I'm earning £1300 a month, will I survive on my own.

ProDave

£300 per month for your car is the first thing I would change. I assume that's a lease deal, you don't own it?

My last car I BOUGHT for £3000, used it for 9 years, then sold it for £600 so it cost me £2400 over that time, or £266 per year or £22.22 per month. the one I have replaced it with cost me £3100, if I get a similar period of use from it, I will he happy. Granted that does not include insurance and serciving.

Reducing your car costs will increase the amount you have to live on. you just have to accept it won't be a brand new car, but it needn't be a wreck.

This is something todays generation never seem to want to do. To buy my first house I had to sell my decent car and ger a very old tatty rusty old banger. That was the only way I could afford it. It was then a few years before I saved up (note saved for not borrowed) for something a bit better.

getmore4less

nasim19 wrote: »

my biggest expense is my car £300 a month for loan and insurance.

ProDave wrote: »

£300 per month for your car is the first thing I would change. I assume that's a lease deal, you don't own it?........

young driver? the insurance could well be a big chunk

[Deleted User]

For me its not nearly enough, its all very well saying how to keep costs to a minimum and I agree with those but its the sheer cost of things these days and I certainly wouldnt do it without an emergency lump sum behind me.

My first thought is why have a £300 per month car if you cant afford to do anything else, or plan for a move closer to work where you can do without a car or buy a run around.

For me the budget is too tight , it doesnt allow any flexibility and costs are going up quicker than wages IME so another round of council tax / electric increases and that £100 becomes 90, 80 and so on.

PasturesNew

It depends on many factors. The car is the biggest issue - ALWAYS try to pay cash for cars. If you do that it's yours and not a financial headache.
If you own your car and it breaks down, you've got to find the money to get to work AND pay for it to be fixed. If you owe money on it you also have to pay for a car you can't use!

When you rent anywhere you also need to start saving for your next move - as you don't know when that might be thrust upon you and so should be considered a "priority save". If rent is £500/month then to move you'd need to find fees, new deposit, rent up front - so from day one you need to be saving towards that "in case", which could be £1500-2000.

How can you get to work without the car if it breaks? Where's the money coming from to fix it?

Anybody can live on £1300/month ... unless something changes. What if you lost your job/how much is LHA for you? What if the car breaks down/how could you get to work?

If you own the car outright and live ½ a mile from where you work ... then £1300/month is very doable. If you drive 20 miles to work and were "lucky to get this salary" and if the car breaks down you're stuffed.

It's rarely ONE individual life event that pushes people to the edge and beyond - it's an unexpected 2-3 events occurring in short time that's all too much to recover from.

After rent and car = £400. That doesn't really leave enough.
Council tax might be £100-120/month. Other bills £100-120.
Beans on toast with cheese on toast and cleaning stuff, loo roll, etc, is £100/month.

TBagpuss

As others have said, it depends an awful lot on what your other outgoings are. I'd suggest that you do 2 things.

1. Sit down and drawn up a budget, (i'd recommend using a spreadsheet , then you can 'tweak' it easily!) list all of the outgoings you will have when you move out, including bills, food, travel costs, clothes, hair, social life etc. Obviously you won't have exact figures for eveything now, but ask friends who are living in the sort of property you are thinking of if they would be willing to give you an idea of what they apy for gs, electricity and water, look up the council tax bands for the area etc to get a good idea.

2. make a second list or spread sheet of where your money is currently going. Be completely honest with yourself, and if necessary make notes every date of exactly what you spend (including things like coffee and small spends)

This will give you some idea of how much you would need to cut, or change, your current spending habits to be abl to afford to move out.

I would also suggest, once you have rawn up you budget for when you move out, that you aim to live to uit for a couple of months. Put the money you expect to spend on bills, rent, food etc into a savings account (less anything you current pay to your parents). Again, be disciplined about it and actually put the full amount away each month.

This will give you a 'dry run' for how much you will be left with for day to day spending, and it will also mean you have some money saved up to use for things such as your deposit, or as an emergency fund once you do move out.

My own view is that £400 per month after rent is do-able but tight. I live alone and my gas, electricity, water and council tax come to around £180 per month - I could live off £120 for food, petrol and personal expenditure if I had to, but it would be difficult and it wouldn't leave much for a social life. However, my house is pretty well insulated and energy efficient - you may well find that your bills are higher even in a smaller property, if the property is not well insulated or energy efficient.

Do also think about where you are planning to move to. Bear in mind that your car insurance may go up significantly depending on where you live, particularly if you don't have off-street parking at the new place.

If you decide that you can't afford to move just yet, then try to set aside money every month - this will build up savings which will give you more choices, and will also help you to get used to living on a tighter budget and make it easier once you do move out.

I suspect that you may need to look at a house share as a first step, before renting alone.

moneyistooshorttomention

PasturesNew wrote: »

It depends on many factors. The car is the biggest issue - ALWAYS try to pay cash for cars. If you do that it's yours and not a financial headache.
If you own your car and it breaks down, you've got to find the money to get to work AND pay for it to be fixed. If you owe money on it you also have to pay for a car you can't use!

When you rent anywhere you also need to start saving for your next move - as you don't know when that might be thrust upon you and so should be considered a "priority save". If rent is £500/month then to move you'd need to find fees, new deposit, rent up front - so from day one you need to be saving towards that "in case", which could be £1500-2000.

How can you get to work without the car if it breaks? Where's the money coming from to fix it?

Anybody can live on £1300/month ... unless something changes. What if you lost your job/how much is LHA for you? What if the car breaks down/how could you get to work?

If you own the car outright and live ½ a mile from where you work ... then £1300/month is very doable. If you drive 20 miles to work and were "lucky to get this salary" and if the car breaks down you're stuffed.

It's rarely ONE individual life event that pushes people to the edge and beyond - it's an unexpected 2-3 events occurring in short time that's all too much to recover from.

After rent and car = £400. That doesn't really leave enough.
Council tax might be £100-120/month. Other bills £100-120.
Beans on toast with cheese on toast and cleaning stuff, loo roll, etc, is £100/month.

I would agree with this.

Though I'm assuming that the £400 per month is absolutely clear - ie after absolutely all bills have been covered.

Assuming an absolutely clear £400 - I would agree that it's manageable subject to living a pretty modest lifestyle. It wouldnt include "living the high life" or spending much on clothes, etc.

It also wouldnt include "Sh*t Happening" and it is the case that Sh*t does have a tendency to happen at intervals and sometimes 2 or 3 what I call "S*dding Things" (ie things that shouldnt happen) do happen at once.

Hence the need for either a bigger disposable income than that or some savings to one side "just in case".

I know I'm just in process of spending out a "S*dding Thing" that has come up myself - and I can manage it out of a monthly disposable income of £670 (that's after allowing for bills and a couple of temporary debts) but I'm feeling rather nervous about having to spend an anticipated £300 or so out of £670. I'd have forty fits if I had to spend it out of £400 and couldnt do it at all and would have to have savings to draw on for it. Yep....a second "S*dding Thing" has happened at the same time = my watch has given up the ghost totally on me and that £150-£200 I will be spending on a similar new one is just going to have to wait. So Pastures is right - S*dding Things are like buses and you get none for a while and then 3 come along at once:cool:

bouicca21

I second TBagpuss's suggestion of practising living on the budget. I'd say do it for at least 6 months just to establish whether it's doable and whether you have sufficient determination to stick to it.

And yes the car ... Do you really need it? If you do can you find one cheaper to run? How will you fund repairs if the big end or head gasket goes (I have no idea what either of those are or whether cars still have them, but they're the sort of words that petrol heads used to bandy about).

ReadingTim

Well, as long as you spend less than you earn, you will at least survive.

However, unless you also mange to save some as well as cover your bills, you could be in trouble if you want a holiday, need to fix the car, the rent goes up, or you want to move to somewhere bigger/better. You might also want to go out, socialise, have fun etc.

So, yes, you'll survive. But if the budget's very tight, it won't be much of a life - more of an existence.

Slithery

Have you thought about a shared house instead of a place of your own?

Currently I pay £120 a week for a large en-suite room in a newly refurbished house complete with high spec AV/appliances throughout. All bills including council tax are included so my only outgoings are food, car, and mobile.

I'm currently bringing home around £1200 a month and saving at least £300. I'm not very organized so not having to deal/budget with bills is a huge plus for me

Marvel1

marliepanda wrote: »

You say £400 after rent and car expenses.

Does this mean out of the £400 you are paying council tax, utilities, internet, food, petrol, any mobile phone bill, contents insurance?

I'd say it's not enough at all...

I have about the same and this is after all bills, but mortgage is very cheap compared to rent.