Wanting to move out, don't know if we have enough?

Hi

All of the utilities very from area to area and for what kind of property you hope to get. For example council tax will very depending on if you get a house or a flat, and the same for your gas and electricity (dependant upon if you have gas or electric heating, gas hob etc.).

I would probably say:

Gas: £50 month
Elec: £50 month

Just as a guide.

Water: £27 (well thats what mine is a month, and thats a standard thing for where I live)

Council Tax: Mine is around £70 including a single person discount (25% off). you should be able to check on your local council's webste for bands and prices: (this is my council's one) http://www.gravesham.gov.uk/index.cfm?Articleid=269

I think TV licence is now around £12 (£11.41?) not sure.

For food, i would say if there are only 2 of you living there around £200 a month, but this would be absolutle maximum.

You might also want to consider contents insurance (dont think you will need buildings if it is rented).

Hope this helps

x

ok my turn....!

weve just this weekend moved into our own bought flat but while renting ours was

rent 650 - also needed 650 deposit - 1 bedroom flat in croydon (i do know now weve moved out, hes putting it up to 750)
we didnt have gas, electric was 44 a month and are currently 77 pounds in credit. obviously thats because we didnt use heaters during the summer and we have more showers than baths
our council tax is 125
our virgin boradband, phone and tv package was 60. quite high i know but the broadband was the fastest as OH dont do pubs, clubs, smoking or drinking out. we only called people during free time so phone calls only come to a couple of quid
waters also on about 40-50 ish.

as for food, well it can be as cheap or as pricey as you want it to be! i tend to go every other week and when i do, it is normally between 50-80, depending on what things i have to buy like gifts, washing opwder etc. some of it is value, some of it is branded.

if your takling about somewhere to actually buy, we would never have been able to afford a big depsoit and now theyre not doing 100% i thought we were doomed. but we found a nice 2 bedroom flat for 220k but part rent part buy took it down to 110k. which is so worth it. its in a quiet leafy area, own parking, en suite as well as a bathroom and its a new build. saldy morgage and rent for that as well as service charge works out as 1,200 a month which is a bit... ouch. but then we are now on the property ladder and we are brining in just shy of 3k a month so we are fortunate enough to be ok with this. a bit worried about whatll happen when i get preggers, but we hope to clear debt and save ALOT between now and then

hope this all helps and congrats on the engagement! xxx

hope this helps honey

Hubby and I are both in debt (my debt was caused by our actual move and hubby not being able to secure a job for 6 months... we moved 180 miles away from friends and family).

Due to this, we live very frugally and rent a very, very, very tiny little place (1 bedroom, combined kitchen/living room and 1 tiny shower room) and our monthly outgoings are as follows (please bear in mind that we had to provide £1,000 deposit to pay the rental company - 2 months' rent and some extra which covered any breakages etc when we leave property. Thankfully I had my savings to pay for this, or we'd never have been able to move. Unfortunately the rest of my savings were eaten up when paying all the bills and hubby's creditors when he was without a job, but c'est la vie!)

Rent: £450 (very good for the area - norm is about £500 to £600, but, as I said, we do live in a very tiny place)
Council tax (lowest band): £91
TV licence: £12
BT Telephone/Broadband: £22
Mobile phone: £2 to £5
Contact lenses: £10
Haircut: £11.66
Food: £80 to £100 (we cut this down drastically with scanning all the advice and recipes on the Old-Style money-saving forum on this site and now cook practically everything from scratch)

We don't have gas in our home and we don't have any water bills, as our home is luckily on land that has special dispensation (we're in the countryside). We have NEVER used the water heater since the day we moved in. We survive with big woolly jumpers, hot water bottles and kettles to heat water if necessary. The shower heats up itself. We have a 50p electric meter and we spend approximately £20/£25 per month in the winter.

Hope this gives you an idea. Don't forget you'll need to factor in any creditor payments (preferably more than the minimum) as well.

We don't have contents insurance or anything like that as we live in rented, fully-furnished accommodation and the only thing of value that we own is the PC and laptop and it just doesn't seem worth it, but obviously it may be different with yourself.

We don't intend to 'buy' for years, if at all, as it's not possible at present anyway, but we don't want to be paying off a house for the rest of our lives and if anything happens to our rented place at least we don't have to pay for it. Renting is the best choice for us at present.

as a rough rule of thumb i say monthly household bills are about £300 on top of the rent/mortgage. this includes council tax etc.

food is about £40 a week for two people (you can probably get this cheaper)

then you need to think about travel/car expenses, funishing the house, and having a life!!