Cost of living help

NotAGolf · 16 Jan 2011 at 20:56

I'm hoping to move out soon and get a house with the girlfriend. In the mean time we're trying to sort out some budgeting to see what we can afford. This will be the first time we've lived in our own house. Only other time was a couple of student houses which we can't really base these costs on as it was totally different form of living, so these estimates may be way out:

- Council tax - £130
- Gas + Elec +Water - £150
- House and contents - £25
- Phone (line rental and bills) - £20
- Internet - £20
- TV license - £12
- Life insurance - £10
- Food + toiletries + cleaning bits etc - £230
- Car insurance - £50 (only have 1 car between us)
- Car tax - £16
- Petrol - £60
- Misc (repairs, odd spending, going out, birthdays etc) - £150

Plus savings and obviously the mortgage itself.

How does that look for 2 people in a 2 bed terraced in West Sussex? Does that look about right or over/under budget? Anything major I've missed?

Thanks for any help.

Glaucus · 16 Jan 2011 at 20:59

Looks pretty much spot on, how about home care(boiler, pluming, drains) 23 through the AA

Pawnless Endgame · 16 Jan 2011 at 21:01

I would almost halve your gas/ele/water to something like £90/month and add the £60 difference to your food budget, as £230 between 2 people per month seems a bit low.

The Halk · 16 Jan 2011 at 21:02

How much do each spend at work per week?

Have you set aside money for Christmas and Birthday presents for family etc?

Glaucus · 16 Jan 2011 at 21:05

Monserrat said:
I would almost halve your gas/ele/water to something like £90/month and add the £60 difference to your food budget, as £230 between 2 people per month seems a bit low.

Really two of us is about 80 on gas/elec and 41 fixed rate for water.

Felix Da Housecat · 16 Jan 2011 at 21:07

Add on any loans or credit cards you may have.

NotAGolf · 16 Jan 2011 at 21:13

AcidHell2 said:
Looks pretty much spot on, how about home care(boiler, pluming, drains) 23 through the AA

Need to research this a bit more. My dad's got some kind of package and after the boiler screwed up a couple of times and the cover didn't cover anything, so as far as he's concerned it's a waste of money.

The Halk said:
How much do each spend at work per week?

Have you set aside money for Christmas and Birthday presents for family etc?

Christmas/birthday's comes uncer the misc section whch should be plenty. Hopefully this will always end up as a bit of extra savings each month, or splash out on a nice meal out every now and then.

Don't spend any money at work, prep all my food and take it in before hand.

Food budget should be ok as we cook everything from scratch, never buy things like snacks or ready meals, and are quite happy to get own brand products the vast majority of times. Never have takeaways either. Although I do eat quite a lot....

NotAGolf · 16 Jan 2011 at 21:15

Felix Da Housecat said:
Add on any loans or credit cards you may have.

None, although have a student loan but this is taken automatically so is factored into our take home.

The Halk · 16 Jan 2011 at 21:21

The things I mentioned are the ones that usually break spending plans, so if you have those accounted for you should be ok.

I think £150 a month is too small though. That and toiletries/food are where the extra spending would come.

And have you included mobile phones anywhere?

You may find gas/electricity are lower than you're planning for, it depends on the size of your house, what you are comfortable with as tempetures go, and what the insulation is like.

NotAGolf · 16 Jan 2011 at 22:03

The Halk said:
And have you included mobile phones anywhere?

On PAYG currently and don't spend more than £10 a month on it, and with a landline will probably switch most of the calls to that which will be half the price.

Gackt · 16 Jan 2011 at 22:32

Do you need to spend that much on food? Surely if you shop wise, you can still eat well and save money. Even taking it down by £30 gives you more to play around with elsewhere, or just leave it as an "emergency buffer" giving yourself a bit of security should, for example, a bill be higher than thought, or something breaks and needs repairing, or a spontaneous outing.

Just a thought, I personally live on £140 for food, and that's for two. And we eat pretty well, we're just careful with what we buy.

Devrij · 16 Jan 2011 at 23:34

That's pretty much what my missus and I spend (minus house/life insurance, we live on the wild side). I give her £100/m for my half of the food but it occasionally goes over a tad so I reckon you're on the money there with the food (we don't overspend the £200 budget, but occasionally it's nice to get steaks/takeaways/etc and it goes over).

Foxxy · 17 Jan 2011 at 08:14

TV license is £24.25 a month (for 6 months or so), this is because it will be your first license. (I was in the same boat, thought it was £12). I think you need to up your food budget, im 23 and single and I spend around that on myself.... what with takeouts, and not always going for value food.

AJK · 17 Jan 2011 at 08:24

I agree with others, £230/month for grocery shopping is low - it's easy to achieve if you manage your spending, but if you're not so good at that (ie. you like the luxury items a few times) then that'll need to be higher IMO.

NotAGolf · 18 Jan 2011 at 07:34

Thanks for all the replies. Looks like the main issue here is the food budget, which is a bit annoying as that's one it's very difficult to estimate giving that I'm living at home and don't have anything to do with buying the food.

I eat pretty much the same thing every day except dinner so should be able to estimate that quite well, I just don't pay attention to how long a bag of porridge for example will last.