Renting for the first time?

Matthew402007

Hi

I am about to rent for the first time, with my girlfreind, so I have a few questions from people in the know, ide be very grateful for any answers...

1, Whats the real cost of living and renting? we both take home about 1200 a month, so thats 2400 pounds. Im looking at rents of around 700 pounds...is that to much?

Because there is council tax on top of that, which is about 90.

And water, electricity etc, whats the cost of that?

Dont include food or any outside bills like fuel etc, im just trying to get the very basic costs down, so I can understand how it works.

So im looking at:

Rent
Council tax
Water & Electricity

What am I missing? I know phone is missing etc, oh, TV licence, how much is that?

My head is spinning :S

Thanks

Matt

Lavendyr

Matthew402007 wrote: »

1, Whats the real cost of living and renting? we both take home about 1200 a month, so thats 2400 pounds. Im looking at rents of around 700 pounds...is that to much?

No, that sounds absolutely right to me. You should be able to live quite comfortably and still have significant disposable income on top, enough to start saving up.

Matthew402007 wrote: »

Because there is council tax on top of that, which is about 90...

I'm just going to quote what I wrote in another post a couple of mins ago as it might be helpful these figures are based on two people living in a two-bed house.

Council tax - £120 per month (over 10 months)
Gas - £30 per month (averaged over 12 months)
Electricity - £25 per month (averaged over 12 months)
Contents insurance - £11 per month
Water - £20 per month (if you're metered, possibly up to £40 if not)
Telephone - £15 per month
Internet - £15 per month
TV license - £12 per month

Food - £100 per month (could be less)

Hope that helps

Edit to add more info: We work it that one of us pays council tax & TV license and the other pays gas, electricity, water & internet, because we have all of these on monthly payments (although council tax is only paid 10 months out of 12, so the other 2 months we split the bills that come in). We also split the telephone bill and contents insurance as & when they come up. Any other incidental costs (breakdown cover, car insurance etc) we split half and half as well.

Matthew402007

Thanks for your reply!!

Can I ask a couple of things here, is there some sort of deal, that would get me, water, electricity, and gas all together?

with the phone and internet, there are deals out there where I can get them both together for about 15 pounds per month.

TV licence I had no idea about, but 12 pounds a month is great!

We would not get contents insurance, as the furniture would belong to the owner of the property (were looking at fully furnished places)

Ok, so 700 a month sounds about right, could we stretch that to 800? I mean, we have 1 car to pay for per month which is 114, plus car insurance of 120 in total to pay, and fuel etc.

I just dont want to sign myself up for a financial mistake.

Thanks

Oh, and am I missing anything?

sooz

You still need contents insurance for your own belongings. Like the computer you are on, the ipod, cds, clothes, other boys gadgets, girlfriend's shoe collection etc. If you get tenants' contents insurance it should cover accidental damage for the LL's stuff too, which can sometimes be useful...particularly if you did something silly with a glass of red wine on your LL's white carpet, or were careless with a cigarette

Have a look at the sticky at the top of this board for more advice.


You can get gas & electricity dual fuel deals, & normally a discount for paying both by direct debit. If you do this, make sure to take your own meter readings on a regular basis & update the co., as you don't want to find out 2 years down the line that you have been underpaying. Water will always be a separate bill. With only 2 of you, you'd probably find a property with a water meter would be cheaper than paying water rates.