Living Alone Vs House-sharing

jenevieve

Hi everyone,

I live alone in a rented flat and have done for 8 years.
My rent plus utilities come to about £750 per month. My flat is ok but it could do with a complete redecoration as it is quite scruffy.

I am seriously considering looking into moving into a house-share mainly for 2 reasons -
1) I have some debt I want to get rid of.
2) I want to save towards a deposit for a house.

Looking on various websites, I think I could get a double room for anything between £300 - £450 depending on location, quality of house etc.

I really think I could save some serious pennies doing this but am reticent about doing it.
After so long living alone, am I going to find sharing really hard (and be hard to live with)?
Part of me thinks it would be nice to live with people and have that social aspect.
I am 34 and although I would ideally love to have my own place, realistically that isn't going to happen unless I knuckle down to saving and paying off my debts.:o

I would be really grateful for any opinions, thoughts and advice from anyone who could help me.

Thank you

melancholly

well i'm putting up with housesharing so that i can get money together to get my own place. i'm late 20s, most of the housemates i've had lately have been a similar age or early 30s - the only problems have been with people who have just graduted and still want a 'student' lifestyle or are mature students going back to the whole student thing! (and i don't mean to say that all students are bad - i just don't necessarily want to live with someone who is out having fun all the time when i can't join in!)

despite my ranting, it isn't that bad - i'd sooner have my own bathroom and never have to wait for a shower, or ever have to clean up after other people, but if you can save £300 a month by doing that, it's got to be worth it, hasn't it? £3600 in a year is pretty good and as long as you know it's not permanent, then it is easier to deal with. also, sharing phone line rental and things makes a huge saving in bills.

anyway, when it does have it's bad days, there's always the 'rant on MSE therapy' to help!!

Prudent

Just wondering how long it would take to raise a deposit? Would it be short term enough merely to see it as a means to an end?

I am so lucky living where I do. I have a lovely three bed semi in a good area and I could probably pay a mortgage on it for less than you are paying in rent. I guess though your pay off is higher salaries.

A friend of mine moved down from here to London last year and because of higher costs had to go for the sharing option over her own place here. On balance she preferred the company, but had lots of irritations to contend with.

PasturesNew

I've always lived alone. Moved into a houseshare 6 weeks ago and finding it very difficult. Although, to be fair, I moved into a 2-bed house somebody else rented so everything is theirs, the furniture, everything.

I don't feel able to invite my mates back, or doss about with my feet up wearing comfy clothes.

Also won't be inviting friends over for a curry/DVD night.

Have you tried looking for somewhere smaller to rent?

I'm now looking at studio flats - hoping to find one in the next week. I figure a studio flat costs £200/month less than a 1-bed flat for rent/council tax/heating bills.

Downsides are overall space - and no access to a garden. But I do still get "my own" place that way and can live my life how I want/invite people back.

So costwise, it's a middle ground.

jenevieve

I haven't really thought about a studio flat. No garden is not a concern but living in a small space like a studio flat really doesn't appeal to me.

I really don't know what to do, to be honest.

The worst-case scenario is that I move into a house-share and really hate it. But the best-case is finding a great couple of people to live with in a nice home.
(If I get really desperate then there is always hospital accommodation that I can go for being a hospital worker but that isn't great from what I hear......)

bristol_pilot

I moved into a shared house when I was 34, after about 10 years of living alone.

I did not have any real problems - and made some new friends - but would just like to offer a couple of pointers:

To save significant money by sharing, you need to share with 2 or more people really. This is because going from 1 to 2 people in the house you lose the Single Adult Council Tax discount plus the bills are a lot higher in a shared house than when living alone - heating on longer, more baths and laundry etc. When you share with 2-3 people or more you start to make real savings. Of course you may not want to live in a massive household like a student, so I would say a house of 3-4 people including you is about right.

I found that sharing worked for me at that age provided my housemates were all professionals aged 25+ MINIMUM who had shared with other professionals before. We had occasional trouble with recent graduates who had no proper jobs, could not really afford the rent and were just too immature generally - like thinking it would be OK to invite all their mates to stay over during the week without asking anyone. More and more people are house sharing into their late 30s these days (due to high house prices), so you will readily find some suitable housemates.

Finally, a small practical thing - in a shared house you do get a lot of laundry being done (almost every day) so unless you want to live in a turkish bath atmosphere (steaming clothes on every radiatior) - find a houseshare that has some means of drying clothes e.g. tumble drier.

Anyway, I have saved my money now and moved into another place on my own. Good luck, I'm sure it will be fine.

jenevieve

Thank you bristol_pilot - your comments were very helpful.
A lot of the ads I have looked at include bills & council tax in the monthly price which makes life a lot simpler, I would imagine.

The point about the tumble dryer is one I hadn't thought of so thanks for that.

Feel more positive about the whole thing now - am going to keep looking!

Cheers!!:beer: