How much does it cost to have a basic standard of living in the UK?
I visit the US regularly from the UK. I’ve found that in New York, what you would pay in dollars, we would pay in pounds, so a meal costing $20 in New York would be £20 (i.e. nearly $40). In the midwest, things are cheaper than New York, and much, MUCH cheaper than England. For example, I picked up the tab recently for a 3-course meal for five of us in a Mexican restaurant in southern Ohio, and it came to £35. The equivalent of Mexican food in the UK is Indian, and you would not in a million years get a 3-course Indian meal for five for that price. As for housing, it depends on where you live now and where you’d live in the UK. Our property prices are very high in some areas, although we are going into a housing/mortgage depression as you are in the US. Where I live, close to London, a 1-bedroomed apartment would be about £200,000 minimum. To rent would be around £700 a month minimum. Outside London prices are much lower. Check out Right Move fo
When I lived in a medium sized UK city I found that the basic cost of living was less than in the US. A lot of this was due to lots of available housing, not needing a car, the moderate weather leading to reasonable utility bills year round and the relatively low cost and high availability of healthy grocery store food. However if you want to do anything above the basics (travel, buying consumer goods, eating out) it gets more expensive than the US in a hurry plus the quality of what you get is often much less. Especially at restaurants and for clothing.
