Cost of living

dal

dal

dal

Associate
Joined
10 Sep 2005
Posts
909
Location
Lincolnshire
Hi guys, I'm currently living at home with parents at moment :eek: & really do need to get my own place, I've done a estimate of monthly living expenses, this is for a 2 or 3 bedroom place in Lincolnshire ( exact area undecided ) and I've based my figures on the bills my parents have at present.
One thing to bear in mind is that I'll be at work 5 days a week so a lot of the time I wont be using gas/ electric.
Do you think the figures are realistic and is there anything I've missed ?
I know I've not factored in going out socalising costs but I'm concentrating on essential unavoidable expenses.

EXPENSES PER MONTH

MORTGAGE £250.00
COUNCIL TAX £70.00
ELECTRIC £40.00
GAS £35.00
WATER £25.00
BROADBAND £15.00
TV LICENSE £12.00
FOOD £280.00
MOBILE PHONE £15.00
BUILDINGS INSURANCE £10.00
LIFE INS FOR MORTGAGE £8.00
MISCILLANEOUS £50.00
XMAS / Bdays £25.00

CAR EXPENSES
DIESEL £80.00
CAR TAX / INSURANCE £30.00
MOT / SERVICE / REPAIRS £30.00


TOTAL £975


Thanks for looking.
 
Mortgage £250 a month?

Sounds very low to me, I know you based it on what your parents pay, but have you ACTUALLY checked what you can get?
 
mortgage is about right, I've got a large deposit & I have checked what that will get me, council tax needs more investigation though, although living alone I would get a discount.
 
dal said:
mortgage is about right, I've got a large deposit & I have checked what that will get me
Click to expand...
House prices must be stupidly cheap then, as I've got a sizable deposit and a mortgage would still be crippling for me on my own.

Hence why I've still not bought anywhere.
 
AcidHell2 said:
living alone is 25% discount, I would still expect it to be over £100 with discount.

find a house on rightmove in the area and size you want. Then tap the details into http://www.voa.gov.uk/council_tax/cti_home.htm
that will give you the tax band, then go onto the council website and find out how much it costs.
Click to expand...

As mentioned, it depends largely on what property you're living in. I think the value estimates are based on 1991 house prices, but I could be wrong - a band C was about £1200/yr when I was paying up in Southampton. With the single person's discount it'd come down to £90/month (split over 10 months, not 12 for council tax - surprised at the number of people I know who don't know this). On a mortgage of £250/month, I doubt OP is looking at anything above a band B - if that.

Edit: Tax Bands, and property value as of April 1st 1991. The best thing to do is pick a few properties and search for them by address, you'll get the best idea of how much you'll be paying that way.
 
OP

Why life insurance if you plan to live alone?
£280 on food, I feed 4 for less
Building and contents is what you need not just buildings only
 
eatcustard said:
OP

Why life insurance if you plan to live alone?
£280 on food, I feed 4 for less
Building and contents is what you need not just buildings only
Click to expand...

Many mortgages require a life insurance policy too, I know the one I? recently took out with my dad required policies for both of us. Food I can agree with, that's an obscene amount to spend on feeding yourself. I'd say you can easily get by on £25 - £30/week, and that's generous
 
How much money do you have for a deposit? If you don't mind me asking. That mortgage at £250.00 is hell of a low for a single person.
 
I'm going to follow everyone by being astonished at the £250 mortgage - though I do live down south where you can't trade a whippet for a house...

EDIT: I've just seen a 3 bedroom house advertised in Boston for £65k! 1 bedroom studio flats start at near double that down here!
 
Last edited:
£280 on food learn to cook, £30 a week and your eating well for a single person, cook in bulk and freeze off reheating when you get back from work. Broadband say £20 that gives you 10MB on virgin, £30 on car tax and insurance how old are you i would look at those figures again. I would in all honesty find someone to share with you, just try to avoid the weirdos.
 
Last edited:
fini said:
I'm going to follow everyone by being astonished at the £250 mortgage - though I do live down south where you can't trade a whippet for a house...

EDIT: I've just seen a 3 bedroom house advertised in Boston for £65k! 1 bedroom studio flats start at near double that down here!
Click to expand...

Quite.

It would appear that the house market there must be vastly different to here in mid Cheshire.

I can't even find a decent TWO bedroom house for less than £130k.
 
food bill is too high, I spend about 20 a week, so 100-150 a month is more than comfortable, and allows for lazy takeaways and stuff.

gas electric water might be too high depending on the size of your place. I'm in a student house right now (6 of us, 5 bedrooms) and were spending ~£100 a month of combined gas electric
 
House prices different in different areas of the country shocker :p

All of your costs look fairly well reasoned as far as I can see. Good luck. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom