Living on your own - what's it like?

Jez said:
I know this is irrelevant to this thread, but bugger me this always annoys me. Students are not exempt from income tax! :p The reason he pays no tax is because the personal allowance for every single person below the age of 65 is £6475 per year.
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Yes they are.

Any funding, grants etc. given to a student are tax-exempt. A postgraduate student gets tax-free money (someone I know got 16k per year of his PhD). They don't pay council tax. And I've never heard of a student filling in a tax return on his or her income, even if it's above the personal allowance.
 
No they are not :p Grants CAN be tax exempt. That is nothing to do with income taxation. You will probably find that if a student does earn over the personal allowance, then they were taxed via PAYE. If they didnt pay tax in any way then they have technically committed a crime.

What you have just said is about the silliest thing i have ever heard, just THINK about it for a moment. Of course they are not exempt! Edit: just incase you miss the point, if this were the case then this would simply be a loophole which every businessman would exploit, including myself. I could save an absolute fortune by subscribing to a uni course and being a "student".
 
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Jez said:
How? £600/month base cost. £100pm council tax, £150 utilities, £200 supermarket.

Thats £1050 already before you have even started with a car, or have left the house. Thats more than £15000/year nets in total!
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if outgoings were around:

£700 rent
£100 council tax (with 25% discount)
£100 bills
£100-120 shopping

That's £1000 - 1020/month. That leaves about £60 - 70pcm to spend on whatever you want. It's not saving anything but on a £15k job I wouldn't expect people to be thinking about saving!

That's around £15k/year so it is doable.
 
tsinc80697 said:
if outgoings were around:

£700 rent
£100 council tax (with 25% discount)
£100 bills
£100-120 shopping

That's £1000 - 1020/month. That leaves about £60 - 70pcm to spend on whatever you want. It's not saving anything but on a £15k job I wouldn't expect people to be thinking about saving!

That's around £15k/year so it is doable.
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£15,000/year salary means you would take home £1,022.85/month, so that's all your earnings gone on living costs.

No thanks!
 
I also do not see how £60-70 disposable per month is a doable sum. That might cover a single night out or a meal with your missus, or a tank of fuel. But over a whole month i cannot see it.
 
Jez said:
I know this is irrelevant to this thread, but bugger me this always annoys me. Students are not exempt from income tax! :p The reason he pays no tax is because the personal allowance for every single person below the age of 65 is £6475 per year.
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I've never know any of my mates to pay income tax even above the personal allowance, my business lecturer told us if you're a full time student you shouldn't be paying tax.
NI, yes, no one is exempt from that, but no income tax.

Personally if i had 60-70 a month expendable I wouldn't even see moving out as an option, that's ridiculous, a week, is doable, 10 bacci, 50 on booze, 10 on coffee/ more booze/ pool. (what i try to do now)
If you're some sort of nerdy gamer that might be okay, 2 games a month to sit and play i guess.
 
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I have been living on my own for the last year at university after a lot of my friends finished and I found a nice flat in a converted mill.

I was originally going to live with random people but after finding this flat decided not to.
At first it was a bit of a shock to the system in some ways, but once you meet a couple of girls you realise its bliss and you can do whatever you like!

When I first got it I was cleaning it ALL the time but I’ve since fallen out of that routine a bit... don’t quite know what happened there, people used to be really impressed when they came round and it was immaculate all the time but I don’t think it felt homely after a while.

Study your bills and work out how you can get them down, I got that o2 broadband staff deal for £7.50 so I have a pretty good internet connection for not a lot!

If you have your computer on a lot you need to factor that in and be aware of what you’re paying for having hot water on demand! I’ve now turned mine off and invested in a nice kettle because the only time I was using hot water was when I was washing pots!

I have a few good friends and work at pubs at home on a weekend where I know everybody and have been working at a while so I think I get my social fix somewhere between them too.

I’m quite into my cooking and having your own kitchen is bliss!
 
I get around said:
I've never know any of my mates to pay income tax, my business lecturer told us if you're a full time student you don't pay tax.
NI, yes, no one is exempt from that, but no income tax.
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Read above. Your business lecturer is incorrect then, surprising.
 
If you know how to be frugal, and aren't fussy, great (especially in the South). Otherwise get a professional job first.

As for £15,000 per annum, I'd love to be earning that, I could actually save something...
 
I live on my own and I've never found it a problem. I guess I'm pretty lucky that I've got a lot of friends who live within walking distance. My girlfriend tends to stay over a couple of days a week too.

There's certainly advantages and disadvantages to it. I love being able to do whatever I like with my flat - buy a big TV, leave my latest "project" on the dining table for weeks on end, filling the fridge with beer, etc.

The biggest disadvantage is the cost. Council tax isn't too bad but internet/TV/electricity/mortgage/etc. is a bit of a pain.

I've always found living with one other like-minded person is best though.
 
Advantages of living alone:

No moaning.
Nobody telling you what to do, you can do whatever you want inc walking around naked all day.
Throw party's, no moaning about keeping things clean, etcetc.
Everything is yours, no sharing of food, or well, anything.
No rules.

Disadvantages of living alone:
Financially (!!!) ( atm parents pay EVERYTHING for me, food, clothes, bills, health insurance, etc.) All my wage goes to luxury's and going out :).
Transportation ( can always use my parents cars or moped and no need to pay rubbish like road tax or insurance, all I'd need to pay is petrol (moped) or LPG ( 2 lpg converted cars) which is dead cheap).
Quality of housing, when you live alone you'd have to settle for a smaller rubbish house, when with parents you can have a nice suburban house with big gardens etc, low crime, everything near, etc...
 
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It sucks. No money, no girlfriend and lonely times :(

At least when i was still at 'home', mum and dad were always around for a chat. Now, i have only the wall to speak to.
 
Thanks for all the replies everyone, wasn't expecting this sort of a response. Really useful to see a spread of different opinions, and thanks also to people who posted their approximate costs, will be useful to me in budgeting and knowing in advance what things are likely to cost now that bills will be solely down to me rather than split between three.

Have actually found my next place, which has taken a huge weight off my mind. Was starting to get quite stressed today about not having found somewhere that felt 'right', I saw some reasonably decent places but I just didn't completely comfortable with them. Fortunately a very nice chap from one of the letting agents was willing to actually put some effort in with me and took me to see a really nice place just a bit further out of town than I am at the moment. It's a two bedroom place so I've got a room for my PC and stuff, a decent size lounge, nice fairly modern kitchen with new countertops, units and sink, and nice lighting too. Even has an extremely useful little storage cupboard separate from the flat itself. Really, really happy with it, it looks like it'll suit me perfectly.

Very glad to have that sorted, just got to get everything else in motion now.
 
10 years ive lived on my own it's ok if you like your own company, lucky i have a council flat so the rent is cheap.
 
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