It might seem strange that on someone's good sounding salary they can't make ends meet, but if you factor in all the nearby (<1hr walking or spending <£5 on public transport) stuff that's practically free and wonderful then on their salary they're still living one of the best goddamn lives in the world.
I live in South London, not within walking distance of any tube line, but I still have three cinemas, one major, two independent, near me. The cuisines of a huge swathe of the world, shops for things I did not know existed, and the world's major and up and coming acts performing in hundreds of locations that cost me little or nothing to get to (and often little to attend, the big museums are free, universities do tons of free stuff, the Royal Opera House and similar have ~£15 tickets, and I can ignore the cost of traveling to London).
This city is expensive if you look purely within the walls of your home, if you can get out into it, it's like having a comprehensive subscription to a better cultural network than you can imagine.
It's indeed true that prices are indeed inflated by the London-centric nature of a lot of the culture, and purely financial investments in property.
Apologies for sentence structure and formatting, this post impulsively written on my phone.