Hi All,

Right, the time has come where I am moving out with my best mate into a flat.... I'm currently in a house share, which is now too hectic, and I need my own space.

We're budgeting £450 per month...

Monthly Rent - £580
Council Tax - £124 (£1239.32 over 10 months)
Electricity - £60
Water - £20
Sky TV - £17
Sky Broadband - £10
BT Phone Line - £10.50
Total - £821.50
We each pay: £410.75 (but will be transfering £450 per month to the account).

What do you guys think? Food/Mobile Phone bills are on top of course.

Cheers,
Amnesia

Contents insurance, TV licence, headphones.

I'd recommend starting off small before 'filling out' your budget a bit more.

When you first move in you want as few bills as possible (if you have mobiles I'd wait a while before getting phonelines/Sky/broadband etc) so you can see how much you're going to spend on electricity etc. Also, whenever I move into a new place I'm always surprised by how much I need to spend on new things - have you got all your kitchen stuff (cutlery/crockery etc), iron, ironing board, cleaning products? You'll need to buy a lot of little things just to get yourself operational and then a lot more to personalise the place and make it feel like home.

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We live in a consumer generation, but we also have to work in it.

You don't need a telephone line when you first move in it isn't a necessity because you have mobiles nor is Sky TV or broadband!!! So that saves you £37.50 a month. If you do need access to the internet, use the library it's usually free or very cheap, so are internet cafes. If after a while you do decide to have a phone line etc installed consider Virgin they do phone, TV and broadband for £30.

Are you sure your water is only £20 a month? That seems very cheap. Where I live in Bolton, (a cheaper part) my water is £25 a month.

Is the flat you're moving into FULLY furnished? Eg, washer, dryer, bed, bedding, wardrobes, suite, cutlery, crockery, iron, ironing board, telly, (not forgetting your TV licence!) etc.

Food for myself and my boyfriend is around £120 a month, we cook everything fresh and from scratch then freeze it - like our own homemade ready meals.

Looking at your budgets I think you need to take another look!!

Have a ganders at this - money saving expert. com /banking/ Budget-planning #bplanner

Stripes

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Stripes