Spill the beans... What are your tips on becoming a Londoner?

A question about : Spill the beans... What are your tips on becoming a Londoner?

Spill the beans... What are your tips on becoming a Londoner?

Cor blimey, guv, the capital's expensive. So Londoners and new Londoners, get off your Queen Mum and tell first-timers how to move to the city without feeling brassic (broke). What have you learned the hard way about finding a gaff, going for a nosh up and travelling around?

This Forum Tip was included in MoneySavingExpert's weekly email
Don't miss out on new deals, loopholes, and vouchers
FAQs
Privacy Policy
Past Emails
Unsubscribe

Best answers:

• Travel and Accommodation:
  Depending on how often you use transport, see if work will do an interest free travel loan and make sure you get it put on your oystercard. I have a zone 1-3 annual card which means I pay Ј109 each month directly from my wages. Means I can jump on a train, tube or bus any time without worrying and it's a lot cheaper than just buying a weekly or monthly pass.
  Linked to travel, when choosing where to live and the transport links don't forget the overland- personally I much prefer it to the tube! For example, used to live in Putney (not very MSE for rent!) which lots of people thought was 'too far out' when actually, there was a regular train to Waterloo via Vauxhall which put me straight on to a number of tube lines.
  Quite a few people I know had success finding places with loot.com- cuts out an estate agent.
  Oh! and remember the weekly rents can't just be times by 4 to get you monthly total! You need to times it by 52 and then divide by 12.
  I personally have a 'spare' email account which I use to sign up for all bars and restaurants etc. This has resulted in loads of free meals and drinks- mostly, I hasten to add, for chains but hey, when you're broke, chains are often the only way of going out...
  Can't think of any more obvious ones off the top of my head....
• I would rather get the Overground all the time - as in the TFL Overground. Clean, quick to get from West to East & so much nicer than the tube.
  If you find somewhere nice to live & it's affordable, GO FOR IT. Do not hesitate, it will get snapped up. I have just left a flatshare due to a rubbish landlord & bug infestation & have been searching for rooms in shares across North & East London with fellow young professionals. I have been interviewed in groups of 8 upwards for rooms!
  I'm not sure I would say Taste London is the way forward...After a year of it, I got sick of Strada & Pizza Express etc! Sign up to Yo Sushi for regular 40% off.
• Get a trail subscription for time out magazine with an introductory offer eg 4 for a Ј1.
  https://subscribe.timeout.com/?utm_so...FSMntAodXw7XQg
  https://londonmarkets.co.uk/
  Familiarise yourself with your local London markets, some amazing bargains to be had.
  More down at heel areas have better bargains much of the time. Borough market seldom has bargains but you can find the odd thing if you search hard enough
  Get on every mailing list going, there are forever email offers.
  Join Ping Pong loyalty: and enjoy Ј10 credit worth of dim sum: they often have other freebies for members.
  Join the freecycle group in your area and give and get for free.
  https://www.timeout.com/london/feature/1424/free-london
  There are many many different attractions, galleries and so on that are free! Enjoy!
• As someone whos family comes from London for many generations one of the most irritating things that 'thru-comers' do is skirt around on the edges of London.
  If you really want to get to know London then don't just stick to the obvious roads/pubs/clubs/people etc. Get to know REAL London - that way you will end up saving SHEDLOADS of money too - simply because the places that most thru-comers hover are in all the main roads and shops and restaurants - missing out on the places that real Londoners go to buy food/shopping/eat etc. which are invariably cheaper.
  If I had a pound for every person who asks me 'where Im from' and when I say 'London' they say 'no - where are you FROM' - to which I then respond 'London - and they then say 'NOONE's FROM London'....
  Well actually they are - MOST of London is FROM London - its just that new-comers/thru-comers never take the time to get to know local people - instead hanging out with other people who have only been here for 5 minutes....
  Local people mean local knowledge - quicker/cheaper transport info - better/cheaper markets to shop at - where to shop and where to avoid.
  This isnt something that you can generally pick up by reading a thread even on this great website: GET TO KNOW LOCAL PEOPLE _ GET INVOLVED LOCALLY - not just in terms of bossing local people around but in REAL terms - join the community! And it will pay dividends
• as an exile: find your local parks - London parks are fantastic! free, and very varied.
  Also don't attempt to navigate just with a tube map: it's got no relation to where tube stops are IRL. Often it's quicker to get out and walk than to change the tube for two stops. But then, in MY part of London there is no tube!
  If you're commuting, learn 'the sneaky walk' if you don't want to look like a tourist. Some years ago I demonstrated this quite without thinking to my non-London flatmates - you spot a gap, and you're in it, because you're walking faster than everyone else. They kept losing me!
  Wear comfy shoes. All the time.
  And good luck - last time I travelled on a train in the rush hour I just thought "How did I do this EVERY DAY?"
• Definintely avoid estate agents for finding a place to rent, they are so much more expensive. Try gumtree and loot for a private deal. My particular tip is also to look out for cards on noticeboards in places like libraries and independent shops - one of my best flat shares was from a card in my local health food shop. If you've found an area you'd like to live in, search around for noticeboards.
  Factor in transport costs to where you live. Buses are much cheaper than tubes and trains. If you can live somewhere where you can make your regular journeys by bus, and so use by bus pass rather than a travelcard, you'll save a lot. But if you are travelling into the centre from a distant zone every day, the journey time by bus will probably be too long.
  Not well known is that if you have a travelcard for, say, zones 1 and 2, it covers you for buses in ALL zones, even outside the zones it covers for tube and train. Get familiar with the labyrinth of different TFL fares, zones, daily price capping, etc, especially if you aren't travelling often enough to warrant buying a travel card.
• I hate to be a suckup, but if you are already looking at list then you have discovered one of the best ways to survive in london. MSE!
  The great thing is about London is that its usually got at least one of everything that means taking advantage of resturaunt offers, supermarket offers and going out offers is so much easier.
  Example- Using the free drinks offers pointed to by this website me and a couple of friends went on a free mini pub crawl round all the branches of the pubs with the offer!
  Invest in good footwear, cannot stress enough how walking is THE main way to get around the capital, second are Boris Bikes :-)
• Join the review site Qype, review a few of your favourite places and see if you can bag yourself an invite to the free events they run (on the condition that you then give the venue an honest review). So far I've been to a tequilla & burrito tasting session, cocktails & nibbles and a fancy steak place, screening of Toy Story 3 in 3D, Mexican food (including a goody bag) at Wahaca, a posh artisan chocolate tasting event (with another goody bag), a LFW student show and a frozen yoghurt sampling. There has also been beer evenings, coffe tastings, flat bread making, sushi rolling etc - all great ways to get free stuff, try a new place and also meet people.
• Regarding Oyster Cards, it's useful to login to the TFL website. It will show you the journeys you've made and the cost of each, you might find the fare varies depending on the time of day or if you use different connections/zones. You can also set up an automatic top-up. I think mine is set to top-up Ј20 by credit card as soon as it drops below Ј5 credit, so I never have to faff around queuing and paying at a station.
  As mentioned already, get to know the 'local places' away from the main road. Especially with pubs and eateries, these are usually the better places to use. It's obviously difficult for a newcomer to know where they are so I suppose just talk to people and get recommendations.
  Street traders - pizza stands (eg. Camden market), florists etc. - often sell their products off cheaply before they go home in the evening.
  Buying a coffee everyday is an expensive habit. If you're going to do it, find independent coffee shops that will sell them for under Ј1.50 instead of the Ј2+ you'll pay at the well-known chains or stations. Or for much better value, make one at home and take it out with you - you can probably pay for a whole packet the same price you'd pay for one in a shop. And if the facilities at work are no good (ie. instant coffee), take your own! Filter coffee (again you can buy packs of 5+ for the price of one made in a shop) or a cafetiere or machine would save money in the long run (maybe colleagues would want to share?)
  The same goes for lunches too. Don't get into the habit of buying lunch every day either. For one Ј5-10 lunch you buy, you could make lunches for a whole week. Just make extra portions when you're cooking a meal then refrigerate or freeze it to take to work, or making something like a sandwich or simple pasta would take you no longer than it would take to leave your workplace, choose and queue in a shop, and walk back to work.
  The biggest thing I would say is: Don't ever forget the good things London has to offer. It may be more expensive but you can make the experience rewarding for the price you pay. There's so many things to do for entertainment that aren't as readily available elsewhere so make the most of it. And much of it is free too! Museums, exhibitions, talks, screenings, live music etc. And look out for discounts or free tickets for the theatre. If all you see of London is rush hour travel, work, and the inside of your costly home, you might as well be living and working anywhere in the country!
  Oh and please, don't pick up the free Metro newspapers. Read a book, or buy a newspaper (the Independent i is well worth 20p). Media plurality is a big concern at the moment; at least 90% of the newspapers I see people reading in the mornings is the Daily Mail-owned Metro. That can't be a good thing. However, do look out for the Evening Standard - also free - on your way home!
• Additionally - many London employers offer an interest free season ticket loan, even if you're on the Oyster. Take it - works out much cheaper a month this way, and as I've always thought, once you've got your Oyster, you'll never be short of something to do in London, even without two spare pennies to rub together (free museums, galleries, exhbitions, events, parks, places to walk, people watching etc)
  Also my Oyster season ticket came with a free Gold Card which gives me a 1/3rd off travel for up to 3 people across a large portion of the South East - bonus!
• Oh just remembered one other thing: If your Tube journey is delayed by 15 minutes or more you can claim a refund. https://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/tickets/refunds/tuberefund/
• South East London is becoming the 'in' place to live as it's cheap and is actually pretty easy to get to town - I live in Lewisham (zone 2/3) and it takes me 20 minutes to get to Charing Cross on the train, plonking me slap bang in the heart of the West End. There are quite a few new developments springing up in Kidbrooke, Woolwich etc so it may be worth looking into those areas, or indeed considering places that aren't on a tube line as a lot of the areas slightly further out are well served by National Rail services. You'll pay more in travel costs but cost of rent in these areas can outweigh this quite a lot.
  Take advantage of free museums, parks etc. The Time Out weekly email comes out every Thursday and also lists good free things to do, as well as discounts for various events.
  The main train stations quite often have people giving out free magazines (Stylist on a Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, Shortlist on a Wednesday night/Thursday morning) if you need a magazine fix.
  Definitely take advantages of season ticket loans if your company offers them. Some companies also do interest free schemes to allow you to buy a bike which may be feasible if you live quite close to your work and are a confident cyclist. I also agree with the advice about walking, the West End is a lot smaller than you think and when you can see the difference between tube stations it makes the time spent faffing about with the Tube feel pointless. For this reason, I'd recommend investing in a mini A to Z to keep in your bag and help you find your way.
  Try Spareroom.co.uk for rooms - I know a few people who've moved to London recently and have got nice rooms in zones 2 and 3 with them. They also do 'speed flatmating' events where you can meet potential new flatmates and then either move into rooms they've got available or try and find somewhere together.
  And as others have said, take advantage of any vouchers you can get, and bring your own lunches/coffee to work.
• That should be BORACIC as in boracic LINT .... SKINT!!!!! Huh! call yerself a londoner???
• Get an Oyster card & register it online. Whether you Pay As You Go or load it with a weekly/monthly/annual travel card, Oyster is the cheapest way of paying for travel. By registering it online, if you lose your card or it's stolen, they send you a new one with your old balance/ticket on it.
• If you don't work in/travel through zone 1 then Pay As You Go Oyster may be cheaper than a travel card. Remember Oyster can be used on overground rail services such as Southern, South West & South Eastern trains too.
• If you can drive but don't want to spend money on keeping a car, consider joining streetcar.co.uk where you can hire a local car by the hour. Great for occasional bulk-buying trips to the supermarket.
• Check maps for where you're going and see whether it's quicker/easier to walk it. You'll discover the city much quicker by walking between places/getting off the tube earlier.
• I'd recommend spareroom.co.uk & easyroommate.com for flat shares. Areas without tube stations are often good value, and better connected than you'd think - use the TFL website to check the local train services.
• Off-West End theatres have a greater variety of shows and much cheaper tickets than the West End. Use sites like tastetheatre.com & offwestend.com to find out what's on and where.

I've been in London three years. I wasn't sure I'd like it but now can't imagine living anywhere else! It's easy to avoid the craziness & expense when you want to - discover local areas and walk around the city to discover quieter areas.

• Sell your car if you have one, you won't need it in London
• Sign up to Toptable and book all your restaurant outings through it (you can even book for other people, and if you book say a work lunch for 10 people you get more points) After a while you'll gather enough points for a free meal, and you can use them in many restaurants, not be restricted to the usual chains. Also a lot of restaurants have 50% off offers on "unpopular" days, like Monday and Tuesday, so go out for dinner on those days instead of the more popular Thursday/Friday
• Live where there's train, no tube. If you get an annual railcard it's much cheaper than an annual tube card, and you can use Oyster pay as you go for the tube/bus trips you make. If you have a Gold card (annual railcard) go to the Tube ticket desk, and ask to ADD it to your Oyster card. Not many people know this, but you get a much lower daily cap this way, same thing goes for other Railcards (16-25 year old, senior etc.)
• Check whether it's cheaper for you to pay a bit more for rent, but be close enough to cycle to work and the places you hang out in, that way you will save lots, as the most expensive things in London are rent and transport
• Don't use streetcar or such services if you're not going to be using them frequently. Instead make good friends with your neighbours and ask them to borrow their car if you need to go for some big shopping. If you want to pick up stuff from IKEA it's much easier to get a cheap Man and a Van from Gumtree, than to pay for the vans from Streetcar, the hourly charges quickly add up, and you still have to pay the yearly membership charge. A Man and a van will cost you anything from Ј15 to Ј30 an hour, and they can pick you up from a big store, which reduces the time you are "renting their services"
• Doing big supermarket shops is cheaper than picking up the odd item every day from the corner shop or Tesco Metro. Order online or if you like to choose your vegetables/meat, find a supermarket close by and go once every 10-15 days, and call a taxi to bring you home, you'll pay about Ј5 for short distances, i.e. max Ј20 a month which is much cheaper than having a car. Or again, if you're friends with the neighbours you can arrange to go shopping when they're going with their car.
• It's easy to get annoyed with London - the rude people, the overcrowded public transport. I find it more tolerable if I make the effort to go out and do new things. There is so much to do if you make the effort. And you get to meet some superb people when doing out the ordinary things. Don't stay at home - get out there and enjoy it.
  Flat/room rental sites: https://www.gumtree.com/ + https://www.moveflat.com/ + https://www.spareroom.co.uk/
  PUBLIC TRANSPORT: Get an Oystercard. If you plan to stay in the same home for a year then see if your employer does a season ticket loan for a yearly travelcard. This works out cheaper than monthly travelcards and Oyster Pay as You Go as you can make as many tube/overground journeys (within specified zones) as you like PLUS you get a Gold railcard giving you 33% off offpeak overground travel (most South East UK train routes).
  If you get the train to Heathrow then go for the Heathrow Connect - Paddington-Heathrow. It takes 10 mins longer than Heathrow Express but is half the price.
  THEATRE: If you are going to visit the theatre more than once then I'd recommend joining The Audience Club - they have loads of Ј2.50 tickets for pub theatres and occasional Westend shows (theatres prefer to have seats filled, they still make money on drinks, etc). It's only Ј25/year. I've been a member for 3 years now and recommend it. Theatre links:
  https://www.theaudienceclub.com/
  https://www.lastminute.com/ - cheap Westend offers
  https://www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk/tkts/today/ - Half price tickets
  https://www.theatremonkey.com/ - Seating info
  Time Out's London guidebooks are worth buying. There are loads of good blog sites about London. For unusual events, try https://londonist.com/ + https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/calendar/
  Toptable is good for finding half price restaurant deals - better deals on weeknights. Also check MSE's restaurant deals.
  Look out for the 2 for 1 deals if you buy a short rail journey (eg. Waterloo to Vauxhall):
  https://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/
  Check out magazines aimed at antipodeans such as TNT - they have some great deals for tours around London.
  Last Night of the Proms in Hyde Park is a great night out for the atmosphere. Bring your own food and booze. Alternatively the outdoor summer concerts at Kenwood House.
  There are plenty of Bring Your Own Booze restaurants - try here for a start: https://www.wine-pages.com/food/byoblist.shtml#london
  Try a river cruise to Greenwich and check out the observatory and markets but get the tube on the way back.
  Catch a train to Brighton for some great shopping in the lanes and their stoney beach. Alternatively try Southend-on-sea.
  Try the popular markets like Borough food market, Columbia Road Flower market, Camden, Spitalfields & Portabello - check opening times beforehand.
  Try the popular restaurant streets: Kingsland Road (BYO Vietnamese), Brick Lane (Indian), Drummond St (vege indian), etc.
  Visit the Southbank (across river from Embankment station) - loads of things to do around there.
  Pop to the zoo and Primrose Hill for a picnic and views of London.
  Check out the comedy shows - see Timeout for listings.
  Visit the parks - Hyde, Regents, Hampstead Heath, Green, St James's, Clapham Common, Wimbledon Common etc.
  Check out the pubs - Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, Gordons Wine Bar, Vinopolis, etc. The TNT pub crawls are a good way to see some of the more interesting ones.
  River - pub boats along the river are worth a visit - a couple by Embankment tube. The two walkbridges by Embankment station provide a lovely view of the Thames, day or night.
  The big shops: Selfridges, John Lewis, Liberty, Harrods, Primark, Topshop, Nike and so on - all worth a look.