Monthly outgoings
- Thread starter PeterNem
- Start date
I think it has the highest proportion of millionaires.
Weybridge:
3 bedroom house - worth £1400 a month on the rental market but it's on a mortage.
Electricity - £15 monthly
Water - £8 monthly
Gas - £18.50 monthly as of April
CT - £180 Monthly
TV - £11?
Internet - £40 + Phone
Insurance £20 monthly
That's the basics without mobiles, business rates and taxes, pensions etc etc
Quite expensive living in Surrey.
3 bedroom house - worth £1400 a month on the rental market but it's on a mortage.
Electricity - £15 monthly
Water - £8 monthly
Gas - £18.50 monthly as of April
CT - £180 Monthly
TV - £11?
Internet - £40 + Phone
Insurance £20 monthly
That's the basics without mobiles, business rates and taxes, pensions etc etc
Quite expensive living in Surrey.
VIRII said:
Hi VIRII, in response to your points, I'd be looking at renting a 2 bed place and having a mate go halves on the rent (at least initially until I get a feel for the area).
I'm starting on a 32k sallary with a 10k starting bonus so shouldn't have too much problem between two of us paying about 1k per month rent.
In terms of property, I've been looking at the sorts of thing listed on this page: http://www.findaproperty.com/area.aspx?areaid=0352&opt=prop&salerent=1&bedrooms=2&abeds=1&type1=1
It's more the bills I'm interested in than the rent etc, as it's quite easy to find out the type of rent you're likely to pay in a given area. Everyone who has given ideas on what they pay for gas/electric etc has been a great help.
So far I've come up with the following as a rough idea. I'm just racking my brain to see if I've missed anything. The one thing I haven't included is contributions to the employee share plan or something like that, but it's something I'd opt into based on what I have left after having lived there a few months and likely pay in just a couple of % of my sallery per month, and perhaps the same with a pension. I'd then try and save as much as I could from what's left.
If anything I may have the Electric and gas estimates a bit high for 2 people, but I'd rather over-estimate than under.
Thats a fair whack on gas and electricity if your only renting a two bed place
£80 for a month thats £40 short of a grand for the year
£15 to gas and £15 to electricity a month for a 3 bed terrace with 2 adults and a child under 1 total
£80 for a month thats £40 short of a grand for the year
£15 to gas and £15 to electricity a month for a 3 bed terrace with 2 adults and a child under 1 total
It is a fair bit I guess, but I'd rather be over estimating than under.
Also consider I'm guessing you live with a partner and probably spend most the time in the same room etc, eat together and so on.
I'd be living with a mate and maybe quite a bit of the time spending time leading our own lives, cooking seperately etc. So, it'd probably not be far off to nearly double energy usage.
You might have 1 computer and 1 tv, we'd have two of each. 2 sets of bedroom lights on in the evenings, two lots of cooking being done etc etc.
Also consider I'm guessing you live with a partner and probably spend most the time in the same room etc, eat together and so on.
I'd be living with a mate and maybe quite a bit of the time spending time leading our own lives, cooking seperately etc. So, it'd probably not be far off to nearly double energy usage.
You might have 1 computer and 1 tv, we'd have two of each. 2 sets of bedroom lights on in the evenings, two lots of cooking being done etc etc.
PeterNem said:
Yep thats our house lol - i do live with hubby, but all three bedrooms are heated, one computer is on 24/7 the other usually on all evening, tbh we don't watch much TV but do have two TV, cooking wise the wee man has different food to us so generally there are two meals cooked, usually wee mans early afternoon and ours early evening. the wee man has a bath every night, we both have a seperate shower as well. And although we try not to leave the lights on there is usually a light on in everwhere but wee mans room and the bathroom!
But you are wise to over budget as you can only be pleasantly surprised!
Peter,
Avoid jersey farm
32k starting salary is superb, what line of work is it that you're in?
I would suggest looking to rent in Hemel Hempstead personally as it'll be far cheaper. Try Watford if you like the night life.
Your car insurance looks horrendous !! Penalty for being young and unmarried with no kids I suppose.
If you narrow down a few places that you're serious about moving to in St Albans I can offer you an opinion of the locality (via the wife as she is employed by St Albans Council and knows the area far better than me, I just live here).
I am sure my Gas is £15/month and Electric is £37/month. Only here evenings and weekends but I suppose we tend to have lots of electrical stuff running when we are here and a young daughter who keeps the washing machine and tumble dryer going. Tumble dryers are an electrical monster for consumption, iirc they cost circa 50p per load and we have a load a day on average as well as washing machine and dishwasher going daily.
Looking at that you're going to spend 2/3 of your income on bills. That wont leave much to save up for a deposit to get a mortgage. If it was me I would seriously consider something an awful lot cheaper and save like mad for 3 years. You could save £25k deposit quite easily in 36 months if you went for a less expensive area.
Avoid jersey farm
32k starting salary is superb, what line of work is it that you're in?
I would suggest looking to rent in Hemel Hempstead personally as it'll be far cheaper. Try Watford if you like the night life.
Your car insurance looks horrendous !! Penalty for being young and unmarried with no kids I suppose.
If you narrow down a few places that you're serious about moving to in St Albans I can offer you an opinion of the locality (via the wife as she is employed by St Albans Council and knows the area far better than me, I just live here).
I am sure my Gas is £15/month and Electric is £37/month. Only here evenings and weekends but I suppose we tend to have lots of electrical stuff running when we are here and a young daughter who keeps the washing machine and tumble dryer going. Tumble dryers are an electrical monster for consumption, iirc they cost circa 50p per load and we have a load a day on average as well as washing machine and dishwasher going daily.
Looking at that you're going to spend 2/3 of your income on bills. That wont leave much to save up for a deposit to get a mortgage. If it was me I would seriously consider something an awful lot cheaper and save like mad for 3 years. You could save £25k deposit quite easily in 36 months if you went for a less expensive area.
Last edited:
Soldato
- Joined
- 24 Dec 2004
- Posts
- 11,364
- Location
- Knowle, Solihull, UK
£80 pm is cheap - I'm looking at double that for mine! 
Young, no ncb, with a fault accident and a Group 14 car!
Young, no ncb, with a fault accident and a Group 14 car!
Hi VIRII, thanks for the comments.
Line of work is IT consulting. I had a year out with a company and was lucky enough to be offered a job back with them upon graduation, and also offered a starting sallary above their regular grad sallary due to my year experience.
This is all looking quite a bit into the future - I don't start until October, although would probably want to move into somewhere a month before this to get settled in. At the moment I'm just trying to guage what kind of areas I should be looking at when I start to look seriously towards the Summer. I'd definately be interested in getting some feedback about areas in St. Albans nearer the time, so if it's okay will maybe email you at a later date (I see your address is in your trust account)
The car insurance is a bit annoying, i'd actually say at the moment given the car I drive (v6 mondeo) and my age (22, 2 years NCB) that it isn't too bad at the moment - I pay about £650 per year. Annoyingly trying 2 or 3 different postcodes in St Albans puts it up to £900 or £1k, despite the fact that I'm doing the quite as if I was 23 and had 3 years NCB (which touch wood I will when I move) - I guess I'm lucky that my home postcode is a small sleepy East Midlands village (very low risk) and that helps at the moment. I've not really shopped around though so could probably get that cheaper, again, it's just kind of "worst case".
Car insurance was one of the reasons I didn't want to live in greater London. I love my car and driving and wouldn't want to give up on that. Most of the areas in London I could afford to rent attracted car insurance quotes of £2k which was just stupid (probably as most the places in my price range in London were lacking parking, and parking on the street in London must attract a huge loading factor).
As for looking at different areas, that is something I'd definately like to do. Ideally I'd like to live just north of London with easy access to the M1/A1 as all my family friends live in the East Midlands and this will make it much easier for visiting. Another quite important point to consider is ideally it should be within a 30 min train journey to a London station. I beleive St. Albans is about 22 minutes to St. Pancras.
Someone else has mentioned Watford to me, and I shall certainly take a look there.
Hemel Hempstead I hadn't considered. Do you have any idea on what transport is like from there into London - is there a direct train service?
Line of work is IT consulting. I had a year out with a company and was lucky enough to be offered a job back with them upon graduation, and also offered a starting sallary above their regular grad sallary due to my year experience.
This is all looking quite a bit into the future - I don't start until October, although would probably want to move into somewhere a month before this to get settled in. At the moment I'm just trying to guage what kind of areas I should be looking at when I start to look seriously towards the Summer. I'd definately be interested in getting some feedback about areas in St. Albans nearer the time, so if it's okay will maybe email you at a later date (I see your address is in your trust account)
The car insurance is a bit annoying, i'd actually say at the moment given the car I drive (v6 mondeo) and my age (22, 2 years NCB) that it isn't too bad at the moment - I pay about £650 per year. Annoyingly trying 2 or 3 different postcodes in St Albans puts it up to £900 or £1k, despite the fact that I'm doing the quite as if I was 23 and had 3 years NCB (which touch wood I will when I move) - I guess I'm lucky that my home postcode is a small sleepy East Midlands village (very low risk) and that helps at the moment. I've not really shopped around though so could probably get that cheaper, again, it's just kind of "worst case".
Car insurance was one of the reasons I didn't want to live in greater London. I love my car and driving and wouldn't want to give up on that. Most of the areas in London I could afford to rent attracted car insurance quotes of £2k which was just stupid (probably as most the places in my price range in London were lacking parking, and parking on the street in London must attract a huge loading factor).
As for looking at different areas, that is something I'd definately like to do. Ideally I'd like to live just north of London with easy access to the M1/A1 as all my family friends live in the East Midlands and this will make it much easier for visiting. Another quite important point to consider is ideally it should be within a 30 min train journey to a London station. I beleive St. Albans is about 22 minutes to St. Pancras.
Someone else has mentioned Watford to me, and I shall certainly take a look there.
Hemel Hempstead I hadn't considered. Do you have any idea on what transport is like from there into London - is there a direct train service?
ajgoodfellow said:£80 pm is cheap - I'm looking at double that for mine!
Young, no ncb, with a fault accident and a Group 14 car!
Heheh what car do you have and how old are you?
We have "family cars" a million years NCB and freak if we're asked to pay much over £200 a year fully comp with all the trimmings.
Come to think of it weren't MK2 Golf GTis group 16?
atpbx, my parents (and myself when I am home from Uni in the summer) live about 5 miles from Sleaford.
I'd love to be able to live there (cheap cost of living) but I guess at this early stage in my career it pays to initially go where the work is. My plan would be to perhaps eventually do free-lance consulting for smaller firms perhaps based in cities in the Midlands and therefore be able to live somewhere a bit more rural again when I properly "settle down".
While certainly doable, I think 2 hours a day on a train, plus time waiting around on a platform, getting to/from the stations etc etc could be a bit much on top of what at times could be long working days.
I'd love to be able to live there (cheap cost of living) but I guess at this early stage in my career it pays to initially go where the work is. My plan would be to perhaps eventually do free-lance consulting for smaller firms perhaps based in cities in the Midlands and therefore be able to live somewhere a bit more rural again when I properly "settle down".
atpbx said:
While certainly doable, I think 2 hours a day on a train, plus time waiting around on a platform, getting to/from the stations etc etc could be a bit much on top of what at times could be long working days.
PeterNem said:
I believe St Albans goes straight to Kings cross (as does Harpenden).
Watford has 2 stations, British Rail goes to Euston and the metropolitan line from the other station.
I lived in Watford for about 7 years as a young man and loved it but it can be and is a bit rough on a Friday night. A lot of pubs and clubs and the typical aggression at kicking out time. Watford Accident and Emergency isn't too bad though, had the pleasure quite a few times lol.
I don't like Watford now though. It might be being a family man, it might be that I'm simply older but I guess we moved away really to have a nice quiet and safe place to bring up kids. Watford is noisy and crowded.
Hemel is a bit run down in the town center but I prefer it to Watford. It isn't quite so full of 16 year olds assuming that they are somehow intimidating or hard. A fair amount of work has gone on there recently to revamp the area. Nightlife definitely is not as lively as Watford.
I am not sure where the train station goes to but Hemel is "on" the M1.
St Albans is rather nice all round. Better nightlife for a young man than Hemel but not as chavvy as Watford. Like most places it has some good bits and some bad bits. It is a very expensive place to live though. From memory the last train back is about 11.30pm, Euston to Watford runs later. Still you could always get a cab from Watford to St Albans - £30-£40 at a guess after midnight.
All 3 of those places would suit you for travelling to London. You could also look at Radlett or Borehamwood. I use the M1 daily heading south to work and it can take as little as 15 minutes to get to Watford by car. M1 North on a Thursday can take hours on occassion.
You can drop me an email anytime.
VIRII said:
You're right, it does. Not sure why I said St. Pancras as I have a copy of the train timetable in front of me! One of the advantages of the Thameslink service is that it also carries on through the city and stops at the City Thameslink station which could be useful as I could then walk from there to work.
VIRII said:
Thanks
Soldato
- Joined
- 24 Dec 2004
- Posts
- 11,364
- Location
- Knowle, Solihull, UK
VIRII said:
Currently don't have a car (wrote mine off on Jan 1st) - that's a quote for the car that I intend to buy at the end of the month
I'm 21 and it's a Seat Toledo V5 (170bhp), fully comp with Elephant in an OK estate in Canterbury
My accident doesn't help at all - before with 2 yrs no claims I could get insured on a group 19 Alfa GTV 3.0V6 for about the same amount. Teaches me to write my car off!
ajgoodfellow said:
Nice car but £150/month just to insure it?? I couldn't bring myself to pay that. It seems to me that young people are getting hammered much harder than they used to be for car insurance, or it could be that the cars are much more powerful than they used to be.
I think group 14/15 for me was about £350 per annum fully comp but I lost my no claims when I had a company vehicle for a few years. I failed to realise that if you don't keep your insurance record up (on private vehicles) then you lose it.