Well Tpunks, here's my situation.
My good friend, that I backpacked Europe with last summer, has decided to move to England (probably London) for the summer, and work through Canada's SWAP program. She wants me to come, and of course I want to, but there are some things holding me back:
1) Money - this was supposed to be my summer to buckle down and make some good money before school starts again in fall. At this point, I can barely pay for the plane ticket....
2) Wait. I guess that's it, but I feel like that's a bit of a significant reason
Reasons to go:
1) I guess they're all obvious: I love Great Britain, I love traveling with her, I need a good break from my city and "everyday life" every now and then, and if I get into the school program I want, that'll be hard, it's a great experience.
And just a question or two?
1) What do you think is the cheapest accommodation I could get away with? How likely would it be to get cheap accomm, especially London?
2) Everyone always says you don't make money when you work abroad, but do you think it's possible if I was really frugal and didn't drink, and survived on loaves of bread?
Sorry for the long rant, but I would love some feedback/advice!! :kisscheek:

well you can get a loaf of bread for 25pence and tins of beans for about 13pence....

Have you thought about getting a job outside of London? it is so much easier to save money if you work in cities such as Sheffield, Newcastle, Liverpool and Manchester because our cost of living is so much cheaper than that of London

Yeah. Go to The Gum Tree for good job listings. Often you can find work outside of london, in the countryside. Usually some sort of live in pub work. The thing about that, though is that while you'll save money, you'll quite probably be bored out of your skull. I had a friend who did it and he went mad. Though he's quite a pessimistic person.

I'm looking forward to moving back to the UK. I'll probably live in London again, but if not I'd look into Bath, Glastonbury, or Edinburgh.

The cheapest way to live in either of these cities is to find a short term let, and that Gumtree website is a great place to find em :blink:

Most good supermarkets in the UK tend to have "Value" ranges, you can get cheap beans for 10p and noodles for 8p for example.. these are defo worth looking out for.

But yea i agree with the guys above, If money is such an issue maybe you should look to live up North :thumbup:

Yeah, if you're up for going out drinking, getting wasted, trendy bars are best to steer clear from, they charge wayyyyyyyy too much for drinks.

London has loads going on, you won't get bored.

Give us a shout when you're here, we should meet up and Part-ay. :D!

Yeah do it. As long as you arent picky, there are tons of short term jobs in London. The pub job route is probably the easiest way to find work, but there are temp agencies that your program will have listed that can set you up with work that pays a little better.