r/Glasgow Tools

26 year old Irish in Glasgow here. Been here for the last 8 years or so.

In terms of where to live there are three kind of main areas in Glasgow; the west end, south side and the east end. Every area in Glasgow has a mix of people and I don’t like generalising however for the sake of understanding; The west end is your traditionally more well to do area, think D4. The university of Glasgow is right in the heart of the west end so there are lots of students as well (UofG is generally the posher uni so the students reflect that) The south side (around Queen’s Park; shawlands, battlefield, mount florida, strathbungo etc) is the up and coming (already come up?) trendy area. Lots of young artistic folk with young family’s and lots of post grads etc. A lot of people that used to rent in the west end who wanted to buy moved to the south side. The east end is more of a traditional working class area but there’s always talk about how it’s going to be the next big place. I think it’s just about to start the gentrification process.

Even though the west end is more expensive I’m paying £960 for a 2 bed tenement that I share with my partner and a flatmate and we are right on the gates to kelvingrove park. Tenement flats are fantastic and is a style of living that’s really missing in Ireland as we never had the industrial boom like Glasgow did with ship building etc. They have large rooms and high ceilings, big windows and proper dedicated living rooms and kitchens (for the most part). Very easy living for us having 3 folk in a two bed, it doesn’t feel cramped at all.

The south side will be a little cheaper and the east end even cheaper again. I would recommend looking for a flat share on something like spareroom as it’s way more affordable to live in a 2 bed+ than a 1 bed. 1 beds seem to be between £600-800 where as 2 beds are £800-1100 but you’ll also get to split the council tax. (Roughly £100 per flat per month). In all my time here I’ve never paid more than £450 a month on rent and that was very pricey at the time. Bills are cheap enough - I think we pay like £80 for gas and electricity and £25 on Internet between the three of us. All in I would allow £500-600 for rent and bills in a shared flat.

As others have mentioned a pint is just over £4, a takeaway about £10-15 a head and a meal out for us is roughly £15-30 each depending on drinks mainly.

Salaries are definitely lower than Ireland but it goes a lot further. When I graduated first I was on £22k and it was fine at the time, wasn’t saving much but I had a good quality of life. Right now from the look of my banking app I think I’m spending about £1200-1500 a month and that’s everything, rent, utilities, food and car. I don’t know if you drive but insurance is a lot cheaper here as well. £300-500 a year for our car.

I have a few friends in social work and I think they are all on £24-30k. But there are lots of social work adjacent jobs - lots of charity headquarters and organisational positions that might get a higher wage.

Also there are no GP or prescription costs in Scotland. the NHS covers it all, no more €50 GP visits just to get a prescription. Also generic medicines, paracetamol and ibuprofen at like 20p a pack 🥰😍

Happy to answer any questions - just Dm me