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?

London rents are ridiculous, but 40k gives you a take home salary of £2600, possibly closer to £2300 if you are paying a student loan and pension contribution. House shares might not be ideal but surely affordable on your salary. I think living with your partner gave a false sense of the cost of living, but you might now need to lower your expectations for now.
Have you worked out a budget, calculating exactly how much you will need to spend each month and where you might be able to cut back.

Please dont give up your job, pension contribs, self esteem etc
Find something eg further out ,
Look at live in guardians

https://thelowegroupltd.com/guardians/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw1_SkBhDwARIsANbGpFsz_-fWtO3wRy9vVUrdffw8IxO4CowmYoS1sjqlpxWwVYGEvZXG8CUaAlesEALw_wcB

https://liveinguardians.com/news/379/becoming-a-property-guardian-in-london

Wow thanks for all your replies overnight, really appreciated, and thanks for posting options! I'll have a look through them today. I think I'm just so overwhelmed, I don't know where to move to and it's going to be a big change. I've got nowhere to go. The few friends I have are married/settled with young kids so can't bother them for help/support.

Unfortunately my salary is set in bands and we can't ask for a pay rise, but normally get a little bump every year or so. I think my employer will be fine with me working remotely temporarily, but not long term. I'm also the only person in my team who rents, everyone else owns their own homes in and around London.

If you're Canary Wharf, you need to be the eastern side. Sometimes it's a case of putting up with somewhere temporarily. Stevenage / East Herts is not too expensive, going further round into Kent could be an option. Crossing London west to east could be a false economy

And good luck - speak to you employer too.

You also need to think about rent plus commuting costs.

Six DLR/tube journies a week going to be a lot cheaper than six train journies a week (plus tube). So you may find it is cheaper overall to rent in zone 3/4 London than in a commuter town.

No, we found a 1 bed flat to rent that was less than £1200 PCM. Saved loads on commuting too!

It had parking and was gated. Loved it.

I saw it advertised on Open Rent.

It was cheaper than our Kent flat and we didn't have to buy travel cards. And there's a huge Asda nearby to keep it frugal 😂 and dead quiet at weekends. Perfect!

THIS. Its nothing new, I lived in houseshares from 2008 until 2012. I was in my late 30s, early 40s and it was crap, so did my boyfriend, but its what you do. Renting my own flat was out of the question. I then did a house guardian style rent in a house that would never have passed a single safety check, but the rent was cheap enough, that I could be frugal and save enough to buy my own house in the South East. If I'd splashed out on renting decent places I'd be stuck in the rent trap now. Sorry OP, the cost of living is ridiculous, it's a scandal you can't easily live near your job, but you can make it work, but you need to lower your expectations. Look at the Spare Room website.

Personally, I finally left London and it was liberating in all aspects.

My take-home pay is roughly 2200 after student loan, pension etc. I don't have any other debts. To rent my own place that isn't a total dive/mould palace and make me want to cry, I'm looking at 1000-1400pm. Estimate bills could be 500-600pm with heating, council tax etc. My commute will potentially cost around 200pm if I live further out. Leaving me with 300-500 to live?

There's multiple stations in Crawley for when you are looking. Here is a 1 bed 0.88miles from three bridges station for £850

I found this property on the Rightmove Android app and wanted you to see it: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/136504664

'Look at homeshare schemes where you live in an elderly persons home in return for providing some support https://amp.theguardian.com/money/2023/jan/28/low-cost-housing-rent-housing-co-ops-homeshares'

This is a good idea. A friend of mine was doing this and she was also a live-in guardian for quite some time, look into that. She was always living quite centrally in London for half the price (or less!). It may not be ideal but if you are on a decent wage you can save up a lot doing this.

It doesn't make sense to quit a job because you cannot afford to go? Surely you would be entitle to some type of benefit then!

Might be worth considering somewhere like Swindon a quick look on rightmove with an upper monthly rent of £800 had quite a range of options including a few exclusive use 1 bedroom houses. Train to Canary Wharf is around 1hour 25 mins and with a rail card the daily cost is around £63

Properties To Rent in Redhill | Rightmove

Low rents here and good train links - also centre is being updated.

My friend had a studio in a lovely HMO in Highgate for £800 a month including council tax and bills. Own kitchen but a shared shower which is cleaned weekly by a cleaner so it's doable.

What is it you do? Just wondering if there is a market for what your job outside London? Birmingham or Manchester has a lower cost of living and similar, if smaller, comparable sectors.

@Sillyfred ahh - Big Asda. So Island Gardens then!

I must say it is shocking that someone can charge a thousand a month for a barely converted garage in Abbey Wood.

I really would avoid living too far out. I'm zone 6 which is a good balance between housing being a little bit cheaper, but travel in still being affordable. I commute in 2 days a week and it only costs ~£80 a month.
Especially with only going in 2/3 days a week you'd be much better on the tube (unless you're on a train line that does flexi tickets - but even those are usually expensive).
Flats near me tend to be £1100 ish, but 2 bed ones are ~£1500. Could you try to find someone to move into a 2 bed flat with? Take a look on places like spare room to see if anyone is looking for a flatmate in a similar situation to you.

No not down there. If you're being pedantic then Asda is actually between Crossharbour and Mudchute :)

I used to cycle down to Asda to save money istesd of bus / DLR. HTH

Good luck OP!

For this £850 place I linked before here's a rough estimate of bills per month
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/136504664

Council tax: £87.45 (this is actual amount with single person discount)
Broadband: £25
Gas/Electricity: £140 (this is taking into account the sky rocketing costs, a couple years ago I paid £60 a month for similar circumstances)
Water: £10 (this is the average southern water give for a single person)

That's a total of £262.45 for bills (excluding optional/variable bills such as owning a car, netflix, expensive phone contracts etc)

Including the flat that is a total of £1112.45/month

Return fare to canary wharf from three bridges will be £38.10. if you are able to travel off peak (e.g. start and finish work later) it would be £19.50. check to see if you are entitled to any railcards, as long as the journey costs more than £12 there is no restriction on when you can use them.

Hope this helps, I know going through breakups can be hard so sending hugs

This may not be that helpful but I have a good friend who works in London 2 days a week remote rest of week. She lives in Birmingham, catches the cheaper train and stays overnight (cheaper to book in advance, I think she stays at a premier Inn?). She owns a flat in Birmingham but the rents are likely to be more reasonable than London. The train fare js a lot but she earns less than you and affords it (although I think she doesn't always pay somehow!)

Also not sure if you have furniture, but if not don't worry too much about the cost. You can get lots of things for very cheap from Facebook, gumtree, charity shops, etc

You also need less than you think, and can make do and take a few months to get what you need

Look for remote jobs, fuck this employer.