Can I afford to move out?

Grabs39

Okay, I keep looking at moving out of my parents house for a while now. I'm 20 but have been working full time since I was 16. After tax and pension contributions I net £975 pcm. I'm struggling to see that I can afford to live alone. Currently I pay £250 board to my parents, but this includes food, utilities etc.

My current other outgoings are

Car payment (to my Dad who lent me the money for my car) - £100
Car insurance - £150 (yes a month!)
Car tax and maintenance circa - £30.
Mobile phone - £30

The flat I was looking at was £350 a month including council tax. Other things I'll have to pay for and my estimates of their cost

Toiletries & Cleaning products - £10
Utilities (gas electric and water) - £100
Bus pass (cheaper than driving to work and city centre parking) - £50
Food - £80

If any of my estimates look out please tell me. Or if I've missed anything. This leaves me with disposable income of £75 which would be easily used by -
petrol to see girlfriend and get to college (impractical via bus as it's often late at night and a long way)
college books (pricey) and stationary
clothes
gifts
going out with friends (even a few drinks at home would be too pricey!)
savings
paying off my card (a few hundred after some overspending last year).

I think it's the car that's killing me on this but can't really do without it. This seems like a non-starter but any help would be appreciated.

HeadAboveWater

Hello

Cars are a killer I'll definitely agree. When I first had to pay car insurance I was paying £200pm insurance and £200pm car payments. That's not counting wear and tear, fuel nor tax :eek:

If you move to this flat would you be selling your car?

EDIT:
Sorry. Re-read your first post and that sounds like a 'no'. Duh!

Bicycle?!

How long left on this years car insurance? Could you get a recent quote out of curiosity to see if it would drop any?

Clothes, gifts, nights out and savings would likely have to be put on hold for a while until you work out whether or not you can actually afford them.

flubberyzing

Do you want internet in the flat? That could be another £20 a month.
Furniture for the flat? Even if it's already furnished, you'll need things like bedding, towels, sometimes kitchen stuff. That can get expensive fast.
A TV licence? That's about £10 a month.

To be honest, looking at your expenses vs take-home pay, I don't think it's affordable. It's just about affordable assuming no dramas and no social life. Do you have savings to cover you for a bit if you lost your job (heaven forbid!) or had your hours cut? What if the car has a major fault that needs repair?
If I were you, I'd have another year at home (assuming your parents are happy to have you), save like the devil, perhaps look into getting a better job (take a college course or something) and then reassess the finances in a year or so.

For what it's worth, I didn't move out of my parents house until I was 23. My sister was 28 when she moved out.

Grabs39

HeadAboveWater wrote: »

Hello

Cars are a killer I'll definitely agree. When I first had to pay car insurance I was paying £200pm insurance and £200pm car payments. That's not counting wear and tear, fuel nor tax :eek:

If you move to this flat would you be selling your car?

EDIT:
Sorry. Re-read your first post and that sounds like a 'no'. Duh!

Bicycle?!

How long left on this years car insurance? Could you get a recent quote out of curiosity to see if it would drop any?

Clothes, gifts, nights out and savings would likely have to be put on hold for a while until you work out whether or not you can actually afford them.

Insurance was only taken out 5-6 weeks ago.

I was thinking they'd all have to go on hold. :beer:

Grabs39

flubberyzing wrote: »

Do you want internet in the flat? That could be another £20 a month.
Furniture for the flat? Even if it's already furnished, you'll need things like bedding, towels, sometimes kitchen stuff. That can get expensive fast.
A TV licence? That's about £10 a month.

To be honest, looking at your expenses vs take-home pay, I don't think it's affordable. It's just about affordable assuming no dramas and no social life. Do you have savings to cover you for a bit if you lost your job (heaven forbid!) or had your hours cut? What if the car has a major fault that needs repair?
If I were you, I'd have another year at home (assuming your parents are happy to have you), save like the devil, perhaps look into getting a better job (take a college course or something) and then reassess the finances in a year or so.

For what it's worth, I didn't move out of my parents house until I was 23. My sister was 28 when she moved out.

I would need internet to do research for college. (already there!)

TV license - of course (more tax!) didn't think of that.

There's a lot of stuff left over from when my sister moved in with her boyfriend, all the kitchen stuff, ironing board etc that I'm sure I could have if I asked nicely enough. I own all the furniture in my room, bed, drawers, tv, lots of shelves etc and my own bedding, although the flat is "furnished" (a sofa and a bed!).

I have about £300 in savings (pathetic I know). And a couple of hundred pounds worth of shares but I don't want to sell them for tax reasons (bought before taxed income, get to avoid income tax on the cost of them if I keep them for five years).

My hours can't be cut (contracted to 35 hours) and my job is pretty stable (we're actually hiring at the moment!) but in this economy you never know when redundancy might jump out and bite you. I agree it may best to wait a while and save up a bit.

Cheers for the replies guys, some food for thought.

JimmyTheWig

As an aside, OP, would it be worth using your savings to pay off your debts? Seems silly to be paying credit-card rates of interest when you don't have to.
But it is good to have a safety buffer of savings. So if you do do this then use the money you wuold have paid the cards with to replenish your savings.


In terms of your actual question, how much do you pay currently for bed and board?

Note, also, that generally when you move you need to pay a month's rent in advance and a similar sized deposit.

Have you considered a house-share? Either with strangers or with people from work/college/friends?

HeadAboveWater

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Have you considered a house-share? Either with strangers or with people from work/college/friends?

Good suggestion

Rented a room for a couple years. I know it's not to everyone's taste and it can be hit and miss, but it is a heck of a lot cheaper than a big house/flat on your own.

nuatha

Have you considered renting a room in a shared property?
It largely depends on your reasons for wanting to move out, if you (or your parents) aren't desperate for you to have a new address then it would be worth spending some time reducing your car debt and trying to build up some more savings.
I'm assuming you are a new driver, if so your insurance should be a fair bit cheaper next year and you'd be a year closer to repaying your Dad for the car loan. (And possibly closer to finishing your college course with its expenses)
Do you need a TV? You need a license to watch live broadcast, but if you could cope without TV or with just Iplayer and catchup internet services, then you don't need a license.
HTH

Grabs39

Thanks for the responses above. I know I pay more interest on cards v savings which is why I have such a small amount in there. It's there for an emergency and I feel more comfortable knowing that but I understand I'm paying a premium for this.

Moving in with a (one) friend is a possibility if I find someone I'd a) want to live with and b) who wants to. I'd rather not live with strangers or with more than one person - I don't like being around a lot of people when I want to get things done or relax. The reason I want to move is so I can have more space rather than that things are unpleasant at the moment. I have no idea why but it irritates me when I'm asked where I'm going etc. Not that they mind, they're doing it out of curiosity not because I can't, it just annoys me for some reason. I also only have a room that's 7 1/2 feet by 8 feet, half of which is bed, and I have a lot of books, clothes, DVDs etc so I'm always tripping over things and have no-where but bed to do work.

I have up to 3 1/2 years left of college depending on how far I want to take it.

Maybe another year would be best. It's a head v heart thing!

Cheers guys.

HeadAboveWater

I know I pay more interest on cards v savings which is why I have such a small amount in there. It's there for an emergency and I feel more comfortable knowing that but I understand I'm paying a premium for this

How much do you have left on your card to pay and how much are you paying per month? Maybe even use part of your savings to clear the bulk of it? Once you have the card gone you can start putting that money back into savings again and build it up again.

I'd rather not live with strangers or with more than one person

Living with strangers actually worked really well with me! I shared a house with 3 guys (:eek:), but to be honest, by the time I was leaving they were like brothers to me! We each had our own room and everywhere else was shared. If I wanted company I chilled in the livingroom. If I wanted peace I stayed in my room.

it irritates me when I'm asked where I'm going etc

That's parents for you. Regardless of whether you're 21 or 51. That's what they do!!!!

GreyQueen

Hi OP, your income is a little more than mine and I run a flat. But it is a socially-rented flat and a rented-room in a shared house costs about the same in my city.

I gave up running a car back in 1987. There's no way I could afford one now, even though I could buy a small old one free and clear secondhand and my insurance as an old bird of nearly 50 would be much cheaper than yours.

I'd say your income is insuffient to live independantly of your parents and run a car. Whether you want to stay and run a car or sell the car and move out isn't for me to say, of course.