are definitely cheaper. And commuting is far easier - I live 7 miles from work at the moment. I drive 5.5 miles of it which takes 30 mins and then walk or take the bus the rest of the way (as there is no free parking within a mile of the office, and paying for parking costs £8 a day). Outside London the traffic jams and parking issues are far less (obviously not in major cities but in other areas).

The only difference I can say I’ve ever really noticed is the cost of alcholic drinks. I also agree that public transport seems to be cheaper in London than in smaller cities/more rural locations

Leeds has lots of great free parks, great shopping and restaurants, lots of cinemas, 4 National Museums either in the city or less than an hour away, it's a great city to live in.

Cinema is probably cheaper than London, but I never go, so not sure.

I find takeaways, pubs and (non-chain) cafes considerably cheaper, although not restaurants. Pretty much any services as well - plumbers, decorators, nursery, hairdressers.

In terms of cultural activities, there is obviously more in London. However, getting into/across London can be such a ball-ache that you don't often do stuff on the "wrong" side of town. So in the North, you can travel for example from Liverpool to Manchester or Leeds to York in far less time than it takes to get from Peckham to say the RAF Museum in Colindale or Hampton Court.

We have moved from London and life is so much cheaper where we are by the sea. It is lifestyle that determines your outgoings. We are outdoors so much so the kids need less things. We all own cheap bikes, we walk our dog, we have less clothes, we picnic. Our local shops are cheaper. We go to the library and free museums, art galleries. It's not just the money though, it really depends what kind of life you are looking for. We can stop 4 or 5 times walking into town to chat to our local friends and neighbours. I personally have never done that before that as a born and bred Londoner.

Mostly housing. Eating out is cheaper too. And services like decorators etc. Some friends of my family who moved to home counties from Carlisle used to get decorators/builders from Carlisle still. They would put them up for the night and pay petrol etc and it was still cheaper than local prices!

I’m an hour on the train from London and the mortgage on a two bed house is less than the cost of renting a room in a not hugely nice part of London.

Other increased costs can’t outweigh that.

Some examples, my local cinema is £3.50 a ticket, my nearest town centre car park is 20p for 2 hours, my DS attends a shooting club - £2 a week including ammo, bowling £3 a game, holiday clubs £15 a day, local carvery £4.99 for an adult.

Other things are cheaper because they have lower rent costs, so can charge less. Like hairdressers.

Some things are more expensive because there is a lower supply of people eg people to do cleaning

I was talking with a colleague about this the other day. There son lives in London and we live in the southwest. The London living son has cheaper council tax, water, transport. The only thing that was more expensive was the cost of housing.

I'm from Manchester and lived in London for eight years. I founds services a lot more expensive - I'd come home on a family visit and go to my dentist, get my hair cut and coloured, get the car serviced etc.

I save more at home. I am single and paid £1300 a month rent on a flat in London. Here I own my own home and my mortgage is less than half of what my rent was. there is money going into a savings account, which I couldn't do when I was in London. The best bit for me is that the Lake District, Peak District, Yorkshire Dales and the coast are all just an hour away from my house, and when I ride my bike, I can pedalling through the Yorkshire villages in half an hour.

Rather ironically, my dds swimming and gymnastics lessons are much cheaper in zone 2 London than my friend’s dds equivalent classes in a posh market town in the Home Counties.

As a Pp mentioned, it is the more intangible costs of living in London. Getting 3 trains to a free event may take over an hour and you may lose the will to live getting there and back! Hopping in a car would be so much easier, but often not really an option in a London.

But housing costs are the key. We’d have a much nicer house outside London. It’s fine now, but we need one more bedroom, and can probably get the space. But we will end up with 4 smallish rooms for 4 dc rather than what we may get out of London (2 dc with ASD before anyone says they don’t need their own rooms).

Transport is more expensive where I live in the North. I lived in London for years and still visit a lot and London is better and cheaper for transport. And easier!

Yy clary - cinema prices are crazy in London now. Pushing £20 in places, and even the 'bargain' Prince Charles is climbing closer towards a tenner. Just nuts.

I was in a non-fancy london pub the other night and a guy got charged £4.60 for a bottle of Sol. That's not even a pint!!!

I love London but it's scarily standard to spunk £100+ on a family day out and I'm not talking london dungeon or anything fancy. Just a normal Sunday, with say a cinema trip and a Leon-level lunch. When I'm back up north it'd be less than half that.

We have lived all over the UK. After our last move back to London we found we were very much better off.

Transport, (petrol went down dramatically because we weren't doing 68 miles per day just on me dropping dp at the station so he could get into work. Even his train ticket reduced by £100 per week. Even when he worked locally it was still a 60 mile round trip in the car.) Shopping, because of the lack of other shops they seemed to charge what they wanted. Also as the local supermarket was a health hazzard and didn't stock a lot of things I used to do the 60 miles into the next town. Council tax was cheaper by about £50 per month. No idea why, London home was bigger.

Because where we were it was acceptable that dp would go for one or two in the local pub where as now there is no where to go and he comes home.

Even going out to eat, because of the choice we have found some really superb places to eat. Previously it was a choice between local fast food place or fine dining there was no in-between

There is a lot more free entertainment in London too

I would completely disagree with this statement. Such a better standard of living up north then i have had in the south east

Take away food or small local restaurant food is cheaper if you live North. Alcoholic drinks cheaper in some local bars or clubs. Property definitely cheaper

Beer is cheaper outside London.