Expat Life: How to Survive Living in London

At first, I thought that moving to London would be easy since we spoke the same language – at least easier than learning to speak Turkish or Polish.

Oh boy, was I wrong about that.  

The same can be said about living in London. It’s not always easy to live here. There are days that I love living here and days that I hate it too. Not to mention, living in London is bloody expensive.

2019 marks the third year of our expat life in the U.K., which is still filled with the challenges of living in a sprawled-out city of 8.8 million people (14 million in the metro area). Now that I’ve had time to settle in, I’ve often told friends that London reminds me of my previous home of NYC, which has a population of 8.6 million (20 million in its metro area). The two cities have a lot of similarities, (but are still quite different) so maybe that’s why I’ve learned to survive living here.

For anyone considering a move to London, I thought I would compile some tips on how I’ve learned to survive living in this fun, but crazy, crowded city for more than three years. 
Read on.

Living in London means you won't always find yourself tiptoeing through the tulips with the Royal family.

15 Tips on How to Survive 2 Years Living in London

Get Anything You Can Delivered

For some reason, I used to be against getting our groceries delivered. I didn’t like the idea that others were picking out my fruits and veggies and who knows if they had the same standards that I possess. But when I started working full-time as well as my husband, I was sold on the idea. Working 10 hours in a restaurant kitchen means I don’t have much time anymore to go to a grocery store or a farmer’s market. We mainly use Ocado for our fort-nightly deliveries, but Asda, Tesco, Waitrose and other stores deliver as well. Heck, Ocado even delivers wine to my front door! If we want a better selection of wine, we use Majestic Wines, which offers monthly mixed case specials.

When I have more time to cook, I order local, fresh farm produce through Farmdrop, an online delivery company that provides farm-to-table ingredients for residents in London, Bristol and Bath areas. Now, I can bring the farmer’s market to my front door!

Use my referral code to receive £30 credit on your 

first Farmdrop shop.

For makeup, I use Birchbox, which started out as an annual birthday gift from my in-laws, but now I find it much easier to replace my moisturizer or eyeliner with the click of a button. For quick at-home food deliveries, there’s Just Eat, Deliveroo, Ubereats or some restaurants use their own delivery service. For everything else, there’s Amazon.com.

Use my Birchbox Invite to start saving and trying 

new makeup today.

Find a Flat and Neighborhood You Love or (at least) Like

This tip should probably be at the top of my list on how to survive in London because you’ll spend a lot of time where you live. When house-hunting, make sure your flat is close to public transport and in a neighborhood that you like. For our first month here, we stayed in an Airbnb shared flat so we could get a feel for the local neighborhood. 

After much searching, we found that we really liked the Clapham Junction/Battersea area, which is definitely becoming more popular with the ongoing developments at the Battersea Power Station. There are tons of coffeeshops, cafés, restaurants and shops nearby. We live in an area with 10 bus routes, a 10-minute walk to trains and the Overground at Clapham Junction and a 15 to 20-minute bus ride to the nearest Tube station. Generally, the closer you live to a Tube station, the higher the rent.

Here at the Battersea Power Station area you'll find several new restaurants as well as a Thames ferry dock.

Also, once you find a flat and sign a lease, be sure to get renter’s insurance. For around £100 per year, we are able to protect our belongings. As with any big city, break-ins aren’t uncommon, so make sure you are comfortable with leaving your valuables there all day.

(Check out Money Supermarket to compare insurance rates.)

Get Some Outdoor Space

I think I would go crazy without the lil bit of green space that we have in London. We are fortunate to live a in a row of Victorian rowhouses that open up to a shared community garden behind our flats. On our small patio, we have enough space for a table, four chairs, a Weber charcoal grill, a garden bench and several potted herbs. But the modern high-rise flats in our neighborhood barely offer enough space for an outdoor table and two chairs. If you can afford it, try to find a place with a lil bit of green space too.

I love our lil patio in Battersea! 

Commuting To and From Work

According to a survey by Instant Offices, Londoners have the longest commute in the U.K. at 74 minutes – nearly twice the worldwide average of 40 minutes. Many of my colleagues at work and my hubby average about an hour-long commute. I’m very lucky because if I cycle to work, my commute only takes 10-12 minutes versus about 30 minutes by bus.            

If I can, I avoid using the uber-crowded Tube and often rely on the Overground or buses for my daily commute. If I must use the Tube, I try to stick with the District and Circle lines. Avoid the Jubilee, Central and Northern lines during hot weather because the ride is simply dreadful and you will end up as a hot, sweaty mess! Use the Citymapper app to calculate your best transport journey to work. There’s also a new Travel Time app that tells commuters how far they can travel in London in 30 minutes.

If you intend to be a daily user of public transport, it makes sense to buy a weekly or monthly pass for the zones that you use, which could save you lots of money. For example, my husband buys a monthly zone 1-2 pass which costs £134.80 – so your daily cost is about £4.50. Using a pay-as-you-go Oyster card (bought at most stations or off-license shops) is the next best option.

Thirdly, traveling around London by bus is the cheapest option because there aren’t any zones to worry about. When you use your Oyster card or a contactless card, there is a daily cap of £4.50 if you take 3 or more bus trips that day. 

Go Contactless

For purchases under £30 (at most shops), you can just wave your contactless credit or debit card in front of the machine and viola – make a purchase. I love this concept and use my contactless credit card for EVERYTHING so I can accumulate points, which I can redeem for free hotel stays (our most popular redemption.) You also can use your contactless card on London’s public transport which makes travelling around London so much faster. In fact, contactless has proved so popular in London that there are several coffeeshops and stores that only accept cards – no cash allowed! I barely even carry cash on me most of the time.

Travel as Often as Possible

After year two, hubby started to get the “let’s-move-again” expat itch. I said, hell, no. Actually, my language was much more colorful, but you get the point. One of the main reasons, we’ve decided to stay in London is, so we can travel as much as possible in Europe. London has six airports – yes, six! It’s so easy to hop on a plane on Friday, travel to somewhere in Europe (many places in two hours or less) and return Sunday night. We’ve visited Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Scotland, Norway, Germany, Spain, Hungary and Romania since we’ve lived in London. Sign up for every airlines’ email newsletter to snap up the best airfare deals. Our best deals so far were a £20 flight to Oslo and around a £100 Eurostar return ticket to Paris.

Make the most of all your weekends, especially long bank/public holidays.

How about a summer trip to Prague in the Czech Republic?

Or a mid-winter trip to romantic Venice?

Talk About the Weather

Brits seem to LOVE talking about the weather! I often hear: “It’s too hot. It’s too cold. It’s too rainy.” Not once have I ever heard someone say: “Oh today’s weather is just delightful.” Even when London’s weather was 26C (80F) and perfectly sunny, I heard people complaining. Then in the middle of August, during a cold spell, my colleague kept saying, winter was coming. I was angry. Even though talking about the weather is like a national pastime in London, I try not to complain about the weather too much.

Oh, and the BBC weather forecaster will recommend carrying your extra sturdy brolly on super rainy days. Who knew I would need more than one “brolly” in London?

Have a Pint After Work

If your British friend asks you to join him at the pub after work, basically plan on having beer for your dinner. I’ve been out several times with my husband’s friends, and beer ended up being our dinner. Or I would finally have to order some chips/fries. Or as last resort, eat a manic dinner at home cobbled together from leftovers and stale tortilla chips after 10 p.m. I love the British pubs, but I also like eating food with my pint.

Search Out Greenspaces

When you live in a small flat in a sprawling, over-populated, concrete city, you desperately need to seek out some green. Fortunately, London has some wonderful parks such as Richmond Park, Hyde Park and Battersea Park, which I’ve mentioned before here. Just like in NYC’s Central Park, you’ll find people sunbathing or sprawled out on blankets/towels soaking up the (rare) sunshine.

Explore the English Countryside

Within 60-90 minutes via train from London, you can explore some beautiful green spaces in the British countryside. If you have a partner or good friend, buy a Two Together Railcard, which costs only £30 per year, but saves you up to 33 percent off train tickets purchased together. For slightly longer journeys out of London, we’ve even purchased first-class tickets with our railcard because the price was about the same or even less than the standard fare.

During the summer months, you'll find several lavender fields just outside of London.

Take a Day Trip to the Seaside Town of Whitstable

Support an Annual Art or Cultural Membership

Since we have more disposable income than we did in our 20s, we’ve decided to take advantage of some more cultural activities in London. Love gardening? Get an annual membership at Kew Gardens. We signed up for ours when we visited the Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh because it was cheaper and still allows us into Kew for free.

Love art or historical buildings? London has so many museums that feature special exhibits and it’s difficult to see many of them. Last year, we joined the English Heritage, an organization that protects more than 400 prehistoric sites, medieval castles and beautiful country houses, and have explored many places in the U.K. that we might not have seen otherwise. Then, we joined the V&A Museum, with a membership that allows us both to take a guest. I’ve already used my V&A membership three times this past month to see the Gingerbread City and a fashion exhibit with an American friend who was visiting from Washington D.C. Most couple memberships cost a lil over £100, but so far, we feel like we’re supporting a good cause with ample benefits.

Search Out Free Events

Although London is an expensive city to live in, it does offer tons of free events and festivals. To find out what’s happening, pick up the free TimeOut magazine, which is distributed at most tube stations on Tuesdays. This magazine has been a fantastic way to keep up-to-date with the current restaurants’ openings, museum exhibitions and concerts. You could literally attend a free event every night – if you didn’t have to work.  

Get Registered for the NHS

As soon as you get your NI (National Insurance) number, find a local doctor’s office in your neighborhood that is accepting new patients and register for the NHS. Many people like to complain about the NHS here, but I’ve had nothing but good services so far for general health issues. Hey, it’s free!

Get Organized

Living in a smaller space, means trying to be as organized as possible. I use tons of these large vacuum bags to store our puffy ski clothes, extra sheets, sweaters and any other fabrics/clothes that take up space. In our small kitchen, I bought extra shelves so coffee cups, plates and bowls could be stored better. Do what you must to stay organized!

Buy a Granny Cart

Now, I inherited my granny cart from when we lived in Poland, but it’s been a back saver when carting around a ton of groceries or a bag of garden compost.

Living in a big city like London may not be suitable for everyone, but I love cities like this and we’ve found plenty of ways to enjoy it and even survive living in London.

Cheers to a few more years of living in London...as long as the Brexit saga doesn't stop us!

Joy

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