I'm so nervous!

denton6

hi we have the cheapest band for council tax and ours is 100 pounds a month thats in carlisle cumbria.People in higher bands pay more so 100 pound could be right.

Ytaya

You can definitely spend less than that on groceries for the pair of you!

I don't see anything on your list for things like haircuts, clothes, Christmas/birthdays, etc. Make sure to budget for them! Otherwise they come as a surprise and you (well, I did!) wonder why your budget doesn't work any more.

Good luck! I'll be setting up home (alone) in a few months for the first time in a lot of years. I've been so excited, plotting to find bargains for kitchen stuff and furniture. Meeting my occasionally champagne tastes on a Tesco value budget has been a fun challenge

Skint_Catt

Ytaya things like haircuts, birthdays etc will be taken care of my savings acc as they are at the mo - I was just wondering if I'd left anything out of my 'new' budget for renting.

Yes I'm looking forward to the challenge too! :j

C xx

Skint_Catt

Prob realised need to factor in one off payments:

£140 TV licence (ok it's annual!)
£700 deposit
£60 phone line connection charge?
£? Letting agent fee (if we use one)

Any more?

Sugar_Junkie

Congrats and goodluck with house hunting. I rent with my OH too and find this site useful for things like council tax costs when we're looking to change houses, might be worth a look for you: http://www.upmystreet.com

Oh and the AA are usually pretty good for finding decent contents insurance deals, I've used them for a two or three years now.

Skint_Catt

Thanks Sugar Junkie - have forgotten about Upmystreet!

Will check out the AA too thanks

C xx

SarahNeedle1872

Skint_Catt wrote: »

Prob realised need to factor in one off payments:

£140 TV licence (ok it's annual!)
£700 deposit
£60 phone line connection charge?
£? Letting agent fee (if we use one)

Any more?

You should be able to do ur tv license monthly... they just take double payments for the first 6 months... mine was 21.98 for the first 6 months, then they put it to 10.99 a month. There's no extra charge for doing it monthly.

Also, we're 2 bed (Oxfordshire) and we pay £123 pcm council tax, so urs sounds about right. £23 water, and £50 electricity - we have Economy 7 and NO gas supply :mad:

If u can, try to avoid Letting agents, as the fees can be steep (the house next to us is £120 pcm more expensive because it's let by an agency, and they are identical houses!) - altho u are protected from dodgy landlords I suppose.

Shouldn't cost that much for phone line connection if there is already an active line - we had ours connected for £20

chunky79

Skint_Catt wrote: »

Please reassure me! :rotfl:

In a few months I will be moving in with darling boyf. :j

I have a budget at the mo which I'm not too bad at sticking to, but pay nowhere near what I will when we're renting! (I'm with parents at the mo - easy life!)

Although he takes home double what I do, I don't want to live from him and I want to pay my way.

The properties we are looking at are IRO £550 per month (excl bills) and although the budget on paper looks ok (I have £109 'left over' even after savings for car spends) I'm worried that It'll be a stretch for me.

OH doesn't have to pay for mobile phone or anything to do with his car except petrol to and from work (which will be significantly reduced when we move).

Can you tell me if the following is about right? (Two bed house);

£100 Council Tax per month
£30 electricity
£20 water
£20 gas (CH & poss cooker) I would budget about £30 for this
£200 food/cleaning materials - we both take packed lunches & enjoy cooking from scratch - he has a bread maker and likes buying from Farm Shops does like his (alcohol-free for the moment) beer and wines - I like my snacks too!
(we cook most meals from scratch too, i can now do my monthly shop for about £250 that half of what i use to pay) i meal plan now and thats for 6 of us.£20 contents insurance
£30 broadband/phone (we will prob buy freeview plus I pay £6 pm for DVD delivery)

Have I missed anything 'non-personal'????

Thanks all!

:hello:

wow your so organised i remember when i got my first house i had never even heard of a direct debit :rotfl:

Skint_Catt

I must admit I am obsessionally organised but don't always get it right!

Skint_Catt

£100 Council Tax per month
£30 electricity
£20 water
£20 gas (CH & poss cooker)
£200 food/cleaning materials - initially anyway, then will try to get this below £150.
£25 broadband/phone (we will prob buy freeview plus I pay £6pm for DVD rental delivery)
£24 TV licence per month initial 6m (or maybe we'll do this annually and get the interest by saving monthly!)
£700 deposit
£25 phone line connection charge?
£? Letting agent fee (if we use one)