Anyone give me an estimate?

[Matt]

Moving in 2 weeks

1 bed flat

Electric storage heaters
Electric cooker
Electric shower

Looking at how much bills would be?

Council tax, water, electric? What's people pay?
2 people ill be out all day only there at night, and the girl is only there a couple hours during the day

[Niall]

I reckon

4 sheep per week on council tax
19 cows a month on electric.

Pricy flat man! You might be able to strike a deal with the inn keeper if your lucky.

[Matt]

There was me thinking you were going to be helpful for once...



I hate you

[ginge191]

I'd say £29 for gas, £15 for the plot a week. Im right in thinking this is for you and the caravan on a gypsy site?

[Niall]

Love you too

[Dum-Dum]

Council tax, probably band A but in a nice area you'll be looking at about £100 a month. There is discounts if one of you is a student / disabled / under 18.
Im paying about £90 a month for my Band B house but with a 25% single person discount.

Electric it depends how much you want the heaters and hot water on, you gotta be really careful with the electric hot water cos it'll ra*e your bill if you leave it on. I have mine on for an hour about once every 2-3 days only, any other time I boil the kettle for hot water. The storage heaters get expensive when you start getting into the boost control range. I've got my heaters set to about 3 on the main control and no boost, you'll learn to start putting on more clothes rather than having heating the first time you have a £100+ electric bill. Id expect £50-£100 on electric a month if you have no gas powered things. Summer if your good you can get down to about £30 a month.

[Ed Doe]

Are you on an economy electricity tariff?

Night Storage heaters are great for warehouses but shit for flats. My old rented flat with Mazz was a tiny place, and that was heavy on electricity bills with the heaters and electric cooker and shower. And you're living with a woman so that compounds the issue; hair-dryers, silly lights, and dont forget they like the heating up too high too!

EDIT: Just found my bill, April to June inclusive was £100... so not that bad actually. Though it was pretty warm at the time, and I don't have any bills from winter so no idea how expensive that could be... I'd bank on doubling your summer bill for winter though as a rough cost forecast

Re: council tax, you should be able to look up the rates on the internet on the council district website for the district you're in... FYI mine was about £125 a month in the old one-bed flat... but I think that was when Mazz was a student we qualified for a reduction in rate...

[Matt]

Council tax is good as the girl is 17 so we will get a discount

Heaters prob Won't go on, the flat is first floor and was quite warm the other day even when it was cold.
Hot water prob won't even be on, as the shower is electric one and does it itself? (I have no idea)

We've already decided clothes washing/drying once a week
Washing up of plates etc only when we have a full bowl.




Really need to budget for the first month as I'm using all my wages up to just move lol

[Dum-Dum]

Yeah youll get single person living till shes 18 then mate which is 25% off. Do you know what band the flat is in as then you can find the rate. Its not always obvious as my last house was smaller than this one but in a higher band.

You will need your heaters in this weather even if its only a little bit, you wouldn't believe how cold it gets without them.

Some showers heat themselves, some don't, mine dosent sadly but i will be getting one that does at some point. You need to turn your how water off for at least 3 days to test if it does heat itself as the water stays warm for a fair old time in the tank.

A kettle full of boiling water is perfect for doing the washing up and yeah it'll just be as and when.

A land lord will make you have contents insurance on the flat if its furnished but this is about £6 a month. My buildings and contents insurance is about £15 a month.



I do washing once a week, when i did a normal week it was 2 loads, a load of colours and a load of whites. Now Im on a 10 day week I do 3 loads of washing in the 1 day. You need to do the heavy/thick colours first (jeans jumpers and thick socks) then light/thin colours next like boxxers and t shirts then whites which is only really my shirts. this means the stuff that takes the longest to dry comes out first.

If you have a woman living with you do not underestimate their ability to get through clothes, she might be little but I bet she creates a much washing as you if not more.




The other thing to remember is that with some electric companies you might be able to blag paying at the end of the month. Oh and youll also have to pay for water and a TV licence water is about £15 a month IIRC and TV licence is £145 a year.

[Matt]

Nah we don't need a tv licence, we dot watch tv lol.

She does go through a lot of clothes but no where near as much as me, I'm the one that needs to cut down, I spend ages in the shower, change my clothes at least 2 times a day, drink a lot if tea, heaters full blast. But where I have been living in a all bills included place I've been able to use and abuse it for 6months lol

[Piggy]

Im in a 2bed detatched cottage...eco7 heating...pay £75 a month for leccy.
maybe a little low though after this long winter

water...depends if on meter or not

[Poodle]

How long is a piece of string mate? Charli and I managed to get our electric bill down to £30 a month on the same setup as yours, except ours was a two-bed house, so theoretically you could do it for as little as £25 a month... All depends how frugal you are willing to be.

[Dum-Dum]

Nah we don't need a tv licence, we dot watch tv lol.

If you don't buy a TV licence the licencing people will send you nasty threatening letters every week and they will eventually come round and do repeated home visits and that and if they see that you have a TV and its plugged in or anywhere near where it can be plugged in then they'll send you to court.

How long is a piece of string mate? Charli and I managed to get our electric bill down to £30 a month on the same setup as yours, except ours was a two-bed house, so theoretically you could do it for as little as £25 a month... All depends how frugal you are willing to be.

You 2 really are experts on living on a shoe string though.

[Matt]

I thought the tv licence was only if its plugged it to watch channels? Thought you were allowed to have it hooked up to Xbox fine?


Haha exactly that! Poodle you are far too good at budgeting! I get 1400 a month, f*ck knows where it goes every month...

[lolsteve]

4 guys in the house , all with desktop computers and electric shower. Gas heating and cooking that's on most of the day during the winter months due to the houses insulation being slightly better than a 3 walled shack. With internet and water we're all putting in £10 a week but that's without council tax cause we students yo ;D

[Jonny b]

I don't want to be reminded of what I pay out every month! Put it this way just on the house before eating or car I spend £1600 lol

[Dum-Dum]

I thought the tv licence was only if its plugged it to watch channels? Thought you were allowed to have it hooked up to Xbox fine?

Check the rules mate on their website, they are absolute f*cking Nazis about it.

I don't want to be reminded of what I pay out every month! Put it this way just on the house before eating or car I spend £1600 lol

Dude thats not too bad for 4 of you in your mansion, Im not far off £1000 a month just for me.

£675 Mortgage
£90 Council Tax
£60 phone bill
£50 Electeric (est)
£30 TV Licence
£25 Water
£18 Internet
£17 Home insurance
TOTAL £965

[Jonny b]

Ha ha 5 of us dum dum, well 6 now my nephews moved in lol, spend about £850 on food

[Dum-Dum]

Ha ha 5 of us dum dum, well 6 now my nephews moved in lol, spend about £850 on food

LOL but i bet at least £200 of that is dog food for your 4 massive mutts

Im lucky that I can happily do a months worth of food on not alot more than £100. Most of the time its about £50 a week though.

[Jonny b]

No not inc the dogs lol do over 200 a week in asda!

Now Iam getting depressed lol

[Dum-Dum]

No not inc the dogs lol do over 200 a week in asda!

Now Iam getting depressed lol

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Thats mental mate, how are you lot not all obeese lol

[Jonny b]

Ha ha because we eat well! I don't feed my kids shit, plenty of meat, fish, veg and fruit, they have nuggets once a week but that's the only processed shit they have, I like real food lol, my boy eats fruit like its going to run out, rather that than sweets and shit

[Dum-Dum]

Ha ha because we eat well! I don't feed my kids shit, plenty of meat, fish, veg and fruit, they have nuggets once a week but that's the only processed shit they have, I like real food lol, my boy eats fruit like its going to run out, rather that than sweets and shit

TBF these days I'm really good at eating fresh stuff. There's a bag of oven chips and some frozen pizzas and fish fingers in my freezer and they've been there for 2 weeks and I haven't touched any of them. It amazes me how quickly I can eat my way through fruit, in 2-3 days ill eat my way through a pack of apples, a punnet of grapes, some cherry tomatoes, a couple of bananas, 2 packs of pineapple, some mixed dried fruit and a bag or 2 of nuts. TBH thats where most of my money goes on food as that little lot above is probably a tenner or more.

[Jonny b]

Yeh we get through about 7 bags of apples 3 of oranges 3 of pears a fuckload of bananas peaches plums! Should buy a cow really as we go through around 24/30 pints of milk ha ha

[Poodle]

Yeah, maybe so haha.

Tv license guys left us alone after we invited them to send an inspector round, he plugged the aireal in and checked the chnnels to make sure it wasnt tuned to anything, then thanked us and buggered off. Havent yeard from them since. I think it depends where you live though, last year we got endless letters warning us of fines amd prosecution if we were caught watching without a license. Or at least we did until I called and asked them to stop harrassing us haha.

---

Another vote for proper food here btw, brings the food bill right down.

[Dum-Dum]

Jonny im the same, doing about 8 pints a week on my own.

[CJ_Derv]

Moneysaving expert for gas an elecy i just got both for 69 a month

[C.A.R.]

2 Bed,
£715 rent
£90 Electric (leccy only, no gas)
£12.5 TV license
£24 Internet / phone
£129 Council Tax
£20 Water

Electric is paid quarterly at £281/qtr though, so I try to allow 100 quid a month for it but I'm still always blown away when the bill lands