Food for thought

toontastic

Right basically I'm looking to buy a new house, I'm trying to get my mortgage sorted at the minute and I'm going to over pay to pay around £450 a month.

I currently make aprox £1170 a month and I have outgoings at the minute of £319.01 (I'm just finishing off clearing my debts so I've not got as much money as I could have only having those outgoings)

Anyway I'm trying to work out what my utilities and that should be in my new house to budget. My dad reckons I'll be looking at £50 a month council tax and then £50 a month gas and electric (the house im looking at is worth £79950 and it's only 1 bedroom with only me living there) is this about right ? What other expenses will I be looking at ? How much should I be spending on food per week ? Sorry these probably sound very daft petty questions but I'm a first time buyer and don't really have a clue

Thanks in advance.

domestic_goddess

I would budget a bit more for council tax, you can check with the council how much it will be by giving them a call. Gas and electric you can prob get cheaper than fifty quid. Dont forget when you are signing up to your utilities and buying your house stuff - use quidco for cashback!!

Good luck in your new house

:beer:

Floss

Your local council should be able to tell you how much CT is for the house....

Gas (check the insulation - British gas dont charge too much for cavity wall)
Electricity
Water (get a meter if it doesnt already have one)
Buildings AND contents insurance (shop around & use Quidco)
Life insurance (to cover mortgage - shop around)

Look on the OS board for housekeeping budgetting advice

toontastic

Thank you all was a big help, how I managed to totally forget water I'll never know

savvykaz

Depends also on whether you will be cooking by gas or electric, does it have central heating, dbl glazing? I should think for one person about £30 - £40 per wk for food. Phone - go to Talk-Talk - if you get your phone with them broadband is free for life!

southernscouser

Don't forget your TV license aswell. Thats nearly £11 a month.

If you want boradband there is that and a phone line to pay for.

Food of course and household products. :think:

Imelda

HI toontastic,

Council tax- if you know the address of the property you wish to buy take a look at https://www.vos.gov.uk it will tell you the band it's in, then check your local council website to see the cost for 06/07. A couple of things to remember, if you're living alone you will get a 25% discount and that if you're paying monthly you will pay over 10 months.
Gas/ Electricity- if you're setting up a direct debit the company you use may request that you pay £50 first of all, this is so they can guage your use, if you're building up too much credit ask to reduce this. Always get your meter read as you could be running up huge bills if it is estimated (or vice versa).
TV licence- if you want to pay this monthly you will have to pay for your first one in the first 6 months so expect to pay more (I think mine was about £22) it will then drop down to the usual £11.
Food budget- I include all cleaning stuff and toiletries, I spend around £70 per month for just me but I have cut down dramatically thanks to this site. I would start off with about £120 and work from there.
Good Luck!

toontastic

Thanks again for all the help. For the phone I was going to use Skype however I guess if I'm going to get broadband it might be better getting something like talk talk anyway and then getting skype as to ring those who don't use it but to be honest I very rarely use the phone as I get such a good deal on my mobile and only pay £20 a month.

House does have double glazing and has gas central heating, I can't remember if it had a gas or electric cooker though.

I couldn't get that link to work Imelda but I'll keep it and try again later so thanks for that.

You lot really are a helpful bunch

Dr.Lou

We changed a few months ago to Primus and Call1899 for our phone calls.

See Martins article for more details http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1095003038,99872,

Our phone bills have gone down by aproximately £15 a month.

toontastic

Just had a look at the Council Tax and I'm a little confused. How do I find the value of the house in 1991 ? I got a shock at first cause I thought it was current value which would make the house band d and the yearly figure would be £100 a month however it's band A which means the annual charge is 803.19 so that's £67 a month but Imelda says I get a 25% discount for living on my own (which is nice ) so thats £50.20 a month. Bloody hell i've done far to much math for one day

toontastic

Dr Lou for some reason it won't let me thank you using the button but thank you anyway I'll do it when I can.