Places to live

sparklebox · 4 Jan 2011 at 13:59

Hi All,

I apologise if this thread has already happened and bores you BUT, me and my partner are looking to move out somewhere, we'll both be qualified teachers and (hopefully) will have a minimum income of £42,000 between us. We have never lived on our own, aside student accommodation so basically starting from scratch. I think we would spend between £400 to £600 pcm on rent.

We have no strong ties (except family for me) so we are free to move anywhere, I just wanted some ideas or recommendations of prospective places to live in the midlands mostly.

Where would you recommend? what is the place like for ammenities and schools?

Thankyou in advance :-)

xx

RandomTom · 4 Jan 2011 at 14:03

Is that £400-600pcm each? Also, the Midlands is quite a broad stretch of land, are you not tied to any location or any area within that?

sparklebox · 4 Jan 2011 at 14:07

Sorry, I would say £400-£600 pcm between us, I don't know if this is reasonable or not?
and nope we aren't tied at all, My family is mostly based in the midlands and my partners is west yorks, but as there is only us we aren't tied to anywhere, just a good place as a starting point to live. I wondered about derbyshire? x

4T5 · 4 Jan 2011 at 14:09

You can move to My town (Hinckley) if you like as it is the Best town in the Midlands to live/settle. I moved here around 18 years ago & Love the place, Lovely people, Loads of space, Chilled attitude overall & full of Proper family types.

cm1179 · 4 Jan 2011 at 14:17

how about worcestershire?

Morba · 4 Jan 2011 at 14:19

Surely you want jobs first, that will give you an idea of places to live.

Abraham · 4 Jan 2011 at 14:19

If you can go anywhere I'd start by looking for work, and move wherever at least one of you can get a decent job.

Xordium · 4 Jan 2011 at 14:20

Morba said:
Surely you want jobs first, that will give you an idea of places to live.

This.

4T5 · 4 Jan 2011 at 14:23

You couldn't be anymore Central for Jobs/work than Hinckley, check it out on the map, Everywhere is easy to get to from here. :cool:

G|mp · 4 Jan 2011 at 14:25

Avoid the West Midlands, it's ****.

Warwickshire/Worcestershire is lovely

G|mp · 4 Jan 2011 at 14:26

4T5 said:
You can move to My town (Hinckley) if you like as it is the Best town in the Midlands to live/settle. I moved here around 18 years ago & Love the place, Lovely people, Loads of space, Chilled attitude overall & full of Proper family types.

What about the *****'s?

I know of at least one that lives in Hinckley.

sparklebox · 4 Jan 2011 at 14:28

Thanks for all your suggestions! We do want jobs of course and that is priority but just wanted some ideas of what people had to say about areas within the UK :-)

thanks for the advice! X

4T5 · 4 Jan 2011 at 14:28

G|mp said:
What about the *****'s?

I know of at least one that lives in Hinckley.

My first proper laugh today, Well done that man. :cool:

semi-pro waster · 4 Jan 2011 at 14:30

I'd agree with the jobs then location advice but £400-600 between you for rent isn't a huge amount, while it depends on where you live it is a fairly small proportion of your overall salaries. If we pick £600 then it's approximately 17% of your combined income (for the purposes here I've used £42,000 and taken no tax/deductions), I've generally worked on the premise that anywhere up to approximately 25% of your income is reasonable for living expenses so in your case that would be in the region of £800-900 and that should open up a much wider selection of places. Obviously what a reasonable set of living expenses is will vary from location to location but it's another perspective.

G|mp · 4 Jan 2011 at 14:33

4T5 said:
My first proper laugh today, Well done that man.

Not a problem, always available.

Xordium · 4 Jan 2011 at 14:45

I'd recommend Lichfield but I am biased on that one. Nice little city - places within your budget - good train links to Birmingham - good road links everywhere - close to the countryside and work wise there are a lot of good schools locally and close by eg Sutton etc.

ntg · 4 Jan 2011 at 14:47

semi-pro waster said:
I'd agree with the jobs then location advice but £400-600 between you for rent isn't a huge amount, while it depends on where you live it is a fairly small proportion of your overall salaries. If we pick £600 then it's approximately 17% of your combined income (for the purposes here I've used £42,000 and taken no tax/deductions), I've generally worked on the premise that anywhere up to approximately 25% of your income is reasonable for living expenses so in your case that would be in the region of £800-900 and that should open up a much wider selection of places. Obviously what a reasonable set of living expenses is will vary from location to location but it's another perspective.

£42,000 gross salary = circa £28,000 annual net salary. So £600 a month would be about 25% of their annual income. It's just about right what they should be looking forward to paying for rent excluding bills.

Morba · 4 Jan 2011 at 14:49

maustin said:
I'd recommend Lichfield but I am biased on that one. Nice little city - places within your budget - good train links to Birmingham - good road links everywhere - close to the countryside and work wise there are a lot of good schools locally and close by eg Sutton etc.

Lichfield is lovely tbh, good choice if its good for work.

neodude · 4 Jan 2011 at 14:49

**** the Midlands! Move here (Inverurie)! Best place to live in the UK apparently.

Russinating · 4 Jan 2011 at 14:52

Screw the Midlands. I moved away from there to Bristol.