Cost of Living in London 2024 Edition | Minimum Salary to Live in London | What it actually costs!

£1300 a month on rent is optimistic. I'd say factor in a minimum of £1900 for a furnished 1-bed flat (not including council tax and bills). The value for money you receive in London is shockingly low. Unless you absolutely have to be here for work or family reasons, I see no benefit at all to living here.

As a late 20s, Big Four Accountant in Central London, you can't have it all and will need to adjust and make some sacrifices (unless you're on a 6 figure+ salary): My tips are 1.) House/flat share with 3-4 others to split the bills/move in as a couple in a 1 bed flat 2.) Cook your own meals, WFH if allowed to reduce travel/lunchtime/coffee expenses 3.) Save and don't overindulge regularly on any non-essentials such as designer clothing, latest tech and fine dining 4.) Plan and budget your vacation 6+ months in advance if possible to save on travel and accomodation costs

PLEEASE give us a "what i eat in a day" for that beautiful £25 per week figure. We'd LOVE that! thanks for this video in the meantime xx

Zone 3, 4 (and sometimes 5) have great transport links and can get you to central in less than 20 mins via overground or some rail lines - so if ur a home body who goes out once in a while - save some coin and explore the inner city suburbs!!! It won't be as trendy or young as zone 2 perhaps but there's a lot of culture and "real" people in those areas - especially if your late 20s/early 30's. It's a good place to be if you wanna settle long-term :)

Very good video! I think your estimates seem accurate based on my experience in London. I note that the £43k salary estimate seems to omit EE pension contributions, which most people should be contributing to (at least I hope so!) Assuming 5% contributions, gross salary required would be c.£46k (or £48.5k for those with UK plan 2 student loans).

One more item to consider for entertainment - Theatre! West End and independent shows, musicals, plays, operas, dance and immersive shows are some of the best things London has to offer. I agree w/ you on things like mini golf and adult arcades being super overpriced and just not good enough 😂 but theatre is! I'd say avg. "cheap" ticket for a big show is £40-60 while more premium views can be £100+ but there are tons of smaller theatres with amazing shows for £15-25 tickets. I have never been to a bad show in Southwark Playhouse or Park Theatre in Finsbury Park, but even big hit shows offer some good deals - a few months back I found a last-minute ticket for Wicked for £27. Even if you aren't a theatre person, I promise there will be something for you!

you inspire me sm!! 💕

Thanks for this!!!

Really enjoy ur vids 👍🏿👍🏿

Great video. Thanks for the info

to live comfortably you need to be earning 3400 GBP per month which is like 6541 AUD after tax or 110,000 AUD annually... which is categorized as the top 20% income in Australia... how can low to medium-income earners survive in London... that is insane.

thanks a lot. this is really appreciated :)

love these kind of videos 🤑🙏🏻

totally agree with the costs!

Hi Monica, thank you for such an informative video! I started following you last year when I decided to move to London and now it's finally happening. 🎉 Thanks for reading my mind and uploading this as I was really wondering if I'd be able to live comfortably with my salary in London this year. Also, if you're open to meeting a new friend soon, please let me know. ☺️

Thank you for saying the part about being realistic about where you want to rent at the end. I feel like a lot of people ruin it at this step. In my opinion, as a young person who either wants to travel a lot OR save a lot (ideally both) this is possible so long as you cheap out on your accommodation. Whether that is staying with parents if that’s an option or staying in a house share - these are your best moves. Worst comes to worse you rent the cheapest 1 bed/studio you can find but you definitely can’t have it all (savings,travel nice place) on an average salary 🤷🏾‍♂️ Pick your poison 😅 28:16

I mostly eat fish, fruits, and vegies. I feel like the prices have increased dramatically compared to a few years ago. I think for me its about 100 pounds a week on groceries.

Thanks for the info!

Would love to see your weekly grocery list and how you budget that £25! Also, what was the take home calculator (I’m assuming it’s calculator, though you did say “calendar”) you used?

Great video, very helpful. Just a quick one the end of the video is out of sync with the audio 😢 27:02