Update from Ratty

ms_london

red_ratty_rat wrote:

mmm… Ms_London think your right I could probably cut my food bill to £35 pw (£140 pcm). £50 will be fine for travel, as I said before this is only for the occasional train ticket.

Its all well & good living in a gorgeous house, but not much fun if you cant afford to go out & see any of London !! You are doing well to have a budget though. £35 pw still seems high for food??!! I suppose it depends if you are eating out/going for lunch a lot? I appreciate that my rent is low, and I live in Tooting, which although I like, isnt the best area to live in (the area with most singletons though apparently??!!) - if/when I come back to London I'll want to live somewhere a bit nicer, but I wont be saving so hard or paying off debts then so it will be different. £700 is still LOADS, cant get over that!! I'd rather have my own place for that amount....... !!

lynzpower

Red-ratty-rat,

ME & Oh spend 25 pcm on food between us per week
My rent & mortgage on my SO costs 700- certainly do not be paying this on rent!!! :eek:

Ms London, Ive always quite liked tooting, great part of town.

PoundsLookAfterThemselves

Hi all –

Thanks for your help so far, following your advice I have revised my budget!

My new budget:

Rent and bills £740 all pcm
Travel, Bus & trains £50
Food £140 (£35 pw)
Entertainment £140 (£35 pw)
Clothes and sundries £50 (£150 after pay rise)

Sub Total £1120 (£1220 after pay rise)
Savings and debt £476.94 (£506.94 after pay rise)

Total £1596.94 (£1726.94 after pay rise)

Ratty

ms_london

lynzpower wrote:

Ms London, Ive always quite liked tooting, great part of town.

I quite like it too!! Apart from the murders that seem to have happened recently :eek: !! Oh and the terrorists from the bombings in July that were living on our street!!

I do feel safe though & everything is just so close by. I live 2 minutes from tube & 2 minutes from gym, 2nd job up road etc etc. & good curries - yummmm!! (craving one now!!)......

PoundsLookAfterThemselves

ms_london wrote:

I quite like it too!! Apart from the murders that seem to have happened recently :eek: !! Oh and the terrorists from the bombings in July that were living on our street!!

I do feel safe though & everything is just so close by. I live 2 minutes from tube & 2 minutes from gym, 2nd job up road etc etc. & good curries - yummmm!! (craving one now!!)......

Really not sure that I could cope with that!

lynzpower

Your best bet is, as ms london says, either look for something cheaper ( shes got a good price there, but theres plenty around that mark) or look for a househare with bills included. I do my lodgers rate at 500 a month, and run it as a "flat share" except I buy everything the flat needs, do all the work etc. there is cheaper though.

ms_london

red_ratty_rat wrote:

Really not sure that I could cope with that!

I've lived in the area of a couple of years now, so these events were just unfortunate. Hell, it happens in "posh" areas too.

Thats almost half of your wages going on rent, wouldnt you rather do something else with the money? Buy your own place? Have a holiday every month? :cool: That definately is dead money!!

Molanole

Be aware that council tax will be going up due to the Olympics, particularly on the East side of town. Having said that West London is bloomin expensive rent wise (I know, I live there) and it is generally cheaper to be south east (not Greenwich) or East once you get out of the City commute area. Flat shares are definitely a good way to go as one beds can command really high rental. To give you an idea, a decent one bed in Ealing Broadway, close to the tube, can command rentals of up to a grand a month. For a two bed you're looking at about £1200 so sharing is the way forward.

Oh, and don't be taken in by estate agents offering you places in St. Reatham. It's Streatham fgs! And to estate agents, Islington seems to cover almost all of North East London. Hmmmmmm.

lynzpower

Dont bet on the C tax rises, here in tower hamlets its been a tenner a year or something equally negligible

lynzpower

So RRR,
Did you decide what to do, where to live etc?