How much does it cost to live on your own?

piper5

studentphil wrote:

It has been most useful thanks!!

I know it will be a good few years before I will ever be able to afford to live on my own, but it has helped me to get a bit of a handle on what I need to think about.

?????
then why start a thread when things are going to be drastically different then??

Rebekka_2

At a wild guess i would say it costs whatever it costs to the individual. Just because one single persons costs to live is £500 another single persons costs could be £1000

Rikki

piper5 wrote:

?????
then why start a thread when things are going to be drastically different then??

........because he has nothing better to do.

.........and he's just a wind up.

piper5

tell me about it rikki!!!!

Rebekka_2

studentphil wrote:

It has been most useful thanks!!

I know it will be a good few years before I will ever be able to afford to live on my own, but it has helped me to get a bit of a handle on what I need to think about.

Ever heard of inflation:rotfl: :rotfl:

southernscouser

studentphil wrote:

I have no idea really how much things like Utilities are, but they probably are not 1/3 of the cost for three people if you are just one person on your own.

Why not?

If you have a family of 3. Dad, mum, baby say. Dad is at work all day. Mum and baby are at home. They will have maybe tv on, washing machine, heating, lights, boiling kettle.

Single person. At work all day. Might even have a weekend job. Spend their some of their evenings socialising/eating out.

The single persons utilities are going to be cheaper.

Also you need to budget for things like birthdays, christmas, dental/eye treatment.

If you have a car, insurance, tax, mot, repairs, tyres, maintenance, cleaning. My car cost me £1,200 last year for all this and that doesn't even include the same for petrol!

piper5

. They will have maybe tv on, washing machine, heating, lights, boiling kettle.



.... computer on all day from being on MSE!!!

new_leaf_6

Are Saucepot and Nelly related? Or are they they same person? Or is Saucepot Nelly's apprentice? They answer questions in the same way. Phil - what you can do to get a figure is add up your needs , add your wants to the total and pray that you have enough money......

piper5

but no offence you are talking... a couple of years??
you may live in a different area, have a partner, dependent children or pets... phil you just cannot predict your lifestyle for then so this thread, sorry, is a bit irrelevant and pointless

Bargain_Rzl

Phil, you will probably find it useful to visit the Debt Free Wannabe board and read through a few threads there. You'll find people in all manner of different circumstances who all have different priorities for their money, but are seeking advice on cutting things down as low as possible. You don't have to be in debt to benefit from the advice!

Me? Well, I've never truly lived on my own, though I'm about to start doing so. My budget for essentials - living in a 1-bed flat a couple of miles outside Central London, without a car - will be around £1,300. By essentials I mean housing costs including associated charges and insurances (these items make up almost exactly 50% of the total!), food, council tax, utilities, clothing, pension contributions, haircuts, transport around London, internet connection, TV licence, £30 a week spending money, £25 a month towards the cost of Christmas, and £20 a month towards the cost of prescriptions/glasses/dental treatment. I should be able to cut this down by about £100 a month if I ever pluck up the courage to scrap my annual Travelcard and rely solely on a bicycle - and by another £50-£75 a month if times were hard and I wanted to be super super frugal with food and spending-money.

My ACTUAL budget is higher because I earn more, so I haven't included my "inessential" expenditure i.e. overpaying the mortgage, making regular payments to a savings account, and entertainment-related luxuries like theatre tickets and meals out. But for what it's worth, I itemised all these things on a spreadsheet I did before applying for a mortgage - and my mortgage broker said my budget was probably one of the most honest and realistic he'd ever seen