Is this a reasonable amount of rent for our salary?

The Olympics are nothing to do with it - they last two weeks. Most landlords don't like pets.

£42,500 after tax and NI will be very roughly a conservative £2400 a month, so you have about £1000 left.

rough guesses as I don't know property size

council tax guessing £150 a month.

gas and electric average £90 a month

water bill £20 a month

insurance £20 a month

tv licence £12

phone and broadband £25 or so a month including line rental.

mobiles; be careful and you can limit to £5 a month on pay as you go. Use them without thinking hard and the skys the limit.

groceries £250 a month, with occasional alcohol.

total £560 or so.

need a car?

insurance will be very high, maybe £80 a month.

car tax £15 a month

petrol is double what you are used to.

then there are fixes and the annual MoT (About £50)

animal food, pet insurance, vet bills.

nappies. Baby is breast fed or drinks baby milk.

this doesn't cover clothes, baby gear (which doesn't need to be that pricey, ebay, charity shop etc) Also not sure of your health situation, I don't think you are eligible for the NHS so you've got some costs there.

also not covered; furniture, household equipment (everything!).

supermarket prices:

milk 4 pints £1.20

decent loaf of bread £1.35

eggs £1 for six

butter £1.20 for 250g

my figures are conservative but it doesn't look like you are going on holiday or going out much. I hope you have savings and good medical insurance.

W-a-y out of line! You can afford about 1000/month max for your housing costs. Any time you go over 25% of income for rent, you risk financial difficulties. At 1/3 of income for housing, you will be seriously struggling to keep a roof overhead.

You neglected to consider the high UK income taxes. VAT (their equivalent of sales tax in the US) runs more than double the highest sales tax rate of any US state. Worst of all, with your addition to your family, your expenses and financial obligations are about to skyrocket, and you will not be working for a while.

If your hubby got a contract to work in UK, isn't the employer providing housing or housing allowance for this relocation to a (probably) temporary assignment? You are already in dire financial difficulties without a proper expat contract, and your rent is already about 50% more than you can afford. By the time you add @150/month council tax, + utilities, you are looking at housing costs of around 1800/mo (maybe more) or bloody close to half of gross pay. You'll be lucky to be able to afford ramen noodles for dinner. You didn't figure out what net pay would be after taxes, did you?

The ratio between rent and income is *just* acceptable - normal guide is 25% - 40% and your rent will be circa 40% of income. This means you will find it difficult to live anything other than a basic lifestyle.

If possible, I would look for a property at slightly lower rent, every £ you can save on rent is an extra £ towards all those expenses your adorable new baby will cause :)

For shopping comparison - loot at http://www.mysupermarket.com/

REnt wise - no more than 43% of gross pay (anything else will leave you struggling)

Check out the council tax band by ringing the local council and ask. Average 3 bed is about 1500 GBP per annum.

Gas and electricity will kill you - our power companies are rob dogs over here.

Litre of skinny milk 80p

Bread - over a pound for a decent loaf

Eggs =- over 2 pounds for half a dozen free range ones

A good rule of thumb is that your annual salary should be 40 times your monthly rent. So, your combined income (just your husband's for now) should be at least $57,200 given the rent.

Everything in the UK will be more expensive than it was back in the US.