{"id":612765,"date":"2026-04-17T11:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T11:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/612765\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T11:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T11:04:09","slug":"i-quit-london-and-moved-in-with-my-boyfriends-parents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/612765\/","title":{"rendered":"I quit London and moved in with my boyfriend’s parents"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite living in London and doing a job she loved, Florrie Kramer found herself increasingly filled with despair each month as she approached pay day and was left constantly counting her pennies.<\/p>\n

It reached a point where she realised it just was not sustainable anymore. So, she decided to move in with her boyfriend\u2019s parents as she realised it is the only way they can ever save to buy a house <\/a>together.<\/p>\n

Florrie, 26, had been living and working in London<\/a> for five years, but during this time, she was never able to save. In fact, she was forced to dip into her savings, until she reached the point where she did not have any left.<\/p>\n

New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would feel like the tight friend when it came to making plans to go out,\u201d said Florrie, who works in public relations.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinancially, it is very difficult living in London<\/a>. When I started in PR after uni, I was earning about \u00a325,000, but more than half of that was going on rent. I have never been bad with money and have never had an issue with budgeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I found I was maxing out my money every month and dipping more and more into my savings, to the point where I didn\u2019t really have any left.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florrie, who is originally from Bristol, studied history of art at the University of Edinburgh. After graduating, she returned home for a few months, before achieving her dream of getting a job in London and moving there.<\/p>\n

She lived in a spare room for a few months, before renting with a friend in Brixton for 18 months. She then rented in Elephant and Castle until about two months ago when she realised it was no longer sustainable financially to carry on living in London<\/a>, particularly if she wanted to save for a house deposit.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSocially, it was very tough,\u201d she recalled. \u201cMy friends are on different salaries to me and I am an extrovert and love being out with them. I was finding it very difficult as I didn\u2019t want to look like I was being stingy.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes, I would go out for dinner with friends, but not actually have any dinner and just have a Coke or something and then make food when I got home.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to look like that person who doesn\u2019t want to let their hair down. And I didn\u2019t want my friends to think I didn\u2019t want to spend money when I was out with them, as that wasn\u2019t the case at all. I was just scraping by each month.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FlorrieFlorrie would sometimes go out for dinner with her friends but have nothing to eat so she could save money<\/p>\n

Crunch time came when Florrie and her boyfriend, Jay, who works in maintenance for Royal Mail and who she has been with for a couple of years, decided they wanted to live together, but when looking at rent prices<\/a> for a couple, they realised they were ridiculously high.<\/p>\n

As Jay\u2019s parents live in Stoneleigh near Epsom in Surrey, the couple moved in with them two months ago and Florrie is now commuting an hour-and-a-half into London for work and whenever she wants to meet friends.<\/p>\n

The couple don\u2019t pay rent but contribute roughly \u00a350 to \u00a3100 towards food a month. <\/p>\n

New research from Nationwide<\/a> reveals Florrie and Jay are not alone when it comes to changing living arrangements to save cash, as it shows 69 per cent of people say living alone is unaffordable.<\/p>\n

As a result, around one in 10 people are forming \u201crally households\u201d \u2013 moving back home<\/a>, in with partners\u2019 parents or taking in lodgers \u2013 just to stay afloat.<\/p>\n

However, this is not always by choice and does not come without challenges as 46 per cent say the situations have had a negative impact on their relationships and personal lives, while 15 per cent have experienced stress and anxiety and 14 per cent have felt \u201cstuck\u201d.<\/p>\n

For Florrie, the move to her boyfriend\u2019s parents\u2019 home has been overwhelmingly positive, but she says there are some challenges \u2013 including longer commutes and facing judgement from others.<\/p>\n

\u201cA huge positive is that I have been able to breathe again with money. Obviously, the purpose is to save, so we are still being careful and not spending frivolously, but it is nice to be able to put money in my savings for the first time in years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love living with Jay and his parents are great as they are super relaxed and very welcoming. But I am conscious that it is their place and I don\u2019t want to ever feel like I am intruding.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have our own living room if we want to do our own thing and for mealtimes, we do a mixture of eating together and on our own.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the weekends, we usually have a Sunday roast together and me and Jay are usually out on a Saturday or a Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though Florrie now has the costs of commuting into London three days a week, she has already noticed a big financial difference, and is saving around \u00a31,000 a month compared to when she was renting in London. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of that is going straight into my savings and we will be putting it towards a house deposit. It might not be anytime soon, but it will be for our future plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough this is the best option for us, living slightly further out of London can be isolating as when you\u2019re feeling tired, it is very easy to opt out of plans. It takes a bit more energy and I have definitely found myself feeling a bit more burnt out.<\/p>\n

\"FlorrieDespite facing a longer commute and finding it more difficult to socialise with friends, Florrie says she and Jay have done the right thing moving in with his parents<\/p>\n

\u201cI also feel a little guilty as I can no longer host people at my house as I am conscious we are a lot further out. Because I can\u2019t repay the favour, I over compensate by bringing stuff to them and making an extra effort in other ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do face judgement from some people as friends ask why we are doing it because they see living outside of London as something people do when they are older. We also have to cut our night short and can\u2019t be out until the early hours because we have to get the last train home and this can be viewed as being a bit boring.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, for us, the positives outweigh the negatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting on the property ladder<\/a> is very difficult for young people as the cost of living is so crazy and it feels like everything is going up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI only know one of my friends who is buying a house and she has lived at home for over five years. For most young people, moving back in with parents is the only way to save money, as otherwise everything goes on rent and living costs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite living in London and doing a job she loved, Florrie Kramer found herself increasingly filled with despair…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,63,99,186,297603,10920,184,185,19604,11135,28539],"class_list":{"0":"post-612765","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-first-time-buyers","13":"tag-housing-crisis","14":"tag-personal-finance","15":"tag-personalfinance","16":"tag-property-prices","17":"tag-renting","18":"tag-young-people"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}