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

Childcare (I pay 4.50ph for youngest, £3ph older kids).
Tradesmen (£100 per day rate).
Dinner out at an independent restaurant (£16 bottle of wine, £25 fillet steak, £3.90 a pint).
Parking (penny a minute lots of places).
Heavy school subsidies as in underpriveliged/multicultural area (free breakfast club, ASC £1 for 1.5hrs).
Greengrocers for fruit and veg (massive carrierbag of f&v £4).

There are loads of free cultural events, there are museums, great parks

Yup. None of that in “the north” at ALL

Takeaway chinese £14 for two.

Going out for food and drinks is more expensive in London. Branches of the same brand will charge considerably different prices depending on their location.

With regards to DC, my friend pays £40/month/child for swimming lessons in North London. I pay £25 for the same rurally.

Yup. None of that in “the north” at ALL

Not to the same extent and not all in your local town.

I never use public transport so can’t comment on that, but bar fuel/energy and phone/broadband costs pretty much everything else is cheaper - mortgage, council tax, insurance is far cheaper, supermarket food shopping is less, eating out is drastically cheaper, going for coffee and cake in the market town near me is cheap and nice, I can take the kids for ice cream as a treat for hardly anything, fitness and kids activity classes are less, childcare would be cheaper if you needed it, plus there are indirect savings from not spending on stuff like takeaways as nowhere delivers here (appreciate that you could choose not to spend on stuff like that in a city but the temptation is there).

Not to the same extent and not all in your local town

Really? Didn’t realise you knew where I lived

We live near a tiny market town. We have free events virtually every weekend. Various museums within 20 mins. Out of my door and I’m onto the moors.

I think we’re good

All these amazing free events and venues in your local town of London? Generally that means fighting through the tube with young children, buggies and the all kit you need for a day. Not great fun and I can see why lots of people avoid it altogether.

Someone on a thread this week said a travel card in brum is £62 a month. It'd be more than a thousand where I live

Wow thanks everyone for the replies, where I live the costs are:
Childminder £6ph
Cinema £ 10pp
Swimming £25 pc
After school club £17 pc 3-6pm
Holiday club £28pc
Parking at shopping centre £4.50 0-2 hours and much more for any longer
Parking on Rd Cheapest 60p for 30 mins
Hairdresser cheapest £27 wash cut blow dry
Plumber £50 call out charge + parts and labour

So it seems it may be cheaper out of London.

I moved nearly 100m from London. Nothing is cheaper.

Fuel is the same, sometimes my old local Tesco has actually been cheaper when we've got up there.

Rents are a little bit cheaper but my mortgage isn't although house prices are still affordable.

Food and clothes cost the same.

Utilities cost the same, council tax is more expensive than I paid in London.

Wages are atrocious, it's like school leaver money, not run a house and live money. Luckily I found a company that pays London money but once the project is over there's no more work with them so I might have to travel again. Or set working for myself at something I trained in.

I had to spend the first year travelling back to London and back (2.5hrs door to door each way) until a job at acceptable money came up.

If you can get London money it's worth doing but otherwise, the rates of pay don't make it worth it imo.

Prices in pubs/ restaurants definitely cheaper.
A pint in my very nice east Midlands local would set you back £3.30, a large (250ml) decent wine £5. My old local in London they'd have been £4.70ish and £7+ and that's two years ago.

As overheads (mortgage/ staff salsries) are cheaper they can afford to charge less for their product.

OP our local cinema is £2.50 pp and after school clubs are all free. Plumber is £10 call out. Don't drive Mortgage paid off from equity of London property.

We live on the coast and we went to go in a pub last weekend and it was £5+ a pint and all fucked up hipster ales anyway so we didn't go in.

Public transport is a pisstake, I got a bus once and they wanted £6 something return for a journey that takes half hour (each way) in the car.

Petrol is definitely cheaper out of London, we live in Essex and drove to brick lane area a couple of weekends ago. Forgot we needed petrol then wanted to fill up on the way back, it was about 10p more a litre which adds up on a tank. When DH moved back to Essex from West London his car insurance halved and he no longer had to pay for a resident's permit. So I guess some of it depends if you have a car or not. Even drinks in pubs etc are more in London, we have a pint and a lime and soda in our local less than a fiver, London it was nearly £10. We like where we live as it's cheaper day to day, 3 bed semi with a big garden in an outstanding school catchment for 300k (needed some work) you would need to at least double that further in, but we're close enough to go into London for cultural things or just to mosy around for the day. 40 minutes roughly by train and at the weekends we will drive in to East London.

I moved from London to Gloucestershire.

Other than rent everything is the same/bit more expensive.

There’s only the co-op here - more expensive but no other choice.

Childcare is £62 a day for a 13 month old.

Bus fare is £26 for a weekly ticket.

Train fare is ridiculous (£6.60 for 2 stops)

Utilities the same.

Extras are garden waste bin, council charge £15 per large item to dispose (fridge, cooker etc whereas in London it was 6 items free per year)

Petrol is the same but having to drive everywhere means you use more.

That's not to say there aren't things to do locally, lots of kids events, last week we went to a local music festival, today we're off on the local seasonal art trail, next weekend food festival all within 15 minutes of our front door, a lot walking distance.

There's not that much in it between London and 'north' if you are counting all the expensive commuter counties between London and the midlands.

But further north the difference is noticeable and depending on where you are in the North you can do a day trip to London if there's anything cultural you really want to do. I have friends Doncaster/Sheffield way and they can be in central London in under 2 hours.

What struck me when I was last in London is a artisan deli/bakery yes that sounds wanky but you know the type of place I mean was charging almost £4 for a loaf of bread!! It wasn't even a pricey end of London either The deli near me sells the same for half the price so now I'm starting to think there is a premium to pay if you buy bread from places with exposef bricl and pipework

I have never noticed a difference in the price of food at supermarkets to be honest, and things like greengrocers I have found cheaper than back home (mainly due to more competition?).

I’m going to disagree with entertainment as this completely depends on where you live in London. Where I lived in London there were some lovely parks but there was zero indoor entertainment for kids. If you wanted museums etc then you had to go into central London, which you don’t always want to do if you spend a chunk of your week commuting for work. There is an eye wateringly expensive soft play (where they charge entry for adults- wtf?) and a very good but also vv expensive farm park.
Contrast to where I live now on the edge of a big northern city- we have free access to spectacular nearby countryside and the two closest cities have a wide range of council provided, child friendly museums. It’s rare that we pay more than a few quid for an attraction, and that includes the local caves!
Based on the experience of my London based friends, the following are cheaper up here:
Childcare
Baby activities- eg Playgroup’s, baby classes
Soft play (still can’t get over how much of a rip off this is in London!)
Children’s parties
Mortgage
Transport-friends in London need cars for school run but then need public transport for work
Attractions outside of free museums/parks

I agree that eating out is probably cheaper in London as there is just so much choice. Food is the thing I missed most when I moved out of London.

Just to be clear, it's not quite as simple as London/ out of London. All of the issues about driving / parking in London are the same for instance in Manchester. It would take me about 1.5hrs to drive the 8 miles to the city centre and parking is v expensive (hence why I get the tram).

Prices in some restaurants / bars exactly the same as London prices but as with London, you can choose the less upmarket / trendy option and spend less.

OP from your list, my prices here are much the same - cinema the same, swimming slightly less but more for childcare / after school.

I agree that housing is generally cheaper but my salary would double if I were in London and that would more than pay for extra housing costs.

There are huge variations around the country both in terms of costs and salaries comparative to London. You need to look at your options very carefully.

Eliza and wearelocal if you don't me asking where do you guys live now ?

FASH we have been thinking of Essex house prices are attractive. Which places are good in Essex which have excellent schools catchment that's number 1 priority for us

Home counties, are more expensive, when I go back up north, I find the price of supermarket shop a lot cheaper, I think you don't necessarily notice when buying individual items, as they are 5p-10p cheaper so on first glance looks around the same, but once at the till with a big shop it's significant.

Also eating out in pubs and casual/family restaurants, is so much cheaper.

car repairs, hair dressers ect....

Also compared to the town's where I live, more free stuff to do, and generally more days out stuff to go to.

Round here we are so close to London, its sort of expected you would just go to London for days out. But I don't want to trapes into London every time I take the DC out.

Also up north where I use to live, each town would put on a massive fireworks display to music and bonfire for the 5 November, which was usually free or suggested donations.

Down here massive firework displays cost a fortune to go to, and little local town ones are shit and still cost stupid money to see a literally few fireworks go up.

..............and fish and chips are cheaper and much nicer up north too.