Moving into new flat on Saturday - help with Budget?

TheAble

If you're using storage heaters ensure that you are on the Economy 7 tariff and charge them up overnight (when electricty is cheaper).

If you don't use much water if may save you money to go on a "no standing charge" tariff, in which you pay more for the water you use but don't have to pay an additional fixed sum.

Good luck in your new home!

tealady

Hello and welcome. Make sure you are with the cheapest gas/electricity company (try checking via a cashback website). Also get in the habit of checking the weather forecast so you can ajust the charge on the radiators daily, no use charging them up more than you really need.

iamashoppingaddict

Hello all

thanks for all your support and advice. Its really nice!

I'm so over excited about moving into the flat now. The only thing about suppliers is that there is a clause in the lease which says that we can only change electricity suppliers with their permission and off their approved list!!! Madness.

But yes first thing I'm going to do is make sure I'm on an E7 tarriff and find out what times the E7 hours are. Also I'm going to make sure I get instructions on how to use the storage heaters more effectively.

Also - users with storage heaters. Do you have to set them on some sort of timer so they charge up during the E7 hours or do they do it themselves??!!!

Thick question I expect!! LOL

iamashoppingaddict

Well I've moved and I've contacted the various utilites.

Powergen who the elec is currently with wants £35 a month which is less than I've budgetted for. But Anglian Water want to see what our useage is first before they set up any direct debits and we will expect our first bill Febuary so we will put money aside for that (more about that later). Just got the eternal fight to find the damn meter!! LOL

Council Tax is going to be roughly £104 a month over 10 months. Tried to get it to go over 12 months but they wouldn't let me - no matter how I tried so I'm slightly peed off about that.

And of course TV is £27.50 a month for 5 months then £11 a month after that.

So basically we are putting £85 a week each into our joint bank account. So thats £680 a a month into the joint account. Our outgoings are:

Rent - £485
Elec - £35
C/T - £104
TV - £27.50
Total - £651.50

So that will leave £29 a month aside for water which will hopefully cover the bill in Febuary and then go from there.

How does that sound?

Also we did our first shop on Monday and we budgetted £40 and took £20 out each in cash. We went over by £2 and that was my fault because I picked the wrong pack of cakes up in a BOGOF offer! Didn't realise until I got home. Won't make that mistake again. Alot of that was staple stuff so hopefully when we go again on the weekend I'll be able to get baking stuff so i can make our own cakes and stuff.

Another gripe - we went to barclays to open a joint account as OH already banks with them. We didn't want an overdraft or anything but I did want access to online banking in order to keep an eye on things, but you can only get that with the current account. They refused us one of those. Probably because of my credit history and amount of loans outstanding which is frustrating. So they would only give us a basic bank account which has a cash card so in order to check the balance I need to physically go to the bank and check. Luckily the nearest barclays is just behind where I work - but I'm still annoyed. Hopefully in a few months if we go back and try again they might give it to us. All I wanted was the ability to access the account online! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Anyway - all comments welcome!!

Mxxxx

iamashoppingaddict

Shameless bump!!! LOL :-)

iamashoppingaddict

I must be doing something right then!! :j

belfastgirl23

Just to say re the rates issue, if you have any bigger one-off costs it's worth putting them in the months when you don't have rates to pay - so for example pay your tv licence in one of those months...that way you still sort of get some benefit from the ten month arrangement.

I'd also say it's worth putting a little bit extra into the joint account if you can possibly manage it and trying to build up a little emergency fund, just for unforseens.

And I'm v impressed by your food budget!!

Good luck BTW.

iamashoppingaddict

Well the amounts we are paying into the account are going to stay fixed now, so when the tv licence goes down after 5 months we'll keep the extra in the account as a back up, same goes with the extra we'll have from the two 'free' months! Although I don't think we'll get those two months here as we've got to pay January, Feb and March before the new bills in April.

buxtonrabbitgreen

My OH got a basic bank account with Nationwide and he can do online banking and pay DD from it. If that helps.

Penny-Pincher!!

truly.maddy.deeply wrote: »

Hey guys,

I'm moving into a second floor flat on Saturday morning with my darling other half. I've lived by myself before but for various reasons moved back with my Mum. I've got pretty much all that I need apart from basics like bin for bathroom and living room and the like. All cheap stuff which I'll get from the pound shop.

Like I said I've lived by myself before but this flat has electric storage heaters which I've never had before. Its a modern flat only a few years old and everyone I've spoken to said that they haven't had any problems with cold or anything. The only concern I have is the electricity bill. The previous tenant who I met when we looked round the flat said that she had paid £99 for the 6 months she lived there which works out at £16.50 a month, but I'm aware some of those months were summer months. One of my friends lives in a similar type flat and she pays £32 a month. Thats for the heater in the lounge and bedroom running. Personally I'd quite like the one in the hallway going on low too, to prevent condensation.

Anyway I've budgetted £50 a month for that - do you think its correct? Also water rates. I think its on a meter and whilst I lived by myself I paid about £30 a month. Do you think as its two of us £40 is a resonable amount including sewage charges??

The only other thing I'm nervous about is budgetting for food. I'm very concious that I need to keep saving money. But I'll play that one by ear, but I've basically budgetted £20 a week each initally so that we can build up on our basics.

Am I doing alright do you think?!
Ta
Mx

You sound like you have it sussed! The figures seem quite reasonable to me. What about phone/internet/mobile/tv liscence etc?

PP
xx