The cost of living

[LLB]

Don't forget Council tax @ £100 per month minimum

 

[Willow]

I'm trying to budget just how much (approximately) it now costs to run a house.

This is what i've got so far:

Gas / Elecy: £100pm
Water: £75pm
Mortgage + Insurance: £300 pm (Based on a 50k mortgage)
Food: £200pm
Car: £200pm (bloomin petrol)

Am i even close with my figures?

First of all the first year is the worse, it's scary you have to totally cut back on going out and having fun, holidays even buying stuff for the bike. Since my first house (age 21) now 45, I have prepared an annual budget to include all my expenses and monitored it monthly (incidently this was very helpful when ex decided to leave as I could immediately say what all our outgoings were). I live in a 3 bed semi, and this is what I budget each month for the essentials(there are 3 of us)

AA £15
Alarm £12
Phone and Broadband £45
Car insurance tax and servicing £30 (due to high bill this was optimistic this year)
Council Tax £130 (you should get discount for being on your own my discount is reflected in amount)
Electric £55
Gas £44
Heating and plumbing ins £25
Household Repairs £50
house Insurance £30
Misc £25
Bike £10
TV License £13
Water Rates £21
Groceries £350
Petrol £90



Gifts, Clothing boys hobbies, holidays etc I have not included. I pay the total amount into a seperate account each month so when the relevant bills come along I have the cash to pay them. On your salary you may qualify for some sort of working tax credit, I don't know.

 

[RedBike]

You can get a house for £50k - or even get a Bank who has got £50k to lend in the first place ???

Thats a 50k mortgage on-top of a big deposit. I have the mortgage sorted (I think).
I can borrow far more than I could ever afford the re-payments for.
Until I started listing the cost of everything I thought I could afford mortgage repayments of about £300pm. I now realise this was very optamistic. In fact even if my mortgage repayments were zero i'm not sure I could afford everything!

I'm starting to rethinking everything.


How the heck do people manage who don't work?

 

[Night Train]

Ahhh, not working makes it easy according to the Daily Mail!

I can't afford to live based on my regular income. In January this will drop down to less then £400pm take home. I find other work on an adhoc basis to survive. I did a bit of design consultancy today for a little extra. I will be on the look out for more bits of carpentry work, agency work and consultancy work when ever I'm not actually working.

 

[fossyant]

How the heck do people manage who don't work?

Benefits.....or working the system....you or I would be stuffed if we lost our jobs.....it's the full time benefit claimers who know how to milk it.....

 

[BigonaBianchi]

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/budgetcalculator.phtml

 

[RedBike]

Thanks willow.

AA £15 - £0 Don't need
Alarm £12 £0 - I hope I don't need
Phone and Broadband £45 - £0 - Work will pay this.
Car insurance tax and servicing £30 - £50 (Old car / high road tax)
Council Tax £130 - No idea, £130
Electric £55, £75 - I always have computers / washing machine on
Gas £44 - £40 I don't use much heating
Heating and plumbing ins £25 - £25 Blast, forgot about this
Household Repairs £50 £50 In my first year this will probably be MUCH higher
house Insurance £30 - Included in the mortgage
Misc £25 - £25
Bike £10 - I wish!, Add in races, sportive, petrol £100
TV License £13 - £13
Water Rates £21 - £21 - Thats a lot lower than I thought!
Groceries £350 - £350 Owch, I will need to shop at Aldi!
Petrol £90 - At least £100

I make that about £1200.
Thats almost what I earn! - I don't stand a chance. - sobs.

 

[Plax]

Thats a 50k mortgage on-top of a big deposit. I have the mortgage sorted (I think).
I can borrow far more than I could ever afford the re-payments for.
Until I started listing the cost of everything I thought I could afford mortgage repayments of about £300pm. I now realise this was very optamistic. In fact even if my mortgage repayments were zero i'm not sure I could afford everything!

I'm starting to rethinking everything.


How the heck do people manage who don't work?

They are either living off an inhertance or Government handouts.

As another person has said the first year is the worst. When I first left home I was renting and had to get a second job to cover all the bills after I kicked my then boyfriend out for cheating on me (a couple of evenings and the weekend). I managed nearly 18 months like this before I burnt myself out. Thankfully I'd actually managed to buy a house after a year and 2 months of renting (the extra income really came in handy), and shortly after buying my house found another job closer to home that paid more. So I had a double bonus - my mortgage was cheaper than renting and my income had gone up. Now a few years on I've had a few more payrises and am living quite comfortably.

 

[domd1979]

Council Tax £130 - No idea, £130

Council tax rates will be on the local council's website.

Electric £55, £75 - I always have computers / washing machine on

That's a lot of leccy if you're not using any of it for heating!

[/COLOR]Heating and plumbing ins £25 - £25 Blast, forgot about this

You can halve that if you have the option where you pay a fixed £50 for any repair. I worked out I'd have to have three call outs a year to be out of pocket, so far have had none.

Water Rates £21 - £21 - Thats a lot lower than I thought!

Possibly lower than that with a meter depending on usage.

 

[peanut]

this is my household expenses list
Rent /Mortgage payment.
Buildings/contents insurance.
Council tax.
Car insurance/loan.
Car tax & MOT.
Car expenses petrol,
Car repairs servicing etc.
Groceries .
Gas.
Electricity.
Water.
Telephone.
mobile.
TV licence.
Sky+.
Loan payment to bank.
Life insurance/pension.
meals at work.
Pet insurance.
Saving.
NI contributions.
Accident insurance.
Sundries gym etc.
Web domain /hosting etc.

 

[Hugo15]

You can find the council tax band of any house in England here

http://www.voa.gov.uk/council_tax/cti_home.htm?home-sideimage

A quick trip to the relevant local authority website will give you the cost.

The other thing I would recommend is having a water meter fitted if you are on your own. Will work out much cheaper.

I really feel for you Redbike. I was chatting to one of the guys in my team just before Xmas and he is in a similar position to you. He wants to put down some roots but is struggling to find anywhere in budget. Hopefully house prices will come down for you during 2009 to make the maths add up; latest forecasts are around 10% reduction according to 5Live this morning.

 

[RedBike]

House prices aren't too much of a problem. My problem is the general cost of living.

 

[LLB]

In the last 10 years, there has been a massive hike in the cost of everything which has been privatised, everything which has been state controlled. Add to this all of the affordable housing (local authority) being sold off and people have to get mortgages. The Banks (unregulated) encouraged borrowing ridiculous ratio to earnings and this has driven the market through the roof.

It is substantially more expensive to start now than it was for me 20 years ago in real terms against earnings. I don't envy you Redbike

 

[Night Train]

House prices aren't too much of a problem. My problem is the general cost of living.

That's becoming an issue for those who already have a house too.

I think the answer is going to be cost cutting in every area possible, that will mainly be in terms of fuel costs and equipment and building servicing and maintenance costs.

 

[Willow]

Thanks willow.

AA £15 - £0 Don't need
Alarm £12 £0 - I hope I don't need
Phone and Broadband £45 - £0 - Work will pay this.
Car insurance tax and servicing £30 - £50 (Old car / high road tax)
Council Tax £130 - No idea, £130
Electric £55, £75 - I always have computers / washing machine on
Gas £44 - £40 I don't use much heating
Heating and plumbing ins £25 - £25 Blast, forgot about this
Household Repairs £50 £50 In my first year this will probably be MUCH higher
house Insurance £30 - Included in the mortgage
Misc £25 - £25
Bike £10 - I wish!, Add in races, sportive, petrol £100
TV License £13 - £13
Water Rates £21 - £21 - Thats a lot lower than I thought!
Groceries £350 - £350 Owch, I will need to shop at Aldi!
Petrol £90 - At least £100

I make that about £1200.
Thats almost what I earn! - I don't stand a chance. - sobs.

don't forget my grocery bill is for 3. your electric shouldn't be higher we are also high maintenance with computers, children leavings lights on piles of sports washing etc. council tax you should be able to find on local council website find rates for bands then on house details it should tell you what band they are in. Bear in mind a) I get discount for being only adult a 3 bed semi where I live costs nearly £0.5m! - don't go there! Also I have top level plumbing and heating cause I'm a useless female when it comes to that stuff. If the boiler has been serviced by existing owners you may get away with not having this for first year, in fact you don't have to have it anyway. Often you can be better off buying a new property where you know you won't have any house maintenance costs in the first 12 months. After that period things really do settle down. Remember if you are on your own there is no need to have life insurance with the mortgage as the lenders can get their money back from selling the house.