Saving cash in London (the fun way): 10 tips

The number 1 thing most expats I meet in London say about the city is that it's expensive. And it is. Rent and transport are crazy; I can't believe how much we moaned in Toronto! Salaries, especially for non-manager roles, are completely inadequate in a lot of sectors. And if you are here on a working holiday visa, your odds of a decent wage are even lower.

But being young and having a good time in London can be semi-affordable if you plan a bit and keep your eyes and ears open!

1. Bring on the emails.
You're probably familiar with Groupon and its competitors. While I have found the deals in London much less dramatic than in Toronto, there are still great deals to be had. Theatre tickets, clothing, exercise, spa treatments, and nights out can all be had for steep discounts.

The Irishman and I got a Wowcher coupon: 6 cocktails and free cover at a club in Soho for £10! Each drink, normally £10 each, was expertly shaken (with 2+ shots of alcohol in each) and there was a comfy lounge area for us to hang out in.

There are tons but my subscriptions of choice:
-Groupon
-Wowcher
-TimeOut

2. Stay fit -no excuses!
The climate isn't really ideal for outdoor activities and incredibly long escalators in the Underground could make anyone fall out of shape quickly. But even if a rainy jog or yoga in a shoebox of a flat don't appeal, you have no financial excuse!

Like yoga? Lululemon hosts free classes throughout the week. Many studios also offer amazing intro deals, including triyoga and Bikram.

Free exercise pops up around the city if you're looking for it. Boot camps can be pricey but, especially if you`re willing to get up early on the weekends, you can find totally free classes (e.g. Hyde Park) and most companies will let you try your first session for free.

As mentioned above, group buying deals are a good default. And if you can stand the emails and texts, sign up at gyms and studios near your home or work to find out about great deals that may find you at the right time!

3. Save on transport.
Speaking of exercise, walking is the best way to get around the city. Avoid any rail service or cabs, leave your heels in your bag, and hoof it! If you're not going far, it can be quicker to walk than make your way deep underground and then surface, anyway. Handy maps are dotted all over the city to help you sort yourself out.

Get an Oyster card. If you are in the city for a week, get an Oyster card. The £5 card save you money on every trip, you can register it so you get the cash or pass back if you lose it, and you can top up your balance online.

TimeOut

App CityMapper is all the rage now. It gives you your various transport options, including cost and weather at your destination. For free. iOS and Android users, get downloading.

The bus is way cheaper and can be faster, especially during rush hour. The price is fixed, unlike trains, so you can get pretty far on a couple of pounds. They're usually much less crowded than the tube. You can see the city rather than concrete walls. And they often are double-deckers. Which is cool.

If you're a braver person than I and have good waterproof gear, cycling is a great way to go. Beware of roundabouts, buses, pedestrians (especially drunk ones), motorcycles, thieves...Just wear a helmet and buy a good lock, okay?

4. Good shopping.

One of the best things about London is the charity shop culture. People automatically think of donating their clothes to the shops and they are EVERYWHERE. Usually named after the specific charity they support, often several will be side by side. Especially for women's clothing, you can find tons of clothes at deep discounts and support charities.

 
5. Head outside.
There are regular markets in every neighborhood of London. And look for signs for mini-markets in your area. We have at least 3 on the weekend within a 15 minute walk! Browsing, grabbing an inexpensive lunch, catching some streetside entertainment --you can spend only a few quid in an afternoon but have a lovely time just hanging out outside. (Bring your umbrella.)

The biggest Chinese New Year outside of Asia. It was disappointing (food was not actually Chinese and the entertainment was awful) but the rest of the fests have been great!

Especially in the warmer months, free festivals abound. Being a Torontonian at heart, I'm used to spending weekends festival hopping, enjoying free entertainment, samples, street food...It's even better in London with more lax public drinking laws where you can BYOB to many events! TimeOut London is your source for all London events.

6. Join the club.
There are two deal cards in particular that I would recommend to anyone moving to London, even for just a year: Tastecard and Nectar.

The Tastecard gets you 50% off food or 2 for 1 courses at tons of restaurants in London. Pizza Express and Zizzi are two delicious chains included. Combine with happy hour for extremely cheap eating out. They have a great app and after choosing your restaurant, you can have the address and map texted to you. What's the catch? A one year membership is £80 and you have to make a reservation when you use it. You can get a one month free trial to give it a whirl. They frequently have 50% off the card deals; they will likely offer it after the trial or, if you are patient, you'll get an email offer. £40 will pay off in about 3 outings or less!

The Nectar card is free and gets you points at tons of places when you shop (including eBay and grocery giant Sainsbury's). You can redeem the points for cash. Simple and costs nothing!

There are tons of loyalty cards in this city, many of them free, so stock up!

7. Enjoy cheap/free cul-chah.
Most museums and galleries are free. Many have late hours scheduled in. It's a no brainer. Check ahead for tour times, which are usually free and bring museums to life! If you are a student, you can get enviable deals on entry to exhibitions and places that charge admission. The British Museum (check out free talks by curators or guest speakers at 13:15 Tue-Sat), gettyimages gallery, and Somerset House are my personal favourites, but I still have several smaller museums on my to-see list.

Rush seats are the way to go if you want prime seats for minimal dough. Show up at the theatre a couple of hours in advance at many shows, put your name on the list and see if you've been lucky enough to get yourself one of the hottest tickets in town at a massive discount. Book of Mormon front row seats? £20 each. The real seats? Over 6x that price.

8. Hang out at pub.

Listening to a Johnny Cash impersonator on St Paddy's day for free? Why not.

Sorry Mom. Hanging out in pubs is a British institution. And when your flat is a shoebox, you have few friends, and the rain is making you sad, grabbing a warm ale in a cozy pub is just the answer. Not only are the prices fairly inoffensive by urban Canadian comparison but free or inexpensive entertainment abounds.

Televised sports, live music, themed DJs, pub quizzes (trivia nights in North American-speak), movie nights, comedy nights, even affordable theatre, can all be found at pubs around the city. Speed dating, speed flatmate hunting, Meet Ups -pubs are hubs for meeting people.

We randomly stumbled upon Pint of Science through Facebook, an event where experts in different fields of science offer free lectures in pubs around the UK. Did you know dolphins sleep with one half of their brain at a time so they don't forget to breathe?

9. Don't bother with TV.
Going out to the movies for £10+ per ticket or paying £145 a year for a TV licence is restrictive if you're on a budget in London. (TV licenses are required if you use a TV to watch digital stations. Not having one is a prisonable offence which people are reminded of quite often. Enforcement drive around inspecting houses that don't have licenses. For an outsider, it is weird, to say the least.)

If you have WiFi, the world is your cheap entertainment Oyster. Competition is heavy between streaming companies at the moment and you can take advantage. Most providers offer a free one month trial. Group buying deals for subscriptions are common. We got 6 month of LOVEFiLM (Amazon's answer to Netflix) for £10! Netflix is rising in popularity here and BBC iPlayer is free, as are many other channels' streaming apps.

Renting movies digitally is also cheap; you can get new releases without a subscription with services like Tesco's Blinkbox, LOVEFiLM or Sony Entertainment Network.

10. Keep your eyes peeled! 
So many deals and freebies pop up every day in the city, it isn't hard to find ways to occupy your time. I had a friend tip me off to a poorly advertised promo by a radio station to see Of Monsters and Men in a private gig. It was supposed to be a contest but we just emailed our names in on the day and we had tickets, including a couple of free drinks for ourselves and our +1s!

Selfridges was offering free facials a few months ago that I happened to notice in a free newspaper.

I suggest following groups on Facebook like Walk London, Yelp London, London for Free, and Handpicked London to get the scoop on what is going on that you can take advantage of.

Enjoying yourself in London on the cheap isn't that hard if you know where to look.

If you have any tips about things I have missed, add them to the comments!

Moving to London for the first time: 10 tips

Booking a ticket is easy but where to start to make sure you make the most of your move, whether permanent or for a year or two?

BEFORE YOU GO

1. Pack smart

We moved to London with a suitcase and a backpack each*. Our poor parents are saddled with a fair amount of junk but we gave away and threw out most of our possessions. So in our limited stock of stuff, why did I bring eco fabric shoes and suede pumps? (I.e. The worst possible footwear for [perpetually] rainy weather.)

You can get anything you need in London, for the most part. And most of it isn't even that expensive outside of lodging and gas/petrol.

My friend Bee, who is above the age of 12, begrudgingly bought these out of desperation with no affordable non-patterned wellies in sight.

There are three things we did need to outsource: rainboots, can openers, and bottle openers. Rainboots/Wellies, even "cheap" ones, run about £20-30 minimum. And, even in adult sizes, often have patterns more appropriate for kindergarteners. We purchased 3 can openers and 2 bottle openers before we gave up and went North American. No idea why we had such a hard time; I open it to your speculation.


2. Because it's who you know

You probably know someone who lives in London. Or who has lived in London. Those tips and connections are key to potentially feeling normal in this large and often lonely place. Check your social networks. Put it out there that you're moving here. You'd be surprised!

Toronto 2006 to London 2012. Who'd have thought?

I have a friend who I only met for a few minutes on stage in 2006 when we shaved our heads for a cancer fundraiser. We had connected on Facebook to share photos and that was it. When Hind saw on her Facebook feed that I had moved to London, 6 years later as she was wrapping up grad school, she popped me a message and I had my first inexpensive and salty Camden Market lunch. She hadn't even remembered the context in which we met. But that's London: the smallest connections can feel like bonds when everyone seems to already have their own friends and are not looking to add to the roster.


3. Money = problems, period

My biggest regret about my move is not figuring out how to transfer money back and forth to Canada. We have spent way too much time on the phone with our Canadian bank, carried around stupid amounts of cash from ATMs, and wasted more money than I care to count in fees.

An account where you can transfer currency, travelers cheques, bank transfers through an agency...basically anything beyond doing nothing to prepare for my pound sterling-led financial future would have all been better options.

I had no idea how difficult it would be to get cash out. Despite having no withdrawal limits in Canada, I was slapped with daily and weekly caps from being overseas. I called and got them increased but not enough to cover first and last month's rent, so we had to take dreaded cash advances from our credit cards. Stupid? Very much so. Don't make that mistake.

Added 20/02/2013: My friend Leanne, Canadian teacher in London, shared a tip with me this morning that international transfers from one PayPal account to another are quite inexpensive if they are linked up to bank accounts! (Disclosure, my employer is funded by a grant from PayPal)

POST POND-CROSSING

4. Get social

As anti-social as London can feel, there is no shortage of people looking for friendship or love (or job leads). Especially in the case of the former, though, you are usually dealing with expats. Which is great! Most of my friends are Canadian, Australian, and American, simply because we're the ones out there, looking for people to complain about the weather with. (Don't get me wrong, Brits are also filling their leisure time moaning about the cold/rain/clouds/darkness -they're just doing it with each other.)

Meet Up is huge here, for singles looking to meet other singles and friendly people looking to hang out with other friendly people. I've made a few friends through the Canadian Expat group and gone to other events from emails they've sent out.

Yelp is a personal favourite. You may have heard of it as a review website. What you may not know about are its events. There are events you can join to meet other people who like exploring the city and trying out local businesses, restaurants, galleries, museums, etc. You can put up Unofficial Yelp Events and other eager Yelpers will join you to check out a pub, watch a movie, check out an event -whatever! Almost everyone is American, so if you want to get everyone going, mention the quality of pizza and/or Mexican food in London. Always entertaining.


5. Sort out your paperwork

Apply for your National Insurance number immediately after arriving if your job situation isn't magically set up already before you get here. I called and had to wait for a form to arrive, fill it out, and return it to the offices in Scotland. Then I had to wait for the number to arrive in the mail. The whole process took a few weeks.

If you get a job before you get your National Insurance number, your job may take a large chunk of tax off your pay (anecdotal from an Aussie friend who temped under the youth mobility visa). Some people will need to be interviewed to get their card. Essentially, make it a priority to get that done ASAP. I did it as soon as I got to where I was staying.


6. First thing to do after you leave the airport? Get an Oyster card. 

£5 for that little guy will save you lots of money on travel in the city. Register the card at a station so if you lose it or if it's stolen, you can get the balance transferred.

(My upcoming post on saving money in London will go into more detail about saving cash on travel.)


7. Homelessness is not ideal

This is seriously our kitchen. And we cook almost all of our meals.

Basics to keep in mind:
-Living with other people is the default option if you're single and in a non-management role
-If you don't already have a job, good luck renting an apartment that isn't a flatshare
-Watch for what is and isn't included. Council tax, internet, tv license and other utilities can add up! If you are moving as a couple, rates are often higher for both flatshares and whole flats.
-With our Canadian mentality, we got our own tiny, overpriced zone 2 studio. After 6 months, we are moving into a flatshare so we no longer have a cupboard kitchen. Newlyweds with roommates? That's London!


8. Get a job

This will be the subject of a future post, but in brief: apply, apply, apply. Subscribe to as many of the dozens of job website and agency email alerts as you can manage, pay attention to Twitter and LinkedIn for job openings specific to your field, and work at getting work. There are a lot of jobs in London if you have some experience and are willing to swallow your pride to take a job that pays less or is less prestigious than your last role.

Researching the local context, the companies you are applying to, and competitors is key to standing out in the massive talent pool. Do not get discouraged and do not be afraid to temp. Get experience in the country, make connections, and impress your recruitment agency!

ONCE YOU'RE LODGED

9. Find a doctor

Your mother didn't make me say this, I swear. But it is for your own good.

If you're in good health, you probably won't even think of it. But with universal health care, visits to the doctor are free and medication is heavily subsidized (if you are working legally in the country, at least). Having yourself set up with a local doctor while you're healthy will make those unpleasant visits later much easier to schedule and get through.

Explaining your medical history when you are sick or in pain is far from ideal.


10. Explore your neighborhood! 

The first thing we did after signing our lease is get our library cards. Okay, kind of lame, but is part of feeling like part of a neighbourhood.

I got to know the guys at the local fruit market, the pizza chef at our local bar, and the owner of our local coffee shop. When I see the people who work at the dry cleaners who cleaned my second-hand (Mom's) wedding dress, they ask how the wedding plans are coming along. We don't have much money to spend, but keeping most of it in the neighborhood can help make London seem that much friendlier and like home.

It's easy to hole up in your apartment or stick to the main spots in Central London. Your neighbourhood has something to offer and you will love this city if you love your neighbourhood!

Do you have any tips or suggestions for newbies to the city? 

Know where to get a good bottle opener? 

Comment below!

*and my fantastic, good looking, brilliant family delivered a big bag of stuff when we met up at a family wedding in November...