{"id":2090,"date":"2017-03-08T18:55:20","date_gmt":"2017-03-08T18:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/?p=2090"},"modified":"2017-11-08T10:29:09","modified_gmt":"2017-11-08T10:29:09","slug":"london-how-to-afford-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/2017\/03\/08\/london-how-to-afford-it\/","title":{"rendered":"London – how to afford it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s face it: living in London is expensive. It might sound scary, especially that for some of you the first year of the university will \u00a0be also the first year when you have to be fully responsible for your finances. Don\u2019t worry, you\u2019re not alone! Here are my survival tips.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Find a good accommodation<\/a>. This is the key, since paying rent will be your biggest expense. Remember that you\u2019ll also need to cover bills \u2013 and you might underestimate how high they\u2019ll probably be. Having said that, I must stress: don\u2019t go for the cheapest option. If something looks too good to be true, it probably is. And cheap rent usually means a big distance from Imperial, which leads me to my second point.<\/li>\n
  2. Consider transportation costs. Sometimes it\u2019s better to pay more for a room closer to Imperial, because commute expenses can easily add up. Make sure you get a 16-25 Railcard <\/a>and link it to your Oyster card<\/a>, which might reduce the cost of rail and tube journeys even by one third. And seriously consider cycling<\/a> \u2013 it\u2019ll save you A LOT of money.<\/li>\n
  3. Start cooking. If you eat out every day, soon you\u2019ll call your parents begging for extra money. If you\u2019ve never cooked before, fear not, it isn\u2019t as hard as it seems. When I first moved out, I couldn\u2019t even cook pasta. I\u2019m still not an excellent chef, but I\u2019m getting better with each meal. My tip: on Sunday night prepare food for the whole week. Cook a lot of pasta\/rice, add some veggies, pulses, sauce (even store-bought), sprinkle some nuts and herbs \u2013 and you have a few meals ready in 15 minutes. If you have a freezer, you can even freeze a few portions, so that when you come home tired, instead of ordering pizza you\u2019ll just defrost one of your meals. Cheaper and healthier.<\/li>\n
  4. Use Imperial\u2019s sport facilities. Did you know that you can use the gym for free (excluding \u00a340 induction fee)? If you prefer fitness classes, it\u2019s \u00a314.50 a month for unlimited access \u2013 way cheaper than anywhere in London. You can also go running or cycling completely for free. Or attend one of the complimentary Sweaty Betty<\/a> in-store classes. So no, you don\u2019t have to be rich to exercise in London!<\/li>\n
  5. Drink less alcohol. A pint will cost you more than a burger with fries \u2013 choice is yours.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Of course whatever you do, London won\u2019t get cheap. However, I believe that studying at Imperial College and living in the centre of Europe is worth it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Let\u2019s face it: living in London is expensive. It might sound scary, especially that for some of you the first year of the university will \u00a0be also the first year when you have to be fully responsible for your finances. Don\u2019t worry, you\u2019re not alone! Here are my survival tips. Find a good accommodation. This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1026,"featured_media":2473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[96935,7033,385,268,191443,179710,85172,142,92137],"tags":[58070,206352,142,81],"class_list":["post-2090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accomodation","category-food","category-imperial","category-life","category-life-advice","category-life-in-london","category-living-in-london","category-london","category-london-life","tag-featured","tag-finances","tag-london","tag-money"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1026"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2090"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2337,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2090\/revisions\/2337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-staging.imperial.ac.uk\/student-blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}