Budgeting for a student house

I would suggest trying to set up a monthly dd with the electricity company - they can work out what your years bill COULD be and divide that across the year - eg. £30 a month - you will generally be in credit for the summer months and debit for the winter months - they could have a house bank account that they all pay a set amount into each month to cover these kind of bills. Of course, many students only rent for 8-9 months a year, so I don't know how it would work then ??? Good luck anyway!

TQ

PS I would suggest at least £50 a month to cover gas, elec, phone, water. remember if the house is just students they don't have to pay council tax...(they get a form from the university which proves they are a student and exempts them from it) - Student welfare may also be able to advise.

This aspect of life was always a flipping hassle and I'm sure many people fell out over bills in shared accommodation.

Generally its the lady students to watch out for (don't ask me why?) a couple I lived with insisted on buying their own toilet roll because they believed they could use it more frugally!

Make sure everything is agreed up front - also make sure that each bill is in a different persons name if possible i.e. do not have all the bills in one persons name because this person is stuffed if the bills don't get paid. Most companies will only let two names on the bill, don't do what I did, put all the utilities in my name and then get left to pay them all!

Shouldn't have to keep a log of the phones - most telcos provide an itemised list - still not much fun going through it though.

A joint back account is a pipe dream, you'll always get people who agree to this then moan about the amount of money being spent on x and y. Once you sort out the bills (try for monthly payment) agree on a housekeeping kitty for toilet roll and cleaning stuff.

TV license was always fun - there would always be one saying "I don't watch TV its for plebs" (again a female) at the beginning of term and then sneak into people's rooms to watch East Enders. What she meant was "I don't want to pay any money for it because I don't have a TV" as is we spent the whole time glued to it.


As you can see the scars have yet to heal - maybe I was a bit laid back about it (compared to my house mates) - I was more worried about getting my 2:1 than toilet paper!

That was the only reason I was there incurring a massive debt?

Yes can be a nightmare - I actually ended up working out cost of gas/electricity per person/per week so my housemates could budget for it - it was scary how much they relied on parents (cough) to do everything for them.  Still, they always seemed to have enough for mobiles and a night out down the pub ?


If I can remember, gas was about 50p a week per person per week - hot water and heating, which was never allowed on  ::)

Electricity was about £1 a week per person.

This was a while ago though.


This was why toilet roll became and issue - it is relatively expensive - and if it was someone elses turn and they hadn't bothered and you were stuck in the Lavvy it wasn't fun...

The worst offence has to be saying they won't make any calls (and they don't) but get people to call them...

I then ask for a share of line rental and they can not even comprehend why I'm asking them!

Hi
I know someone recomended setting up monthly direct debits with the gas electricity companies, but my housemates and I had a real problem with that. We set it all up with British gas, but despite being told we were students, they didn't add anything on to their calculations of how much electricity we would use. With all 5 of us having computers and having lights on in seperate rooms, and cooking our own meals every night, we used far more than the average 4 bedroom semi british gas took us to be. This meant we have just recieved an end of year statement saying we owe them around £200, and some housemates have gone home for the summer! We've now changed it so we just pay for what we use when they send us a bill and that seems far easier.
In relation to telephones, we need a line for broadband and people can call us on it, but we don't use it at all to phone out, that way there is no arguments on who spent what.
I would definately recommend a house kitty for cleaning supplies and loo roll. We found that out of 5 of us, only 3 actually did any cleaning. As the other 2 didn't use any cleaning stuff, they didn't notice when we ran out, so never contributed to the cost even thouh it was all used for cleaning communal areas like the bathroom and kitchen. Toilet paper really seems to be something that can cause problems. In theory we took it in turns to buy it. In practise some people just didn't bother, and because no one wants to run out of loo paper we ended up buying it out of turn. When I realised I had bought the last 3 lots I went on strike and didn't buy anymore. Sure enough we ran out completely and no one else got any so I ended up buying a forth lot. See, toilet paper is such an emotive issue!!! :-[ Then there is the problem of quality, which differed considerably depending on who bought it. Nobody wants toilet paper that falls apart when you use it!
I am obviously also scarred for life by the experiance of last year, and I have it all to do again this year.
Nevermind, at least I've learnt a lot.