Cost of living in UK

[hairy_hats]

LazyKancha wrote:

in the range of 40000 pounds anually.(So low!)

:wtf: Low? Wish I got £40K a year for doing Software Development. But then again, you couldn't pay me enough to live in London. X|

[R Giskard Reventlov]

The trick is not to live in central London. There are guys in my office that commute from Portsmouth, Birmingham, Northampton, Brighton etc, etc, where the cost of living is much lower but they still earn London money. Granted their commute is horrendous but that's a choice they've made. I live in the suburbs so my commute is a little eeasier (45 minutes) but that's balanced by paying more for my housing. The best 'wages' will be in the banking/financial sectors and best of all on front office development. However, that is highly pressured with long hours and you would require cojones of steel to get through the day. Again, a personal choice. As someone else mentioned (Anna?) the best money is as a contractor but, again, that has to be balanced by other considerations; ie you have to provide for your own health care, pension, holidays, etc. There is certainly a buzz to working in the City (of London) and there are (according to my agent and who believes them anyway?) lots of jobs at decent rates. www.merrens.com
www.bkmrx.com

[J4amieC]

Yes, the most I ever earnt in a permanent development position was £55,000 and that was hugely overpaid for the particular market. Even £40K is a good salary in the UK, most normal office jobs run in the £18-30K range - so you will be about as well off as newly qualified Lawyers, newly qualified doctors etc. However, contracting has earnt me ~20% more, but ive only been doing it 6 months and not had a tax bill yet :-|

[V 0]

LazyKancha wrote:

40000 pounds anually.(So low!)

:omg: 40000£ ~= 60000€ and you call that low? I earn +- 24000€ a year WITHOUT taxes (-10000€ taxes included). Ok, I admit, UK is expensive and I have on plus a lot of extras (car, fuel card, insurances, ...) but still... But on the other, my sister now works in London for a year, she said to me, that the britains look poor, mainly because of the high living cost. Coulda, woulda, shoulda doesn't matter if you don't.

[Colin Angus Mackay]

LazyKancha wrote:

I am a developer, with 2.5 years experience in .NET, C++ and COM. What will be my worth there?

Outside of London you could probably expect £25K - £30K. But remember - the further from London, the cheaper the cost of living.

LazyKancha wrote:

will I be able to live on the salary and also save enough?

If you are careful, then yes.

LazyKancha wrote:

I will be alone now, but will I be able to support my family afterwards?

There are people I work with that manage (and live in Edinburgh). Obviously it helps if your future partner is working too.

LazyKancha wrote:

A Manchester United Fan

You may find living in or near Manchester a bonus. ColinMackay.net Scottish Developers are looking for speakers for user group sessions over the next few months. Do you want to know more?

[HakunaMatada]

Thanks.... :) --- With best regards, A Manchester United Fan The Genius of a true fool is that he can mess up a foolproof plan!

[jonathan15]

I live on the North Wales coast and the pay for IT jobs here is really bad, £25K is a VERY good wage (i am not anywhere near that BTW) but the cost of living is a lot lower than London area. It is still difficult sometimes (unexpected bills like replacing the heating oil tank at £1000 cause minor periods of stress) and my wife works also so that helps. In the UK the tax burdon is huge: Income tax, national Insurance (another tax), Council tax, High water rates, Tax on fuel, tax on beer, tax on tax. You get the picture. BUT as someone else mentioned you do get reasonable conditions, the minimum holiday entitlement is 20 days and Bank holidays are usually (but sometimes not) added on to this, also many places have extra fixed days for things like Christmas so it can work out to about 30 days holiday a year. There is the NHS so no need for health insurance (though i would recomend it if you can as the NHS is falling apart). So its a mix of good and bad really. If you can work in the city (Much Higher pay) and live in the country (much lower cost of living). Jon

[RichardGrimmer]

What makes you think that 40k is LOW??!?!?!?!?....MY GOD!!!!! How much are you earning at the moment? As a developer, I earn up to 3 TIMES what my friends earn! "Now I guess I'll sit back and watch people misinterpret what I just said......" Christian Graus At The Soapbox

[R Giskard Reventlov]

Decent contract rates are now between 450-600 per day in the city, depending on skills and experience. JobServe[^] You do the math... www.merrens.com
www.bkmrx.com

[HakunaMatada]

RichardGrimmer wrote:

What makes you think that 40k is LOW??!?!?!?!?....MY GOD!!!!! How much are you earning at the moment? As a developer, I earn up to 3 TIMES what my friends earn!

No. I meant its low by living standards in the UK. As, I told you, 40K p.a. roughly comes to 2400 p.m with tax cuts and some have posted that an apartment costs 2000 pounds. That was what I was talking about. Now, if an apartment costs 2000 pounds then is 2400 p.m. sufficient? That was what I was talking about. :) --- With best regards, A Manchester United Fan The Genius of a true fool is that he can mess up a foolproof plan!

[Wags]

For IT pay: Check out Computer Weekly. They advertise IT jobs and have a job search page. (http://www.computerweekly.com/Jobs/Search.aspx[^]) You'll notice that the pay is very much dependent on where you live in the UK. I love London but would (probably) never live there; just too expensive. I live in the Midlands (Derby) - and probably live for half the amount I would in central London. £40k is reasonable up here (for my job) but not in London. (It depends on what you do.)

[hairy_hats]

Here in Cornwall we have the lowest average wages in the UK and among the highest house prices (and rising). Petrol is also dear and we also have to put up with being swamped by tourists ever summer (not sure why, it usually rains). I stay for the scenery and cos it's my homeland. :-)

[James Simpson]

Guildford is a 45 minute commute into waterloo and a nice 2 bedroom will rent for £700-800 per month + £200 Train fees to london, £120 council tax, £30 telephone + broadband, £30 Mobile telephone £40 sky (maybe!) £30-50 gas electricity + water, £12 tv liscense £12 insurance 4 pints of beer £12 (say 16 pints a month £48) a pizza in somewhere like pizza express probably about £15, food bills who knows how much you eat :) £70 per week probably sounds ok So, I would say that £2300 after tax is ok to live on if your working in london and commuting from somewhere like guildford. If you are a beer monster, then you may find your savings being sucked away very quickly! James Simpson Web Developer imebgo@hotmail.com P S - This is what part of the alphabet would look like if Q and R were eliminated
Mitch Hedberg

[Shaun Wilde]

Do not believe all you read on jobserve - experience of the contract market is that 50% of these jobs are agent CV phishing expeditions or a client has asked an agent to just check when they are in the planning phase and the actual job just vanishes as quick as it appeared.

There are 10 sorts of people in this world. Those who understand binary and those that don't.
www.many-monkeys.com

[Johnny]

Well, I'm not sure where you are from to think that 40K is low, but it seems pretty good in most places in the world, and double the average US and UK salary. Contrary to what everyone else here seems to be saying, you can live in London on half that wage (I know, I've done it!) and still have a great quality of life (without any noodles too). Sure it helps if you have more, but the majority of Londoners manage on less. Living outside London reduces your expenses, but generally also reduces the wage. It all really depends on your requirements (family, age, lifestyle etc). Living in another country is a great experience, so I'd recommend it no matter how tight money is!

[Lost User]

Go to Rightmove[^], this website lets you look around the country for properties for sale and to let (rent). Remember to ask about areas within cities as they vart a lot. Elaine :rose: The tigress is here :-D

[Colin Angus Mackay]

James Simpson wrote:

£120 council tax

Council tax is cheap in Guildford! I pay £134 with a single occupancy discount. It would be ~£170 otherwise.

James Simpson wrote:

£30-50 gas electricity + water

That's cheap. I pay £85 just for Gas + Electric. ColinMackay.net Scottish Developers are looking for speakers for user group sessions over the next few months. Do you want to know more?

[Giles]

Depends where you live. 5 miles out of central London, would expect to be paying ~£1200 a month for a 1 bed flat that is okay. Food, I normally spend £300-£400 a month. Entertainment, well that depends on what you like. If you have a penchent for strippers then its going to get fairly pricey. A car and fuel is expensive. Tube tickets for zone 1-3 (~5 mile, ~30 minute radius) is about £100 a month. And council tax and the rest. Adds up. I'm guessing you are going to totally under estimate how much is costs to live here. Obviously you can spend a lot less than this if you want to by sharing a larger flat etc.

[Anna Jayne Metcalfe]

True in some cases, but such posts aren't that common. They are also very specialised, and likely to be highly pressured. More typical rates in the SouthEast/SouthWest are £25-£35/hour. That's a big difference - especially as these figures are gross rather than net. Anna :rose: Currently working mostly on: Visual Lint :cool: Anna's Place | Tears and Laughter "Be yourself - not what others think you should be" - Marcia Graesch "Anna's just a sexy-looking lesbian tart" - A friend, trying to wind me up. It didn't work.

[RichardGrimmer]

I see your point - but to put things into context, rental of £2K is ridiculously high compared to the rest of the ~UK....I used to pay £360 / month for a 2-bed, and in my hometown, you're looking at about £700 for a 5-bedroom country cottage in 3 acres of gardens... "Now I guess I'll sit back and watch people misinterpret what I just said......" Christian Graus At The Soapbox