living alone costs

catoutthebag

macman wrote: »

I'm curious-how do you expect anyone on a forum to know what you will spend on food in a month? Surely you know that already? And your rent will depend on the kind of accommodation you require, and the area-it could be anything from £400 to 5 times that.
There is no 'subsidy' because you are single, apart from a 25% single person discount on your council tax.
Costs are higher for singles because the fixed charges are not divisible: for example, if doesn't cost any more to heat a one b/r flat for two people than for one.

thanks for the short sighted comment
RE read posts in future because

A) I provided a figure on rent based on the area I was searching so that was NOT up for debate

I provided a figure for food based on what I spent with a partner (roughly double) so that was NOT up for debate (though I accepted comments from.other single dwellers based on their single consumption)

er yes so I do 'surely know that already' - not sure why you're therefore pointing it out?

I KNOW heating is not divisible but water and tax are

FlyingCat

£60-80 per month for food seems really low. That's about £15-20 per week on food. Is this based on living with parents who stock the cupboards/fridges with essentials? i.e Milk, bread, cereal, butter, salt, pepper, ketchup etc (all the stuff you always have in the house).

I'd also instead of thinking how much food costs, think how much you would spend in total at a supermarket. For example you add toiletries, cleaning products, washing products, bin bags etc. It all adds up. It's amazing how much your supermarket bill is when taking all this into account.

BlaEm

Would you consider a house share or to lodge? That would give you more independence from your parents but without having to pay the full whack for bills etc. Round my neck of the woods you can get pretty decent all-in deals (though watch for the flat mate horror stories!) which makes it much easier to budget and save for your own place. Or see if any of your friends want a housemate or lodger to share costs?
I sympathise, I had to move back with my parents a few years back and although we get on great, it felt like a step back having moved out with a partner previously.

From my experience with single occupier water bills - for a while I lived alone in my current property but couldn't get a water meter fitted; the water company gave me a significant discount to their fixed rate (it was a two bed property so the fixed price assumed a 'family' rate) and reduced the charge from c.£30 pm to about £17 - this was only because they couldn't fit a meter, but hopefully shows that most will take in to account single occupiers and not penalise with high fixed charges.
If you're already on a meter, you're only really saving on one shower a day (one would hope ) which wouldn't add up to much.