To think we could live in London on £55k?

[Londonline1]

DH has been offered a job in London on a salary of around £55k. I'm mainly a SAHM; I do some pt work from home earning around 4k a year or so, but we're about to have baby #2 and I've no idea if I'll get back into it / if the work will have dried up etc.

We currently live in the North East and survive comfortably on an income of around £50k (including my earnings and CB). We have a fairly modest lifestyle and put most of our money into our mortgages which we were hoping to pay off early - we don't do holidays other than to visit family elsewhere in the UK; we live in a small house in a cheap area, and we have a flat we rent out in another city (income from that adds towards paying off the mortgage so it's effectively building up a savings pot but I haven't included that in the £50k above).

My question is whether we could realistically relocate to London with a £55k budget. Would expect to have to downsize and rent. Would prefer not a crazy commute for DH (to Battersea). Don't need to live anywhere fancy, but would like to feel safe and have some green space nearby for kids.

Please feel free to tell me it's ludicrous. I genuinely have no idea.

But but but, formerbabe. You need a bedroom per child, you need to be able to go out for meals and drinks, you need to take your DC to activites, you need to live in the right property near the right schools, you need to shop in Waitrose for organic everything and unlimited blueberries, your DH needs to spend hundreds of pounds a month on commuting, you need lots of new clothes and be able to get your hair done and all that is expensive and if you can have all that and more life is miserable .

I'm a sahm...we live in London and our income is well below 100k.
Yup. I'd say exactly the opposite to the poster you have quoted, it is very hard to balance the books in London if there's no SAHP (or other "free" childcare, e.g. grandparents) in the family.
OP, it is also something to consider. You are likely to be financially locked into staying at home for another 4+ years (unless you have a fantastic career to return to immediately). Even with the free hours subsidy, full time childcare in London is still likely to be a four digit number per month per child.

It’s very strange. It seems to be part fear of big cities, part fear of London in particular and part bourgeois assumptions.

As if people don’t live in London on the minimum wage!

I also wouldn’t move to London in those circumstances. Sorry OP.

^^that was to formerbabe

@BarbaraofSevillle. We have a four bed house and only 2 children! Imagine and on less than 100k! We took the kids out for lunch yesterday too!

I shop in lidl though as we can't afford waitrose!

formerbabe But as you said you own your own home. Is your mortgage in line with what the op would have to pay in today’s rental market?

No, we have a very small mortgage, which is how we can afford it...thanks to buying a previous house fairly cheaply and making money on it. I'm not saying it will be easy for the op on that salary in the private rental market. I was responding to posters who think it's inconceivable that you could survive in London on less than £100k

The OP could sell her 2 properties and get a mortgage.

We moved out of London because we found we couldn’t afford a nice quality of life for our DC. And that was with more than £55k. Could you do it? Yes. Would it be better for your family? Absolutely not.

Not sure if anyone has suggested this - but could you and DH do the maths, and then he negotiates with his potential new employer if the money doesn’t make sense?

Companies of a certain size may well have an extra 5-10k in the budget at this level.

The OP did say she currently had a good quality of life though so people are comparing the equivalent.

We earn quite a bit more than the OP but less than 100k however we got on the ladder yrs ago (when earning more, I changed careers) so have lots of equity & have a nice home in a nice area near a great school. I work pt which reduces our childcare outgoings but we also have family help.
To have the lifestyle we have now in exactly the same situation without benefiting from property gains & higher childcare costs we would need to be on 200k.

Mmm, worth at least asking.

For me it would all depend on where your support network is - grandparents, friends who you can rely on to help with your kids in a pinch will make all the difference, especially once your kids are school age and you (presumably) return to work. Childcare in London costs a giddy fortune.

We moved out of London after having our daughter because on our salaries (about £70k combined) we would never be able to live in a nice house in a nice area and still be able to save and have a good quality of life, all of which we could do by moving to the Midlands - the drop in housing costs while our salaries stayed largely the same meant by simply moving our standard of living improved massively.

However. We didn't have any family or support in London so weren't losing anything by moving. When I see my friends wh have loved their whole lives in our new city and have grandparents or neighbours etc who are ready and able to provide childcare and babysitting their lives are so much fuller than ours, as we have to split it all between the two of us and are in the house from 7 every night once daughter is asleep (we can go out separately of course but not together). It can feel full on and a bit restricted. So factor that in too imo.

Why bother moving down to live outside London? That's the worst of both worlds expensive and not getting the "London experience." I'm from Newcastle but have lived here 11 years. If You didn't have kids I would say definitely go for it for a couple of years but given your current circumstances I really wouldn't bother. Rent is just crazy and no way would I do it on one salary.

How much income would you get if you rented out both of your current properties? And if you decided to sell your main house how much equity do you have? Housing is going to be the biggest cost in London but it's hard to know how much you can offset thay by leveraging your existing property.

No way would I do this if I were you.
Sounds like you have a lovely life as it is - why rock the boat for an ‘ok’ life?
I’m from Newcastle, I’ve been in London 18 years, and would dearly love to return to Newcastle, but circumstances prevent this.
Quality of life in the NE if far better, IMO.

I think with pre-schoolers London would be fab for a few years.

Rent the NE property which will rise faster than London in the short to medium term. Rent a two bed flat - less to clean. So much to do for free and to see.

Review when eldest is in infants.

I lived in London on £25k - as a single (no kids) in my early 20’s (only a couple of years ago).

I JUST got by but not comfortably. I completely gave up alcohol and lived in zone 4. Similar prices rooms in zone 2/3 came with dodge room mates/terrible facilities and weird smells.

For a family of 4 to survive on one £50-£60k income (no CB) would be VERY tight. My BF paid £1400 a month to rent a 2 bed terraced (it was tiny but could just about pass as a family home) in a questionable area of zone 3, parking is extra, transport (tube) is extra, bills are extra.

Supermarket shopping without a car is a real challenge as there’s only ‘express’ or small stores easily accessible with zone 1-3 (in my experience) so costs are higher and delivery is quite expensive compared to up North.

It’s doable but I don’t think it’ll be ‘comfortable’ or ‘nice’ to live that way.

DP and I earn approx £90k between us (but extra with bonus) and currently have no children. I’d be hesitant of moving back to London on the basis that we couldn’t afford a decent lifestyle.

Why bother moving down to live outside London? That's the worst of both worlds expensive and not getting the "London experience."

Totally disagree with this. As a Londoner I can get in to central London where all the good stuff is quicker from where I live in Kent now than I ever could when living in places like south Ealing or South Norwood. For us it's the best of both worlds, lovely green countryside, cheaper houses, good smaller schools etc and then popping into London on the much more comfortable overland train and getting off 40 mins later at London bridge/Victoria/Charing X/Waterloo. Unless you are going to live in a really nice part of London which is villagey like Chiswick or Dulwich etc then i'd say this was the best 'London living experience' with kids.

Apologies for not properly RTFT but it is technically do able but it will be a big step down in the surroundings you’ll be used to in the NE, namely

• expect your house size to half
• expect to have a longer and more expensive commute (DH)
• expect your childcare costs to rise at least 40%
• don’t expect you’ll have a garden for DC to play in.

Personally I think your DH is getting offered a pittance to move (his whole family) and he should either pitch for more, evidencing the rise in all living costs to support his request OR decline to move.

I may be biased; we have just done the reverse. Our joint income was around £80K and where we lived (SW London Zone 4) was unsustainable for our growing family.

I miss London every single bloody day but when I see my DC running round the garden they would never be able to have where we were (and loved) I know I’ve made the right choice.

If he's commuting by public transport, have at look at areas on the Windsor and Eton to Waterloo or Reading to Waterloo train lines. Staines and Egham are quite nice areas though I think prices are rising now.

If he will be driving, routes along the M3 are good. Basingstoke and Bracknell are lovely areas that are popular for commuters.

Though we moved out of London a few years back and would never return home now. It's fun exploring London but it's very expensive to do anything/go anywhere.

@mrskoala I completely agree with you. I am in Herts and can get to London quicker now than when we lived in Ealing! And my house is twice the size of what we could afford there.

It's doable if you live on the outskirts such as Dartford, Gravesend etc. Rentals are cheaper with regular trains to London Bridge and Victoria. Commuting costs will be high though. I earn about £51k, single parent living in inner London with three children. It's doable

How long would you expect DH to stay in this job - I think you need to consider what his next move might be, would it be likely to be in London too or would you move back and use it as a stepping stone?

Also, in a vote for London, it's soooo much cheaper to entertain yourself than a lot of places. Between museums, public parks, lovely spaces, you can spend a lovely weekend in London for bugger all money if you've got a travel card and take lunch with you.

We lived in London with no family support network, I found that hard but it probably wouldn't be so bad if you're a SAHM. I found travelling out of London to visit relatives really tiresome, especially if you're tied to the school holidays so you might want to factor in how many times a year you think you'd be visiting the north east.