The Challenges of Moving to a New Country...

As many of you know, I am planning to pack up in the fall and move all across the world to London, England. The move is sheduled for mid-September. I have been looking into jobs and apartments and all of the fees associated with moving and man, it's really adding up!

The minimum wage in London is £5.05. Yes, that's right. £5.05. Per hour. Now, people always say, Oh, but that's like making $10 here. Yes it would be like making $10 here, except that I am not here. I am there. A bottle of water that costs $1 costs £1 there. So I am making the equivalent of $5 an hour. Yikes.

Now, most of the minimum wage sales jobs that I've found are paying around £6 to £7 an hour. A little better. Ideally i'd like to find something in my Criminal Justice field, and if I can, most jobs are then paying £9 to £16 an hour - much better. Either way, I cannot bet on finding a great job right away, so I am working on a budget that will allow me to live on minimum wage.

In a perfect world, I'd like to live in my own, little, one-bedroom apartment. I simply cannot afford that (for now), so I will be looking to rent a room from someone. Most apartments in London (in the cheaper areas and no, I haven't checked whether these are in the 'bad' areas of town...yet) are going for between £75 and £125 a week. Some included utilities and council tax, while others don't. Ideally I'd like to find an apartment with wireless internet (I'll be bringing my laptop) and in-house laundry (even if it's coin - saves the trip with my dirty clothes!)

Ideally my job will be close to where I live - maybe even close enough to walk. If it isn't, I'll have to face the hoards that ride the London Tube and Buses. Monthly passes will most likely be my best option should I work full time. Depending on where I live (which zone) and where I work, I'll be paying between £15 to £62 a week for a Tube pass. If I chose to take the buses (they don't run on zones), I'll be paying a very reasonably £12 a week.

I made a couple sample budgets:

If I make £6 an hour; after taxes that will work out to £4.2 an hour.
My monthly take-home pay will be £678, or £168 weekly.

My housing costs would be £100 (including utilities).
I would budget £40 a week on food and groceries.
And I would buy a bus pass for £12 a week.

This brings my weekly difference to a miniscule £16 left for fun. Yikes.
That £16 is left to buy toiletries, entertainment, cab-fare and any other bills, such as cell phone, etc. That is pretty close to unmanageable.

Now, of course, I'm leaving out my savings and 'fun fund'. My savings will be at least $10,000 (roughly £4,800), and my 'fun fund' will be $5,000 (roughly £2,400). I also have another fund to cover my flight there and the VISA fund - hopefully there will be enough left in the bank to cover my eventual flight home. I anticipate using between £500 and £1,000 of my savings to get set-up. This includes hotel/hostel if I don't have an apartment automatically waiting for me, payments for bank accounts, or cell-phone activations, getting around, fees for recruitment agencies, etc, etc. That will leave me with at least £3,000 to cushion my wage and give me a decent standard of living. That will leave me with a monthly ration of £250 to put towards housing costs. Now, in reality, that could cover a portion (if not all) of my rent. However, ideally I'd like to only have to dip into this savings when neccesary.

My 'fun fund' is set aside for all things fun. Things like, hosting friends and family when they visit, admission to events and museums, jet-setting around the country, etc. Monthly it would be £200, but again, I'd like to use it as less as possible.

Now, let's pretend that I'm working at a professional job, earning £12 an hour.
That's £8.4 after taxes (I'm estimating heavily on the taxes in order to not over-budget).
And a weekly take-home pay of £336.

I could, probably, in this situation, afford my own apartment at £200 a week. This is something i'll have to consider. Most likely I'll end up renting a room, since it's easier. I don't have to worry about phone lines, internet, all of that stuff since my roommate will (hopefully) already have that sorted out. But, I may find a nicer room to rent somewhere more central, at, let's say £150 a week.

I would still budget £40 for groceries, but I might throw in the occasional fast-food or restaurant meal at an extra £15.
I also might spring for a Tube pass (which also works on the buses), for, let's say £20 a week.
My cell phone (most likely a pay-as-you-go) would probably cost me around £10 a month, so £2.5 a week.

This brings the difference to a more manageable £60 a week in the positive. The best part, is that I feel as though I could really do that without dipping into my savings at all. The savings could then be used as both an emergency fund, as well as an occasional fun-fund.

All in all, there's a lot of things I'm going to have to consider. I have a feeling that finding a decent apartment will be much easier than finding a decent job, although I am remaining hopeful.

I found this great website called Moving2London, and I really learned so much this morning from it. It is meant for Aussies moving to the UK, but the information regarding the UK works for everyone. I spent part of the afternoon looking at recruiting agencies, and, to my surprise, they have recruiting agencies aimed at Criminal Justice proffesionals! So, my dream of working the field are getting closer.

I am looking for a lot of apartments through facebook as well. Many people in London are advertising apartments, and I think that if I could make a deal while I'm here to have an apartment waiting there would be the best situation. Plus, if I find an appropriate apartment, once the seller and I are in contact, we can both peruse each other's facebook page to get an idea of what we are like - which sometimes, I think, it's a better idea of who you really are than a 15 minutes, face-to-face meeting. We'll see.

If you have any advise, suggestions, contacts, comments, anything!, please post them here! I'd love to hear your thoughts!