Cost of a Single Person Running a Home

maton91

Hello all,

I am looking at buying a house by myself.  I'm looking to obtain a £136k 25 year mortage from the bank. What I am unsure of is taking into account this mortage if I can afford to run the home by myself. It is likely going to be a 3 bed house. My take home pay per month is £2300 pm.

Can anyone advise whay my averagte outgoings will be including mortgae, gas, electric, water, council tax, insurance and food. I can then determine how much to put aside from my take home to my 'bills' bank account and what is left over for savings and other luxuries.

Thanks in advance!

coffeehound

You could have a look at a 'statement of affairs' calculator for a list of the things to include:

https://www.stoozing.com/soa.php

kuratowski

I completely agree with the previous posters.

In addition, some of the house-hunting websites (e.g. rightmove, zoopla, etc) will give you a guesstimate of running costs when you search for particular properties.  It's immensely crude, but if you have no other benchmark it's a starting point.

ZeroSum

Mortgage depending on LTV but if you have a decent deposit, shouldn't be any more than £600 a month.

Council tax - depends where you live, I'm going to assume low band value based on mortgage, should be now more than £100

Gas & Electric - ours in £75 for the 2 of us (if I lived on my own itd be down to £60 given how much she wants the heating on when it's not cold)

Water - about £20

Food - I could could easily do it for £75, but then others struggle to do it for less than £200

Other groceries, toiletries & cleaning products - maybe £20 or £30

House insurance - decent area £100 for the whole year, rough area could possibly treble that

TV licence is £14 a month, then if you want Sky, Netflix, Disney, amazon prime etc

Broadband & line rental - depending on how fast you want it, but £30 should be enough 

MP2609

Hi, I did a quick run through of this a few weeks back so could drop you a copy of the spreadsheet if you like?

Cheers

blue.peter

maton91 said:

Can anyone advise whay my averagte outgoings will be including mortgae, gas, electric, water, council tax, insurance and food. I can then determine how much to put aside from my take home to my 'bills' bank account and what is left over for savings and other luxuries.

I've no idea what the average is, let alone what the actual costs for your house will be. But, for what it's worth, here are my costs for a 3-bed semi in Salisbury:

Council tax (band D): £132/month net of single person discount. Your estate agent should be able to give you a figure for the actual house that you're buying. If you'll be living alone, you get a 25% discount.

Gas & electricity (combined): £125/month

Phone line + broadband: £23/month

Water: £60/month

Home risks insurance: £110/year

Food: can't say anything useful. That depends entirely on you. If you live on takeaways, you might spend £300+/month. But if you cook for yourself, you can do it for a lot less. Get a recipe book if you don't already have one. I understand that vegetarian food is cheaper, so it might be worth your while getting - and using! - a veggie cook book. (I can't compare costs myself, because I am a vegetarian.)

Mortgage: your bank will tell you what it'll cost you.

Thomas_Crown

For single occupancy, make sure you claim the 25% discount off your Council Tax. Also, if the house you buy doesn't have a water meter, get one fitted.

MovingForwards

Council tax and water you can find out online. Same with internet, TV packages and TV licence, if applicable.

Gas and electric can be quite cheap as that's pay by how much you use, the less you use the less you pay. As said an indication should be on one of the property adverts.

Comparison sites are good for home insurance quotes, just check the details before you complete the purchase of it.

Slightly different as I'm in a 2 bed tenement flat in Scotland, same obligations with repairing the building as someone who owns a house. I moved in May last year and there's 2 of us, in theory some bills are more expensive due that.

My bills £83.36 elec £128.93 gas for 2021, from May to December last year was £167.24 electric and £98.40 gas, I have an electric shower and I've been working from home since moving in. I'm also with one of the 'big 6' suppliers.
Council tax is £130pm, that includes water charges and I pay over 10 months.
Internet is £20pm, Netflix £8.99.
I've just renewed my home insurance and that's just over £221 for the year, could get it cheaper but I like the company.
My mobile is £10pm (SIM only), OHs under £40pm (contract).
I budget £100pm for food, that includes cat food / litter and I've always got full cupboards.
I also run a car and save £100pm to cover repairs, MOT, insurance, tax and home insurance. 
Each month I pay into savings, my car pot, a S&S ISA, SIPP and I overpay my sub-prime mortgage, my take-home pay is about £900pm less than yours.

It's possible to make a little bit of money go a long way.

blue.peter

MovingForwards said:

I budget £100pm for food, that includes cat food / litter and I've always got full cupboards.

That's pretty impressive. I see that the supermarkets had £210 from me in March (though £60 of that was whisky, and it'll have included cleaning materials as well).

Eco_Miser

In addition to the obvious monthly costs, allow about £1000 a year for really big ticket items like new boiler, kitchen, bathroom, roof, and general maintenance and decoration. They don't occur often, but when they do, you'll be glad you don't need to borrow. 

RetSol

A rule of thumb which I have employed for 30 years is to ensure that my mortgage payment  and bills (CT, water, fuel , insurance, tv licence, broadband and phone) do not exceed a third of my take-home pay.