What is in the middle between frugal and splashing out?

dekaspace

cyantist wrote: »

With restaurant bills, costs can easily and quickly be worked out exactly according to what someone has eaten. How can you do that with utility usage?

While we were saving to buy a house, DH and I rented with another couple who were anal about this and wanted to calculate exactly who had used what, despite us all being sensible about our usage. It made it really miserable living there and probably for a maximum of £5 difference a month.

I think if you’re sharing the costs, you have to accept that maybe you might pay a little more than if everyone was as frugal as you were, but I would guess it doesn’t make a huge amount of difference and certainly still works out cheaper than if you were paying everything on your own.

Except in my personal situation those years ago it was about £150 over in 3 months so £37.50 I was told to pay instantly and the response from the other flatmates was "its not a lot of money, don't complain" despite them having around 3 showers a day on average and washing machine once or twice a day even if just 1 pair of clothes, and being this was years ago they had stereos in kitchen and bathroom which they left on by accident so even if a short shower or using microwave in kitchen the stereo would be on 2-4 hours later, or overnight if they went for a midnight snack.

It was certainly cheaper living on my own, I moved into a bedsit after and though I only paid for my own bedroom and not kitchen or bathroom I used just over £1 a week, and almost £2 in winter and that was with standing charges and even 8 years ago I was using £5 a week.(electric and water not heating though)

I remember arguing with those then flatmates that as they spend so much time in shower I only managed to get 2 or 3 a week whilst they had more in a day and one was a chef for a living so had stews on the hob all night using a lot of electric.

I remember saying I don't mind paying some money over but for me to pay £37.50 was wrong as I was barely getting 2 or 3 showers a week, never had heating on, used washing machine once a week (if that as went to parents for weekend too and so got it done there or just hand washed things I was short on and put on washing line) and so offered £10 to be told "well thats not fair on the rest of us"

So I learned a lot in the first few years of living away from home.

Though tat is a side step from the frugal part, I liked to live within my means but even then if I had a choice between a treat of a curry why go to the take away on corner that costs £10 and is no better than one that is £5 but 10 minutes walk away, that I am told is being frugal when I think that is sensible as it means more leftover money for other things.

Goldiegirl

flubberyzing wrote: »

In answer to your question in the title, for me at least, the answer would be "living comfortably within your means day to day."


Myself for instance, I'm a primary school teacher, living alone, earning a salary in the upper half of 20-30K a year. Having only myself to rely on in terms of bills and cost of living, I do have to be frugal at times.


For instance, I'd like to have Sky TV, but I know I can't afford the... I don't know, £30 a month fee. So instead I settle for Netflix and Amazon Instant, at a combined cost of about £14.


I'd like to buy all my clothes from M&S or Next, but I can't afford that for everything. So for most things I either settle for Primark or Matalan, or just don't buy at all.


Generally, by living frugally 80% of the time, I know the money is there for meals out, a twice a month Costas, a yearly trip to a day spa and a foreign beachy holiday once a year.


It's knowing what you REALLY want to spend your money on, and cutting back in areas that you don't really care about.

That's how I look at it too, I'm happy to live reasonably most of the time, so that I can continue to have my holidays

nearlyrich

My thoughts are not to waste money on utility bills when you can spend it on good stuff like holidays and shoes. We don't waste food or utilities buy boring stuff like washing powder when it's on offer and keep a stock to last a few weeks. I have never shared a house or flat and fortunately my DH has the same philosophy.

Siebrie

That's why I'm so happy I chose to houseshare, but not billshare. I lived on the ground floor of a converted multi-layer house, which still had separate meters for the ground floor and the rest of the house. The phone was on a meter, too.
I'm also the one that will call the organiser of a dinner party that I will join for company's sake, but will pay only my own bill. It usually means that everyone else pays €1 more than they would have if it was split equally, but I pay €12 less . (That's the group I go out with most, they know by now.)

Money_saving_maniac

Hell is living with other people

armyknife

money_saving_maniac wrote: »

hell is[strike] living with[/strike] other people

fyp ........ ..

VfM4meplse

dekaspace wrote: »

Except in my personal situation those years ago it was about £150 over in 3 months so £37.50 I was told to pay instantly and the response from the other flatmates was "its not a lot of money, don't complain" despite them having around 3 showers a day on average and washing machine once or twice a day even if just 1 pair of clothes, and being this was years ago they had stereos in kitchen and bathroom which they left on by accident so even if a short shower or using microwave in kitchen the stereo would be on 2-4 hours later, or overnight if they went for a midnight snack.

It was certainly cheaper living on my own, I moved into a bedsit after and though I only paid for my own bedroom and not kitchen or bathroom I used just over £1 a week, and almost £2 in winter and that was with standing charges and even 8 years ago I was using £5 a week.(electric and water not heating though)

I remember arguing with those then flatmates that as they spend so much time in shower I only managed to get 2 or 3 a week whilst they had more in a day and one was a chef for a living so had stews on the hob all night using a lot of electric.

I remember saying I don't mind paying some money over but for me to pay £37.50 was wrong as I was barely getting 2 or 3 showers a week, never had heating on, used washing machine once a week (if that as went to parents for weekend too and so got it done there or just hand washed things I was short on and put on washing line) and so offered £10 to be told "well thats not fair on the rest of us"

So I learned a lot in the first few years of living away from home.

Though tat is a side step from the frugal part, I liked to live within my means but even then if I had a choice between a treat of a curry why go to the take away on corner that costs £10 and is no better than one that is £5 but 10 minutes walk away, that I am told is being frugal when I think that is sensible as it means more leftover money for other things.

The problem is the lasting resentment that being taken advantage of causes bears no relationship to the sum swindled....

moneyistooshorttomention

Makes me glad I never went the flatmate route!

I went the grotty bedsit route:(:mad::( prior to getting a "home" of any description. At least my only concern there was whether I was being overcharged for electric by the landlord (which I was - in the first one:mad:). I made sure the next bedsit had proper normal meters - so I only paid the correct amount.

In OP's position - there wouldnt just have been arguments about money. It would have been pointed out very firmly that I was going to have my daily shower - and, if that meant them having a shower less per day than they wanted then tough. My "necessity" (ie once) would come before their "luxury" (ie three times). I would have stood there outside the bathroom - washbag at the ready for my turn and banging on the door to say I only had half an hour left to get ready in if their shower was too prolonged.

VfM4meplse

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Makes me glad I never went the flatmate route!

I went the grotty bedsit route:(:mad::( prior to getting a "home" of any description.

I stayed at home instead. In the end my parents paid just to get rid of me :money:

Out,_Vile_Jelly

Utilities are hard to divide "fairly" in flatshares, unless someone acts as a full time official; timing showers, monitoring light usage, locking the washing machine between allocated hours etc. When I was a povvo student we accepted that these would just have to be split evenly or it gets silly.