Costs of renting for a single person?

piggeh

It's in my thoughts - would probably mean I can avoid any potential credit check problems as well which I may have with renting. Will see what's about, but it's nice to have the reassurance that I should be able to afford either if needs be.

LillyJ

When I house shared, I still had to be credit checked. If you are a lodger you may not have to be.

But in a professional house share you tend to have to go through the same process as you would if you were renting the whole house.

PasturesNew

Oooh my favourite subject: Cost of living alone!



I've always lived alone, never known anything else. Never will....

I rent a studio flatlet, no bedroom just a sofa bed.

Overall, the saving between this and a 1-bed (rent and council tax) is about £150/month.

The cost of heating it is cheaper too because the smaller the place the less area you're heating. I am here 24/7 and I use a fan heater for heating and I don't skimp. I also have the TV on 24/7 and the PC on 24/7. I work online too which requires me to use a 2nd PC. I have an electric shower and electric oven. My electricity bill was £99 for January 1st 2008 to mid-March, which I don't think is too shabby at all as I haven't tried to deny myself any comfort.

Overall, renting alone, I'd say budget for £200-250/month as a ballpark.

My personal figures are below:
£350 rent
£45 council tax
£40 electricity
£0 gas
£40 water (fixed fee)
£12 TV Licence
£20 broadband
£15 contents insurance (guessing, can't remember)
£12 BT phone line (guessing for now)
====
£534

So I am paying £184/month in bills.

For food, I usually manage to live for £50/month. I have no freezer so bulk buying and freezing is not an option. So that is just buying carefully, bearing in mind I have to eat everything I buy before the Best Before date.

piggeh wrote: »

Is it normally a 25% discount if you live by yourself?

Yes, always 25% off council tax if you live alone.

piggeh wrote: »

So ballpark figure, around £200 or so for council tax and utilities? If I were to take home £1290 per month do you think this would be enough to live on fairly comfortably?

Yes, about £200.
Taking home £1290/month is more than I've ever lived on... you can do it for £1000/month on my figures. But if you're paying another £300/month for rent (as per your figures) then that gobbles up your "over £1000" pennies.

So long as you have £300/month left over after bills and rent, you should be able to live quite a frugally comfortable life. Just keep a very strict spending diary in the first 3 months to see where your money's going. It really CAN disappear in the daftest of things.

If you currently buy lunch/newspapers/magazines/coffees at work, then pay close attention to these spends. It's the silly stuff that actually makes you broke. I had a job where coffee was 30p/cup. At 4 per day that adds up to about £26/month, which in my books is 2 lots of drinks out with friends and 2 indian takeaways! And I know which I'd rather have.... so I bought an Asda flask and took my own hot water and jar of coffee.

Good luck!

piggeh

I have no qualms with a studio flat - however it would be around the South london area which is probably one of the priciest places to live (which is nice..). But looking online and cheapest is around £500. I'd imagine I could maybe find somewhere cheaper in the classified section. Will be buying a few papers when I'm up London tomorrow to get a feel for pricing.

May have to factor in commuting costs as well, dependent on what jobs come my way, meh.

brummybloke

piggeh wrote: »

Hi all,

Taking for example a 1 bedroom flat I can fill in parts of the costs:

£600 rent
£120 food
£30 phone/internet
£30 clothes
£100 going out

optionally:
£40 car insurance
£50 fuel
£15 road tax (pro-rata'd)
£50 car maintenance

Obviously I am missing things like council tax, energy bills, etc, as I dont know how much they'd be!

I have a couple of jobs I've applied for which pay £20k per annum so trying to work out if this is enough to live on if I got my own place, or if I'd be looking at a house share. Any help with this would be appreciated as I dont know where to start.

bizarre that going out and clothes is not under optional??

that saves you £130 per month.

do you already have a car? if so, maybe selling it is an option rather than spending £155 per month on it?

those savings give you £3420 in your pocket per year, not including any other hidden car costs. obviously if the car is needed for work and public transport is really not a viable option the maybe look at a moped instead? far cheaper to run than a car.

if you want the car and the going out budget it may be best to house share rather than getting your own flat, im sure a 2 bed flat cant be THAT much more, maybe get a mate to split the difference so just 2 people share a 2 bed flat? maybe £400 per month each??

piggeh

I think my future employer would argue that clothes definitely arent optional!

I already have the car, considering whether to sell it depending on public transport. Only reason I have it is because I live in a rural area. If I were more town/city based I could do without it quite easily (and given the £500 maintenance costs this month that would probably be a blessing!).

My mates are all either settled or they're at junctures and cant commit for a few months. So it's maybe something I'd be in a position to do in 6 months time, whereas now it would be a case of housesharing with strangers or finding a 1 bed place.

LillyJ

Also if you live in South London, you may find it difficult to find a flat with parking, and depending on job location you might not be able to/need to use it for work, especially if you work in town.

LillyJ

piggeh wrote: »

I think my future employer would argue that clothes definitely arent optional!
.

And your current one does??

I too think £100 a month for going out is a huge expense, but obviously you need to budget for what is realistic for you.

Sharing a flat with "strangers" is often not as bad as it first seems, especially if you "shop around".

My boyfriend's best friend is a bloke he met when they both moved in to a house share a few years ago. In fact my boyfriend is being his best man next month when this guy gets married.

I personally would prefer this to a studio as I like company, and I am guessing you are fairly young?

brummybloke

piggeh wrote: »

I think my future employer would argue that clothes definitely arent optional!

I already have the car, considering whether to sell it depending on public transport. Only reason I have it is because I live in a rural area. If I were more town/city based I could do without it quite easily (and given the £500 maintenance costs this month that would probably be a blessing!).

My mates are all either settled or they're at junctures and cant commit for a few months. So it's maybe something I'd be in a position to do in 6 months time, whereas now it would be a case of housesharing with strangers or finding a 1 bed place.

ahh, rural it is pretty important, for some reason i thought you already lived in the city??:o

what about asking work colleagues? im sure there may be the odd person who lives on their own who could do with an extra £300 in their back pocket each month for renting out a spare room? ( obviously it is then down to them to declare the extra income if it takes them over the tax threshold).

my younger brother moved down to london a year ago, he earns around £1k per month but as he works in a night club, he doesnt spend much if anything on going out, on his nights off he goes to his club which he gets in for free and free drinkypoos
he has lived in a shared flat paying £400 per month, a shared house paying £80 per week for a bedroom and has also paid £20 per week and had floor space with a load of mates who used a 3 bed house for 12 people ( must be a right mare for the neighbours?)

there is plenty of things out there, it just depends how high your standards are, my brothers standards are minimal, he is 21, doesnt suffer from hang overs, eats what he wants and doesnt put on weight, goes out clubbing 6 days per week surrounded by loads of fit women. time will catch up with him, his standards will raise so he wont live in some of the places he lives in now, the women wont actually be as attractive, the belly will start creeping over his belt and he will have a raging hangover by merely looking at a larger shandy.

this is what keeps me going, knowing his life will become less and less fun.:p

piggeh

Sounds like the stage I'm creeping towards already (or already at, pfft)

Just to clarify: Live rurally at the moment, used to live in london, and looking at moving back. I actually currently live in a house and sharing as my mum moved out to trial living with her boyfriend. I am used to housesharing as such, although it is slightly different when it's an old family home. I guess it would be the more financially astute option and with ambitions to one day get on the property ladder probably the more pragmatic, sensible one too. I guess that's me mostly talked round.

So I guess all things considered this should be a goer.

Chhers all.