All I can say is, people moaning about how expensive the valley is haven't lived in London, especially at today's exchange rate.
A single-floor flat in a house with 3 general rooms, a bathroom and a kitchen (allocate rooms as you like to make bedrooms), in somewhere not terribly appealing (but not nastyville or dangerous either) costs around $2400/m. About 1 hour commute to the city centre via tube. If you want to drive into the city during business hours, it'll cost you $16 just for congestion charge. If you drive a big car (i.e. American-style SUV etc., based on emissions), that'll go up to $50 a day soon enough.
You basically can't get non-fast-food meals for less than $20 a head, to eat something fairly decent will cost quite a bit more.
Every time I visit the valley, I'm amazed at how cheap everything is.
A single-floor flat in a house with 3 general rooms, a bathroom and a kitchen (allocate rooms as you like to make bedrooms), in somewhere not terribly appealing (but not nastyville or dangerous either) costs around $2400/m. About 1 hour commute to the city centre via tube. If you want to drive into the city during business hours, it'll cost you $16 just for congestion charge. If you drive a big car (i.e. American-style SUV etc., based on emissions), that'll go up to $50 a day soon enough.
You basically can't get non-fast-food meals for less than $20 a head, to eat something fairly decent will cost quite a bit more.
Every time I visit the valley, I'm amazed at how cheap everything is.