Renting home for first time after living with parents

henrygregory

Hi,
I have been living with my parents since forever. I finished uni 3 years ago and have been working hard at work ever since. I am gradually working my way up the pay ladder, saving as I go and I feel now is the time to move out, but I am not sure if my pay reflects this. (I have a sum saved up for a mortgage, this is locked away in a savings acc, but I would rather rent for a few years so I don’t take on such a commitment).


I have been looking at flats close to London to rent and have worked out that it would cost me £1400 per month for a flat, all utilities, council tax (-25% discount for being on own), travel expenses to work, tv licence etc etc.

This would only leave me with around £200 from my pay per month free.

Is £200 per month enough to get by on? Clearly I am earning enough to afford all of the bills, but I am worried, what if there is a problem… my car goes bang, I get an unexpected bill, the uncertainties could go on.
I can't see how £200 a month or even a couple of £200 a months worth of savings could help.

Would I be better, to save up a few grand and then make this leap?
I can’t access my savings for the mortgage, my parents don’t have any cash, so I would really be on my own as far as money is concerned – This is the way it has always bee, I like it that way any how - I know exactly where I am.

I am just thinking, at least if I saved some money before hand, then I have a contingency budget if there were to be problems.

I am just a little concerned that £200 for everything else in a month, may be a little low.

Any suggestions or experiences in this would be so helpful.

Thanks

hazyjo

Would you have to pay for food and petrol out of that £200?

Could you save for another year or two? You certainly wouldn't be able to save any more for your deposit if you rented, so I can't see the point of renting for a while. I'd either buy (if you can afford it!) or stay put and save. The latter being my preference!

Would you have enough for a deposit? What sort of salary are you on, and is there much potential for increase over the next couple of years?

Jx

cord123

I would say that £200 wouldnt be enough extra cash a month... as pp said does this need to include you food etc.... it would be better if you included your workings of how you got to that figure....
what will you do about furniture... if you wanted to get something on interest free this would cost .....
Have you included ALL your bills ie. phone, broadband, (service charge/ground rent) if any....

PasturesNew

£200 isn't enough. You need to look at house shares. You're still young enough to be accepted into those (once you're over 40 nobody wants to share with you).

£1400 is WAY too much, at any age, to pay for a roof over your head.

Have a minimum of £500/month "for you"... although you've not broken down what you think your expenses would be. I've run a car and eaten and 'lived' on £500/month after I've put a basic roof over my head and covered the essential house bills.

climbgirl

£1400 is a lot!!! We live in zone 3 and there are two of us and I think our monthly rent + bills comes to that amount. That's for a two-bed flat.

When you say "close to London" do you mean within zones 1-6 or outside? The further out you go, the cheaper the rent. You can get places quite quickly on mainline trains so as long as you live close to a station it's not too bad being further out.

Are you looking for one-bed flats? I'd expect it to come in a lot cheaper than that if you are. Have you considered sharing a place? Will make it considerably cheaper....

henrygregory

Hi there, thanks for all of your posts and sorry for my lack of info on how I worked out my costings.
My home broadband internet is down and I can't get access to my online folder with my excel sheet which contains all of the expenses I have worked out.

My costs covered every conceivable cost you could dream of... so off the top of my head....

Rent
Electricity
Water
Gas
BT Line
Broadband
TV Licence
Monthly Mobile Bill
Food and Drink for the month (£50 per week - that's gotta be more than enough)
Car Insurance
Fuel for car
Contents insurance
Council tax minus 25% discount


A couple of you made useful points:

Furniture- I already have quite a lot of stuff at my parent's. I have my own fridge, washing machine etc, I have been building up my stuff over the years.
All I would really need is a dining table and kitchen stuff.


Potential of more pay in my job - Hmm this is a tricky one and something I have been deliberating on. I am very tempted to be frank with my employers and just say, I am looking to move out, and I can't quite afford it yet. Would they pay me more. They are really happy with me so might pay a bit more to keep hold of me.
I would love to have my girl friend move in with me, but she is still at uni and has her own accommodation at the moment, so it is not possible, otherwise things would be much easier as we could split some of the bills although I would loose the 25% council tax discount grr. I currently get around 27500 pa Which sounds quite a bit, but by the time you work out all of the bills and the fact you will be paying all by your self, it doesn't amount to much.

House shares - quite a few people have mentioned this to me. But I kind of like my own space and like to keep things in their place and what have you. I think living with other people would drive me mad. I would be happier staying at home and saving then house sharing. But I appreciate what you say, it would work out considerably cheaper as I would not be paying all of the bills on my own.

Type of accommodation - I have only been looking at 1 bed flats, or studio apartments (I think they called them). Nothing too snazzy, quite small, no gardens or balconies. Have called my local estate agents, they are keeping an eye open but said the smaller rental properties like the ones I am after are renting them out like hot cakes.

Thanks again for taking the time to help me out. I will look over all of your posts and see what options look best for me

RAS

Hi

Firstly, you need to do a full SOA, including things like car tax, clothing, presents etc, as here http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html .

Given you age, you need to be very careful about taking on a one room flat. If you were to lose your job (and how many NOTW thoguht that would happen this week) you will only be able to get support for living in shared accomodation. So you might have 9 months left on a contract which you cannot get out of at a cost you cannot afford without really cutting into your savings.

The Government is talking about raising the limit for shared accomodation to 35 years for single people.

bristol_pilot

£1400 for living costs with £200 left over for everything else! OP - it is obvious on these figures that you can't afford it.

You really, really ought to consider a house share. Even sharing with one other person would be a big cost-saver. I was earning over £60k before tax before I could afford to move out of a house share and rent my own flat. Yes it is nice to have one's own space - but living alone is a very expensive luxury in the UK. You will find as a single person who has a job that you get no housing subsidy at all and you are competing with many claimants who get their rent picked up by the taxpayer - this pushes up rents.