GRcade

To rent a 1bed flat between 800-1k a month (lol thanks Watford/Hertfordshire), what does my salary realistically need to be in able to afford all bills, food, work travel and still have a little bit of money each month to spend on myself?

I've been trying to work it out myself, but as I've never lived alone before I thought it would be best to ask people with experience.

Qikz wrote:To rent a 1bed flat between 800-1k a month (lol thanks Watford/Hertfordshire), what does my salary realistically need to be in able to afford all bills, food, work travel and still have a little bit of money each month to spend on myself?

I've been trying to work it out myself, but as I've never lived alone before I thought it would be best to ask people with experience.

for a 1 bed flat the bills are usually about 200-300 on top of rent. This would cover council tax,electric/gas,internet,tv etc. Nothing to fancy i guess. Travel is a different matter depending on where you work and are travelling to.You would though get a discount (25% i think) on council tax as you would be living by yourself.No idea about your salary though as it depends also how much you think you might spend just on random things plus food. With food you can make this as cheap or as expensive as you like so anywhere from 50-60 a week on food to hundreds of pounds a week.

Do you have a rough idea how much you might be earning?

It's difficult to estimate without more information about you. For example you say work travel-that could range from a few pound to hundreds depending on your commute. Your food bill could be anywhere from £20 to £100 a week depending on what you eat, if you get takeaways, if you eat out etc

Make a spreadsheet. Put your monthly income at the top and then make estimates for things like:

Rent
Council Tax
Electricity/Water/Gas
Internet
Phone
Food
Travel

And any other regular monthly outgoings you and see how much disposable income you have.

Thanks to both of you. Yeah I didn't give too much information, but the information you've given me is something I'll do when I get home from work, or maybe here since it's kind of quiet.

To give you a rough idea from what Tomous said and from me checking council tax is 166 for band A which is bound to be a 1 bed flat so with the discount it will be around 130 quid roughly

Rent - 700-1000 (i checked watford and this seems around the right price for a good flat i think)
Council Tax - 130ish with the discount
Electricity/Gas 30-40 maybe in the summer and then up to 60-70 in winter (all dependant how good the flat is in keeping the warmth in)
water - 20-30
Internet - depends with who but anywhere from 10 to 20 and based on what you need(it could be more)
Phone - line rental is around 16 quid
Food - for me by myself i only ever spent around 50 a week(some of that was probably beer )
Travel - depends on where you are going to so this one is tricky

By the way these are all quick checks and remembering back in my 1 bed flat renting days so these are rough guesses but hope it helps.

Thanks, those figures are a huge help.

Food won't be too expensive for me and neither will travel since I'll likely be able to carpool with someone at work as a few people live in Watford. My London travel is covered by expenses.

I'm currently on 1500 per month but it looks like my salary could be going up this year. I think if I can get my salary to 24k per annum (on 20k atm) I think I should be able to comfortably afford it.

Based on what I earn and what I pay living on my own, I would say you need £25K for an £800 flat (but you could do it on 24K with discipline and cutbacks).

It might be worth checking whether single occupancy council tax discount is actually 50%. The band of the property could vary between districts and stuff like listed/age, our 2 bed house is £133 for band C I think.

We manage about 20 quid a week for food as a couple so that's the easiest way to get prices down but you need to learn to cook or live off pasta and beans on toast.

Also opt out of TV license to save about 11 quid a month.

You can check council tax bands on a property site like Zoopla, so remember to do that when looking at rent prices because you must pay this.

I've never heard of a single occupancy discount greater than 25%. Interesting. Gecko, may I ask: if you're a couple why are you budgeting so strictly for food? When I was a couple my income was essentially doubled and all food was thus half price. We enjoyed life.

Because we're poor.

I run a business/freelance but make very little or a fair bit, depending on when you ask. But I'm starting on 220 a day next Monday. Rejoice.

Oh and council tax, it's a law thing, so you're probably right. I might have been thinking of some student thing

Also my gf can cook and cook the same things on a sort of random rotation, gotten really good at it. Buy and freeze a lot of reduced meat etc. I can do breakfast and steak/chops and that's about it.

I lived off soup and sushi at uni.

How bizarre, I was sat down doing the sums for this last night. The only thing that skews my numbers is that I am aiming to avoid a flat and want a place with a driveway, they tend to be a few bedrooms which bumps all the following bills up.

A multi room house for one dude with a nice car. Are you organising a fraternity?

Edit: actually that's not that unusual, look at studio places, annexes, and 1 bed terrace with studio kitchen (which is basically upstairs/downstairs).

We had a parking space and front lawn for the latter for £750pcm which is ideal for a single person or a couple, plus you have your own pad and space to do it everywhere. Pretty swish.

Qikz wrote:To rent a 1bed flat between 800-1k a month (lol thanks Watford/Hertfordshire), what does my salary realistically need to be in able to afford all bills, food, work travel and still have a little bit of money each month to spend on myself?

I've been trying to work it out myself, but as I've never lived alone before I thought it would be best to ask people with experience.

i had a 1343 place between two and bills+rent came out at 869 for each of us. that's before food etc.

Green Gecko wrote:A multi room house for one dude with a nice car. Are you organising a fraternity?

Edit: actually that's not that unusual, look at studio places, annexes, and 1 bed terrace with studio kitchen (which is basically upstairs/downstairs).

We had a parking space and front lawn for the latter for £750pcm which is ideal for a single person or a couple, plus you have your own pad and space to do it everywhere. Pretty swish.

Im not from a city so houses are pretty much the majority of living spaces around here anyway. Im not precious about living here and would happily move further afield (though obviously within easy commute of the office) but even then would be looking at a small house. Flats just arent my style.

Plus its the psychological aspect of parking the car in front of the door rather than a mile away in a shared car park. I recognise it pushes the price up, but Ive come to terms with that.

Yeah I'm totally with you on that, flats feel so impersonal, I've never leased a flat and when I go to one I'm just confused by all the stairs and door entry systems. Nah.

All this talk about rent makes me so glad my dad nagged the gooseberry fool out of me to save for a mortgage. That £15k has saved me a fortune.

Nice to see you're doing well in your career SD.

Yeah, I'm glad my mum gave me the deposit, renting must suck are!

By the sounds of it, surely you'd be better off renting a room than a whole flat?

Sounds awful to have to spend over 1k when you're not earning much more. Can get rooms with bills included.

bigcheez2k3 wrote:By the sounds of it, surely you'd be better off renting a room than a whole flat?

This is what we have become. Living like skint students is no longer limited to skint students, but also people with actual, full-time careers.

Qikz wrote:Thanks, those figures are a huge help.

Food won't be too expensive for me and neither will travel since I'll likely be able to carpool with someone at work as a few people live in Watford. My London travel is covered by expenses.

I'm currently on 1500 per month but it looks like my salary could be going up this year. I think if I can get my salary to 24k per annum (on 20k atm) I think I should be able to comfortably afford it.

Most letting agents will actually ask your salary and tell you that you need to earn X account for this flat. They're a seemingly arbitrary figure but it's worth keeping in mind because they won't let you have the flat otherwise.


I'm not that familiar with tax bands, etc but after tax, NI, etc is £24k significantly more than £20k?

Certainly, on £1500 it would probably be difficult and you won't have much left to spend on Chinese cartoons or save. Presumably what you're earning at the moment you're saving a good portion of while you live at home? If you're using most of your salary on your living expenses you want something in the bank for unforseen expenses and what not.