I just moved to the UK and I could definitely use some advice...
 

So, I just moved here to the UK about a week. My company is planning to keep me here for a year, then I will head back home to Los Angeles.

I'm just wondering if anyone can give me some advice on how to get by around here.
Even though the company is helping to pay for many of my expenses, it is still SO damn expensive around here.

Can anyone recommend any good ways to spend a little less in the UK?
I was hoping to get a car, but I dont think that would make sense considering I havent seen any reasonably priced cars and gas is so fucking expensive!

Eating food here can also be fairly expensive...so I've been going to the grocery store and stocking up on all the basic essentials to keep in my fridge.

Basically, I didnt realize what I was getting myself into financially...and now I'm getting a little nervous. So, any advice you guys can offer me would be really great.

Thanks!

move










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Get out of there....

















Now.





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where in the UK? london?

I think they kind of screwed you there, LOL. Did you leave your fiancé at home, too?

Where are you living // where are you working - london is expensive to live in but if you are having to commute to somewhere cheaper that costs money&time too

Can get cheap food from a big supermarket chain like tesco/asda/morrisons - if you are going to a small local grocers prices are inflated

Car
www.autotrader.co.uk
http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/

don't forget the cost of insurance
http://www.gocompare.com/car-insurance/
http://www.comparethemarket.com/car-insurance/

and the tax disc which on some cars is ridiculously expensive

petrols not cheap either

Go to the DHSS and tell them that you are not British, tell them that you feel descriminated against and they will sort you out with a 4 bedroom house and give you loads of cash every week. Its best not to tell then that you are a yank though, put on a east european or a middle-eastern accent.

Stop buying the Daily Mail.

welcome to the land of $10 for a gallon of petrol

You moved to a country without doing any previous research? Good luck, man.

Yeah right. I've had personal experience of how warped the UK welfare is. I was refused help from the local council after i lost everything in a house fire - The same week the local rag reported that 90 houses in my area were being put aside for an expected influx of Afgan refugees. Thats fair isn't it?

It is the councils fault you are to dumb to get house insurance? Sounds like the place would be better off with less people like you and more Afgans :2 cents:

Rented house, the onus was on the landlord who, it turned out had fucked us over. Of cause, all those people who got the 90 houses were fully paid up?

You can and should have still had your contents insured, they insure the house, you insure the content. The fact you didn't makes you even dumber

Maybe if your government hadn't been blowing the shit out of their houses they wouldn't be looking for new ones.

Fact is this, nearly all the "asylum seekers" into the UK are from Afghanistan and Iraq. Is the penny starting to drop now?

just get used to it. Living in the UK is more expensive and that's that :)

yeah, dropped. if Russia bombs the UK then i should go to them to be rehomed and live of their state benefits.

This doesn't help you, but I am pretty sure the UK has the worst food in all of the EU. What makes it even worse, is the awful food is expensive.

Leave if you can asap

You didnt even say where you are, so how can anyone help you? I'm in Glasgow and yes its expensive compared to USA and smaller Euro countries, but nowhere near as expensive as say London.

If you are in London and not making $100k a year, you are in trouble. Life is going to be pretty tough for you. After taxes and rent you will be left with enough money to eat, get to work and maybe buy a few pints of beer per week.

"...hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way..."





.:helpme

I'm a born and bred Londoner who now lives in Los Angeles, and my advice is: get the fuck out of there as soon as you can.

Flee to Thailand...

What, in his time machine? ;)

Living well in the UK is expensive, especially if you live in London. The company who sent you there should be paying your rent.

Unless you really need a car don't buy one. Rent one for the times you do need one. Most big cities have excellent public transport that's far cheaper and faster than a car.

Food is expensive but the quality of it is fine. My Mother, 80+ and diabetic, moved from LA back to London and the diet here helped her blood sugar levels. US processed food is often packed with sugar.

As for the comment of needing $100k to live in London, there are many places in the US I would hate to live in for less.

As someone who lives in a rented house and is too dumb to get his contents insured and then wants the government to pay for him to renew everything, I would say you are far to stupid and lazy ever to get to Russia, I expect you do not even have a passport

:2 cents:

I never said i didnt have contents insurance or said that i expected the government to pay for everything lost but i do expect to be put ahead of immigrants in a situation like that - I dont expect to be told that there is nothing they can do when there are homes laying empty waiting for immigrants that shouldnt be here anyway. People fleeing from persecution are expected to stop at the first safe country and ask for help there, Not jump dozens of safe countries to head for "soft-touch" Britain.
You may think i'm lazy and dumb but thats nothing compaired to my opinion of you.

I don't have any real advice but I'm jealous because you can finally shop at decent grocery stores now. Enjoy Marks & Spencer:)

#1 would be to ask your employer for a pay raise.

As another poster suggested, if you want to live cheaply, then Thailand rocks. Lived there for 2 years, love the place.

The UK will be getting more and more expensive very soon with the new budgetary measures of the new government.

Australia is a reasonable place to live.

yes but you can't have small tits there :p

Not as many offers of a happy ending in Oz either :1orglaugh

A good way to make money in London is to chase foxes in the middle of the town.
With the fur you can make a lot of money (note that i have the same phenomena here, but here foxes have all parasites, so it's dangerous)

advice - in one word for my friend.......NETTO'S

No way does the UK have the worse food in the EU, You must have been watching films from the 70's or something.

I've lived all over Europe, and you can get so much more variety in the UK than anywhere else. You just need to know where and how.

Worse food in EU my pick would be Netherlands. But then again with the ethnic diversity of the country you can still find good stuff.

What part, I spent a few years there and did so on a budget. Even then it's expensive.

Despite it's reputation Netto is not cheap.

Aldi is where it's at my friend. Home Bargains too if you want brand name stuff, not sure if you have that down south though.

Oh and the whole immigrant thing...

It's fiction mate. I used to work for the DSS and there isn't any protocol to prioritise immigrants over citizens, it's pure bullshit fed to you buy the papers and the BNP, but most people lap it the fuck up.

If you come here off a boat illegal then you have no right to housing benefit, dole etc. In fact you'll get deported unless you're from a country we don't deport to (for good reasons) like Somalia. Then you're stuck in a void where you can't actually work legally and you can't sign on either. So your choices are selling the big issue or working illegally.

More recently, since I left, my brother has told me that there are another set of hoops to jump through, they've got to learn English now to be able to claim anything. If they fail then it's back on the black.

Seems to only be from Milton Keynes upwards.

uk is expensive, deal with that.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

people moved to the 'new world' on glorified wooden dingys in the thousands.. i guess he missed the memo lol

That's great news they should have the same law here in the USA. Hey what about an IQ test before they let you drive on the roads here :thumbsup That would remove 50% of the drivers and cut down on accidents :thumbsup

If you live in London you can get some of the best cuisine in the world around Neal Street, but you will pay for it ! What people should understand is that pay rates in the UK are way higher than the USA, this makes it easier to deal with higher prices. Gas has always been extortionate due to the governments huge tax on Petrol

London. You know: fish, chips, cup 'o tea, bad food, worse weather, Mary fucking Poppins... LONDON.

Anything to declare?

Yeah. Don't go to London.