How to Be Cheap in London

You can't.

Haaaaa, just kidding...kind of.

But really, London is a strange place because many things are free, but the things that have an entrance free are very pricey.  For example, entrance to the awesome Tower of London is about 30 dollars per person.  Wowza!

So, here are three ways we were able to afford a five-day trip to London.

Tip #1:  Get cozy with some college dudes.

We made some pretty nice friends at our hostel--because we were sharing one small room with four other twenty-something dudes on bunk beds.  Thanks for letting me have the top bunk guys!

Hotels in London are super expensive (for us) so we opted to sleep in a 6-person hostel room.  For both of us together, that came to around $60 each night.  Sure, it's sort of weird to come home to three shirtless men jamming on their ipods--but they are friendly shirtless men who let you have the shower first.

Also, we made sure we got a hostel that was in a nice neighborhood, near the places we wanted to see (so we didn't have to pay for tube transportation all the time), and that included a breakfast.  Granted, that breakfast was CocoKrispies and toast but that's still breakfast!

Overall, I liked our experience with the roommates, and the hostel was actually really cool since it used to be an old Victorian mansion.

See now, a place with a doorway like that HAS to
be kind of cool!

And a lovely interior.  Sometimes people were asleep on their
backpacks on the stairs, but, hey man, I can dig it.

Tip #2: Play the field.

There are always cheaper ways to get into expensive places.  Some are even legal!

For example, you have to pay an entrance fee of around $23 each for Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral.  We actually were okay with paying those because Paul loves religious architecture and history so it was worth it for our traveling priorities (I'd already seen them in 2004, but I didn't mind touring again).  However, if you don't need to walk around and be able to poke into every corner with an audioguide, you can go into both of these beautiful churches for worship services for free!

Free!

And not only that, but if you choose a service that has music with their famous choir and organist then it's a free performance of life-changing gorgeousness.  We went to Evensong at St. Paul's (it was my favorite memory from before too) and I'll always consider it the most spiritual and beautiful experience of my life.

The Tower of London would have been
worth it at full price,
 but I'm not complaining about our 2-for-1 deal!

So, other than the tip about the church services, I'd also say that you should try to find coupons where you can.  We found a deal where, if we bought our day-pass for the tube at a particular station (that we were going to be at in the morning anyway), then we could get 2-for-1 coupons to St. Paul's and the Tower of London (and many, many other things but those were the ones we used).   We were going to be buying a tube pass anyway, so this was like saving $60 in one day for doing what we were doing anyway--the difference was we knew about the secret beforehand.

Thirdly, lot of people go to London and want to see a show in the evenings--who wouldn't right?  It's like another Broadway!  But, most people think that they get the cheapest tickets from the half-price TKTS booth in Leicester Square.

Not so!

The TKTS booth sells half-prices for the nicest seats of popular shows.  But, if you show up at the theater an hour before showtime and just ask for their least expensive seat or if they have any hour-prior deals, then you can get into big-name shows for as little as $25 each--and that's a steal for a top-notch Broadway!

Another option for more "high-class" shows like the Ballet or the Opera in London are to buy standing-only tickets that are only about $15 each.  That's almost ten dollars less than what it would cost to go and see a movie in London--and you're seeing world-class art instead.  Also, you make friends with your neighbors and you can move around in the back (stretch your legs and whatnot) during the performance--way better in many ways than being trapped in a little seat with no armrests for three hours.

Fourth, like I said before, there are so many free things to do in London too!  There are four unbelievable and huge art museums that I can think of off the top of my head.  Or the Natural History or can't-miss-it British Museum.  The Imperial War Museum is incredible!  Or just walking from Kensington Palace through Parliament Square to Trafalgar Square--they could charge a lot of money just to walk through there, but they don't--it's free!

Finally, walk.  Walk walk walk walk walk walk walk.  Get your walkin' shoes on and walk London.  Don't pay that 2-4 pounds per tube ride when you can just walk 15 minutes through a beautiful park or neighborhood.  2-4 pounds per tube ride really adds up.  And, if you plan it well and your hostel or hotel is already centrally located, you can spend an entire day without riding the tube once--and it'll be a really great experience!  I promise!

Tip #3:  Don't eat...

Okay, I mean, you can eat but try not to go crazy.  Besides, it's Britain so it's not like you're missing too much anyway (oooooo!  Burrrrrrn!  I actually like mashed potatoes and roast meat dishes--I just thought I'd drop the joke that you all expected.  And, if you don't eat Indian food in London then bummer for you because that's the closest you're going to get to the real thing without actually flying to Mumbai.)

And, if you can help it, try to eat outside or cafeteria-style or in pubs--then you don't have to pay a huge VAT or tip.

When we were there, we'd eat our hostel breakfast and then one "biggish" meal in the afternoon and that was about it.  If we got hungry, we'd have a snack, sure (like a scone from Harrod's), but not an all-out meal.  The only restaurant meal we had was the Vegetarian's Dream Indian Lunch Buffet, and that was only $10.   I think we really saved a lot of money by just eating warm, traditional Cornish Pasties from food stands and amazing, fresh burgers and vegetable salads from the farmer's market in Covent Garden.  We definitely did not eat crappy food on our trip, but it sure as heck didn't cost us an arm and a leg either.

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Final note: I am a disciple of RickStevesianism so here's what I believe:  spend your money on what your priorities are.  For us, our priority was getting to as much history as we could in three days--so we cut as much as we could off of lodging and food.    But if your priority is relaxation or a foodie road trip, then you'd cut back on entrance fees to the Tower of London and that sort of thing.  If you're traveling somewhere for something, then don't skimp on that thing for sure!  Go crazy!  That's why you came!

Signing Aquahaus: Rich and Poor

Check out that awesome
next-door building!

Today we will be (barring any random insanity) signing a contract for a place I've christened "Aquahaus."  At 5pm.  Set your watches--there might be some sort of astronomical sign that occurs at the same moment my pen hits paper because this is nothing short of a miracle.

A very expensive miracle.




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Here's a mini-lesson in Rostock Real Estate for you (you can skip this starred section if you want to fast forward).  There is a university here, with many students.  Actually, this particular year there are approximately 30% more students than there have been any other year, which is probably how I got a job, actually.  You should also know that our income is approximately 30% of what a student makes (I kid, I kid.  But it isn't much-- 1800 euro a month).  So, as you can imagine, we're sort of trying to get the same kind of apartment all these thousands of extra students are trying to get--in the main part of the city, small, one room, cheap.

This particular combination of factors hasn't exactly been helpful for us--we went to see an apartment last week (three weeks after the semester started!) and there had already been 30 people to see it.  Oh, and we called the owner exactly one hour after it was posted online.    Also, the bathroom was such a skinny, tiny room that the toilet had to be turned sideways and you had to step over it to get to the shower.  25 people had already applied for it by the time we made it to our showing.

Of course, that sort of interest is only for the apartments that don't have a real estate fee--which is understandable since these fees generally are around 1000 euro.

But even the apartments with the real estate fee (which, to give you an idea, are around 95-99% of all the ones we've found listed) have a lot of competition too.  Of the 30 apartments (THIRTY) that Paul has seen these past two months, all of them have had at least seven other people apply for them.

Of all the times that Paul has applied to those thirty apartments, he has only gotten a response once, and that was the tragedy that was Peptohaus (or, should I say, NepoHaus?!).

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But, even with the same odds on Aquahaus, we were chosen!!!!   Woo!  I have no idea why or how or who paid who what, but we were the number one applicants this one, golden, miraculous time!

And so we're gearing up to have a life that's a bit poorer, but also quite a bit richer.

Poorer because...
Aquahaus is one of those real estate fee apartments, unfortunately.  But, truly, we had kind of resigned ourselves to it a couple weeks ago.  What this means is that today, we're going to go sign a contract, pay the real estate agency 1000 euro, and pay the landlord a deposit of 850 euro (ouch).   That's before we start even paying rent!

The sort of nice thing about Germany is that your deposit goes into a high-yield savings account and you get it all back with interest when you vacate.  The sort of not nice thing is that we're kissing that 1000 euro fee goodbye--never to be seen again--and that's a lot of money for us right now.  Especially since we still need to buy things like, oh, a bed?  And ohhhh, a spoon to eat with?  Maybe two spoons if we get extravagant. And oh, like, a refrigerator?

Also, Aquahaus is a little bit more expensive than we were hoping to have to pay here--not because we can't afford it, but more because we were prepared to live in a closet so we could save money to travel to exotic locales.  I was hoping to find a place that would cost around 450 euro "warm rent" (that's including water/heat/garbage, but not electricity).   We found a few of those, but again, there were always 30 people interested as well.   Aquahaus is going to be around 570 euro "warm rent" (420 euro "cold rent") but hopefully we can get a bit of a refund at the end of the year if we go easy on our water and heat.  At any rate, it was about 50 euro more each month than our hoped-for upper range.  **Shout out to the ex-pats:  How much are you paying for rent or for electricity?**

What pushed us to taking Aquahaus (other than the fact that it was an actual OFFER) was the fact that the kitchen (minus fridge) came with the apartment so we wouldn't have to buy a stove/oven, sink, and cabinets on top of all our furniture and household necessities (yes, that's a common thing--needing to buy a kitchen).  Also, it's a rather large kitchen comparative to the others we've seen, so we'll have space to bake and cook--which is sort of a hobby and cost-cutter for us.

Blah blah blah budgeting stuff blah blah.  I'm totally into talking money, but I realize it probably gets boring to most people.  I should pace myself.

What I'm REALLY saying is that Aquahaus is going to cost us more than what some other apartments would cost us (if we could ever even have a chance to get one).

BUT

We're going to be RICHER in so many other things:

Like in the fact that we'll be living in the oldest part of the city
(This is our immediate neighborhood).  And it's a quiet part of town, unlike
the cheaper, though more crowded, closer to work student district.

We'll live within the remnants of the
original medieval wall--and see it every day

The largest outdoor market is a five minute walk away--along
with the Marienkirche (St. Mary's Church) and all her
beautiful organ concerts.

And this will be our commute--down the historic
street of the Kroppeliner Gate (one of the original city gates)

Instead of walking 30 minutes to "experience" this beautiful part of the city, it will be our home for the next two years.  I think that's worth a fee and 50 extra euro a month, don't you?

Financial Snapshot

Just in case you were wondering, this is what a last-minute, fact-finding, one week trip to Rostock and Berlin does to your budget.

It was totally worth it, by the way.