How do people afford to live in London?

[galwithkids]

What it says in the title really..
We live in a 2 bed flat with our 2 DCs (4m 3m) in London zone 3. I love our area, I love London and I don’t want to move away. However I keep wondering if everyone around me is making more money that us to be able to live comfortably? Both me and DH work full time in demanding jobs and we bring home approx £9000 net. Our monthly outgoings are £7300. I have tried everything to bring this number down but I am not able to. This is just family basic living expenses, no extras, no commute or car costs, personal
phone or subscriptions not included. I have worked SO hard to bring myself to a point of earning that much, and yet every month I am left without any spare money, I never spend any money for myself, all my clothes are from Primark or H&M, the kids clothes and toys are all second hand, we don’t order take out, the weekends are usually free activities in the park or museums, I don’t save any because there isn’t any left. I feel like I have worked so hard for so long to bring myself to a decent salary level and yet I am not living the life that should come with it. I don’t want extravagant expenses, I don’t mind shopping at Primark. But I would like to have some
savings for the kids’ future, and I have nothing because money is never enough. What am I doing wrong?

Not without losing my sanity 🙃 we have a nanny who also does full days on half terms, stays with them when they are sick, does the occasional weekend or late night as well. If i went with other options I would have to spend time booking clubs etc which I know a lot of people do but I already work so much I don’t want to add another thing on my list

That’s quite common when DC are young? London and elsewhere. It’s like this has suddenly come as a surprise to you.

I love in London in a four bed house and our council tax is about £150 a month. I've heard council tax is much more expensive outside of London.

Because that’s how much full time childcare costs for two children in London?

We were paying £1200 month for 8am-6pm three days a week when DS was 4 in 2021, so would have been £2000 full time.

If you need extended hours to cover a commute, you need more than 50 hours of childcare per week. That is not cheap.

Yes its a 2 bed flat in north London.

can your younger one go to a nursery that opens until 6 and your school kid go to after school club? Think that might be cheaper than a nanny. If you are going to say you finish later than 6 then I think you need to look at jobs with shorter hours.

If this isn't a wind up, I'm guessing you live in a fancy Zone 3 area like Highgate or Belsize Park or Wimbledon, where a two-bed flat can be as high as £650k. So your figures would make sense then. Once your kids are at school and those nursery fees are gone, London will be far more affordable!

Can you go part interest only on the mortgage/ extend the term, at least until the worst of the childcare years are over? Based on the fact that you will be in a good position to overpay/ make it up in later years?

You have huge outgoings. But the mortgage is a form of savings and in London those savings will have a significant return. You also have £1700 a month AFTER you have paid for everything including food so you are doing well. It is more usual to only have about £2500 a month BEFORE you pay for housing, food, bills. You already have considerably more spare than the average household. Shortly your DC will be in school and you will only need wraparound care and you will have another £3000 a month to add to the money available for optional spending. It's really hard to see what the problem is.

My council tax is £150 in London

My mortgage however is now £3,200 for a 2 bed flat - for context it was £1200 a couple of years ago 🤦‍♀️

Childcare is the KILLER though

I've no idea why anyone would think this is a wind up, there are church mice with more money than me now

£46000 a year for the nanny, does and she doesn't work during the day in term time? Just after school and full days for half term and holiday?

All this.

Well, every day is a school day. I really didn't know that

My council tax is £150 in London

thats cheap

small town int he midlands and council tax band d will be over £220 a month

Many London boroughs have low council tax. Westminster and Wandsworth, notably.

We're in a 3-bed semi-detached house in north London and our council tax is £240. OP's is low because she lives in a two-bed flat. We're also in one of the more expensive boroughs. A lot of them have much cheaper CT levels.

My concern is that I don’t think I can cut back on anything without severely affecting my sanity. I can’t drop the cleaner, I have no time to clean the flat which with 2 little kids is in an absolute state.. I am trying to be mindful of the food bill, but I also don’t have time to shop around for bargains. Everything else is a set cost, for childcare I could look at other options but this will affect us by not having the ad hoc help we have now

I'm not sure about that. We are a four bed house in London and pay about £150 a month.

How old are your kids? How long have you got until they're at school?

No, I understand completely that you're paying for convenience - it all costs more when you're outsourcing it.

The good thing is that, as many posters point out, this is temporary. The costs will decrease when you're able to let go of the nanny and use wraparound care.

I'm not going to say which borough we're in but it is one of the more expensive ones when it comes to CT, because it's one of the poorest and requires higher contribution to social care, etc.

Easily could be more. I live in a not particularly flash part of z3 south London (certainly not anywhere as nice as the areas you mention) and the most expensive 2 bed flat listed is £950k. Several over £700k.

yes, its 20% more expensive for council tax in the north than in London

I think you really need to question your career choices if you think you won’t have time to book after school and holiday clubs. If you don’t want the hassle, keep the nanny but you have to pay for it.

I'm in z4. Childcare is a fucker.

I was looking at houses in Oxfordshire today, we could theoretically move there, h relocate his job (teacher), I could commute the once every couple of weeks to London that I need to do.

We could sell our two bed terrace, buy a 5 4 bed and have money left over.

Aging parents ate holding us back.