Transportation
To take public transportation you will need an
Oyster Card and CIS got you covered with that! You will find one in your welcome packs which will be preloaded with £40 credit. You will use that credit as pay as you go. This means that you will pay for every ride you take on busses, tube (subway) and overground trains. One ride on a bus will cost you £1.50 and one ride on the tube/overground will cost you £2.40 if you travel in zones 1 and 2.
You will commute to work from Monday to Thursday and the majority of you will take the tube twice a day. That means that you will pay at least £4.80 every single day.
Once you use up all the credit we put on your card, you will need to decide whether to continue using it as Pay as you go or to purchase a monthly travel card that will give you unlimited access to public transportation in the zones that you choose (always choose zones 1 and 2, unless your placement is located in zone 3 or further out).
I highly recommend getting a monthly travel card as you will be taking public transportation every day and it will save you a lot of money. The monthly travel card for zones 1 and 2 costs £134.80. For further information, please see the TFL (Transport For London) website.
Food
Your weekly spend on food depends on your eating habits. Sharing food shopping and meals with others will help cut costs. On average students spend between £20 and £40 every week.
Another way to budget when grocery shopping is to go buy your food at the end of the day, after 6.30pm, when all supermarkets reduce their products which are due to expire that day or the following. This may sound weird to some of you, but this way of shopping is very popular over here and the food is always fresh and still edible.
There are two main supermarkets near your housing, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons. The second one is slightly cheaper than the first.
When it comes to purchasing toiletries (shampoos, soaps, toothpaste etc), my suggestion is to go to a Poundland. Yes, it is our version of a 1$ shop! 😉
Entertainment London hosts a wide range of entertainment venues catering to all groups of society and religions. It really caters for everybody’s taste! Dinner out can cost from £6 upwards. Go to chains like Pret a Manger or Eat for sandwiches and healthy snacks. A pizza costs between £6.50 and £13, a slice will cost you around £4. A pint of beer at the pub costs between £4 and £5.50. Cinemas in central London cost around £12 (yes, going to the movies is unfortunately expensive here) while a theatre ticket typically cost £20-£40. There are special discounts available to students throughout the city, so make sure to have your student ID on you and to ask! London is a student friendly city and special reductions are offered for students at many shops (H&M, Topshop, etc), theatres, cinemas, museums and galleries. London can be an expensive city, but trust me when I say that you don’t have to go broke to have fun! Take advantage of all the free entry museums we have in town (Tate Modern, National Gallery, British Museum, Natural History Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, etc). During the summer all Londoners love to spend their free time having picnics in one of the many parks in central London. So, go explore one every weekend, take some food with you, rent a bike or simply relax listening to some music or sunbath (if the sun is out!). Last but not least, London is famous for its many markets that sell food, flowers, vintage clothing and furniture, etc (Camden Lock, Borough Market, Portobello Road Market, etc). Explore the different markets and the neighbourhoods in which they are located it. That will be a fun day out free of cost!
Phone Plans It is a good idea to get a UK number while you are in London, if only for Google Maps! You will be working and your supervisor may want to be able to get in touch with you easily, by texting or calling a UK number, so we highly recommend you to get one during the weekend prior to the start of your internship. The good news is that pay-as-you-go plans are not very expensive here. Also, any decent plan from any provider is about £15-20/month. The most popular providers are Three, Vodafone, EE, O2.
