My settling in costs were as follows:
730 pounds for renting a room in a house share that includes all my bills except the internet (which I pay £10 a month for) I pay £14 a week for an all zones bus pass which I use mostly to travel to school. Groceries are about £60-£80 plus about the same in the amount of times I eat out with friends on weekends.
I live about 2 hours outside of London in Norfolk and it costs about £24 round trip to get to London by train if that something you want to do regularly (sometimes as low as £12).
When I came I had $3000 cash and my rent and deposit took up most of that, so I'd recommend more like $4000 if you can manage just so you feel comfortable. I also brought almost everything I would need with me, I didn't want to be out figuring out how to buy shampoo while attempting to overcome jet lag. Also remember you'll have to buy new things like curling irons, straightners, blow dryers, that set me back like $250 right away (I suppose lots of people can live without these things, I could no)
I hope that gives you some idea. |
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Thanks Meli and Jess -- those figures are a big help and very much appreciated. I will check my finances and maybe set up a special account so I am ready when they are ready.
I was hoping to get a furnished flat, or partially furnished and so hoped not to bring too much with me except clothes and shampoo etc -- the things I like most and as you said, "can't live without". If not, IKEA prices there in UK and in GBP are currently far less expensive than in USD.
Yes, there is a difference in electrical currents there in the UK, but aren't there adapters I could buy and bring with me? Oh dear, does that mean I can't use my US laptop while there -- I'm not sure I can live without that and I don't think I want to spend money to buy a new one, my current laptop is not even a year old. |
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Thanks Meli and Jess -- those figures are a big help and very much appreciated. I will check my finances and maybe set up a special account so I am ready when they are ready.
I was hoping to get a furnished flat, or partially furnished and so hoped not to bring too much with me except clothes and shampoo etc -- the things I like most and as you said, "can't live without". If not, IKEA prices there in UK and in GBP are currently far less expensive than in USD.
Hi Kate,
The black box on electronic items such as your laptop and portable DVD players will protect the device when you use it with an adapter. This is what I use. Unfortunately, items that don't have this built in surge protection are liable to burn out very quickly over here even with the fancy step-down adaptors.
Special note about portable DVD players. The US and Canada are "zone 1" and use NTSE formats which are NOT compatable with the devices available over here because "zone 3" uses PAL format. I was able to purchase a multi-zone portable DVD player fairly inexpensively from Amazon.com before coming over. It has been great for both home and school use...well worth the $100 I paid.
Hope that helps.
Meli |
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| oops...didn't erase all the original. Sooooo sorry all. |
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You can use the American electrical hair appliances, but they will burn out eventually, sometimes quickly, sometimes not, it just depends, they can't handle the extra voltage. I've used mine on vacation, but that was about one week max.
Fully furnished isn't hard to come by in my experience, plus there loads of charity shops to pick up odds and ends from to add your own flair to your room or flat.
Like Meli said your laptop can handle the conversion, some of them even have a switch on them to go between the American and European countries, and you could just buy a plug for your brand of laptop when you arrive. You can get universal DVD players through lots of different places, I haven't bothered, I watch stuff from the library just on my laptop and have found that HMV has good sales on DVD's running often, as low as £3 for stuff that is a bit older and popular like Mean Girls and Pride & Prejudice.
I brought what I'd need to get by in the beginning with shampoo etc, just because if I hadn't I'd have been wandering around attempting to find the city center (which I didn't do successfully for about a week) and then having to lug everything back to my house which is up the only hill in the whole city! I shipped a box of things to myself ahead of time too, spend about 240 dollars for 64ish pounds. |
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