Cost of living in a flat?

[valkynaz]

Me and the girlfriend are thinking of moving out of our parents houses and getting a flat together.

Average flats in the area are around £400/PCM.

We worked it out (although probably underestimated the following) to be the following per month:

Rent - £400
Gas and electricity - £125
Council Tax - £80 (She's a full time student so she wouldn't be counted as an adult living in the household)
Water - £35
Food - £125
Phone/Broadband - £14.50
TV license - £12

Comes to £791.50/month or £395.75/month each.

Does this sound reasonable or am I grossly underestimating figures?

Of course there are other figures to add in but this is for after we get settled in and furnish the place etc.

 

[valkynaz]

If you haven't been with your GF long it sounds like a terrible plan.

We've been together for 3 years which I think is a reasonably long time.

i would say you've under estimated broadband and food costs.

You haven't got mobile phone bills or home insurance either, and its always worth considering your other bills such as car insurance / tax when doing a budget.

Broadband was taken from the Virgin Media website for the 30Mb package. Looking at it now I made a mistake as the price I listed doesn't include landline. Broadband and landline would be £29.50/month.

I hadn't included car insurance/tax as none of us drive yet. I use pay as you go o2 which is only £10/month so is basically negligible.

Call me whatever you want, but why not pick up PC parts from car boots, and build a HTPC, and just download BBC TV Programs, or use iPlayer and then you can use the £12 a month saved on something else.

j/s

So for the extra £12 a month you can perhaps get unlim. broadband which you can use for TV, and also gaming and general downloading

Edit: By use iPlayer, I meant pre-recorded, streaming it live would be illegal.

I'm all for using programs such as iPlayer but the missus would rather watch TV live. I told her you could just watch the programs for free on the internet but she wouldn't go for it.

No service charges? Or is that inc in the rent?

I would assume it is included in the rent as there is nothing listed in the description at all hinting at service charges.

 

[valkynaz]

I don't know if it has changed but it used to be a student living with a non-student will not mean a reduction in council tax, unlike students living together.
I would check this.

I've checked on the GOV.uk website and have based my figure on two points:

1) Full time students do not count as an adult for council tax - here.
2) I'll get a discount because I would be living with someone who doesn't count as an adult for council tax - here.

The full time student page is a bit vague but my general impression from the first paragraph is that full time students do not count as an adult for council tax therefore if a house were to be occupied solely by full time students, no council tax would be paid.