How to manage potential new London job

[freshmint]

Hi everyone. It looks like a promotion means my job may be moving from Oxfordshire where I live to Clerkenwell, near Farringdon. Door to door 1hr 50 mins (good day) 2 hours ++ (bad). Crossrail may shave 10 mins off that. A five day/week commute is not really possible as I will go mad and it is such a waste of time and also will have events in the evening. Good news is I will get 12 weeks holiday so only need to do it 9 months a year.

So how do I manage this? Stay in a hotel 2 nights a week? Difficult to do it in central London somewhere clean and secure for less than about £220 a night. And would have to travel with a suitcase all the time. Or do I join a club like RAC and try and stay there? Then have somewhere familiar and nice and about £140-170 per night but will have to book in advance and may not get a room. Or do I rent a 1 bed flat and if so where? Central London is £500-600 pw. Thinking about Crossrail, Stratford and Canary Wharf are fast and close and easy to get to Paddington for journey home. I could get a 1 bedroom modern box there for about £375 pw. But would need to rent all year (but dh and kids could use it too) and pay council tax etc. However I could keep my clothes etc there and not have to carry around a suitcase all the time.

Whichever way I do it it is going to cost me between £20-25k a year I think. I’m not thinking of buying because I think prices are sliding - but maybe not in Stratford?

All thoughts gratefully received. This would be a long term position.

Jojosm2 you also make a good point about amortising stamp duty over a long career... I have another 20 years of work (gulp)

Round and round I go!

I know someone with similar set up. They rent a room in a shared house.

I'd be looking at a room in a shared house. Having run a very quick search for Mon-Fri lets within a 20 min commute of Farringdon Station up to £200pw there are 161 adverts currently live - and the few I clicked on all seem to be people late 30s onwards so not 20-something fresh graduates by any means

www.spareroom.co.uk/flatshare/?search_id=637379458&

Renting a room Mon-Fri would probably work out cheaper than getting a hotel even one night a week, and you'd have the advantage of being able to cook there rather than having to eat out all the time.

Paddington to Farringdon is an easy journey on the circle line. The oxford tube bus service is frequent and cheaper than a train. any type of accommodation will be cheaper further out from London you go so find a mid point from your main home to work drive there find cheap form of lodging and commute in

I used to work for a company who had a company flat for this exact reason. It had several rooms and was free to staff wanting to stay. Have you asked your employer if they do anything similar or more likely if they have any special rates at preferred hotels?

I live in oxon and several years ago was looking at commuting to London for work. Season ticket then was about £10k if I recall correctly.

Most people I know in your situation have commuted on the Monday and worked on the train often arriving at work and bit later and then returning on the Friday, leaving early and again working on the train. Will this be possible for you?

I do a 1.50-2 hr commute 5 days a week from North Kent.

I manage it by:
Working earlier (8-4.30 - I'm on the first train in the morning) - is there any flex to your hours?
Being militant about my working hours, always leave on time, no hanging out in town.
Focussing on the positive (I love my home, love my job, my family all benefit - the travel is merely the price I pay!)
I'm lucky in that the mainline train is the bulk of my journey with only a couple of stops on the tube though, so it can be quite relaxing - I work on the way in and watch Netflix on the way home.
Could you consider Uber/cabs for the London leg? Might be cheaper than hotels+travelcard and take some of the stress out? I've no idea how long that takes in rush hour though!