To wander what's cheaper up north apart from house prices

[chocolover12]

Hi everyone,

You may remember my previous threads a few weeks ago, regarding moving from London to Manchester and asking advice on schools and areas ?

Well we visited Manchester and looked at all the areas, we loved davyhulme, urmston and flixton.
Now before we make the move I have a few questions, we are moving in order to afford a larger property but also for a better lifestyle, I don't want to get there and think it's not what we expected in terms of being more affordable as dh will have a pay cut too.

Apart from housing what else is cheaper up north?
Supermarkets, petrol and clothes shopping seen the same prices. And I know public transport is more As is council tax?
What things do cost less as everyone says life is cheaper life is better up north?
I know this is a tricky question but what kind of salary is a minimum to live well? I'm a sahm at the moment. I'm just wandering so we make the right choice, as we really liked the area and want to move but the areas we liked we won't be reducing our mortgage it will be the same but a bigger house but also a pay cut.
Thanks

Oh wow I'm reading the other replies now

I totally don't think pp that Manchester is backwards I totally love it hence why I'm contemplating moving. I really liked the areas above and they have excellent schools and because of the excellent schools the house prices are higher but obviously I still get a bigger place than london for the same price.
I don't expect to be 'rolling in it', but do want to have a comfortable lifestyle.

Are car insurances cheaper ?

Car insurance is really area dependent! We saved money by moving from one area of the city that’s arguably got more going on, to a quieter and cheaper suburb. It really depends and can vary from street to street.

Thank you everyone I'm trying to research more but it's quite difficult to get these answers online that's why I posted here to ask those who can actually compare.

Taxi fares were the first thing that struck me when I moved up north. They're about half the price of where I lived down south, which wasn't even in the London area.

Childcare is usually cheaper. Car insurance in the north will depend on the area. There are some very dodgy and thus expensive to insure postcodes. This from the MEN suggests Manchester is pretty dear for that:

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/living-manchester-costs-you-more-11923505

Property is the main thing that's cheaper in the north so generally the savings are associated with that rather than eg utilities. This can also mean the shops you buy things from are cheaper because they're paying less rent.

In terms of salary needed to live well, depends what you mean by this.

• How many children and how old?
• What are your childcare needs and preferences?
• How much will your housing costs be?
• Commuting costs? And travel to school for kids if appropriate?
• Will you need/want a car?
• What does 'living well' mean to you in terms of holidays, takeaways, clothes?

Also if you say what your salary/salaries would be we can probably tell you what kind of lifestyle that will buy.

Manchester is NOT a cheap city. The only things which are cheaper than London in my opinion are house prices, and for the north west they are still blooming expensive.

Now if you go up into Lancashire, pretty much everything is cheaper.

Russianspambot thank you
We have 4dc and don't need any childcare. I will drive/walk them to and fro school.

Living well to me means being able to pay our mortgages, villa, car expense , Eat out occasionally and being able to save some money too. I know that's hard to say but as a general just to be comfortable.

Also car insurance in Manchester is astronomical. Last year I paid £1000 and I live in Stockport. The first year I drove here and was living in Trafford I was paying £1.5k! I was only 24 though.

Gomyoenway thanks, im beginning to get the impression apart from house prices nothing is cheap.

choco it’s a heavily expanding city. Obviously some of the smaller satellite towns are cheaper, but I don’t think it’s to a point where you significantly notice the difference. Except maybe pints in the pub or entry to clubs on a night out.

travelling, no congestion charges.Local public transport cheaper. We have childcare for £5 per session for school children. Nurseries are cheaper.
We have lots of cheaper stores so if you are a sahm it will be good as you can bargain hunt easily near Manchester. I spend far too many hours doing this

It depends what you mean by "up north" - city prices are going to be much of a much of a muchness whether you're in London, Manchester or Edinburgh.

But if you go out of the cities and into market towns and such, most things are cheaper up north. Meals out, alcohol in pubs, entry fees to cinemas and zoos, parking costs and everything are all lower up north than they are down south.

Cheap property means you have much, much more disposable income each month as well, so your spare cash goes further than it would elsewhere.

our car insurance is cheap, it depends on whether you live in a posh part of cheshire or not. We are deprived town in lancs close to Manchester and it's cheap here, as is home insurance.
lots of crime where there are monied/ wealthy people. Far less in Lancs and more property for your money.

Apart from houses, most things are similar price but I’d say the big money savers are definitely childcare, eating out, entertainment and services such as cleaners/ gardeners.

If you are moving north to a big city there are virtually no difference in prices apart from house prices. I think to see big differences in things like eating out/takeaways/hairdressers/cost of labour you would need to move to a small town well outside of a city.

My friends have just moved to Birmingham from the south coast (so not even London). They can't get over how cheap EVERYTHING is here, compared with there. You can't get a bigger City than Birmingham.
Car insurance however is very postcode dependent - you can't really lump a whole City together, and, of course dependent on lots of other factors.

I don’t think up north is particularly cheaper but it may be that there are less expectations of everything being the best, newest, fastest, biggest. I’m very rural though and significantly further north. We don’t get takeaways as there are none, taxi fares home are ridiculous because of the distance. Everyone is very friendly though. Last time I went to London people thought I was mad for chatting/smiling/saying hi!!

Car insurance doesn't depend on whether you live in a posh part of Cheshire or not RomanyQueen1. The M postcode is Manchester. When I lived in M14, which is Rusholme, Moss Side and Fallowfield, it was astronomical. Used to be the dearest postcode in England for car insurance apparently. Would be a good idea for OP to get some online quotes for an idea.

For your utilities OP, I'd suggest checking the council tax band online if you haven't already. Trafford is one of the cheaper areas of Manchester. Gas and electric, no different to London I don't think. You may need more heating as it's colder. United Utilities do the water in the north west and I think they're about average?

Discretionary spending type stuff, it's hard to give a figure. For eating out, you spend however much you want really. There are places where you can eat for well under a tenner and places where you can spend several times that if you want. Same as near enough any big city really. Takeaways are a bit cheaper on average than down south. There are more cheap boozers in the north of England than the south but you won't find them in the city centre and possibly not in an increasingly affluent area like Urmston either?

There isn't as much free stuff to do in Manchester itself as there is in London if you like museums and exhibitions. However the countryside, hills and decent beaches here are usually nearer than they are in London and thus cheaper. The cinema is slightly cheaper if you avoid the really dear places like the Printworks. Belle Vue is cheaper than either of the ones in town usually. So it depends what sort of thing you'll want to do.

Public transport would be a bit more expensive than London and you're not on the tram in that area either.

Basically yes the main saving is housing and then childcare which you don't need. It may be that your life isn't much cheaper beyond that.

I live in the area the OP is talking about and there is absolutely no need to pay for schools. We have excellent primary’s, grammar school system and really good secondary schools. Urmston has an excellent grammar school. It’s certainly cheaper to eat/drink out and get haircuts etc than city centre prices too. You wouldn’t regret moving here.

Russian

I'm afraid it does, the posher areas have high crime for car theft, hence higher insurance. There's very little round here as nobody can afford posh cars.
Lots of manchester, and South Cheshire areas have very rich areas where joyriders and car thieves have a field day, because of the expensive cars. Insurance can be twice as much, when you compare.

The team will be a mile away at by the end of this year with a Park and Ride 😁

I can get a decent haircut for £20 In Manchester

Not much is cheaper tbh. If anything certain things are more expensive. I'm from Liverpool and fiund Twickenham & Richmond cheaper to live in!!! 🙈

Can you evidence that Romany? Everything I found about the most expensive areas specified London and then the Manchester area and M postcode, which includes nowhere in Cheshire. And M14 is very definitely not posh. Link below also says Oldham and Bolton are expensive too, they're Greater Manchester rather than Lancashire but either way they are not Cheshire. Which isn't on the list.

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-2727813/Most-expensive-areas-car-insurance-London-Manchester-top.html

It also specifies that the problem tends to be urban areas rather than rich areas.

I'm not saying there isn't anywhere in Cheshire that could possibly have expensive car insurance, but the M postcode, which OP will have in the areas she's interested in, is expensive as a whole. The M postcode does not cover any area of Cheshire, posh or otherwise.

Obviously I meant the tram will be a mile away!