Guest Post: Tom Church presents uHouse

As you and I well know, living in London is expensive and finding an affordable place to stay can be incredibly difficult. There’s no doubt about it. A student from University College London (UCL) has created a website that he says will help make life a bit easier for anyone on a budget when it comes to flat hunting. And so of course I’ve invited him to write a guest post telling us more about his site and the story behind it. Meet Tom Church.

The first bedroom was more like a prison cell. 9ft long and 6ft wide, it was one of eighty-six identical rooms along a single corridor. “Welcome to your university accommodation”, smirked the security guard. There were two bathrooms and one kitchen shared between forty-three ‘flatmates’. And this kitchen only had one mini-fridge and microwave. The whole place was noisy, dirty, and quite frankly disgusting. But I loved it.

.

Londoners can make anything fun, and that year I spent in university-provided accommodation was one of my best. Yet it was also one of the most expensive. Before moving in, I had been naively made to believe that £155 a week for that room was “about right” in London. Remember; no living room, no outside facing window, no sleep. Yet, with an interest-free student loan coming in, who was I to complain? The contract was signed, bags packed.

.

Photo: Friday Night Blues by Karva Javi

.

Five months later, sitting by a cash-machine, a homeless man asked if I had any change. It was the same man that always asked me for change, and this time, as I was checking my balance and taking out some cash, I would oblige. Then I double-blinked. The on-screen balance read £55.

.

With a month to go until my next loan instalment, I was broke. I had to get two part-time evening jobs to pay the rent whilst studying, and it was here I learnt that I was not alone. This story is very, very common amongst London students – especially those from overseas. London rent is just too expensive.

.

Photo: Courtain by s_mahela

.

However, every problem has a solution. For the last two years I’ve been researching the London rental market and think that I have it. And through Stephanie’s great blog, I would like to present it to you. How can you make London rent cheaper? There are three answers:

1. Share the flat
2. Live further out
3. Look really hard

My solution combines all three, and here it is: uHouse.co (yes, .co).

.

uHouse lists all the affordable properties to rent in London. It searches the listings of all the small estate agencies in London, and picks the few houses that are within a budget: £650 per month per person OR LESS. It allows you to contact the estate agent/landlord directly, so there’s no middle man, and it’s entirely free to use. There’s even a Facebook page so you can keep an eye on the best flats as they come up.

.

Photo: The Streets of London by Gautier Houba

.

uHouse is my thank you gift to the Londoners that made my stay very enjoyable despite some prison-like conditions. I hope that you will find it useful, and if you do find a place to live through it, don’t forget to thank Stephanie for allowing me to write this guest article!

.

Find it, love it, live it.

Tom Church

.

Hello Fresh

It’s 10pm and I’ve just gotten home from working overtime. The doorbell rings. It’s a man standing there with a smile and two paper bags full of food for me from Hello Fresh. They’d been kind enough to arrange a late delivery.

The bags contain food for the next five days as well as five recipes for which the exact ingredients have been included. If I need 2 carrots, that’s what I’ll find in the bag. One clove of garlic? I find one clove of garlic. You get the picture. I unpack.

I find a personalised note inside and a little bag of chocolates.

The recipes come on sleek black cards with plenty of photos and step by step instructions that are super easy to follow on the back.

(Recipe card for My Thai Green Curry with Chicken Sweet Potato and Basmati Rice, courtesy of Hello Fresh)

Here’s mine:

Recipes for the week are chosen by chefs and nutritionists. You choose the size of your bags and meals. The recipes come to you as a surprise. My recipes were:

1.) More-ish Mozzarella Chicken with Rustic Tomato Sauce and Penne

2.) Tangy Toasted Thai Rice with Fresh Prawns and Cucumber Salad (<– favourite!)

3.) My Thai Green Curry with Chicken, Sweet Potato & Basmati Rice (<– least favourite – too spicy for me!)
Oops – Forgot to take a photo of the final meal for this one. It was a tiring week…that’s my only excuse!

4.) Mamma’s Secret Beef Bolognese with Spaghetti

5.) Millionaire’s Shepherd’s Pie

As a side note: I had a happy flatmate this week because I made him help me eat everything!

Hello Fresh Positives: Surprise recipes are great because you end up cooking new food you may not have thought to otherwise; you keep the recipe cards so you can use them over again if you like them; recipe cards super easy to follow; time saver; orders are well organised; healthy food choices approved by nutritionists; forces you to cook when you otherwise would have tossed something in the microwave which is a good thing for me; can choose size of order; free delivery; food is brilliantly fresh; everything is given in portions so there is less waste; people who work at Hello Fresh are lovely and accommodating.

Hello Fresh Negatives: Surprise recipes can also be negative  because you may end up with something you don’t like; they don’t currently cater to vegetarians or special diets at the moment; no minimum sign up period – 6 days notice to cancel an ongoing weekly order; if there’s leftovers, you have to eat it for lunch the next day rather than dinner because having the fresh food in the house means you have to cook every night.

Would I sign up? Yes, but not every week or I would choose the smaller plan so there’s not so much pressure to cook proper recipes every night, however delicious they may be!

Also, just for fun and games, I’ve decided to pick the brains of Caitlin Arnold from Hello Fresh for you in a mini London-y Q&A:

LLO: As food is important to you, can you recommend a favourite restaurant choice with some fresh and healthy options for those lazy days you don’t feel like cooking?
CA: I love Cah Chi – delicious Korean food. My favourite thing is the dak bulgogi with a side of sigumchi namul – barbeque chicken with a side of steamed spinach. So good.

LLO: What’s your favourite London discovery and why?
CA: I saw the musical Wicked in London in 2007 and it changed my life. I have seen it four times since then.

LLO: Share one memory or moment that could only have happened in London.
CA:  I went to Ministry of Sound to see Sander Van Doorn in 2007 and it blew my mind.

____________

Full disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. I was given a week’s worth of free groceries from the company Hello Fresh with a promise to review their services for you. 

Guest Post: Carolina Baker’s Letter to London

Written by Carolina Baker who landed in London in November, a bit bleary eyed and nostalgic for what was formerly home. She’s Colombian American and loves Chai Lattes. During the day, she works in finance and at night she can be found blogging at GirlHabits or working out at Crossfit Thames.

Dear London,

The hardest thing for me upon arriving was feeling foreign.

Your baristas in Canary wharf didn’t know me, so they just took my order without smiling or even nodding. Your employee’s jokes I didn’t understand, so I just nodded my head and tried very hard to not space out. Your people’s wardrobes of grey and black didn’t match my own, so my pink coat and pink bag were very ill-matched. Your food was different and a bit bland, so I spent ages choosing what not to eat for lunch. Your General Practitioner made me go see him three times to get my blood test results;  Your people really like to say no; Your letting agencies took their sweet old time with our rental; Your people don’t really like to talk loud; You aren’t home to many Latins, so as a Colombian, I felt different in a loud and exotic kind of way.

But now, your baristas in Canary wharf are starting to warm up to me. Nobody can resist a smile, a “have a nice day,” a pink coat, or someone who orders an Iced Drink for long. We chat about how cold it is outside (really?), and how happy we are that it’s Friday, and that to me, is what I call, progress. Even though my wardrobe hasn’t changed and neither has your peoples’, they are starting to understand me as a bubbly and bright American. I found a way to get your people to talk and that’s by asking question after question, so that’s what I do. Your food hasn’t gotten better, unfortunately, but I’ve narrowed it down to having eggs for breakfast and an iced chai (no water!), a chopped salad for lunch (in which I’m only allowed one egg…), and cooking something from Waitrose for dinner during the week, and trying out random restaurants on the weekends; (Wahaca is a winner; Mestizo restaurant is…not). But your Crossfit Thames is quite amazing and reminds me of my brother every time I go work out; it’s like a home away from home. Your GPs I haven’t gotten used to, but they are teaching me the importance of patience, as there really is no better way to deal with a different medical care system. Your people respond well to being challenged, something that is completely unexpected. And I still talk loudly when given the opportunity. I smile whenever I hear Latin Spanish on the DLR, on the tube, or on random London Streets.

And while it’s important for me to have you feel like home, being here is more monumental than creating a routine that is fulfilling. You feel like an open door, inviting me in. You are a breath of fresh air; a brand new perspective. You are patient with me as I stop idolizing my past and start treading lightly on my present, and with more purpose on my future.  You are introducing me to people and situations that will alter the course of my life, and for that, I’m forever grateful. You are showing me that choosing different is better than not choosing at all, and that sometimes, it’s necessary to jump and feel what it’s like to free fall. Your ground is sturdy and its caught me quite a few times. And you know what? I’ve managed to brush myself off and get back up again.

So before I forget, I thank you. For taking me away from New York and for showing me a new way of life.

Warmly,

Carolina

___

If you’d like to guest post about London for LLO, drop me a line: stephanie.sadler@hotmail.co.uk