How much do you need to live in London? (I think I have enough!)

[Ethicaldebacle]

I've asked before about moving to London and basically everyone agreed it was a good idea, but we didn't really touch the financial aspect.

I posted about my pension on Reddit (because I think I have a fairly solid plan all things considered) but everybody got fixated about not being able to afford to live in London

So housing and transport costs aside, (because I've done that calculation already), how much do you spend a month?

We shop at Lidl for the most part, and go out twice a month. I don't go to the salon or anything like that, and the gym is out peloton (so cheaper as it's for both). One car.

We're talking about Z3, one DC in secondary school.

For the sake of this conversation we have £7k every month to play around after housing and travel cards.

Having brought up kids in Z 2 and 3 we visited a museum, gallery or other free cultural attraction most weekends, especially in winter. As an adult who goes child-free I still do.

We also went to a range of Saturday morning children’s shows in the smaller local and off west end theatre at a cheap rate.

IMO London residents know how to DH d cheaper restaurants and good deals. I go all over the country to visit friends ( thanks to good deals on train journeys in and out of London) and restaurants are only more expensive in London if I choose them to be.

TBF my London friends are always getting super decent deals with a mix of The Fork (and sometimes Groupon)