1st flat. Can I afford it?

ROV_SPARKY

After tax I pocket £840 per month.

I have a motorcycle which is 80mpg. insurance and tax not due for another year (£220) it is mechanically sound.

So I want to rent a flat. I have been looking at flats for around £500 which are within 2 miles of work.

I think I can afford this but maybe I am under estimating how much it costs to live independently?

council tax is about £60 with the single person discount
£20 fuel per month
water, gas electric, phone tv, and broadband would possibly be about £150?
and i think shopping would come to about £100

that all adds up to only what I earn per month which isnt ideal.

I do have a good amount in savings but I would prefer to end up with more going into my bank, instead of it slowly depleting.

Is it possible? And am I entitled to any benefits? I don't seem to be according the the online calculators

Many thanks

edit: Im 20 next week

MessyMare

Although you could really bring that shopping bill down (I'm assuming this is household shopping) having rent of over half of your take home pay is rather scary. My partner and I brought in about £1600 between us and although our bills were obviously more as there were two of us, our rent was £425 and our budget was tighter than a budgie's bum. I would either hold off until you have more money coming in or look for cheaper accomodation. But that's just me.

poppasmurf_bewdley

How old are you? Any benefits you may qualify for will be dependent on your age.

You should check your local council's website and do a check on housing benefit/council tax to see of you qualify. They will have an automatic calculator to do this on.

HappyMJ

ROV_SPARKY wrote: »

After tax I pocket £840 per month.

I have a motorcycle which is 80mpg. insurance and tax not due for another year (£220) it is mechanically sound.

So I want to rent a flat. I have been looking at flats for around £500 which are within 2 miles of work.

I think I can afford this but maybe I am under estimating how much it costs to live independently?

council tax is about £60 with the single person discount
£20 fuel per month
water, gas electric, phone tv, and broadband would possibly be about £150?
and i think shopping would come to about £100

that all adds up to only what I earn per month which isnt ideal.

I do have a good amount in savings but I would prefer to end up with more going into my bank, instead of it slowly depleting.

Is it possible? And am I entitled to any benefits? I don't seem to be according the the online calculators

Many thanks

You can afford a room in a shared house at £280 per month (£65 per week). Could you rent this flat with someone splitting the rent between you?

purple45

You will always spend more than you think. Have you thought about going out expenses? treats, take-aways, nights out all need to be taken into account with your day to day budget otherwise you're savings will soon turn into an overdraft. You also have to consider unexpected expenses. You might think the bike is okay but you never know when something will need repairing etc I'm not in a comparable position so I couldn't say whether your figures are accurate.

mildredalien

It would be pretty tight, a lot of advice I've read over the years suggests not spending more than 1/3 of your income on rent/mortgage.

You have covered a lot of things but what about:
- going out (food and drinks), entertainment and hobbies
- haircuts
- prescriptions/glasses/dentists bills
- emergency fund for if stuff breaks/goes wrong
- contents/health insurance
- xmas and birthday presents
- saving up for yearly tax/insurance/MOT/servicing/parts on the motorcycle
- mobile phone

Do you think you could get all household groceries, cleaning products, toiletries for £100 a month? Doable but tight.... it all adds up and at the moment you are looking at zero spare cash for anything but bills and food! If you could up your earnings a little to give yourself a bit of spending money it might feel a bit more comfortable.

backinbusiness

Well done for exploring the possibility first!

You sound like a very sensible young man.

Good luck

morganedge

Sounds like it would be pretty tight!
You'd never be able to actually enjoy life and afford treats and nights out etc, assuming you could even pay all of your bills. How depressing
I have been having similar thoughts recently about the possibility of getting my own place, but I also earn a similar amount of money, and would be in the same situation.
Life sucks if you don't earn loads and loads of money.

ms_london

Hey.

At your age, sharing might be a great way to meet new people & just have a bit of fun while you can - it may be nice living on your own, but if you cannot afford to do anything or go out, this may not be ideal? There is plenty of time to be tied to a property (when you get a mortgage) so my advice would be to rent somewhere cheaper or share...

Obviously up to you, and well done for being sensible and working out whether you can afford it before taking the leap.

ms_london

By the way, yes I am saving for a deposit and a house of my own - but I am a good 10 years older than you and have been sharing for most of my adult life ;0)

BitterAndTwisted

It really isn't realistic to commit that percentage of your take-home pay purely for accommodation. Few, if any, 20 year-olds pop straight from their parents' homes into a self-contained flat or house. Personally, I think you should investigate going into a shared place for about a third of your take-home pay in rent as an absolute maximum. Living on your own always costs more than you think it will and the heating bills in winter can be absolutely crippling. Especially if this winter is going to be anything like the last two.