Average pay check

Living near London with 2RN pays may be doable but still be expensive. Your rent actually sounds cheap. Look up Morrisons, Asda, Tesco for costs on groceries. You can get Pay As You Go phones which may help with costs and some other costs to think of are electricity, council tax, transportation

It's not central london, so that's why it's not so expensive. The hospital and the house would be in Barnet. I look it up in rghtmove and a decent 1 bedroom apartment it's around 900 to 1100 pounds

I've counted the following values monthly for the 2 of us:

Rent: 1000 pounds

Average monthly grocery bill: 300 pounds

Gas - 70 pounds

Electricity - 65 pounds

Water - 40 pounds

Council taxes: 110 pounds (1300 a year)

Sim Card Plan: 40 pounds

Internet: 30 pounds

Bus Pass: 160 pounds

What would leave us with 1500 pounds (of the 3367) after all this expenses. Or i'm missing something?

Regarding the extra hours/night shifts, you know how that adds up with the salary?

Thanks for the reply :)

Nights and weekends are slightly more, you could get up to £1800 a month, but unsocial hours pay will most likely be cut after next weeks budget announcement. Do you want to factor in social nights out and misc shopping. If you were on your own I would say it's not enough but since there's two of you, you'll be fine.

You seem to have done your research and I would say that your figures are about right.

Its almost impossible to live in London and save, you live pretty much paycheck to paycheck.

Most folk try to do at least one bank or agency shift a week, and some take a second job.

Hello skylark, that's what i'm trying to understand, how the bank shift or agency shifts work ? So we can earn a litle extra by the end of the month. we have to sign with a agency and they call us to do some extra shifts ?

Will your work permit allow you to work elsewhere? if it does then all you need to do is register with an agency and list your availability and they will ring with work. I would suggest waiting until you have some NHS experience under your belt as agency expect you to hit the floor running

Hello skylark, that's what i'm trying to understand, how the bank shift or agency shifts work ? So we can earn a litle extra by the end of the month. we have to sign with a agency and they call us to do some extra shifts ?

OK, most hospitals use one of three systems.

1. Agency nurses, not directly employed by the hospital, who may or may not also be employed there as well. The pay rate tends to be higher, but its just an hourly rate, and does not take account of benefits like annual leave, sick leave, etc.

2. In house bank - nurses already employed by the hospital can register to work additional shifts, usually paid at the same rate as their full time job. They are directly employed by the hospital, and usually received two P60s a year, one for the full time and one for the bank shifts.

(This is known by different names in the US, usually registry, CWYN or per diem, its all the same thing)

3. NHS Professionals, supposedly a national system of nurses who can work extra shifts for any NHS hospital. In reality its chaos, and my experience has been negative, it takes forever to register and there are always errors with pay.

Ask your co-workers which system is in use at your hospital, and how to register.