Considering all costs????

[Sara_platermen112]

Me and my partner are now looking for somewhere possibly to rent (dont think we could afford to buy) but i am looking, how much do you know if you can afford it??

Like you have to consider your other bills like electric, gass etc. how much are they average?

Its like all the houses an flats here are awful for around £500 a month, so im not sure how far i can go up??

im so confused .. xxxx

[rufio89]

it really depends on the kind of place it is...

I always said allow £100 for gas/electric, but it's gone up SO much lately, that it'll be more like allow £150-£200.

Plus allow for council tax, which varies dramatically from place to place, and water, which is about £150 for the year, plus TV licence, plus Sky or something if you want it, plus internet.

You could try looking at somewhere where bills are included? but you might ahve to share the house with someone else as well.

[Sara_platermen112]

how often do you get your electric bill? is it every three months? or a month? i forgot about the water an the council tax. god its impossible.

My boyfriend already shares a house an its starting to do my head in thats why i want him to move out an us just to have our own place xxxxxx

[rufio89]

We get our gas/electric quarterly but you can pay monthly if you want to, I'm not sure what it comes out at at the moment tbh, I tend to stay away from it, but we are VERY careful with electric and unplug everything each night.

Are either of you students? You can get something to wave council tax if so, or if not, you can get some support for it if you're on low income.

Water bill varies from place to place as well I think, but you can always put your water on a meter, so you know how much you're spending.

I only pay £280 pm all inclusive, but that's because the guy I lives with owns the house and he doesnt want half of everything covered, just enough to make things easier for him...

Where abouts do you live?

[Liquidius]

Well, if this is any help...

I pay £500 per month rent (which gets you someone alright where I live)
About £60 per month for Electricity, but I expect this to be more around winter time. As others have said, energy prices are on the up at the moment.
My council tax is £135 per month.
The last water bill I paid was an odd one, because it only covered two months, and was around 60 quid too I think.

Now, I share with my boyfriend, so half all of those and that's what I pay. When I first moved out with him I was earning about £800pcm, and that wasn't enough to pay my half comfortably. I now earn about £1300pcm, which allows me to live comfortably taking into account food, and my own personal bills.

I hope this is helpful.

[Sara_platermen112]

I live in Derbyshire and i earn £980 a month, my partner earns around £1000 a month.

Thanks so much for all your advice. i cant beleive you have to pay council tax over £100 every month, thats so much!!!!! xxxx

[Liquidius]

Lol, I know. It's alright though, the council "forgot" to charge us for a few months, and now we're paying the back payments because they couldn't organise themselves! Usually it'd be 100 per month.

[Weasley]

Me and my boyfriend own our house and our costs are as follows (just to give you an idea...)
Mortgage = £650 pm
House Insurance (a must if you own) = £12 pm
Electric and Gas = £80 pm
Water = £15 pm
Council Tax (again, a our house was a new build, it took thm 6 months to sort out our counil tax code, so where we should be paying £115 a month, we are currently paying £320 a month until January when we get our two months free!)
Food etc = I always keep £160 a month away for this which works out around £40 a week. I find this is plenty and if I do a particulary small shop that week I treat myself to clothes!
Sky = £50 pm - this could be cheaper but my boyfriend insists we have the fancy one where you can record live tele etc!!
BT = £20 pm
Internet = Free as my boyfriend works for a company that does broadband. You can also get broadband free with some Orange cell phone contracts...

Living n your own is tough and me and my boyfriend have really had to tighten the purse strings this year what with saving for our wedding next year and stuff, plus we have some sofas to pay off etc - it's all coming at once!!