House sharing in London is notoriously expensive, so you and your newfound mates are going to need not one – but many – tricks up your sleeves to make it happen. Money saving tips for House Shares:
1. Convert Your Living Room
If you want to raise a large amount of money from your flat or house each month, it could be time to say bye to your cosy living room. If you’re okay without it, you could convert it into an extra bedroom and then split the income it generates from renting it out between you and your housemates.
Just make sure you’re happy without the communal space – once you’ve put a bed in there, you’re not getting the room back.
2. Get Cycling
Public transport in the UK is expensive by European standards. For example, a joint TUC and Action for Rail report explains that a British worker on an average salary of £27,200 would spend £391 per month on a monthly season ticket from Brighton to London. Comparatively, a similar distance in France would equate to 12% of their salary, 9% in Germany and 6% in Spain and Italy.
The tube is equally as expensive. So if you and your flatmates want to reduce your overheads, get bikes and do your commute by cycle. You can book free cycling lessons online through the TFL site. Your instructor will even help you plan your work route, and go with you a couple of times to make sure you know what you’re doing.
3. Live with a Couple
Some people are put off by the idea of living with a couple, but if you know them both and you think they’ll be easy and fun to live with, why not move in with them?
If each member of the couple pays a bit more rent, you’ll be able to reduce yours, as well as all bills and council tax.
4. Flatshare Food Shops
Food is expensive. If you don’t live next to an Aldi or a Lidl, bad luck. Though not all hope is lost for a not-rip-off food shop.
First off, adhere to the golden rule of food shopping: no supermarket express shops – their prices are extremely inflated. Next rule: buy your food in bulk. Buying your food daily is a recipe for disaster, resulting in a fridge full of bits and pieces that not even the most resourceful cook could cobble into something both tasty and in-date.
Finally, a good strategy can be to do big online group shops with your new flatties. This means you share the cost of delivery, and you can even buy those ridiculous 10KG bags of rice to share without looking like a maniac.
Those are just a few of the great ways to save money on your house share in London. For more tips and tricks, ask some of the other London flat sharers in our community.
