[marchee]

Im arriving in London from Australia in March on a two year working visa.Im a little concerned of the cost of accomdation and generall living expense of living in London.I have a sales background and looking at getting a job in sales,customer service,call centre or whatever will pay the bills and try save for more travelling..is this possible in London to actually save ??and would anyone recommend any places to live close to London that is affordable in anyway.

Any help or advice from somone who done it before be a great help

Marcheee

[musicdisciple]

Why London? If I ever get back to the UK to live my first choice for cities would be Cardiff, then maybe Manchester or Birmingham or Salisbury or Southampton. Part of that's because of where I have friends, but really think about getting away from London.

[massagelondon]

you can find work and accomodation in London while still in Australia.

check tnt.com and gumtree.com

Yes, if you have a job it's possible to save some money

[Tim Uden]

If I went back to live and work in the UK my first choice would be Sheffield but I would also consider Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle, Salisbury, Bristol and Glasgow.

Rent in all these cities is cheaper than London but that doesn't neccessarily make it a cheaper place for a traveller to move into. London's big advantage is that it is full of other backpackers on a working holiday and there are plenty of opportunities to share a flat with around 20 other travellers. When you share with so many other people it works out so much cheaper compared with a regular flat share arrangement where you get an entire room to yourself.

London also has a much bigger selection of hostels with some of them offering relatively affordable long term rates. This just makes it a much easier city to establish yourself in.

Compare this to Birmingham (NO hostels), Bristol (2 hostels), Leeds (NO hostels), Newcastle (1 hostel), Salisbury (2 hostels), Glasgow (8 or 9 hostels) and Sheffield (no hostels but two hostels in nearby Hathersage).

Although London is easier to get started in, in the long run it will be cheaper to live in another big British city. Also in London it is very easy to get caught up in the travellers' world were you eat, drink and work with other Aussie, Kiwi and South African backpackers. This is fun from time to time but it can be dissapointing leaving London after two years without really meeting any locals. If you went up to Birmingham or Sheffield you would certainly feel like you have experienced living in England as a local.

London has a lot more things to see and do than any other English city. But you're not going to be doing these things every week once you start working so you may as well work elsewhere and come down to London on weekends. Megabus and National Express now have £1 fares to London from most big English cities.

[marchee]

Thanks for the feedback guys.why london??i guess due to many mates in aus coming back living from London and just having a great time living at places like earls court etc...most ppl are are saying that north is the best place to live and exprience it all..is there much work in those areas???
im cuming over in two weeks cant wait...

[holidayhayley]

Hey,

I lived in london in 2000 for about 6 months and loved it!!

General rules for accommodation...don't stay below the river, don't stay near - seven sisters, and try and avoid the east as it is on the lite rail network.

We stayed in Kensington - which was great - earls court is very much a backpakers place but is very safe area. Also I thought shepards bush wasn't bad, or notting hill area too.

We got our accom through the TNT, also got my job through there too it is unreal!! You pick it up for free at most stations - definitely earls court and picadilly circus.

Good luck, you'll love it!! see ya!!

[marchee]

Thanks for comments hayley.much appericated yeah im really looking foward to coming over sand living in uk
how long till you started work when u got there??
did u live in any other areas besides london while in uk u liked??

[HilkaryIC]

I lived in London for 5 months back in 2002 and had a wonderful time. I lived in a nice flat in Queens Park, which has its nice streets. Its relativly easy to find somewhere to live, but make sure you are comfortable in that place when you find it. I had an uneasy feeling about our land lady when we sign our lease, she turned out to be a crack dealer and we had he customers knocking on our door at all hours of the night. The nice thing about Queen's Park was that the bus service was very good. This may not seem that important, if you think you'll be on the tube all the time, but when tube strikes happen (5 times when I was there) and when its late at night and the tube is closed, having a good bus is very important. Also find a neighborhood with a large cheap grocery store, this way it is more convienent to buy food and cook it insteed of going out. The closest Large grocery store was a very long walk, and it was so hard to get the food back to our flat once we got it.

[holidayhayley]

I had a really easy time finding work (dec). I applied for jobs the monday, did two days temping on thursday and friday and started my job on the monday. It was great. (just a PA/reception - but good money and at bond street station)

My friend got her job in two weeks.

As for finding accom, we got a one bedroom in Kensington with 3 girls in it for 200 pound a week. It was ok, in the basement, not glam but great location!And 65 pound was do-able for us.

There are many travellers houses where you have your own room and then all share facilities looked at one which looked good but location wasn't as good.

You'll be fine though, Earls court would be the best place to look! Very safe and loads of travellers also excellent location!!

[holidayhayley]

Sorry almost forgot, if you are after pub work it is really easy to find and usually live in. We worked in scotland for 10 weeks as housemaids in a hotel.

They interview on the phone, and guarantee a job when you get there. No experience necessary. We worked right on loch lomond. It was 100 pound a week in the hand, plus tips of about 20 pound. You get all meals and accom included, and casue it was in the middle of nowhere you spent no money. We saved 900 pounds in ten weeks!

Anyway, thats just another option if you are interested in that.

Good luck, am very jealous. I would love to do a working holiday again but my boyfriend loves his job too much, and won't quit! So have to settle for a 6 week holiday.

[JD]

I think the biggest trap in London is the Pub culture, that can really burn a hole in your travel funds so avoid them during the week!

[JD]

Oh yeah dont forget that if you live fairly central to London you have a choice of 4 or 5 airports within 30min travel to take cheap flights anyware in Europe and if your living in Wales or outside London it gives you more travel to travel sort of thing!

It has its ups and down !

[sporto]

I was hoping somebody could help me. Is there such as place as Nation Bank in Manchester? I have an address of 7 peel avenue trafford centre manchester united? I was wondering if this bank exists and how I can contact it. Thank You

[Osbourne]

Hello Everyone! I would like to move to london with my Firend, but I need a little help. We need a place, where we can sleep for a few days. But not like Hotels or motels, becouse they are too expensive for us. We need something like a shared-rental, or something like that. It would be nice, if you can help us. Thank you!