Moving to London | Coins

If you live in London, and use cash at least semi-regularly, you will notice just how many coins you accumulate - and quite quickly! We got a fair sized jar to fill with left over coins, and within 4 months it was overflowing. Even with the occasional pound taken out for morning coffees! It was an excellent way to de-clutter and consolidate the leftover coins, but what to do with all that heavy weight money when the jar was full?

A quick google search yielded some excellent tips on what to do with loose British change. A bank here in London, Metro Bank, has these 'magic money machines' in every single branch. You simply take your coins, pour them into the machine, and it will spit out a little receipt with your full balance printed on it. Take that to one of their tellers and you're handed bills to that amount - maybe a few pounds or change back, but still good!

Before you put your money in, you're asked to make a guess at how much you'll have in total. I don't know what the specifics are, but apparently you get a prize if you're estimate falls within 2 pence of the actual amount. Ours was wildly off - in a good way! 38 pounds later, we were laughing all the way to the bank...well, we were already at the bank but you know what I mean....

Moving to London | Banking & Phones

In this post a couple weeks ago, I shared some things I learned while flat hunting in London. Carrying on this theme, here is some information on banking and phones that I sent to a friend - at the risk of overwhelming her!

As always, keep in mind that this is what worked for me, and by no means will work for everyone. Just some extra information to help you along in your move, particularly before you leave Canada.

Moving to London | Housing

Hi!

I'm so excited to announce a couple of my friends just moved to London, and a couple more are on their way in the 'Autumn' (no one calls it 'fall' here).

We gave all our soon-to-be ex-pats pals some tips and advice on housing, and how to find a nice, yet affordable, spot to live. I thought I would compile all the information in one place for easy reference - especially as I start convincing more and more of you lovely people to make the hop over here to live!

Without further ado, here are a bunch of random thoughts, hopefully some helpful, that are meant to assist anyone looking for housing (in this scenario a 'flat') in London.

(I am by no means an expert, I urge you to take what you like, drop what you don't, and make your move all about you and what you need)