Hey guys, Got a slightly different question to normal. Currently in my first year of uni and am looking at houses with my to be house mates. Most places don't include water, gas and electric so I was wondering... A) how much is average for a household per year for those sort of bills? (So we can work out our total weekly rent) And B) where Is good to look / compare these bills etc. Thanks guys and gals. Matt
When I lived in Portsmouth, it was around £60pm (gas and leccy), split 3 ways, so £20 each. That was with 3 laptops, 3 PS3's, one xBox, my PC and 3 TV's etc.
I always set aside each month: £15 gas £15 leccy £10 water and always over-did it. I averaged it out over the year and it was like £12.50/month for gas, 13 for leccy and £7/month for water that was living in brighton on a standard tarrif, per person.
We play a 'flat rate' of £60pm for 5 of us fog gas and leccy (actually ever few months or so we get charged/reimbursed for how much we've gone over/under)
Shop around...a lot spend at least a day calling, going online, emailing companies with their cheapest quotes and tarrifs. Eventually you'll get the cheapest price. The price hike won't really effect you as much (hopefully) because you'll be spending most of your time studying from books
We're paying £27/month per person for water, electricity and gas. That's in a small terraced house shared between three people.
I have a standing order set to roughly ~1.5x the average bill + rent into a seperate account which the bills and rent are pulled from. This means that the surplus slowly builds up over the year and when the bills start getting larger around winter it just starts pulling from the surplus. If there is any left after winter (usually is) it gets pulled out as a nice wee bonus and spent of fun stuff
We pay roughly £110 for gas and electric on a duel-fuel tariff, and a further £45-50 for water each month. (Approximately £54 per person each month)
Cheers guys, really helpful info there, just looking to see roughly what rent + bills will be Any other tips for moving from uni halls to our own house? Regards Matt
Sometimes you need to replace the bed/mattress because they are not comfortable. Don't stress about doing this as a good place to sleep is really important. You may need to get some of your own furniture and a combination of second hand and ikea will usually do the job (if you're lucky one of your folks will have an mpv/estate and you can get everything you need in one day without having to pay delivery costs). Setting up a joint account for bills is useful. Don't forget contents insurance (if the rooms aren't individually locked you may need a whole house policy). Have a rota for chores and be fair about it. Get a decent router as the ones shipped with the broad band packages often don't handle multiple wireless connections well if one or two of you are heavy users. Ikea is very cheap for cutlery, plates and glasses. Most of all, talk.; breakdowns in communication and unhelpful criticism are the number one cause of house mate friction.