To quit my job because I can't afford to go

[Megapops]

I have my dream job, I absolutely love it, and thought I was on a decent salary. Recently the organisation has asked staff to go into the London office 2-3 days a week. Not a problem.

But.. just broke up with my partner who I've been livng with for a few years and I'm obviously looking at moving out into my own place now. To rent a modest, 1 bed place within an hour/hour and a half commute to work is more than my monthly salary. And to rent a room in a houseshare costs around half my salary. Living further out means more expensive train fares too. I'm looking right outside London too. (Considering moving back into a houseshare, and it costing half my salary is also making me die a bit inside).

I dont know what I'm going to do? The only solution seems to be to quit my job and move somewhere else because I literally can't afford to go to work. Although rent doesn't seem much better anywhere! Any advice?

My brother rents in Hove and commutes in to London. His rent for a 1 bed flat is just under £1000 a month. If your work can’t be flexible with the amount of days you need to be in the office could they be flexible with start times? My brother starts work a bit later 10 and works until 6, that way he can get cheaper rail fare £6 each way instead of £30. Another option would be towns like Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath which are a bit cheaper and fantastic for links to London (45 minutes roughly for trains into Victoria).

You’d be surprised with how expensive Lewisham is nowadays.

hell, they’re gentrifying Barking, even

It's 1hr 8 mins on the 7:00am from Leicester to St Pancras, getting you in at 8:08am with time to get the Tube to your place of work.
Here's a nice looking studio flat, bang opposite the train station in Leicester (also walking distance from the centre of town and a nice park), for £500pm: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/136312997#/?channel=RES_LET
If you're willing to do this sort of commute a couple of days a week, you have all kinds of options.
It's not ideal, but better than being unemployed!

As somebody who shared for years in London on lower salary, you just need to open your mind and embrace it. You will meet new people and maybe this is what you need

I get that it's hard to break up. It's hard to go from having your own space to sharing

The rental market is tough

There are quieter people who are older, professional and just like you out there. You may find somebody who owns their place but needs a lodger to help. That person wont necessarily want a new best maté to party with

What is the salary and whereabouts in London is your office? Its difficult but our London office based grads and juniors do mostly live in London. There are pockets which are a bit cheaper and if your office is always the same location (ie you don't go to clients) you can go further out along the route closed to your office.

What other options do you have? If you have eg a base much further out then look at the rent-a-room sites. These rent out family house rooms on weekday nights only - these can also work for people only in town for a couple of days a week.

What you are describing is one night per week alternating with two nights per week - do the sums to see if its cheaper to live further out and rent a cheap room for a night or two a week. I know a number of clients who do this now that they only need to be in town for a few nights per month.

High Wycombe? Functional, reasonably cheap and 35 mins to Marylebone?

Probably so, it was always obvious that the main 'benefit' of HS2 would be to expand the area that well paid professionals could reasonably commute from to their 'big London jobs'.

People living in the Midlands and northern England don't want to have better access to London, generally. They want to be given the same opportunities and infrastructure where they live as London has.

Crossrail is a case in point. Six large cities across northern England are connected by a woefully inadequate M62 and a railway service that is probably poorer than it was 100 years ago. A Crossrail style rail line connecting Liverpool and Hull via Manchester, Bradford, Leeds and a branch to Sheffield would transform transport across northern England, but we'll probably never see the investment needed for this to be realised.

So they’re reducing salaries, effectively?

and you think the op shouldn’t bring this up with her employer because why would they give her some support at a difficult time?

yeah, you’re here to make op feel bad and anxious.

Have a look at Leighton Buzzard - 30 minutes to Euston from the station

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/135835952#/?channel=RES_LET

HS2 is due to be open in 2038. I think the OP may need something before then! So pleased it will bring commuters up to the midlands 😳.

When we couldn't afford Kent anymore we moved up to Canary Wharf for a year and saved as much as possible until we got better jobs.

That's what people do when money is tight. Move or get a new job (or both!) 😊

I would def speak to your boss about your situation and see if there's any way to come up with a solution

I know loads of companies who are increasing London Weighting just to give balance to the PP who said companies are phasing it out.

I’d look at anywhere that has approx 1 hr train commute to work. Milton Keynes is approx an hour to Euston for example and there are lots of 1 beds for under £900 per month or less if you took a studio. Can you shift your office days around? My friend who commutes does weds/thurs one week and mon/tues the next week so she can get 2 weeks of office days out of a 1 week train ticket to reduce costs. Or ask if you can drop to 1 day a week in the office to make the train more affordable?

Look in Epping OP

central line to Stratford and DLR to Canary Wharf
https://www.zoopla.co.uk/to-rent/flats/1-bedroom/epping/

@Sillyfred huh? Did you mean that the other way around? Unless you are in social housing the Canary Wharf/Isle of Dogs area is eye wateringly expensive to live in.

Might have already been mentioned but east London can be a lot cheaper still. Try Highams Park, Chingford etc and good luck!

Yes, we live fairly near St Neots and it's quite a nice little town, not too far from Cambridge which has lots going on, but fairly cheap and 45 mins on the train from London. I think it's nicer than Biggleswade.

So sorry you are in this situation. Its a tricky one because you probably need some time to work out what you want to do rather than compromise by agreeing a 6-month rent/house share in a flat or area you don't really like on top of the break-up trauma. Is there a possibility for you to leave all your things with your parents and just stay with a friend or rent a room with a family for a month or two. That will give you some respite and time to work out what is best for you rather than leap into something you might regret. I think you would easily find a room in a family home n Guildford for £500 pcm where you if you were happy to share a bathroom.

It’s not so much dependent on a partner but the affordability of single living.

Have you got those two the other way round? Rent in Canary Wharf is extortionate.

Trying to support a colleague through a difficult time such as a relationship breakdown and being rendered homeless is exactly what good employers do. This is how good organisations attract keep the best staff and build a rep for being good employers.

Good staff are expensive to recruit, expensive to replace - its a no brainer to support them through short periods of difficulty. Nor is it unfair to other colleagues to provide such support. They would be treated just the same at such times.

I would look askance at anyone in my practice whinging about a colleague in the OP's situation was getting "special benefits" if given more time before scaling up to the 2-3 days in the office.

The OP should look at their contract as well - if they have made the base office her home (for their own commercial benefit) and WFH is the model defined in the WFH contract then they would need an agreement to vary that.

How about renting a room in an older person's house? My friend following a split rented off a lady in her 60's also recently divorced, worked well

Quite, my oh rented a place in CW before we met m-F and went home at the weekend it was £2200 ten years ago.

After a break-up, it would be madness to quit your dreamjob, you could spiral! So stick with it. On 40k there's loads of places you can rent, as PPs have shown just a glimpse of. Personally, I'd much rather a flatshare within zones 1-4 than a one-bed in Crawley or some similar place where you've no connection to the community. That matter less in London. Just seems so random to rent a solo place in a commuter town to maybe save a couple of hundred quid. You can get double rooms in decent places for less than half your salary. Make it work and absolutely do not quit.