Can I afford my own place?

Kurshu

Not that it matters but I am band 5.

Also thanks everyone for the advice, I think I am going to go ahead and risk taking the place with a 6 month break clause so that I can see how it feels financially and pull out if necessary. Also the car is not a definite thing, I will of course weigh up where I am when it comes to making that decision just as I have with this one.

krlyr

BigAunty wrote: »

That's if the OP has the bent and skills to live a no-thrills, ultra thrifty life full of cutting their own hair, wearing clothes from Primark and charity shops, getting essentials from freecycle, has the time/inclination to cook cheap recipes from scratch, bring their own lunch and coffee into work rather than grabbing them from starbucks or the canteen and so on, turning down expensive social events like stag/hen weekends away and so on.

You say all that like it's a bad thing.. :rotfl: Have you ever popped onto the Old Style boards?

getmore4less

What does it cost not having a car, bus taxis etc.

car ownership is expensive and being young more so.

Think £10pw sitting on the drive before you insure and put fuel in to go places.

For me to go to the next town(18miles) costs less on the bus(£5 return) than it does in the car just for fuel and parking.

Kurshu

getmore4less wrote: »

What does it cost not having a car, bus taxis etc.

car ownership is expensive and being young more so.

Think £10pw sitting on the drive before you insure and put fuel in to go places.

For me to go to the next town(18miles) costs less on the bus(£5 return) than it does in the car just for fuel and parking.

I would pay £11 a week for the weekly ticket in my area getting to/from work, but if I get a car I would be car sharing with a colleague travelling 6.5 miles to/from work and splitting fuel cost

BigAunty

krlyr wrote: »

You say all that like it's a bad thing.. :rotfl: Have you ever popped onto the Old Style boards?

No, I say that as someone who doesn't need to be thrifty because the household income is high but does actually practice frugality (though I've just reviewed my basic household budget and it could do with another prune).

Okay, so I when I was the OPs age there was no such thing as the internet so despite a low income, I simply didn't have the knowledge to make my money go further. I don't know many youngsters who aren't in thrall to the consumer culture - do you? .

That's why I'm not optimistic that the OP has got that spririt or inclination to live like a pauper for the rest of their spending when as a youngster they have the desire or a feeling of entitlement to have their own place and run their own car on what appears to be just an average salary - suddenly, they are supposed to embrace Primark, charity shops and freecycle?

I actually do cut my own hair, most of my clothes are bought as either gifts from my partner (for example, requesting trainers for my birthday followed by a winter coat for xmas) or 2nd hand from ebay or charity shops.

I am a tee-total vegetarian who prepares most of my meals from scratch and doubt whether any meal costs me more than a couple of quid. I bring my own coffee into work in a thermal mug. I tend to buy basic non-brand toiletries and I sometimes make cakes for my friends in preference to expensive gifts.

The majority of my new furniture and household items have come from charity shops and freecycle, same with my books (Readitswapit or charity shops). I buy my spectacle frames on ebay and find the cheapest online opticians for my lenses which slashes the costs to less than half of a standard high street opticians.

If I pop to Old Style board, it would be to tell them that they are still too spendthrifty....

BigAunty

Kurshu wrote: »

I would pay £11 a week for the weekly ticket in my area getting to/from work, but if I get a car I would be car sharing with a colleague travelling 6.5 miles to/from work and splitting fuel cost

Yes, but you don't have to pay the fuel, insurance, repairs, tax, parking and depreciation of that bus that would cost you just £2.20 a day.

So you still don't get it, do you? You've just compared a cheap one off apple with an expensive pear with repeating costs associated with eating it.

Find out how much it will actually cost to run a car and enter this information on your MSE budget planner instead of grasping at partial details.

J_i_m

I assume Kurshu being only 21 also has plenty of increments to come yet on band 5, which will help a bit.

Mind you, the general advice given regarding the car is sound. With 0 no claims at your age you can expect a premium in excess of £1000. My first car insurance was over a grand and that's now over 10 years ago.

Plus cars more often than not throw unexpected costs at you, I've just been throughly ripped off by my servicing dealership (although I've taken action to soften the blow, I suspect they're trying to have me on).

The point is, no matter how carefully you budget things... Things always end up costing more than you think. And then something else crops up just to add to the pain.

krlyr

BigAunty wrote: »

Okay, so I when I was the OPs age there was no such thing as the internet so despite a low income, I simply didn't have the knowledge to make my money go further. I don't know many youngsters who aren't in thrall to the consumer culture - do you

Me I'm only a few years older than OP and have been "thrifty" for several years. OK, I lived in a houseshare, but I was earning a fair bit less than OP too. Infact, the difference in wages would have been the difference in houseshare rent vs. single flat rent (meaning I had to be careful with my budget to afford the houseshare, the same as OP would have to be careful in a rental), and I would have leapt at the chance to be on my own. I enjoyed my houseshares, for the most part, but I'm quite happy with my own company, houseshares were more necessity than choice.
Not every youngster has to be spending hundreds on clothes, nights out and haircuts. I'm not sure where the automatic assumption of careless spending and entitlement has come from - OK, they're not totally without their luxuries, with a higher phone contract and a gym membership, but OP has said they're not one for holidays or spending a fortune on their social life. Young people are perfectly capable of making budget cuts to afford their own place, I don't deem that entitlement.