I've just got a new job. It's permanent and full-time and the salary is such that it means I'll be able to afford to move into a little place of my own (after I've saved up enough for a deposit and some basic furniture). I've never lived on my own before though, so am not sure how bills and stuff work!
Rent here for a 1 bedroom flat is around £450 and council tax for a propery of that size is around £65 once the single occupancy discount has been applied. What I'm not sure of is the other costs such as gas and electricity. Approximately how much does it cost per week/month to heat a little place? What does average electricity use cost?Also, how much is a phoneline/internet? I'd want broadband, but I don't download or anything so it doesn't have to be super fast.
I won't be moving until the beginning of 2013, but want to get some idea. It's something to be excited about! :)
“Our defeats are softened and our victories are sweetened because we did it together.” - Toby Ziegler.
We pay about £90 a month gas and electric. We use a fair bit of electric (more during holidays!) but not much gas because it costs so much! When we have used the heating more it has jumped up ridiculously fast.
If you aren't too fussed about your broadband being fast and using it a lot then you could probably get a cheap one for like £5-£10. Bear in mind you might also need to pay line rental to have the broadband. Our line rental is £13 a month.
You will also have a water bill. If you can get a meter fitted it will save you loads. We can't have a water meter so we pay like £40 a month.
You will also need insurance. We just have contents insurance with endsleigh which is just under £13 a month.
Oh and don't underestimate the cost of birthdays and christmas because it adds up fast.
You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are.
I forgot about water and insurance! That's really helpful. :)
It's the little things that add up, I guess. As well as money for deposit etc, I'm going to make sure I've got some money saved in my ISA just in case of emergencies. I think I'll feel much more comfortable with some back up. :)
“Our defeats are softened and our victories are sweetened because we did it together.” - Toby Ziegler.
My Partner and I live in a one bedroom flat and we pay £50 a month for our gas and electric, £33 for our telephone and broadband, £31 for our water. We also have mobiles so that's another £60 a month, then food etc. Also you may have to have a television license, we don't though as we don't own a tv.
We try to live as cheaply as we can, things like being careful with electric by not leaving anything on standby, switching things off at the wall when not in use, not leaving lights on unnecessarily, not over filling the kettle when you use it etc etc. There's quite a few things you can do to cut down on gas, electric, food etc bills.
At my old one-bed flat I used to pay around £30/month for gas and electric (which went up, inexplicably, to £100/month over a winter, ended up in loads of credit so bill went down to about £20/month for the rest of my tenure). I now pay £41/month in electric (I have no gas) but don't use much so imagine that'll go down if I phone in with a meter reading. It's a good idea to shop around and see has the lowest cost per unit.
I think I pay around £25/month for water.
I don't have phone/internet at the moment, when I did I think it was around £35/month for both (I had unlimited evening and weekend calls - BE CAREFUL going with BT, they provide awful customer service, and also charge a 'disconnection fee' for broadband plus you need to pay an extra 30 days for broadband AFTER you've told them you're disconnecting... or so they told me... I think most companies do either charge a connection or disconnection fee, so make sure to ask about this).
Gas is so expensive, ours has just gone up £20 a month.
However, even in rental places they dont mind you swapping suppliers so have a look round when you move in and see who has good fixed price deals on. It also works out cheaper if you get duel fuel (gas and electricity from the same supplier)
£31/month for water.
£12/month for the TV license (or you can pay it in a one of chunk of £145 or whatever it is)
£15/month for insurance.
We dont have the internet at home, but i looked into it extensively.
With Sky internet which i have had previously, you can get your line rental through them instead of having to pay it to BT which works out cheaper.
Also, virgin broadband does fibre optic internet which requires no land line at all and so you just pay for the internet, if you look on their website you can see if it is available in your area.
its worth noting that a lot of bills, council tax and fuel for sure actually give you a bit of a discount if you set up a monthly direct debit rather than manually transferring it every month.
We pay £28 water on a meter but that's 3 bed house. our gas and elec is £110 but will go up over winter I'm sure. Make sure you have money left over to live as its all well and good having a house but crap if you can never leave it.
During the summer I am currently spending 25 pounds or so on gas and electric. So during winter I guess 40 pounds? But I'm home most days
My broadband is about 20 - 30 pounds
When we lose twenty pounds... we may be losing the twenty best pounds we have! We may be losing the pounds that contain our genius, our humanity, our love and honesty. ~Woody Allen
Is a chocolate muffin loving glitter ball
A quick noe - of you're lookng at places through an agency there will be a fee before they'll even give you application fforms, to check your references, another fee if you require a guarantor. Finally when you move iin you'll need a months rent, the bond and the agency's fee for arranging the tenancy. We just moved into a £450 a month house, we spent £375 on the references (150 per adult, 75 for guarantor), then another £978 on the day we moved in, 450 rent, 450 bond, 78 agency fees.
Mand, South Wales, Full-time working, single mother to 2 scarily independent girls.
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