Man saves cash commuting to work from Barcelona to London

SAM Cookney was sick of rip-off city prices. So he moved and started his 11-hour commutes. He says he’s saving thousands.

Man’s colossal, 3000km commute

A LONDON office worker who was sick of the city’s rip-off prices worked out that he would spend less commuting to his job from Spain.

Three months ago, he actually did it.

Sam Cookney now lives in the centre of Barcelona and catches a cheap flight to London’s Stansted Airport each morning, reaching his desk by 9.30am — and he’s saving money.

The social media manager reached the end of his tether in 2013, when he realised he couldn’t afford to rent a place in the city on his own.

“I think many people thought I was joking when I boldly declared it would be cheaper for me to rent a two-bed flat in Barcelona and commute to London every day than get a one-bed flat here,” he wrote on his blog. “Turns out I was — I could in fact get a three-bed flat.”

Done the sums. Would actually be cheaper for me to rent 2 bed flat in Barcelona+commute to London, than get 1 bed here. Genuinely. Blog it?

— Sam Cookney (@Sam_Cookney) October 24, 2013

Sunrise over Barcelona airport this morning, 6h15am. All the @vueling parked up. pic.twitter.com/zSWgBvcE76

— Sam Cookney (@Sam_Cookney) July 31, 2015

The average price of a one-bed flat in north London at the time was $3195 a month. On top of that, he had to pay council tax (about $160 a month) and buy a $250 travelcard to get to work in the city centre, bringing his total expenditure to $3602.

With cheap Ryanair flights costing as little as $50 return, Sam figured he could live far more cheaply in sunny Spain. He was right.

Now he pays $1300 a month, including bills, to live in newly renovated two-bed apartment with a roof terrace in the historic Gothic Quarter. He can catch a $9 train from home to Barcelona — El Prat Airport, and a train from Stansted to his office in Farringdon for $30.

Sam’s lucky enough to be able to work from home on occasion, but even travelling to the office four days a week would cost just $1424 a month. Add that to his rent, and he’s spending $2724 a month — an impressive $878 less than he would be paying to live and work in London.

I've not missed this. pic.twitter.com/Gh8DKpkRZ6

— Sam Cookney (@Sam_Cookney) July 22, 2015

Crazy day. Here's a return flight to Barcelona selfie. (PS I'm still single...) pic.twitter.com/Yk82yTJ2MR

— Sam Cookney (@Sam_Cookney) August 5, 2015

“It’s a two-bed city-centre flat with roof terrace versus a small room in a shared flat in London, in the suburbs,” he told news.com.au. “And it’s cheaper. The beach is on my doorstep, there’s amazing, cheap food, everything’s just so much easier.”

His 1500-kilometre commute takes five-and-a-half hours one-way, but Sam says he’s able to have a quick nap on the flight. The 32-year-old said he was “surprised by just how seamless and easy” the journey was, and has spotted some familiar faces on his flights, suggesting others have had the same bright idea.

The only downsides are inflated flight prices in summer, and occasionally missing out on parties in London. But Barcelona’s impromptu street festivals, coastal life and fantastic restaurants more than make up for that.

Sam is living a vastly improved lifestyle compared to the one he had in London — and at a fraction of the price. It won’t be for everyone, but moving a plane journey away from work could be an unexpected solution for those struggling with over-inflated housing costs in expensive cities all over the world.

In Australia, where housing affordability, congested roads and inadequate public transport have seen commutes blow out by 24 hours in just the past three years, researchers have found a direct link between daily travel times and poor mental health.

The average Australian now spends 29 minutes on a one-way commute — that’s almost an hour a day. Roughly extrapolated, about 10 full days a year are spent sat on trains, trams, buses and in cars getting to and from work.

Dr David Bissell, of Australian National University, said his study found that a stressful commute could change the way people treated work colleagues and have negative impacts on family life if commuters found it difficult to relax once they were home.

“Some of the most moving stories I heard was from parents who weren’t as close to their children as they wanted to be,” Dr Bissell told news.com.au.

This includes one woman who has done a four-hour commute from Sydney to the Central Coast of NSW for 20 years.

“She told me her husband is much closer to her child and she puts that down to the commute. So these are not incidental changes that are taking place here,” he said.

The study noted that the average commute in Sydney was just over half an hour but some people were travelling for more than five hours a day. Most of the commuters Dr Bissell interviewed for the study were travelling more than an hour each way, even if they lived within 10 kilometres of their workplace.

Read about the Aussies who put up with mega commutes to live in stunning locations here.