xr-stu

well my parents are emigrating next month, so im homeless

ive been to see a house that a friend of a friends mother has to let, and think im going to go for it. its a 3 bedroom semi built in the 50's, front garden dug out for a big 2 car drive. large garage sized brick outhouse for shed/workshop. massive kitchen and living room, two of the bedrooms are very big, one still big enough for a double bed and space to move. got a new combi boiler but no heating thermostat?

basiclly, im just trying to figure out what the bills are going to be roughly. i plan to be frugal with electric and heating but still worried such a big house with crap insulation is gonna be a fucker on the bills. i am going to apply for a grant for loft insualtiuon but still.

i wondered if anyone with a similar house would mind sharing what there average electric and gas bills run to, to give me some idea so i can budget accordingly?

im worried as so far i only have 3 nights working the doors as income to go to up there, so need to be getting a job seriously sharpish. looking forward to finally having my own place though, and a big/useful one like this!!

cossie350

Double the rent as a rough guide to your monthly outgoings, this will include your food but not petrol and stuff.

cabrio zo

We have 3 bed semi with unefficient back boiler, cooking is gas too, roughly split between months (this is for two of us and the gas/electric is quarterly but I've added them up and divided by 12 for a monthly figure)

Council tax: £115
Water: £30 (metered but pay direct debit monthly)
Gas: £40
Electric: £25
TV licence: £11
BT landline: £13
Food: £160ish?

Of course then if you have Sky, running of cars (MOT, Insurance, Fuel, Tax) etc etc

Z

xr-stu

sorry are those figures what you pay each, or what the bills are total?

i will be getting someone to share the house at some point but initially will be running it solo.

Mrs T

thats about the same for me apart from being on a key meter for gas/elec and they are around
£12 ish pound a week elec
£15/20 gas a week in the winter £5 in the summer

cfoster

Stu, I have a 3 bed semi with old boiler (to be replaced next month!! yay!) and bills are roughly as follows:

Gas £80 (summer)
Electric £80
Landline £20
Internet £10
TV £11
Water / Sewage (not sure, about £40 i think)
Council Tax £147
House Insurance £20
Food £350 (oops!!)

The above is for 2 of us living there, gas goes up a lot higher in winter due to cold weather/heating but I do have a very large conservatory that doesnt help maintaining temperature.

Any more let me know (When you going to the US?)

Chris

ste_gt

WTF? I take it that doesn't include household stuff and beers? Either that or your about 8 stone wet through.

I spend 100 a week easy.

SteveT

Hi XR-stu.

I have a 3 bedroom terraced house built in the 30's. It sounds like my place is smaller than yours, (i.e. two double rooms, and 1 box room) and being terraced, that could help me with heating costs.

But still, I can give an accurate idea of bills as I rent out two of the bedrooms (so 3 ppl live in my house) and I record all utility usage monthly, in order to charge my house mates accordingly for bills.

Here's is a guide to the usage in my house...

- Water ~£20 month. (metered).
- Electric ~£25 month.
- Gas ~£15 month (Summer).
- Gas ~£65 month!!! (Winter).
(Gas for central heating, hot water, oven/hob - no central heating needed during summer though).

I insulated my loft myself last year - wickes had 1/2 price deal on insulation and it cost me about £150 I think to do. Definitely worth doing, plus draft proof your doors/windows.
I am a tight cunt so do anything I can to avoid wasting money. If my house mates leave the lights on, use the tumble drier during the summer rather than use the washing line etc, I usually have a go at them lol

Remember to budget for House/Contents insurance, TV license, council tax, telephone line rental etc, random breakages, fridge packing up etc..... It all fucking adds up!

Steve

xr-stu

nice one chris.

looks like im not going now, just not realistic until ive got a job and sorted this house thing. was meant to be coming into a few quid but no to be now so that has kindof put a pisser on the whole thing. id like to get out there before the end of the year, perhaos for xmas or something, ill keep you informed though.

Ebonycossie4x4

iTrader: (4)

I wish my bills were that cheap.

dojj

iTrader: (3)

the main bills are going to be:
water, meter or fixed? mine is fixed @ £30 a month
leccy, dd of £65 a month
gas, dd of £35 a month
council tax, depends on what bracket it falls into but budget on £100 a month at least

then you've got the rest of them essentials such as food along with transportation and bits and bobs like sky/phone/etc

don't forgat that the bills will fluctuate between the summer/winter months as you use more gas to heat up the water and more electric to turn on the lights etc

it costs me roughly £450 a month to run my house, but that's not with the mortgage

xr-stu

cheers guys. im alright with budgeting for everything else, just gas leccy and water are unknown quantities. the water was 150 per 1/2 year and is on a meter iirc.

council tax is 90 per month, apparently i can get a 25% discount as a single occupant.

im hoping to rejiggle my loan to cut the payments down, i probably wont bother with landline or even TV to begin with as i rarely watch tv when its there anyway. just have food, mobile and car stuff to worry about really. food wise i cant see me eating more than £40 a week. am getting back into weight training and running so diet will be very basic and sensible.

Mrs T

i dont even spend nowhere near that a week and thats me and a toddler
you could get it down to about 20

cabrio zo

Weekly food shopping is around £40+ a week maybe some household stuff (washing powder, bathroom cleaner etc) is probably once a month thing spread over the weeks.
God no the beer is usually a daily bought 4 pack (I might include some alcohol in the shopping, but J buys his beers daily ) although sometimes go to the shops in the week to 'top up' or for extras and you find another £10-£20 spent on top, was a very rough figure although £160 would be plenty if I was just buying for one
I am 8 stone BTW

Yeah that was total a month Stu not each but you probably figured that out by now! For £11 a month is it really worth not having a tv? Think about net connection if you have no land line either or can you get it via other means?

Z

RichieST

iTrader: (2)

For my council tax, phone, gas, water, electric, insurances etc etc i pay pretty much £350 a month.

xr-stu

im 6'9" and i probably eat more than you both put together

its not just tv though, but buying one, then subscription to whatever, and tbh i probably wouldnt use it. maybe when someone else moves in i might but im not that fussed.

AlexF

1 bed house...

Electric £90 - its all electrical no gas
Landline, sky, internet £57
TV £11
Water / Sewage £50
Council Tax £110
House Insurance £35
Food depends - £200 to £400 (based on 2 people and 2 dogs LOL)

Psycho Warren

iTrader: (5)

Ive got a similar new combi boiler with no thermostat. You will probably find a thermostat module can be bought for it. The temp is controlled on a dial on the boiler and as long as you make the effort to work out whats a good temp and check and adjust while in the house then theres no reason why it cant be reasonably efficient. Also if your controlling turning it on and off then you can be quite frugal. Last winter i only put the heater on in evening. no early hours switch on, just a decent duvet then get dressed quick If your out during day mostly then thats cool. Also i have electric shower so i rarely needed gas for hot water so you can save that way.

figures per month for last winter when i was unemployed and in house a lot!!! (3 bed, 100 year old end terrace).

Gas £40
elec £25
Water £30
C Tax £65
BT £11
internet £17
TV £11
home ins £28
Contents ins £30
mobile £30

You can cut back on gas a bit. I had a few days when ill/nuts when i was in bed having accidentally left boiler on full temp for 24 hours straight hence the high average monthy for winter gas.

Also if you want land line then get talk talk and save money on BT rip off costs.

Also you can cut back on the add ons with the insurances if you want, same with mobile phone!!! Depends on your phone use but i find a low use contract cheaper than pay go for light to moderate use.

Shows the scandal of key meter prepay rip off!!! I seriously doubt you use twice as much gas as me.

Stu.H

I pay about £1300 out a month, mortgage is just under half that, some credit cards as well.

As posted earlier, a good gauge is to double the rent for a rough overall figure..

xr-stu

the rent for this place is £300 pcm, so if thats the case ill be fine. im not convinced though.

300 rent
90 council tax
100 water, leccy and gas?
160 food

thats 650, sound reasonable?

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Is that up in stoke stu?

Things like council tax can vary a lot from area to area, so ask someone local to wherever it is.

xr-stu

it is in stoke mate yeah, and that is the council tax charge according to the woman who owns the house.

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Cool, hope it works out well for you as I know thats where you wanted to be if you ended up stuck in england for a while

xr-stu

just gonna be the transitional period of moving up there and getting a job thats gonna be a ball ache, ive got a few quid in the bank but just bought an xr2i as a daily runner and for track use, and thats gonna leave me tight until i get working. might end up putting a few quid on my cards again but ive got fuck all choice.

Mrs T

i was putting on 25 a week last year and that not it being on all day alot times at night was off and ill sit with cover on, and wouldnt go back on till 8am propper cons them things

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Certainly want to be keeping borrowing to a minimum, but if you have to then you have to at the end of the day, cant let yourself be homeless after all!

xr-stu

exactly. i was thinking perhaps i shouldnt buy this xr2i and get a 106 derv or something, but tbh, itd break for 2 times + what im paying for it and fuck it, if im gonna be skint i want something in my life i can enjoy! even if that is just pootering round in a slow uncomfortable old fiesta

Psycho Warren

iTrader: (5)

Do you not have sufficient financial "status" to go to normal meters then???

Seriously its worth the £50 charge they sometimes levy for a meter swap.

Some landlords dont like it though.

Mrs T

its housing place anyway so wouldnt matter, never really thought about changing over at least with a key i know how much im spending and i wont get a bill in

Psycho Warren

iTrader: (5)

stu, remember credit cards are ok for SHORT term borrowing and as long as you budget properly and pay it off in a few months then cool.

Youll probably need a daily drive anyway and if it were me, id rather pay a bit more now for a car you want than pay out a little less now but a lot more later when you have car change costs, such as silly insurance charges, loss of value on old car, possibly moving from a car with long MoT to a car with low MoT etc etc etc.

But obviously only use the credit cards if you know you have the discipline to pay it back quickish.

Rodreguez

i'm a gas engineer mate u wanna get a programmable room stat wireless 1 is easy 2 fit, best 2 get one with optimum start, summer/winter settings n if u got a wet system (radiators) get thermostatic rad valves! urs is jus runnin off the boiler stat which is not efficient. then u could even get a compensator which changes the flow temp off boiler depending on outside air temp. on a house dat size should save ya few hundred a year. yea get the place insulated n will help even more, maybe even solar but will take a lot of time 2 get money back on wat u spend on it! i got a 3 bed costs me roughly
gas 30 month
water 25
leccy 45
tax 130
food im not sure

Psycho Warren

iTrader: (5)

Direct debit exact same monthy amount you pay now and after 6 months youll find yourself in credit with the utilities by a significant amount. You wont loose a penny on what you pay now and may very well save a lot of money.

You know how much your spending with a meter.....

Just go for a monthly direct debit plan. Once you get hang of it you can even adjust the monthly payment so that you pay broadly the same all year round and the credit from summer covers the extra usage in winter.

I'll give you £50 if it costs you more over the course of a year compared to prepay!!!! And i mean that!! Prepay annoys me loads. sure the really shit with money people and scumbags might find prepay useful, but for everyone else its added hassle and added expense just to line the pockets of the energy companys that are already making decent profits despite the so called recession. Youll notice all the energy companys are still making some profits in the current climate!!!!

Rodreguez

+1

dont go prepay they rip u off

Harris.

Mortgage £953
gas £40 a month
elec £40 a month
water £40 a month
C tax £152 a month
food etc £80 a week
House insurance £22 a month
contents insurance £20 a month
tv licence £11 a month
Bt landline £10 a month
orange internet £12 a month
sky tv £22 a month


Total £1642 and thats without running the 2 cars

Psycho Warren

iTrader: (5)

and T, if your worried about how to calculate meter costs, you can buy the wireless energy calculator thingys for about £30, and you can program them with the electric rates, usage rates etc and it shows you how much your using rather than reading your meter all the time.

The only thing id say is negative about meters, is that if you dont submit meter readings regularly then they "estimate" your bill - ie make it up!! Im sure you possess the organisational skills to put "meter read" on your calender once a month alongside smoke alarm test or something similar. You can submit it all online these days too.

xr-stu

ouch!

Psycho Warren

iTrader: (5)

how do some of you spend so much on food?? you including beer money and kebab when pissed money in that???

No way a single man should be spending £80 a week on food!! your doing it wrong

You can survive on £20 a week on food if you are frugal. if your a cheapskate you can cut it down even more by buying "reduced" stuff at supermarkets, but you need a good size freezer and spend time in evenings at supermarket near closing time to get the bargains and make it worth while. i live 5 mins walk from a tesco and 10 mins from sainsburys so some weeks i was spending less than £10 on food and still eating well!!!

Even if you have a takeaway curry a week and a couple of subways/ 1 maccy d a week vice a packed lunch, you should be able to eat comfortably well for £40 a week absolute max.

Harris.

£80 shopping for me and my gf , ID LIKE to see you buy a weeks food/drink. cleaning stuff ie bleach etc , then bathroom stuff for £20

some people live on a differnt planet

Psycho Warren

iTrader: (5)

harris i presume your excluding beer. Beer is classified as a luxury item for budgeting purposes so seperate from normal food budgets.

And yes you can get cleaning products dead cheap if you shop around for BOGOF's, supermarket own, budget brands etc.

Less than £20 a week for food/toiletries/cleaning products for one person IS achievable. I know this for a fact as i had £60 a month for my food/cleaning bits budget when i was unemployed.... so if i can do it.... bear in mind im a fat cunt who likes eating a decent amount.

Mrs T

how is it living on a different planet just cause you dont spend alot on food??