Tangent 21 - Household Bills

Posted by
Yvonne

Posted on
11:28
Jul 25 2004

Household Bills

Not the most interesting of topics, I know, but I need a little bit of info from people who pay their own bills.

At the end of the year, a friend and I are moving in together. We'll start looking for places in a couple of months, but in the meantime I've been looking at my budget so I know what I can realistically afford in terms of rent.

The chances are that bills wonÂ’t be included, so I need to work out how much IÂ’ll be spending per month on things like electricity, gas, water, TV licence, telephone bill, etc. I have NO idea how much these things are and I canÂ’t ask my folks for this info because they donÂ’t know IÂ’m moving out yet, so IÂ’m asking you lot instead

WhatÂ’s your average monthly Direct Debit for these things? (I know that some of them are quarterly, but that you can pay by monthly DD) And (because we wonÂ’t be using as much water as a family of 5) how many people are in your home?

I now return you to your regularily scheduled not-grown-up things. Thanks for your help

12 Replies and 1541 Views in Total.

gobstopper Eventually, I'll think of something witty to put here ;-)

I don't have anything on DD (other than my mortgage). But I always pay things like utility bills promptly and get something like a 5% reduction as a result.

Based on 2 bed mid-terraced property, I've worked out from my bills that the rough monthly costs are:-

Electricity Â£20 (quite a few geek toys).
Gas Â£18 (I've got gas central heating and a gas hob)
Water Â£10 (though I have much less hair to wash!)

TV License is currently Â£116 per year. According to the back, under DD, the first license is paid in 6 monthly installments (just under Â£20/month). The the following year is paid over 12 installments, 6 payments before it is due for renewal and then 6 after. Alternatively a quarterly DD is the cost split into 4, plus a Â£1.25 premium per quarter.

It should at least give you an idea.

Posted: 11:49 Jul 25 2004

lil_miss It's all a moo point, a cow's opinion.

Matt and i share a flat and this is roughly what we pay:

Electricity (we have no gas): Â£30 p/m
Water: Â£16 for 5 months, but takes us up to march
Internet: Â£24.99 for 600k from NTL
Phone: we have no land line, but cheapest line rentals are Â£9.50
Food: we budget Â£80 each but spend nowhere near that much
Council tax: i'm exempt, but tends to be about Â£50-Â£80 p/m i'm told
TV license: we pay in one go Â£120 for the year but you can do it monthly so about Â£10 for the house, so Â£5 for you

Think that covers everything, hope it helps

Posted: 11:53 Jul 25 2004

Vinnie Just because you don't beleive in something, doesn't mean it's not true.

I pay everything on monthly DD.

BT Phone Â£16
e7even Broadband Â£16.99 for 512K (paid upfront)
TV Licence Â£9.99
Gas/Elec Â£30
Coucil TAX Â£78 (band C - single person discount :upset

Water Â£9.94
Sky Â£34
Building/Content insurance Â£25

Posted: 13:03 Jul 25 2004

Teresa "So I can come inside of your kiss and just leave you on your knees"

For my house (per month):

Â£15 gas (Don't use as much in the summer but still pay the same amount so it gives me extra credit for winter)
Â£15 electricity
Â£12 water
Â£20 (ish) Sky
Â£30 (ish) NTL phone and Internet
Â£58 (ish) Council Tax (with single person discount which you won't get)
Â£10 TV license (What Gobstopper said ^^^^^)
Â£410 rent

That's for me and my two in a 2 bed detached. We have the computer on from wake up 'til bed, no daytime tv when they're at school but it's on from 4pm 'til about 1am (usually with GameCube running at some point), two baths per day & washing machine and tumble dryer on at least once a day.

Posted: 14:21 Jul 25 2004

Ethan You Rasclart!

I'm in a 3 bedroom house with 2 other people. Our rent comes to around Â£250 a month each with about Â£90 a month in bills. That covers Sky, Water, Gas, Leccy and council tax. No phone bill in that cos it's paid for by my housemates work.

So say between the 3 of us we come up with about Â£270 worth of bills a month. That must sureley cover us as if it didn't the landlady woulda told us by now anyways.

Posted: 15:06 Jul 25 2004

Teresa "So I can come inside of your kiss and just leave you on your knees"

Will you be needing to buy your own computer too?

Posted: 15:35 Jul 25 2004

Yvonne I was nothing more than an almost innocent bystander.

Thanks to everyone for the replies, it's certainly given me an idea of what I'll need to pay out every month.
If anyone thinks of anything else, please let me know (I hate not being prepared) Also, is Council Tax per person or per property?

I was starting to add up the bills and getting an approximate Â£160 per month... I nearly cried before I stopped and realised most of those will be shared

by Teresa
Will you be needing to buy your own computer too?

Yep, but I have already enlisted techy help to build it for me, according to what I'll be using it for. Everyone should have a Fil

Posted: 16:09 Jul 25 2004

lil_miss It's all a moo point, a cow's opinion.

by Yvonne
Also, is Council Tax per person or per property?

It's per property i think. it varies according to things like if you're the only person eligible in the property (which you won't be) and things like that.

*waits for someone to correct me*

Posted: 16:20 Jul 25 2004

gobstopper Eventually, I'll think of something witty to put here ;-)

by Yvonne
Also, is Council Tax per person or per property?

Per property. You get 25% off for single (adult) occupancy.

T, I wish I lived in your neck of the woods. My house, which is smaller than yours, is Â£86 per month including the 25% discount.

Posted: 17:10 Jul 25 2004

Teresa "So I can come inside of your kiss and just leave you on your knees"

by gobstopper
T, I wish I lived in your neck of the woods. My house, which is smaller than yours, is Â£86 per month including the 25% discount.

I may be wrong. The mother-out-law takes care of all my big bills for me

Posted: 17:12 Jul 25 2004

Samphirette To you I guess I'm just a clown who picks you up each time you're down

by Teresa
(quotes)I may be wrong. The mother-out-law takes care of all my big bills for me

by gobstopper
(quotes)T, I wish I lived in your neck of the woods. My house, which is smaller than yours, is Â£86 per month including the 25% discount.

Not sure how the prices of flats compare to the houses round here. But our full council tax is Â£77 for our 2 bed flat (no discout as there's 2 of us)

Yvonne, definitely don't forget to take out contents insurance when you do move.

Posted: 11:21 Jul 26 2004

gobstopper Eventually, I'll think of something witty to put here ;-)

by Samphirette
(quotes)(quotes)
Yvonne, definitely don't forget to take out contents insurance when you do move.

Good point.

I've just discovered that Direct Line are about Â£120 cheaper than I've been paying for the past few years! Looks like they'll be getting my business this Sept.

Posted: 12:32 Jul 26 2004

Post a Reply

Back to the Forum

Poll

What do you think of Matt Smith as The Doctor?

He's fantastic! Instant favourite! (14%)

Good. A decent choice. (57%)

Not sure, need to see more. (29%)

Meh... he'll do I guess. (0%)

Terrible! Might stop watching. (0%)

Site Info

About T21