Budgeting for single person
DCFC79
Posts: 40,598 Forumite
At some point this year I shall hopefully be a home owner, what is slightly worrying me are the household bills or more specifically grocery shopping. How much should I allow for it per month ?
Thanks in advance
Thanks in advance
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Comments
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It depends how much money you start with to be honest!
Start with a £100 .... and work your way down to about £60 over time. At first you'll be buying food without thinking about the cost - then you'll realise you're wasting too much and wish to cut back.
For all other household basic utility type bills, put down £100 and keep an eye on it to see how it goes.
Then don't forget "maintenance" type stuff. Stuff that breaks and needs repairing/replacing .... put £50-100/month aside for that too. Just this week I've needed a random £400 to fix a fence that was OK this time last year.... you never know when something will break, stop working, block, fall apart etc.
If you earn £2k/month, all the above is easy; if you earn £1200/month it'll be tough.0 -
PasturesNew wrote: »It depends how much money you start with to be honest!
Start with a £100 .... and work your way down to about £60 over time. At first you'll be buying food without thinking about the cost - then you'll realise you're wasting too much and wish to cut back.
For all other household basic utility type bills, put down £100 and keep an eye on it to see how it goes.
Then don't forget "maintenance" type stuff. Stuff that breaks and needs repairing/replacing .... put £50-100/month aside for that too. Just this week I've needed a random £400 to fix a fence that was OK this time last year.... you never know when something will break, stop working, block, fall apart etc.
If you earn £2k/month, all the above is easy; if you earn £1200/month it'll be tough.
I earn £980 a month after tax, I believe I'm pretty savvy regarding buying whats cheapest. The amount I mentioned was second cheapest so will end up tweaking it and will most likely use Aldi for the bulk of the shopping.0 -
I earn £980 a month after tax, I believe I'm pretty savvy regarding buying whats cheapest. The amount I mentioned was second cheapest so will end up tweaking it and will most likely use Aldi for the bulk of the shopping.
How much will be left after mortgage payment council tax an utilities?0 -
getmore4less wrote: »How much will be left after mortgage payment council tax an utilities?
Depends how much the property is, its all hinging on what the amount is from some inheritance but hopefully £136 then utilities on top, average gas per month is £61, electricity is £63, internet and landline is £33.49, estimated price for water is £395.
Maybe I'm asking a bit early in the process, was just trying to get an idea.0 -
The water seems very high, even if that was annual (e.g. I live alone and water works out to about £20/month). How big is the property? Those utility costs sound more like a family home than a small flat. The good news though is if you budget to afford them then actuals coming in less will get a bonus. Don't forget council tax, that's one of the biggest expenses.Save £12k in 2019 #360
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Water - if not on a meter ask them to install one - you will have 12 months to decide to keep it or remove it.
If the water company say they can't get them to adjust your bill as a single person - you should be able to get around half off.
As for the food shop I think you could live fairly well for around £100 per month.0 -
Go do a virtual food shop on my supermarket
For the first one, do loo rools, toiletries etc
Then do another one for a week later taking in consideration the toiletries you have left. Your average shop will be between the two0 -
Remember the first big expenses too if you haven't got them already - sofa, chairs, oven, table, fridge freezer, bed, TV - need budgeting for too, but these are one-off purchases that should last for years. Then there are smaller things like knives and forks, plates, cups, saucers etc - most of which you can get in the pound shop.
Your big initial shop will cost too to fill up the cupboards and the fridge freezer, then after that you only have to replace what you eat. At the moment my weekly shopping can drop as low as £8 a week just to replace what I like such as bread, fruit, crisps, vegetables and fillings for sandwiches. Farmfoods is fairly cheap for frozen stuff and they do a lot of "everything in this freezer £1.95 each or 3 for £3" type deals pretty much permanently. Easy to get carried away though if you're not careful
As stated remember the other stuff too - kitchen and loo rolls, soap, cleaning stuff etc - most of this you can buy in bulk and save that way. Lidl tend to offer various rolls of various sheets at various prices so to find the best value you often have to stand there and crunch the numbers as to what's better value
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Your outgoings for your supermarket shop will be quite high for the first month as you lay in stocks of things, but things will ease off after that. Keep an ongoing list in the kitchen to jot down things that are about to run out - that way you are only buying what you need. And keep a mental note of what you throw away - if you regularly throw things away because they've hit their use by date, stop buying them. And keep coming back to this site for hints and suggestions as you go along - the Old Style Moneysaving (all about thrift) board is particularly useful.
I currently reckon to spend less than £50 per week for two adults (at Aldi) with an additional shop every 6 weeks or so at Sainsbury's for the things Aldi don't sell. And I'm not trying to save money particularly (although I do like a bargain), so I'm sure you'll be able to do better!No longer a spouse, or trailing, but MSE won't allow me to change my username...0 -
Ball park figures as a single person.
Weekly Groceries ( just groceries ) per month £100-£120ish,probs could spend less but for me not worth downgrading certain things.
Everything else I buy once a month,eg toilet rolls,tissues,kitchen roll,cleaning stuff,General toiletries etc £30 -£35 although VERY often have some of that left over
I don't have an Aldi or Lidl/Farmfoods within walking distance so that's Asda,Iceland prices ( no car and paying bus fares defeats the money saving aim )
As the poster said above your water bill seems very high,mine £20 a month on a water meter and I'm in during the day.
Your gas and electric seems massively high ...it's about 4 times or more what I pay.
Telephone/internet ££ looks good.
All that said leave yourself some leeway each month maybe at least £10-20 for unexpected small expenses.If buying a house ( opposed to a flat where you pay a maintenance charge and don't have other expenses a house can have ) you'll need more for large expenses that come up0
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