If you are a Londoner, you will probably not need to be told how expensive it is to live in. Rent and property prices are astronomical, as is council tax, eating, drinking and getting around. Londoners are famous for their ability to scrounge at every opportunity. Pop-up restaurants testing a new menu, hairdresser training days that offer free cuts, happy hours, complimentary travel passes at New Year, and of course the beloved Metro on the way to work every morning. If anything is going free in the nation’s Capital, the chances are that most of London are very much aware of it, and have already been. And probably Tweeted about.

The sad truth is that unless you are a TV or sports personality, a visiting Arab sheikh in Knightsbridge or a multi-millionaire business owner, this ‘super scrimping’ lifestyle is something that most of us are familiar with. But in this article I want to bring to my readers’ attentions to one thing that is readily available to us all and that will make their lives significantly easier and more pleasant, at a small price. I don’t know how I’m going to do it, but I am going to try and persuade my London-based readership to depart with more cash than they need to, in the hope that they will recognise that the small monetary outlay will offer generous lifestyle returns… Wish me luck.

Get a Cleaner!

It is not the 19th Century anymore, so you may firmly banish from your mind the idea that having someone clean your house is a luxury reserved only for the Victorian social elite and that you couldn’t afford it anyway. You know how busy you are, and how little you fancy cleaning your own house in your precious free time. And by the way, when I say ‘cleaning’, I do not mean moving that used cereal bowl off your coffee table and putting it in the sink. I mean scrubbing round behind the back of your toilet, degreasing your hobs and hoovering the hall.

Unless you live in a hotel room or you never have any friends round, you need to do these jobs! But you don’t want to do you? So, get in touch with a proper domestic cleaning service provider. Generally avoid adverts posted on Gumtree and stick to the companies that actually interview and vet their cleaning staff. I recently got a cleaner to come and do my bathroom and kitchen every fortnight, and I haven’t looked back. £10/hr! For the cost of two pints of beer every fortnight, I get to live in a hygienic, pleasant house. Worth it, believe me. Especially if you are single and are trying to impress...

Living in London is busy work, so try not to make it any harder for yourself. You don’t even need to be at home for when your cleaner comes. If you do not like the idea of leaving your front door key under the mat whilst you are at work then ask them to come at weekends, when the house is probably at its most untidy anyway. I urge you to give it a go.