for years that London was expensive compared with living in the country : certainly from the accounts of servants lives I have read, wages were higher in London during this period.

But that would not necesarily apply to 18th century rural Sussex,though :-)

Living in a fashionable spa or seaside bathing town like Ramsgate, Brighton , Weymouth or Bath would be expensive-for the same reasons as applied in London- pressure on obtianing good accommodation, good servants again in demand thereby being able to push their wages higher, and, because of the law of supply and demand, retail prices for food and clothes were higher.

Without figures for food marketing, rents ,rates of pay for servants for Sussex and Devon, I think it would be difficult to say ,Jan: so it looks as if it's off to the local records library for you, my girl!