[evilking]

I agree London is definitely (and thankfully) not England. The further you move away from London, the less I'd recommend moving to England. I grew up in London (Wembley) then lived in a few other towns/cities for study/work, I moved back in the last couple years and I've never been happier. As a non-white person, I wouldn't recommend England to many, though London gets two thumbs up from me...


Also, I hope you know what £55-60K looks like after Tax, N.I. and pension is deducted. That salary can give an incredible comfortable life if you make wise financial decisions. Obviously that's true in any country but so many people make truly idiotic decisions with their money simply because they see themselves as on a higher income bracket. £55,000 quickly becomes £38-39K after income tax and N.I., take off £1600 for council tax, £1000 for gas and electric, £200 for water, a quick property search for 3 bedroom houses to rent gave £900-£1200 per month (very rough estimate, don't hold me to it

) so lets say £14K for the year, we're down to about £21000 worse case. You mentioned TV/broadband/phone above so lets say £720 (£60 month), that vonage thing £120, the car is upto you. I've never used a car sharing service and renting a car for two years is insane, so might as well buy one. Don't forget road tax (£125), insurance, MOT and servicing, none of which can be estimated without knowing the car. Groceries cannot be estimated either, nobody but you knows how you eat, bathe, clean etc, so I'll leave that open. We're down to about £20K excluding car/shopping. I can't think of anything else right now, you should know how much you spend, but with all this baby talk most of that remaining £20K will probably be spent/saved on him/her/them, no?

EK

 

[pcf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by evilking /img/forum/go_quote.gif a quick property search for 3 bedroom houses to rent gave £900-£1200 per month (very rough estimate, don't hold me to it. EK

Great detailed break down!
I think renting a 3 bedroom house in London would cost more than your estimate though. I have a house in north London that has been rented out for the last 10 years so I am still up-to-date with the housing market there. In a decent area in London you are looking at close to 2000 pounds a month for a 3 bedroom house.
If you want to buy a 3 bed house in London, you need pay at least 350,000 pounds in a modest area (like Wood Green). Half a million pounds if you want to be in a better location.
Money can go very quickly there.

 

[Clutz]

Just a quick reply before bed: We're not going to live in London, or even Oxford. I'm planning to live in one of the smaller surrounding towns and then taking transit in. I've done some looking online and I think I can find a two to three bedroom in the 700-900£ range. We're definitely not going to buy a car, it's just not worth it for the length of time we're going to be there for.

Anyway, time for me to hit the sack, but I'll give a more detailed reply tomorrow.

Thanks all, I appreciate it.

 

[evilking]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clutz /img/forum/go_quote.gif Just a quick reply before bed: We're not going to live in London, or even Oxford. I'm planning to live in one of the smaller surrounding towns and then taking transit in. I've done some looking online and I think I can find a two to three bedroom in the 700-900£ range. We're definitely not going to buy a car, it's just not worth it for the length of time we're going to be there for. Anyway, time for me to hit the sack, but I'll give a more detailed reply tomorrow. Thanks all, I appreciate it.

That's a good idea, but make sure you check the actual route at http://www.travelinesoutheast.org.uk just enter the street/postcode of the rented house and oxford university. It covers both trains and buses, and will generally be the most accurate. Check the earliest time you can get to work and the latest time you can leave, and if you need to come in on weekends. I remember having to turn down a job because I couldn't get into Milton Keynes early enough for a mandatory Sunday shift.

A reasonably recent (06-07) used car can be had for just £5-6K, and can be sold without much loss if/when you leave, so it may make a lot of sense. Insurance on <2 litre cars is usually pretty reasonable, maybe £3-350.



EK

 

[Lenni]

Something else you may want to consider is staying in a B&B for a start. I’m sure there’re a few pretty B&B in/around Oxford that’d be happy to do weekly or even monthly rates. This gives you the opportunity to talk to locals, check newspapers, and go see the places yourself etc., instead of renting outright from the US, and getting stuck in long term contracts like it or not. Just a thought. definitely need a car – buy it, rent it, whatever – not an option

Personally when I think of England the word BOSE comes to mind – overhyped, overprized, that’s it. heh

 

[DanielCox]

There are regular bus services to Oxford from most towns in that area. Didcot has a rail connection too.

 

[Clutz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by evilking /img/forum/go_quote.gif That's a good idea, but make sure you check the actual route at http://www.travelinesoutheast.org.uk just enter the street/postcode of the rented house and oxford university. It covers both trains and buses, and will generally be the most accurate. Check the earliest time you can get to work and the latest time you can leave, and if you need to come in on weekends. I remember having to turn down a job because I couldn't get into Milton Keynes early enough for a mandatory Sunday shift.

That's an excellent suggestion, thank you. I had been planning to use Google Maps for that function, your your suggestion looks like it works much better. As long as the weather is good, and the distance isn't too great, I am planning on trying to bike in as much as possible. I love riding- good way to get exercise, inexpensive, and I'm not beholden to the bus / train schedules.

Quote:

Originally Posted by evilking /img/forum/go_quote.gif A reasonably recent (06-07) used car can be had for just £5-6K, and can be sold without much loss if/when you leave, so it may make a lot of sense. Insurance on <2 litre cars is usually pretty reasonable, maybe £3-350.

I'll take a look at that, too. Right now we have a fairly small car (Pontiac Sunfire with a 2.0 L engine) and I'm quite satisfied with it. Do you have any suggestions as to where to look at prices for used cars online for the Oxford area?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lenni /img/forum/go_quote.gif Something else you may want to consider is staying in a B&B for a start. I’m sure there’re a few pretty B&B in/around Oxford that’d be happy to do weekly or even monthly rates. This gives you the opportunity to talk to locals, check newspapers, and go see the places yourself etc., instead of renting outright from the US, and getting stuck in long term contracts like it or not.

That's a really good suggestion, except that we have a dog and a cat that we will be bringing with us, and I doubt that B&Bs will be thrilled to have two animals with us. Another possibility might be that I'll move over first (flying), find a place and rent it, and then have my wife come over two weeks later on a cruise ship (so that we don't have to put the animals in a cargo hold of a plane- where bad things can happen to them). I've already looked into this too, and it's doable as well.

There are relatively new rules about bringing pets into the United Kingdom that are much easier than previous rules. If your dog has a rabies vaccine that is current (< 1 year & > 2 months), and the dog is microchipped, and you get a notarized letter from your vet stating that your dog, with this microchip has been vaccinated, you can bring them in without the quarantine, or so the UK government has told me. The cat is basically the same- just different vaccines. Both of our animals are microchipped and vaccinated, so we should be fine there.


Quote:

Just a thought. definitely need a car – buy it, rent it, whatever – not an option

I think we could probably live without a car- at least we could in Saint Paul or in our old city of Vancouver, and I'm not thrilled about the idea of buying another car, but it may be a necessity. I'll ask some of the people at my new potential employee about that if/when I hear about the fellowship I've applied for.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanielCox /img/forum/go_quote.gif There are regular bus services to Oxford from most towns in that area. Didcot has a rail connection too.

Didcot was actually one of the places I'd been looking at.

Along those lines, does anyone have a suggestion for a good online house rental search engine? Ideally, we'd want to rent something furnished, since we'll be putting most of our things in storage. We don't actually have a lot of stuff that we care about. I'd be perfectly happy to sell our beds and our old couch. We're using the kitchen and dining room table from the house that we rented, so other than books, music, and electronics I don't have a lot I care about. I'd like to be able to bring my big screen TV with me (46" plasma), but I don't think that'll be practical- particularly when we'll be going from 120V to 220V. I'd also like to bring my bike, since I"m rather fond of it, but again- it probably doesn't make sense to do that. Those things will probably just go into storage.

 

[ls20]

i cant remember the device, but there is a settop box you can hook up to your television source (cable, satellite, antenna, etc), and also to a web connection

then you can remotely, through an internet-enabled laptop or another settop box, tune in and watch programming as if you were home.

the device cost no more than 200$ -- you could hook this up to a family or friend's tv source back at home.


im thinking about doing the same thing, to catch rest of college football season, as im also transferring to cambridge for a short-term work assignment

 

[Sherwood]

^^
Slingbox.

 

[Uncle Erik]

Brad, the brother of one of my close friends (and expat) is a driving instructor over there. Great guy. If you make the move, PM me and I'll set you up with him for lessons.

 

[Bob_McBob]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sherwood /img/forum/go_quote.gif An American passport is a wonderful thing, to be sure.

So are Canadian and British passports...

 

[Clutz]

Just for the record? You guys kick ass!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ls20 /img/forum/go_quote.gif i cant remember the device, but there is a settop box you can hook up to your television source (cable, satellite, antenna, etc), and also to a web connection then you can remotely, through an internet-enabled laptop or another settop box, tune in and watch programming as if you were home. the device cost no more than 200$ -- you could hook this up to a family or friend's tv source back at home. im thinking about doing the same thing, to catch rest of college football season, as im also transferring to cambridge for a short-term work assignment

and

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sherwood /img/forum/go_quote.gif ^^ Slingbox.

ftw! I was thinking about that as a possibility. Does anyone have any experience with how well this works? Are my friends/family going to hate me for all the bandwidth I'm stealing? I don't have any family in the US, so I'd have to find a friend who'd do it. I think I know just the person!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik /img/forum/go_quote.gif Brad, the brother of one of my close friends (and expat) is a driving instructor over there. Great guy. If you make the move, PM me and I'll set you up with him for lessons.

Thanks Erik, I'll add that to my list 'o notes about moving to England.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob_McBob /img/forum/go_quote.gif So are Canadian and British passports...

Being a Canadian, and given the recent behaviour of the Canadian government intervening on behalf of Canadians abroad, I gotta say - British passport or American passport ftw.