Cost of Living in England

[katiekate]

Heya! I'll be moving to Leeds for a year in september. I've been shopping around for costs of living info but I'm getting conflicting reports. My biggest living expense (aside from rent, but i think i will be living in residence so i dont have to worry about monthly payments) is of course, groceries.

Can anyone who lives in Britain ballpark what they spend on groceries per month or week? I'm told things cost twice as much as they do here (Ontario, Canada) BUT the leeds cost of living info i found would put UK prices just a bit above those of Canada. Maybe I'm just really cheap and don't buy expensive food!!

[pointofnoreturn]

Food is certainly more expensive in the UK than Canada. I think by sticking to Sainsbury's and Tesco's, you'll get by if you budget accordingly.

Here's an useful site for expenses in the UK (also has voucher, coupon codes, train fare saving tips, etc):

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/

[madamtrashheap]

katiekate, to add to PONR's good info, the cost of living in the UK is quite high, particularly rent, groceries and transport. As you might be living in residence that will be a big load off, but you will find grocery prices high and they keep going up so shopping in Tesco and Sainsbury's as PNOR pointed out will help, so too will finding the local weekly farmers market as they sell direct from the producer so are often cheaper. Transport is the other thing that, whilst unavoidable, will eat into your money supply. I don't know how much travelling around the city you'll have too do, and luckily Leeds isn't super huge in that respect, so check out the options (bus, bike, etc) and see what costs you might have to factor in for your stay.

It's correct to say that Leeds is above Canada in terms of COL, and agian this will take into consideration all COL (rent, groceries, etc). A lot of what you hear about prices comes out of London, which is more expensive in terms of general cost of living than other places in the UK (but these are very quickly catching up). A great example of this, though, is the average cost of a pint in London (the great universal benchmark, along with the McD's index!) - GBP2.70 in London compared to about GBP2.00 up north.

[pointofnoreturn]

Ah yes, the McDonald's index... a $3 hamburger = £3 in the UK. Gotta love that.

I do think Leeds is a bit cheaper than London overall but not as much as you would hope for it to be. I do find that the forum link I posted is extremely useful because the majority of the people posting there are UK residents and with the pound being ridiculous (even for them), they're super-helpful with cost saving tips for a wide variety of expenses (groceries, public transport, accommodations, etc).

A bit of a warning though: the forum is quite disorganized so if you're having trouble looking for specific topics, just send me a PM and I can try to point you in the right direction

[crystal]

Hi
Welcome to our little island.

The cost of living is really rising here and is constantly on the news at the minute. You will find a lot of stories about it. But there are some tricks to learn to keep your food bills down.

There are budget supermarkets in the UK that are considerably cheaper than the Big 4 supermarkets (Asda, Morrisons, Tesco, Sainsburys). Look out for Netto, Lidl and Aldi. They do not have the choice you get at other supermarkets but for staples you can't beat them on price.
Also if you choose the Big 4 be aware that they have three different price ranges for their goods - luxery, standard and budget. Supermarkets are very clever at 'hiding' their budget ranges out of your immediate view. You will often find very little difference between the ranges except fancy packaging.

This site compares the prices for the Big 4 for your trolley. You fill up a trolley and it shows you which is the cheapest. This should give you a rough cost of living number.
www.mysupermarket.co.uk

Don't drive if you can help it. The price of petrol/diesel in the UK ranges from £1.15 - £1.30 per litre. They are also talking about putting car tax up soon. Unfortunatly I live in the countryside and would be lost without my car. However in Leeds you should have good public transport.

If you want any UK help PM me and I'll do my best to help you.

[crystal]

Forgot to mention to use the link above you need a UK post code (zip code), because they use it for internet shopping. So just search for the address of something well known (uni?) in the city you are visiting and use that . A post code should look something like AB1 2CD anyone having trouble PM me and I can help you out with this.