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

If anyone can recommend a place in Birmingham where school catchments are excellent I'd be grateful

How would your household income be affected by moving to Birmingham?

Kalapattar actually the reason I said Birmingham is that's it's not too far from London and it's another big city. From what I can see house prices are cheaper. Again household income will reduce by £3000 per year approx £300 a month

Where2now
Give me an idea on your preferred budget and lifestyle wants-
Nice Birmingham is not cheap...
I’d look at Harbourne, edgebaston (parts of), bournville (further out and dry), Barnt Green (further out but has station), Sutton Coldfield, or a bit more bohemian- Moseley
Other areas-
Soulihull is generally nice also ££

I’d also look at other areas- but depends on your needs for frequency of travel back to London, diversity, facilities such as hospital size etc
Leamington spa, Kenilworth, market Harborough, and some of the Leicestershire/Warwickshire villages around rugby station also good bets and cash will poss go further

Newballsplease00 are you the one who asked me to inbox you for location ideas? I've been trying to but not able to for some reason.
Ideal budget max of £350,000, for me the absolute main priority is excellent primary and secondary as my children are currently at outstanding ones here. I would probably drive to London every 3/4 weeks to my parents house. Would love a nice neighbourhood with lots of young families. Other than that I'm happy to drive to areas for other things I need.

Hi it was me, sorry it’s probably my security settings 😳
£350k for how many bedrooms?
Other than schools what else is a priority eg transport/ medical/shopping/faith/proximity- Travel around Birmingham is horrendous on some routes so depends where you would need to get to

Have pm u

Newballs that's ok. Commutable to the shopping centre/ bullring as my husband will probably be working around there. Maybe upto 30 mins drive each way. Also good doctors and not too far from hospital as with kids you never know. Where I live now I am literally 10 mins of that to shopping centre and 5 mins to hospital so I think that will be missed. Close to parks and soft play always helps too

NRFT

Beer’s cheaper up here

Newballs bear with me I'm trying to check inbox

Newballs bear with me I'm trying to check inbox

NC4now where do you mean? Sorry I have no idea

In the north. I’m shocked at the cost of a pint every time I visit London. I should know by now!

NC4Now ah ok. I don't drink so wouldn't know 🙊

Come over to the Birmingham Local sight.
There's regularly threads asking where to look in Birmingham.
However, if you are working in town, I'd advise to look on a train line, and not drive in.
How many beds do you want for £350 000 ?

Backforgood hi do
You have a link for the local sight ? I'm looking for 3 bed min. Husband will drive to
Work, so
You still advise checking train line?

I moved out of London a few years ago, to a relatively expensive part of Wales. Family and friends all still in London/Home counties so lots of back and forth for us and them. Things we have found to be cheaper:

Mortgage/rent (half)
Childcare
tradesmen - all of them
Commuting costs
Coffee/drinks/meals out, especially at independent places
Sometimes shops, including supermarkets
Petrol (friends and family gripe about this a lot)
Activities/clubs for children
Local swimming pools and leisure centres
Gym membership

Council tax is more expensive for us but overall that would depend on which councils you compared. We live in a spacious 4 bed house now, which we could never afford in London or the Home Counties.
Buses are cheaper in London but the tube is extortionate. Comparing individual fares as though they are like to like doesn't really work well, which is why I listed commuting costs, above, instead.

We have access to free museums, castles, parks, beaches, etc and most are no more than 20 minutes away, if they are 'local'. We can be on the other side of Wales in a similar time that it takes friends to get across London. We pop to a free museum regularly - sometimes for the whole day, sometimes for just an hour. We really can just 'pop in'. It's not as big as a major London museum but it doesn't involve a big trek to get there.

Salaries are probably statistically much lower but I think that's distorted a lot by the very high City salaries in London. There's a lot of public sector and university employment in South Wales and those salaries are therefore comparable - London weighting is a drop in the ocean compared to the higher core living costs.

Studentmum3 thank you so much for the details. That sounds fab. Exactly what I'm looking to hear .

I have family in the west of England and always notice the difference in cost of eating out and getting coffees etc. I also know that our gym is more expensive in London and we probably pay more for services such as physio, dog walking and hairdressers. Not to say you can’t be charged a lot for these items but they are easily available for less than we pay.

my sister lives in london and every time i go im shocked by prices. these are some of the things i've noticed that differ:

haircut here is £9
days travel here is £4.60 or £4 for unlimited everywhere for 24 hours. unlimited everywhere in london is a lot more.
going out for a meal is a lot cheaper
a sandwich/cob/bap in a shop can be 50p
a roast dinner out somewhere is about £5 was more like £15 in london!

general cost of items in independent shops, random stuff like sellotape

BUT certain things are the same, eg - tesco, asda, branded food shops, branded pubs, set prices.

nights out in london way more expensive drinks and entry fees. drinks here cheap for a pint. some places still have pints at £1.xx on offer.

bviously house prices very different you can get a beautiful new build fat and a safe lovely estate for 80k. my sisters flat is something like 600k for a similar thing which is a massive difference.

for me the biggest difference is the feeling of safe and safety, everyone likes to talk to you, people aren't rushed, there is room to breathe.

i dont know how much the gym is etc. the swimming pool is £4. so i would say it totally depends what you're buying each month.

there are lots of lovely areas in birmingham. but as a previous poster mentions transport is key. it can be 1 hr and a half across the city centre.

nice ares: i would look at harborne parts of quinton little bits of edgbaston but not all of it, i mean there are beautiful places like henley in arden that are on a train route and out in the countryside. there are places like clent, stunning, belbroughton, etc but again you're looking at a train. i personally rhink romsley is amazing and would love to live there but again journey. if u google image clent hills... but your travelling will be so bad. maybe it's better to live closer in for work and travel out for all of that. i think id actually go for harborne if i had the cash.

oh one thing that i forgot to mention that's a massive difference is car parking! i've paid 20p an hour before and standard prices in the city centre are £1.10 for an hour, £1.90 for 2 hours. it has just gone up.

Public transport is infinitely cheaper and better in London. For starters, kids are free in London which I imagine helps A LOT of families (and does us when we visit). It is expensive and shite up north.

Food is more expensive in London though, for sure. Chocolate bars for example can be up to 20p more in London than the North. Rent/mortgage isn’t just ‘a bit’ more expensive, it’s twice, triple or even quadruple what it is up north. London is EXPENSIVE. The best thing about London for me is the amount of things to do for free.

Oh and it is true about how expensive alcohol is in London. A g&t is at least twice the price it is in Leeds.

I don't drink
My home costs under £350 per month (4 bed detached in a 1/4 acre)
I go into London at weekends so parking is free.

And everyone likes to talk to you is to me a negative.

Is it just city living you are interested in OP (or nearby)?

I moved to the high Peak in Derbyshire and honestly I regret not doing it sooner every day. It is just beautiful. I don't miss anything about the city when I have hills and forests on my door step every morning.

The biggest difference is house prices for sure.

And Manchester centre is a half an hour drive away if you fancy the entertainment some time.

Cakeandtea1 that sounds beautiful, I think an big city would suit us better.