Are you going to be getting charged income tax / NI on that? If so it's probably not possible without a part time job on the side. I used to make make 25 grand which after taxes boiled down to about 18,000 and I didn't starve. I had to share a flat with a bunch of lunatics but other than that it was OK. London probably hasn't got any cheaper over the last few years, though.
I earn somewhere in the 30s in London, I manage to save a few hundred a month and go on reasonably extravagant holidays (outside of Europe for a few weeks twice a year) and do have the occasional bit of fun.
That said like the other poster I am in a flat share, I walk to most places and I very rarely drink. Wouldn't change it for the world either, it's expensive because people want to live here because it's fucking interesting.
>>13342 I'm not really too bothered what anybody else has to say, it's a matter of fact. Brain drain from the region's, the second most visited city on the planet etc.
There's a reason it's not Doncaster that suffers obscene rents.
I'd say you could just about survive and have a cheap one at the pub a couple times a month. This is based on my own budget minus any savings, fags, what a friend pays on her flatshare and dating. Keep in mind that you will be dipping into your overdraft as you effectively have no flexibility.
The thing is, you'll be skint and beside farting about Tate Modern for the nth time you may as well be living somewhere nice. Getting a PhD from LSE may sound good but somewhere comparable like St Andrews will give you a much better quality of life.
It says something (although I'm not sure what) about a city when you have to be earning 50k+ to feel comfortable renting your own place, and even then you end up shelling out almost half your take-home on rent+council tax.
When I moved out of London and my rent dropped by 2/3rds my overall quality of life changed radically. It's amazing what you can do with an extra grand a month in your pocket.
I think you've got the nail on the head there, mate. I'm currently doing my Master's full-time but found the hours to
also work part time 50%, and am just about making ends meet. Though I live in an "interesting" city, I really haven't had much of a chance to enjoy it since blowing through my savings.
There's something especially suffocating about a lack of money, knowing you can't even pop into a cafe and get a coffee.
Problem is, my field is really very much concentrated in London. The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine is something of a Mecca for my kind of research, though there is also Oxford and Liverpool.
StAndrews is ludicrously expensive to live in considering it's in the arse end of nowhere. All foreign money and tourism and student housing demands piled into one tiny town.
>>13345 It does say something and I agree. I moved from a very cosy 30k job in the north where I had a huge flat, a car, and I was bored every weekend. Nothing really happens that stimulated me in the same way it does here. Also, if you're in your 20s, no kids, and can wait a few years to settle into mundane boredom where the neighbours getting an unsightly new door colour is the big talk then what do you have to lose by trying it?
In many ways despite earning more money, my quality of life has shrunk massively, but I'm still happier and London is popular for a reason as I said. These people aren't desperate to get to Doncaster.
I don't want to turn this into a London cunt off but I spent years avoiding London because of the same types of comments I'd see online like in this thread that made me feel I'd be miserable and unhappy. It's the complete opposite, £1.50 on a bus and there's always something happening.
I'm soon gonna be hitting that 50k+ mark and i know for a fact I would dream of hitting it in my 40s if I was not in London, so you have to factor in that cost of living accounts for the fact there are many more high paid jobs.
Lad - get on spareroom, ask on /r/askuk for other PHD students doing similar and see what it realistically looks like and be honest with yourself about what sort of luxuries you can and can't live without.
>>13350 > Also, if you're in your 20s, no kids, and can wait a few years to settle into mundane boredom where the neighbours getting an unsightly new door colour is the big talk then what do you have to lose by trying it?
Absolutely. Having been born there I always encouraged people to give London a try at least once in their 20s but (at least for me) once I hit my thirties and became a bit of a boring cunt the cost/benefit ratio stopped paying off. I was happier to have a bit more money in my pocket and be able to spend it on eating out and foreign travel.
