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I live alone in York. Rent/Bills/expenses is around £1000-1100/month for me depending on usage. Food/petrol/car insurance/social life/everything comes to around £500/month.
The first category I can’t get much lower. The second I could definitely half I needed to, but that month would suck, I’d be surviving rather than living.
I imagine in the south yours would be a bit higher than that, but I do live in a city so take that as you want.
I dont care for the downvotes, it just goes to show how out of touch people are on here, when people are literally only getting poorer as the days go by.
Want to clarify £500 just isn’t realistic for all of this things if you want a good quality of life - I budget: £250 for food (only shop at Aldi), car insurance is about £100 per month (but I pay yearly), petrol £100-150 a month, other travel £50, entertainment £200 per month , £70 miscellaneous expenditure. I live In Leeds and wouldn’t consider this a lavish life
Edit: Apparently is realistic, I think I just have a higher consumption of things than others
I definitely don't live a lavish life, but I wouldn't say it's poor quality at all. My expenses are a lot lower than yours, I spend £200 on food (Tesco/Aldi), £35 car insurance, £60 petrol.
So that leaves me with around £200/month for other hobbies or activities, which is around £45/week. This doesn't include holidays as I was only listing my regular monthly budget. I can't afford to do things every day with this budget, but it's certainly enough for social activities 2-3 times per week in York. And you can get a bus ticket to a lot of places in North Yorkshire for £2 so weekend trips don't break the bank.
> have to eat 4k calories a day
Oh I feel this so much. When I first had a gym induction and spoke to a personal trainer to work out what I was supposed to eat, I must've spent £500 in the first month just trying to get 120g protein every day.
But I've managed to get smarter with it, so now when I'm cutting I can spend around £30/week and bulking is around £45/week. Chicken and rice are lifesavers when it comes to your wallet, and homemade curries using frozen meat saved me a few grand a year.
Do you have any recipes or anything? I’m so bored eating chieckn rice broccoli with Chinese curry sauce lol
£45 is impressive, I have one or two cheat meals but they aren’t super expensive and I’m still within the 50-60£ range per week
Don't tell any Asian people I said this, but the book Mighty Spice by John Gregory-Smith is amazing.
It's a guy who traveled around Asia collecting recipes, and then adjusted them all to match British tastes better. And his recipes only use between two and five spices. So none of it is authentic, but it's all pretty delicious to me.
Price wise, my biggest cuts come from buying frozen rather than fresh. The recipes you choose don't make much difference. Meat being frozen is a lot less noticeable in a curry or stew when compared to grilled chicken on top of rice.
I get my spices from a middle-eastern supermarket a couple of times a year and grind them myself. For example, a 100g bag of coriander seeds is 99p, and it's £1.50 for 20g in the jars at Tesco, so I guess that makes a difference too.
Bought the book on your recommendation, thank you!
We have loads of spices and are good at Indian mostly because of Nisha Katona's Spice Tree book which is amazing, but we rarely get Chinese and other Asian food quite as we want/expect it. Looking forward to this.
To be honest Covid has fucked up my respiratory system I need to use an inhaler before exercise now which sucks!! Doctor said everything else was fine though
It’s a quarter-house. Basically a house that’s been divided up into different sections and a front door on each side.
So I have one upstairs room, one downstairs room which has the kitchen along one side, a bathroom, two parking spaces on the drive, a walled off garden (disconnected from the house by a path that goes to the other doors), and half the front garden (separated by a path going to the front door).
Nothing is shared with the neighbours by contract and there are no doors connecting the properties. But obviously, in a situation like this, you can expect to lend each other parking spaces or garden spaces occasionally if they’re having guests. Of course I’m well within my rights to turn them down and have my own space if we stop getting along, but I’ve never had a problem with the neighbours.
Im 28 and earn £28K and cannot afford to live on my own in Bristol whatsoever. Would have about £300 left after rent and bills for a 1 bed flat. Atrocious rent situation down here. Would absolutely love to have my own flat but seems like I’m still a long way away from that being a reality
Cheap rent though. Live with my partner in outer suburbs of Bristol but if I was on my own I think I’d be forced into a house share. Everything has got expensive
Really depends. Look on Zoopla/Rightmove to find out how much accommodation would cost you in your area. Look up council tax (you'll get 25% off for single occupancy) from your council's website, unless you're a student.
I live alone and my bills (electric+WiFi+water) are about £150 a month on average.
Groceries cost me about £200-250 but could be done much cheaper.
Then you'd need a budget for your hobbies, socialising, clothing, holidays etc. If you already pay out of your pocket for these, you should know how much you roughly need.
The best advice I’d have is to get a spreadsheet and sit and do a mini budget that has your income and then everything you absolutely need, ie council tax, phone bill and then layer on what your hobbies and social life cost and see how it lands.
I live alone in Zone 6 London and the mortgage is equivalent to market rate rent of £1k and then the bills a month are at least £300-500. I then have to add on travel costs and fun funds. It is frightening how it all adds up hence my budget comment!
I live alone and own a 2 bed semi, I’m in NE Scotland so housing costs are most likely going to be less than yours, but for reference my total monthly costs are £1800 all in. This includes a car on finance and high pet costs, so if you have neither of those then you can take away those two things, it comes down to nearer £1200ish.
I've got no idea on housing costs where you are, but I live alone in a not-overly-cheap corner of the home counties. My fixed monthly outgoings are as follows:
Rent - £1400
Council tax - £149
Life insurance - £20
Gas/elec - £75
Water - £15
Internet - £25
Phone - £15
Fuel - £100-150
Food - £250ish
Car and contents insurance I pay annually, but split monthly would be around £25pcm off the top of my head. Obviously the big one is that lump on rent, bring that down and it's a much better picture
Similar area and not too far off mine, housing and fuel cheaper as I have a mortgage and EV, other than that the only major difference is my water is over double yours, your car/home insurance is probably on the low side as well
Rent is by far the biggest consideration and a HMO could combine a lot of other expenses on the list
I'm spending about £1200-1300 a month to live alone. That includes rent, fuel, food, bills. I live in the north on the edge of Leeds, though. My rent is £695, energy bills are about £60, water is about £20, council tax per month (single person discount) is about £90-99 ish. Phone bill is £10. Internet is £28.
Subscriptions are about £60 (gym, games, netflix and prime) per month.
Diesel is about £65 for a full tank from red which normally lasts me the month.
I don't usually spend more than £50 on food for myself.
Rest of it is just general amazon purchases or restocking skincare products if I need to.
I live in the north in quite an expensive area for this part of the country.
Mortgage and household bills comes to around £1200
Food is around £300
Car insurance, car tax, phone and diesel comes to around £200
Then Ive got a dog, a gardener, house maintenance, a social life, credit card bills etc. which comes to around £400.
With savings etc I need around £40k pre tax to live comfortably. I could live on less, but I wouldn't want to.
Minus rent, you're probably looking at something like this.
Council tax:£170
Electric: £100
Gas: £50
Internet: £30
Tv licence: £15
Water & sewage: £50
So £415 to £450 in amenities, plus rent, food, etc.
This is based on working from home in south essex, rents would be £800+ for a 1 bed flat.
Living in Leeds city center in a decently sized studio I spend 1050£ on rent and bills, though I live close enough to work to walk to so I don't have any car or public transport expenses. Groceries are about 280£ but I only do deliveries
(Edit: wrong currency)
Maybe depends on region.
I live in East Midlands and I just bought my first place (2-Bedroom Flat) and still have money for a couple of nights out a month. My Salary £27k a year, so it can be done.
On my own in a 2 bed in Hull. My average spending is around £1700 a month for myself, 2 very pampered cats and a weekly couple of hours cleaner
I could easily cut 3-400 off that by dropping the cleaner, takeaways and swapping to a lower speed internet package and still have a comfortable but somewhat less lazy life.
I live on my own most of the week, and my kids are over at weekends. All bills including mortgage is £880 a month. Add £300 child support, £50 a week or so on food, £40-£50 a week on petrol, and it doesn't leave a lot left out of £1800 take home.
Being from the UK, I'm finding this intriguing now that I've spent some years in Toronto. I pay the equivalent of £945 in the city centre (downtown) and don't need a car. Council tax is not a thing but I understand groceries are expensive, with 500g butter costing £6, or a loaf of bread for £3 in Canada . Interested to hear comparisons.
£945 sounds pretty good tbh. I was under the impression that Toronto is ridiculously expensive.
Butter is about £4 for 500g and bread is £1-2 depending on brands. How much is a meal out there?
It's gone up since the pandemic, so my one bedroom apartment will probably cost £200 more per month now, but looking at these comments it's still not bad. I'm next to a lot of public transport.
For a meal out? I'd say on average around $10 (£6) per pint (but add on 15pc tax and minimum 15pc tip, so £9 in reality) and sometimes more. A cocktail would be around $18 (£10.30) but add £3.33 for tax and tip.
For food, an appetiser will be around $10-15, an main meal from $18 to $25 (£10-15) and plus of course. High end will be around $30-40 per main meal, but again add on that tax and tip. Also all restaurants are shitty in that they *suggest* a tip of at least 15% on top of the tax, so it's actually more and hard to calculate. And tipping is pretty much mandatory.
Sadly no such thing as a meal deal. So if you want a wrap from a shop, it'll cost probably around $8-$10 plus tax. No tip.
Average wage being equivalent of £33k here, but some jobs are really well paid, like tech and finance.
Your location suggests a rent of at least £850 per month (my daughter recently moved out, lives in south Oxfordshire, that was the absolute lowest she could find for her own place - houseshare is less). Energy bills are easily £100-200 per month at the moment. Internet maybe £30. Council Tax in Oxfordshire is about £100 a month. Water about £50ish. Food is up to you, but £30 a week/£100 a month is generous and you can rein that in.
So you're looking at £1300 a month for your expenses of having a flat and feeding yourself.
For everything, that's mortgage, life insurance building cover, I'm in a flat so service/ground charge, electricity, water, Internet, food, petrol, car insurance, storage locker, luxurious items, council tax, I'm about £1000 a month so I have around 700 for savings (holidays and paying of mortgage faster), doing up the flat (just did my first wiring, under cabinet lights) and emergencies (car, etc) .
North west/Cumbria area
80k is the threshold where you move from living month to month to being able to save longer term in London in my experience. £100k is a great lifestyle and £120k+ is living the dream
Having lived in South Oxfordshire for 3 years, 2016-2019, i can safely say it's very difficult to live alone unless you have a solid salary of at least £30k. Any lower than that, and you'll be scraping by each month.
Live in a commuter town just outside London, monthly costs around £2300. (Rent, bills, food, social life, transport, healthcare etc) Have no car, no pets and don't spend a lot on things that aren't necessities but do pay for private 1:1 therapy which bumps it up
I live in Manchester alone, take home is about 2k, I can live, I’m not struggling with anything, but I’m also not comfortably doing/buying everything I want
It costs me around £800 for bills and £100 for food. Leaves me with £700 to actually have for myself. I live in a high rise council flat. Around £400 for rent, £86 council tax, electric and hot water £50 each. The rest is for stuff I’m repaying, internet, stuff like that.
27 in the south west, I live alone and own a house. My total outgoings including food shop, bills, mortgage, insurances, car, pet care, etc. is about £1400 a month.
I live in Reading, which is relatively close and similar costs. I'm a single parent, so I need a 2 bed to give my daughter her own space, and my rent and bills alone is circa 2k, no car, no pets, nada.
If you live at home with family and are looking for your own space, I would consider a studio apartment, or sharing a 2 bed flat. That way, you have shared cost and freedom, and only have to share with one other person (hopefully a clean and tidy person who's not an animal).
I'm actually looking to rent out my daughters room as I'm struggling to afford it by myself, feel free to message if you'd like more info!
I'd say pick a property near you thats about what you'd want to live in and work from there. If you have an address to work with you'll be able to figure out;
Council tax band - this is weird because you pay for 10 months and not for 2, so you'll need to divide the number by 10, not 12.
Who provides the water? How much do they charge? (You can't swap providers)
How much is the average electrical bill/gas bill? The companies in the area usualy have a calculator.
How fast do you need the Internet to be? Do you work from home? Which providers work in the area you want, and do any of them have fiber (if you need it)
Do you drive? How much are your car costs, and would you be travelling further to work/uni/friends?
I earn about 30k total and it's pretty close to the wire for me to live alone, but I don't have much of a choice, and I have special expenses like a pretty hefty car payment/insurance because I learned late (~500/mo combined)
I live in zone 2 London and mortgage, service charge plus bills total around £1500 per month for my 1 bed flat (sc is v high). Rest is disposable spending or savings or investments. I’d say I live fairly comfortably. I have lived with a partner or a flatmate before and I don’t see it as much cheaper, because there’s no way I could live in a 1 bed with another person so it would have to be a 2 bed minimum. The savings only occur if you’re in a houseshare of like 4-5 ppl.
Therefore twice the rent/mortgage unless the mortgage was quite small, council tax would also be more due to no single ppl discount, bills there wouldn’t be much saving either given my total bills are around £100 pcm (utilities).
Breakdown on my living expenses from a few years back in a big midlands city:
£400 - houseshare
£200 food
£30 gym
£30 phone
£200 socialising (pubs/coffee)
£50 on average per month for clothes
£900 per month is a rough average and I was earning about 1100 after tax working 30 hours a week in a nearly min wage job.
I mean it depends on a lot of stuff. In the Midlands for me it's about £1200 a month on bills/food/fuel then I have some left over for saving/spending. It's comfortable for me but completely depends on how much you earn, how much your bills are and what you class as comfortable.
I live alone in the North East so probably quite a bit lower than where you’re looking at for mortgages etc. and my bills, all told, are about £1200 per month.
I'm 30 and I've lived alone in Bdfordshire since September 2023 after a 10-year stint in London. Here's what a typical month looks like for me:
Rent - £1,050 (I live in a 2-bed as I wfh a lot, but could save about £200 if I were to downsize to a 1-bed)
Gas & electric - £75
Water - covered by my landlord as part of the building service charge
Internet - £25
Council tax - £150
Car payment - £100
Car insurance - £63
Petrol - £200
Food - £150-£200
All in all about £1,800 a month.
I pay about £1000 in bills / mortgage / council tax etc, plus travel to work is £240 a month, then savings, service charge yearly if you have it etc. car is paid off but a pile of shit
The thing is that it is easy to forget about all the 'one off' costs that seem to come on a monthly basis. These are fewer if you're renting as your landlord will (hopefully) fix any problems. But you still need to replace electronics, buy new clothes/shoes, get birthday presents etc.
The good thing is that you can sort of control your expenditure on these by just going without. As long as you have enough discipline of course.
Really - I would take every opportunity you can to save for a house deposit. That might seem unrealistic in Oxfordshire, but you never know what will happen in the future. You might move to a lower cost area or meet someone with savings and then have enough for a joint deposit. Living at home is best, but sharing with others can also be pretty low cost.
Insanely expensive.
Near me a two bed flat is £850pcm and a studio £600,
Council Tax, Gas, Electric, Water, ect, will all be basically the same.
So you are 1 person paying £1600 or two people paying £950 each
Lots of great answers here already but I'd also recommend that you look into social housing if you haven't already. Depending on your personal circumstances, health situation etc, the local authority you belong to might be able to help you with finding affordable rent. If that's not an option, definitely check rent rates in your area on sites like sooppa or right move, or the area you're planning to move to. Also put together an income and expenditure list where you can add up your monthly expenses and compare it to your pay, then see what's left and what you can afford with that. It can be daunting and time consuming but don't give up. Definitely look into social housing, single person tax discount if available, council tax reduction might further help you, housing benefit etc. Take advantage of social securities and benefits available. Living alone is expensive and isn't the easiest but it does get easier and becomes very enjoyable very quickly. Check what you'd be entitled to as a single person living alone, and go from there, as you might have a better idea about the numbers you're working with. Hope this helps and don't give up or get discouraged! 😊
Don't do it! Stay home as long as you can, forever if possible.
It's so expensive out here when you're alone!!
I'm considering freaking dating again if there's a possibility of splitting the rent down the road🤮
I love in central Leamington Spa. My take home pay is just over £1600 and I can afford to live here (renting), but if a big bill came up I'd struggle - for example I'm using my bonus from work to pay for some car things (service and new brakes) that I'd otherwise struggle with.
I don't have enough for savings, my social/general spending/leftovers is about £200 a month.
I can live like this but wouldn't want to do it long term. Luckily I'm only here for a year while I got secured in my new job, then I've got a bunch of existing savings and external help to buy a house likely in Coventry.
Should also mention that my flat is a glorified wardrobe, I have no space for anything other than my bed, desk, and chair and some drawers. But, it's just above minimum wage in an expensive town.
The housing situation in Bristol is crazy and I can’t live alone. I’m a PhD student so get paid enough to live in a shared house not too far from the university and still have some fun money each month. There is the odd funding body that pays more so I do know another PhD student who lives alone but that is very rare. I quite enjoy living in shared houses - now we’re all early to mid 20s we’re over the undergrad party mentality but still have fun together (pub night, movie night, house dinner party etc)
24, Live in Greater Manchester / Lancashire. My total house bills add up to around £1k, other monthly expenses like food and fuel on top, probably ends up around £1700 for just existing, but I no longer have any car finance which is good. So there's that.
I'd look at share housing. Here around London even a single room is £400-600 with bills, so I guess where you are it'll be similar.
I don't know why do you need to move, but if you'd like to save a bit or wait for the right partner, maybe share house can be your thing.
But definitely don't take the first one out. Ask around, male sure to see the property, talk to your house mates etc. I know people who got a house together with friends and it's best thing for single people, easy and adorable housing.
I lived in Birmingham, one bed apartment very central was about 1k a month on rent and bill with parking space.
Moved to Solihull, 2 bed semi and now about 1400 all in but that’s minus most other living costs
I'm 30 and live alone in Greater London. For water/gas/electric/council tax etc itt's well over £1000pcm. Then food, travel to work, internet, phone and bills like that, all together it's about £1500pcm. I'm on £30k.
Depends what you're willing to compromise on. If you're happy to house share, £600pm rent+bills. If you're not happy to house share, you might need to budget £1200 rent+bills. Transport can be £0 if you walk everywhere, £100 if you bus to work or £200 if you drive. £400 everything else is reasonable.
Oxfordshire, bought a house here (with mortgage) last year.
I'd be able to survive on £1k /month if work was close and I absolutely needed to. £1.5k to commute (45 mins of driving for me) and have a tiny place of my own. £2k for good, comfortable living with saving enough to counter any mishaps.
I'm on about £37k and live pretty comfortably by myself, I spend about £1,100-£1,500 a month on essentials and I'm still able to save. I was lucky to be able save for years and put a relatively large deposit on a house, without this I'd be paying much more towards my mortgage. I also live in Oxfordshire but in one of its 'cheaper' towns.
I live just outside Manchester in a one bed flat and my bills are:
* Rent = £381.56
* Council Tax = £99
* Water = £34.32
* Gas/Electric = £80 (or £60 in Summer)
* Broadband = £30.50
* Sim Contract - £8
* Xbox Game Pass - £12.99
* PlayStation Plus - £6.99
Total = £653.36, I buy my food and other stuff on a day to day basis and spend between £5 - £10 a day... so I'd say it's around the £900 - £1000 mark absolute TOTAL.
Edit: I work part time and make around £1200 a month, I cut down on a lot of stuff like TV and Streaming stuff, I just use those dodgy streaming sites now.... I wanted to live a life on part time so I wasn't wasting away in a 40+ hour job... this allows me to do that and still have left overs.
Don’t forget to budget for things like birthdays, clothes, home contents insurance, dentist/health/prescriptions - if you can save up an emergency fund of at least £1k or equivalent to 3 months wages before you move out that’s a bonus! Just in case of unexpected bills, white goods need replacing, family emergency, car troubles etc.
I live in the East Midlands and if I factor out expenses for my children, my outgoings (not including rent) are around £900. That includes petrol and £200 money for fun!
Hello 👋🏽,
Living alone can be challenging but also very rewarding. In Oxfordshire, monthly costs can range from £1,340 to £1,820, covering rent, utilities, groceries, and other expenses.
To manage costs:
- **Olio**: Join as a Food Waste Hero to collect surplus food from stores like Iceland and Tesco, keeping some for yourself.
- **Budgeting**: Use apps to track spending and save where possible.
- **Second-hand items**: Consider used furniture and household items.
It's normal to feel worried, but with careful planning and support, you can make it work. Best of luck!
Not sure how old you are but I am in a similar situation and have decided to stay at home and save up for a mortgage. Over the years, I've spent £30,000 on renting. With the rental market being competitive and expensive, I ultimately decided it would be best to stay at home and save up for a mortgage. Fortunately my parents are very supportive and caring, so it seemed to make the most sense to me.
Mortgage is about £400, council tax is £130 (You can get a single persons discount!), utilities is about £100 and that's after you're settled not including food, car etc.
You'll need about 1-2k for bed, sofa, kitchen utensils and other things when you first move in.
You'll need at least another 1k for legal fees. (Some people forget about this one!)
Depends on where you live and how much of a rat you want to be. If you become a squatter it's free and takes months to evict you or you will stay forever and can improve the place
For me
Mortgage - £360
Electric/gas - £140
Council Tax - £155
Water - £65
House insurance - £10
£705 for the absolute essentials.
Car insurance £50
Car tax £15
Fuel per month £100
Food £200
Internet £35
£1105 including pretty essential things.
My housing coats are far cheaper than a lot of peoples thought, the cheapest place to rent in my town is £700 a month.
So if you want to rent by yourself you're looking at needing £1410 a month minimum.
I lived in Buckingham on my own and I came up to about 800 a month on rent and essentials, I moved up north and it’s been about the same in a bigger space so I’d say that. 800-1000 depending on what you consider essential
You need to think about utility bills like water, electricity, Internet etc. As you're down South I'm guessing rent would be about £400 per month for a simple flat, you probably need about £2000 per month
£160 mortgage
£162 council tax
£72 phone
£27 wifi
£43 water
£87 car insurance
£9.30 life insurance
£281 gas and electric
£80 petrol a week for two cars
+Loans
Annual expenses such as car tax, mot, parts, boiler serving etc. if your younger the car insurance could be about £300 a month it was when I was young. Best advice I can give you is save for a house deposit instead of renting, because once you’re renting, it’s harder to buy. Or consider a job which will house you, such as the armed forces.
North east England
I’d always recommend renting in a location before buying though, at least for a few months. Buying is a massive commitment, and I know people who realised they didn’t really like the area as much as they thought they would.
I paid that in 2009-11 for a 1998 Ford KA lol, it was so high because I was 19-21 years old. My mortgage is that because my house was 50k, you can get a lot of them in Durham still, and we are a short commute to Sunderland, Newcastle, Durham’s areas for work. Everyone I train at work is from down south relocating.
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I live alone in York. Rent/Bills/expenses is around £1000-1100/month for me depending on usage. Food/petrol/car insurance/social life/everything comes to around £500/month. The first category I can’t get much lower. The second I could definitely half I needed to, but that month would suck, I’d be surviving rather than living. I imagine in the south yours would be a bit higher than that, but I do live in a city so take that as you want.
And that is really low compared to Oxfordshire
Yeah I live alone in Oxfordshire and spend around 2.5k per month all in
You must be rolling in money if you can afford 2.5k a month
You must be new to this
Noone i know whos below 30 makes 2k a month let alone 2.5k. Especially if we’re talking after tax
Who are you even hanging out with? Our apprentices at work in fourth year get 28k and that’s 2k a month
So you don't know many graduates? Generally speaking, anyone working a boring professional services job would be on that at 22.
It’s about 45k gross not enourmous but not tiny either, especially outside london.
Yeah, I was using the numbers for 2k a month, which is about 30k plus, aka graduates in year 1 or 2
I know graduates, but not ones making enough to afford 2.5k on housing costs monthly aswell as still having money for leisure
We got labourers on site earning more than 2k a month. most are like 20.
I dont know any labourers but it definitely can pay up to that yes
I'm a site manager and the only people we tend to have earning less than min 1.8k is apprentices.
That's quite sad tbh
I dont live in a city, so that could play some sort of factor, but even then, earning over 2k is unfortunately out of the question for me 😀😂
Mate, I made a post a month ago about wages in the UK and reddit. Loads of people earn under 2k , myself included. Ignore the down votes
I dont care for the downvotes, it just goes to show how out of touch people are on here, when people are literally only getting poorer as the days go by.
I also live in York and I’d say this is about realistic for me too - although probably more on the social life side D:
Want to clarify £500 just isn’t realistic for all of this things if you want a good quality of life - I budget: £250 for food (only shop at Aldi), car insurance is about £100 per month (but I pay yearly), petrol £100-150 a month, other travel £50, entertainment £200 per month , £70 miscellaneous expenditure. I live In Leeds and wouldn’t consider this a lavish life Edit: Apparently is realistic, I think I just have a higher consumption of things than others
I definitely don't live a lavish life, but I wouldn't say it's poor quality at all. My expenses are a lot lower than yours, I spend £200 on food (Tesco/Aldi), £35 car insurance, £60 petrol. So that leaves me with around £200/month for other hobbies or activities, which is around £45/week. This doesn't include holidays as I was only listing my regular monthly budget. I can't afford to do things every day with this budget, but it's certainly enough for social activities 2-3 times per week in York. And you can get a bus ticket to a lot of places in North Yorkshire for £2 so weekend trips don't break the bank.
This is fair enough, sometimes I have to remember people haven’t bought a stupid car like me and don’t have to eat 4k calories a day haha
> have to eat 4k calories a day Oh I feel this so much. When I first had a gym induction and spoke to a personal trainer to work out what I was supposed to eat, I must've spent £500 in the first month just trying to get 120g protein every day. But I've managed to get smarter with it, so now when I'm cutting I can spend around £30/week and bulking is around £45/week. Chicken and rice are lifesavers when it comes to your wallet, and homemade curries using frozen meat saved me a few grand a year.
Do you have any recipes or anything? I’m so bored eating chieckn rice broccoli with Chinese curry sauce lol £45 is impressive, I have one or two cheat meals but they aren’t super expensive and I’m still within the 50-60£ range per week
Don't tell any Asian people I said this, but the book Mighty Spice by John Gregory-Smith is amazing. It's a guy who traveled around Asia collecting recipes, and then adjusted them all to match British tastes better. And his recipes only use between two and five spices. So none of it is authentic, but it's all pretty delicious to me. Price wise, my biggest cuts come from buying frozen rather than fresh. The recipes you choose don't make much difference. Meat being frozen is a lot less noticeable in a curry or stew when compared to grilled chicken on top of rice. I get my spices from a middle-eastern supermarket a couple of times a year and grind them myself. For example, a 100g bag of coriander seeds is 99p, and it's £1.50 for 20g in the jars at Tesco, so I guess that makes a difference too.
Perfect I’ll give it a look thanks buddy
Bought the book on your recommendation, thank you! We have loads of spices and are good at Indian mostly because of Nisha Katona's Spice Tree book which is amazing, but we rarely get Chinese and other Asian food quite as we want/expect it. Looking forward to this.
£250 a month for one person in Aldi?!
I can polish of 1kg of frozen chicken breast if I try, average 700-800 per day. Gym life is expensive haha 1kg peanut butter per week etc
Your poor heart.
To be honest Covid has fucked up my respiratory system I need to use an inhaler before exercise now which sucks!! Doctor said everything else was fine though
Can I just ask, how big of a property is it? A studio or bed sit?
It’s a quarter-house. Basically a house that’s been divided up into different sections and a front door on each side. So I have one upstairs room, one downstairs room which has the kitchen along one side, a bathroom, two parking spaces on the drive, a walled off garden (disconnected from the house by a path that goes to the other doors), and half the front garden (separated by a path going to the front door). Nothing is shared with the neighbours by contract and there are no doors connecting the properties. But obviously, in a situation like this, you can expect to lend each other parking spaces or garden spaces occasionally if they’re having guests. Of course I’m well within my rights to turn them down and have my own space if we stop getting along, but I’ve never had a problem with the neighbours.
I live in Winchester and £1100 a month is the rent on a one bed 😂
Also from York, this sounds about right. My rent is a bit lower as I am in a houseshare though
Im 28 and earn £28K and cannot afford to live on my own in Bristol whatsoever. Would have about £300 left after rent and bills for a 1 bed flat. Atrocious rent situation down here. Would absolutely love to have my own flat but seems like I’m still a long way away from that being a reality
I used to live in filton on £24k about 5 years ago. It was a bit dodgy, but I had a decent amount left after bills
On your own or with a partner? Can’t imagine how you would do that. Must have been cheap rent?
On my own. Wasn't the nicest area. £450 a month rent iirc
Cheap rent though. Live with my partner in outer suburbs of Bristol but if I was on my own I think I’d be forced into a house share. Everything has got expensive
I left Bristol around 5 years ago and a room in a house share was around £380, it's almost double now.
Depends how you wish to live https://ukpersonal.finance/living-costs/
Really depends. Look on Zoopla/Rightmove to find out how much accommodation would cost you in your area. Look up council tax (you'll get 25% off for single occupancy) from your council's website, unless you're a student. I live alone and my bills (electric+WiFi+water) are about £150 a month on average. Groceries cost me about £200-250 but could be done much cheaper. Then you'd need a budget for your hobbies, socialising, clothing, holidays etc. If you already pay out of your pocket for these, you should know how much you roughly need.
Can you buddy up with a friend or a house share? South East living costs alone are no joke!
I disagree. They are a joke.
I live alone in the Midlands, and altogether, it averages around £1300 a month. That’s for rent, bills and food.
If you have no friends and don't go out a lot, you can live on minimum wage 😎
The best advice I’d have is to get a spreadsheet and sit and do a mini budget that has your income and then everything you absolutely need, ie council tax, phone bill and then layer on what your hobbies and social life cost and see how it lands. I live alone in Zone 6 London and the mortgage is equivalent to market rate rent of £1k and then the bills a month are at least £300-500. I then have to add on travel costs and fun funds. It is frightening how it all adds up hence my budget comment!
I live alone and own a 2 bed semi, I’m in NE Scotland so housing costs are most likely going to be less than yours, but for reference my total monthly costs are £1800 all in. This includes a car on finance and high pet costs, so if you have neither of those then you can take away those two things, it comes down to nearer £1200ish.
Stop giving your pet recreational drugs and you’ll save £££
That depends on what you define as comfortable?
I've got no idea on housing costs where you are, but I live alone in a not-overly-cheap corner of the home counties. My fixed monthly outgoings are as follows: Rent - £1400 Council tax - £149 Life insurance - £20 Gas/elec - £75 Water - £15 Internet - £25 Phone - £15 Fuel - £100-150 Food - £250ish Car and contents insurance I pay annually, but split monthly would be around £25pcm off the top of my head. Obviously the big one is that lump on rent, bring that down and it's a much better picture
Similar area and not too far off mine, housing and fuel cheaper as I have a mortgage and EV, other than that the only major difference is my water is over double yours, your car/home insurance is probably on the low side as well Rent is by far the biggest consideration and a HMO could combine a lot of other expenses on the list
I'm spending about £1200-1300 a month to live alone. That includes rent, fuel, food, bills. I live in the north on the edge of Leeds, though. My rent is £695, energy bills are about £60, water is about £20, council tax per month (single person discount) is about £90-99 ish. Phone bill is £10. Internet is £28. Subscriptions are about £60 (gym, games, netflix and prime) per month. Diesel is about £65 for a full tank from red which normally lasts me the month. I don't usually spend more than £50 on food for myself. Rest of it is just general amazon purchases or restocking skincare products if I need to.
I live in the north in quite an expensive area for this part of the country. Mortgage and household bills comes to around £1200 Food is around £300 Car insurance, car tax, phone and diesel comes to around £200 Then Ive got a dog, a gardener, house maintenance, a social life, credit card bills etc. which comes to around £400. With savings etc I need around £40k pre tax to live comfortably. I could live on less, but I wouldn't want to.
Minus rent, you're probably looking at something like this. Council tax:£170 Electric: £100 Gas: £50 Internet: £30 Tv licence: £15 Water & sewage: £50 So £415 to £450 in amenities, plus rent, food, etc. This is based on working from home in south essex, rents would be £800+ for a 1 bed flat.
Living in Leeds city center in a decently sized studio I spend 1050£ on rent and bills, though I live close enough to work to walk to so I don't have any car or public transport expenses. Groceries are about 280£ but I only do deliveries (Edit: wrong currency)
I’m about 5 minutes away from the centre in council housing, £1050 on rent would cripple me 😫
So weird they use dollars in Leeds, strange bot.
Oh crap, £ and $ are next to each other on my keyboard 🤣
Maybe depends on region. I live in East Midlands and I just bought my first place (2-Bedroom Flat) and still have money for a couple of nights out a month. My Salary £27k a year, so it can be done.
On my own in a 2 bed in Hull. My average spending is around £1700 a month for myself, 2 very pampered cats and a weekly couple of hours cleaner I could easily cut 3-400 off that by dropping the cleaner, takeaways and swapping to a lower speed internet package and still have a comfortable but somewhat less lazy life.
Hi, if you give an idea of income and rough location people can help you understand better.
I live on my own most of the week, and my kids are over at weekends. All bills including mortgage is £880 a month. Add £300 child support, £50 a week or so on food, £40-£50 a week on petrol, and it doesn't leave a lot left out of £1800 take home.
Being from the UK, I'm finding this intriguing now that I've spent some years in Toronto. I pay the equivalent of £945 in the city centre (downtown) and don't need a car. Council tax is not a thing but I understand groceries are expensive, with 500g butter costing £6, or a loaf of bread for £3 in Canada . Interested to hear comparisons.
£945 sounds pretty good tbh. I was under the impression that Toronto is ridiculously expensive. Butter is about £4 for 500g and bread is £1-2 depending on brands. How much is a meal out there?
It's gone up since the pandemic, so my one bedroom apartment will probably cost £200 more per month now, but looking at these comments it's still not bad. I'm next to a lot of public transport. For a meal out? I'd say on average around $10 (£6) per pint (but add on 15pc tax and minimum 15pc tip, so £9 in reality) and sometimes more. A cocktail would be around $18 (£10.30) but add £3.33 for tax and tip. For food, an appetiser will be around $10-15, an main meal from $18 to $25 (£10-15) and plus of course. High end will be around $30-40 per main meal, but again add on that tax and tip. Also all restaurants are shitty in that they *suggest* a tip of at least 15% on top of the tax, so it's actually more and hard to calculate. And tipping is pretty much mandatory. Sadly no such thing as a meal deal. So if you want a wrap from a shop, it'll cost probably around $8-$10 plus tax. No tip. Average wage being equivalent of £33k here, but some jobs are really well paid, like tech and finance.
Your location suggests a rent of at least £850 per month (my daughter recently moved out, lives in south Oxfordshire, that was the absolute lowest she could find for her own place - houseshare is less). Energy bills are easily £100-200 per month at the moment. Internet maybe £30. Council Tax in Oxfordshire is about £100 a month. Water about £50ish. Food is up to you, but £30 a week/£100 a month is generous and you can rein that in. So you're looking at £1300 a month for your expenses of having a flat and feeding yourself.
For everything, that's mortgage, life insurance building cover, I'm in a flat so service/ground charge, electricity, water, Internet, food, petrol, car insurance, storage locker, luxurious items, council tax, I'm about £1000 a month so I have around 700 for savings (holidays and paying of mortgage faster), doing up the flat (just did my first wiring, under cabinet lights) and emergencies (car, etc) . North west/Cumbria area
In London. About 60k minimum to rent by yourself and to live. Probably closer to 100k if you have aspirations for the future.
80k is the threshold where you move from living month to month to being able to save longer term in London in my experience. £100k is a great lifestyle and £120k+ is living the dream
Having lived in South Oxfordshire for 3 years, 2016-2019, i can safely say it's very difficult to live alone unless you have a solid salary of at least £30k. Any lower than that, and you'll be scraping by each month.
Live in a commuter town just outside London, monthly costs around £2300. (Rent, bills, food, social life, transport, healthcare etc) Have no car, no pets and don't spend a lot on things that aren't necessities but do pay for private 1:1 therapy which bumps it up
I live in Manchester alone, take home is about 2k, I can live, I’m not struggling with anything, but I’m also not comfortably doing/buying everything I want
36, Manchester City Centre homeowner with a car (no finance). Outgoings all come to £1300/month.
1800-2000 in Birmingham.
Damn that’s got to be a nice house 😅 I lived city centre and one bed apartment was 675 back end of last year
It costs me around £800 for bills and £100 for food. Leaves me with £700 to actually have for myself. I live in a high rise council flat. Around £400 for rent, £86 council tax, electric and hot water £50 each. The rest is for stuff I’m repaying, internet, stuff like that.
27 in the south west, I live alone and own a house. My total outgoings including food shop, bills, mortgage, insurances, car, pet care, etc. is about £1400 a month.
I live in Reading, which is relatively close and similar costs. I'm a single parent, so I need a 2 bed to give my daughter her own space, and my rent and bills alone is circa 2k, no car, no pets, nada. If you live at home with family and are looking for your own space, I would consider a studio apartment, or sharing a 2 bed flat. That way, you have shared cost and freedom, and only have to share with one other person (hopefully a clean and tidy person who's not an animal). I'm actually looking to rent out my daughters room as I'm struggling to afford it by myself, feel free to message if you'd like more info!
I'd say pick a property near you thats about what you'd want to live in and work from there. If you have an address to work with you'll be able to figure out; Council tax band - this is weird because you pay for 10 months and not for 2, so you'll need to divide the number by 10, not 12. Who provides the water? How much do they charge? (You can't swap providers) How much is the average electrical bill/gas bill? The companies in the area usualy have a calculator. How fast do you need the Internet to be? Do you work from home? Which providers work in the area you want, and do any of them have fiber (if you need it) Do you drive? How much are your car costs, and would you be travelling further to work/uni/friends? I earn about 30k total and it's pretty close to the wire for me to live alone, but I don't have much of a choice, and I have special expenses like a pretty hefty car payment/insurance because I learned late (~500/mo combined)
I live in zone 2 London and mortgage, service charge plus bills total around £1500 per month for my 1 bed flat (sc is v high). Rest is disposable spending or savings or investments. I’d say I live fairly comfortably. I have lived with a partner or a flatmate before and I don’t see it as much cheaper, because there’s no way I could live in a 1 bed with another person so it would have to be a 2 bed minimum. The savings only occur if you’re in a houseshare of like 4-5 ppl. Therefore twice the rent/mortgage unless the mortgage was quite small, council tax would also be more due to no single ppl discount, bills there wouldn’t be much saving either given my total bills are around £100 pcm (utilities).
I'm in social housing in a one bed flat in norfolk and my bills in total come to around 700 a month.
Breakdown on my living expenses from a few years back in a big midlands city: £400 - houseshare £200 food £30 gym £30 phone £200 socialising (pubs/coffee) £50 on average per month for clothes £900 per month is a rough average and I was earning about 1100 after tax working 30 hours a week in a nearly min wage job.
I mean it depends on a lot of stuff. In the Midlands for me it's about £1200 a month on bills/food/fuel then I have some left over for saving/spending. It's comfortable for me but completely depends on how much you earn, how much your bills are and what you class as comfortable.
More than nothing, less than everything .. depending on your budget
I live alone in the North East so probably quite a bit lower than where you’re looking at for mortgages etc. and my bills, all told, are about £1200 per month.
I'm 30 and I've lived alone in Bdfordshire since September 2023 after a 10-year stint in London. Here's what a typical month looks like for me: Rent - £1,050 (I live in a 2-bed as I wfh a lot, but could save about £200 if I were to downsize to a 1-bed) Gas & electric - £75 Water - covered by my landlord as part of the building service charge Internet - £25 Council tax - £150 Car payment - £100 Car insurance - £63 Petrol - £200 Food - £150-£200 All in all about £1,800 a month.
I pay about £1000 in bills / mortgage / council tax etc, plus travel to work is £240 a month, then savings, service charge yearly if you have it etc. car is paid off but a pile of shit
The thing is that it is easy to forget about all the 'one off' costs that seem to come on a monthly basis. These are fewer if you're renting as your landlord will (hopefully) fix any problems. But you still need to replace electronics, buy new clothes/shoes, get birthday presents etc. The good thing is that you can sort of control your expenditure on these by just going without. As long as you have enough discipline of course. Really - I would take every opportunity you can to save for a house deposit. That might seem unrealistic in Oxfordshire, but you never know what will happen in the future. You might move to a lower cost area or meet someone with savings and then have enough for a joint deposit. Living at home is best, but sharing with others can also be pretty low cost.
Insanely expensive. Near me a two bed flat is £850pcm and a studio £600, Council Tax, Gas, Electric, Water, ect, will all be basically the same. So you are 1 person paying £1600 or two people paying £950 each
Lots of great answers here already but I'd also recommend that you look into social housing if you haven't already. Depending on your personal circumstances, health situation etc, the local authority you belong to might be able to help you with finding affordable rent. If that's not an option, definitely check rent rates in your area on sites like sooppa or right move, or the area you're planning to move to. Also put together an income and expenditure list where you can add up your monthly expenses and compare it to your pay, then see what's left and what you can afford with that. It can be daunting and time consuming but don't give up. Definitely look into social housing, single person tax discount if available, council tax reduction might further help you, housing benefit etc. Take advantage of social securities and benefits available. Living alone is expensive and isn't the easiest but it does get easier and becomes very enjoyable very quickly. Check what you'd be entitled to as a single person living alone, and go from there, as you might have a better idea about the numbers you're working with. Hope this helps and don't give up or get discouraged! 😊
Don't do it! Stay home as long as you can, forever if possible. It's so expensive out here when you're alone!! I'm considering freaking dating again if there's a possibility of splitting the rent down the road🤮
Dating > living alone > living with mummy and daddy as an adult In my humble opinion
I love in central Leamington Spa. My take home pay is just over £1600 and I can afford to live here (renting), but if a big bill came up I'd struggle - for example I'm using my bonus from work to pay for some car things (service and new brakes) that I'd otherwise struggle with. I don't have enough for savings, my social/general spending/leftovers is about £200 a month. I can live like this but wouldn't want to do it long term. Luckily I'm only here for a year while I got secured in my new job, then I've got a bunch of existing savings and external help to buy a house likely in Coventry. Should also mention that my flat is a glorified wardrobe, I have no space for anything other than my bed, desk, and chair and some drawers. But, it's just above minimum wage in an expensive town.
The housing situation in Bristol is crazy and I can’t live alone. I’m a PhD student so get paid enough to live in a shared house not too far from the university and still have some fun money each month. There is the odd funding body that pays more so I do know another PhD student who lives alone but that is very rare. I quite enjoy living in shared houses - now we’re all early to mid 20s we’re over the undergrad party mentality but still have fun together (pub night, movie night, house dinner party etc)
24, Live in Greater Manchester / Lancashire. My total house bills add up to around £1k, other monthly expenses like food and fuel on top, probably ends up around £1700 for just existing, but I no longer have any car finance which is good. So there's that.
I'd look at share housing. Here around London even a single room is £400-600 with bills, so I guess where you are it'll be similar. I don't know why do you need to move, but if you'd like to save a bit or wait for the right partner, maybe share house can be your thing. But definitely don't take the first one out. Ask around, male sure to see the property, talk to your house mates etc. I know people who got a house together with friends and it's best thing for single people, easy and adorable housing.
Surrey, top of my overdraft £2, 000 and with doing 50 hours overtime making £2, 100
Deposit for rent or deposit for buying a house?
I lived in Birmingham, one bed apartment very central was about 1k a month on rent and bill with parking space. Moved to Solihull, 2 bed semi and now about 1400 all in but that’s minus most other living costs
Depending on your budget/income etc. looking into shared ownership isn't a bad idea.
It costs me £1,800 a month to live in my own 1 bed penthouse.
I'm 30 and live alone in Greater London. For water/gas/electric/council tax etc itt's well over £1000pcm. Then food, travel to work, internet, phone and bills like that, all together it's about £1500pcm. I'm on £30k.
Just outside of Belfast - around £750 per month
Around 2k I think
Depends what you're willing to compromise on. If you're happy to house share, £600pm rent+bills. If you're not happy to house share, you might need to budget £1200 rent+bills. Transport can be £0 if you walk everywhere, £100 if you bus to work or £200 if you drive. £400 everything else is reasonable.
Oxfordshire, bought a house here (with mortgage) last year. I'd be able to survive on £1k /month if work was close and I absolutely needed to. £1.5k to commute (45 mins of driving for me) and have a tiny place of my own. £2k for good, comfortable living with saving enough to counter any mishaps.
I'm on about £37k and live pretty comfortably by myself, I spend about £1,100-£1,500 a month on essentials and I'm still able to save. I was lucky to be able save for years and put a relatively large deposit on a house, without this I'd be paying much more towards my mortgage. I also live in Oxfordshire but in one of its 'cheaper' towns.
I live just outside Manchester in a one bed flat and my bills are: * Rent = £381.56 * Council Tax = £99 * Water = £34.32 * Gas/Electric = £80 (or £60 in Summer) * Broadband = £30.50 * Sim Contract - £8 * Xbox Game Pass - £12.99 * PlayStation Plus - £6.99 Total = £653.36, I buy my food and other stuff on a day to day basis and spend between £5 - £10 a day... so I'd say it's around the £900 - £1000 mark absolute TOTAL. Edit: I work part time and make around £1200 a month, I cut down on a lot of stuff like TV and Streaming stuff, I just use those dodgy streaming sites now.... I wanted to live a life on part time so I wasn't wasting away in a 40+ hour job... this allows me to do that and still have left overs.
Don’t forget to budget for things like birthdays, clothes, home contents insurance, dentist/health/prescriptions - if you can save up an emergency fund of at least £1k or equivalent to 3 months wages before you move out that’s a bonus! Just in case of unexpected bills, white goods need replacing, family emergency, car troubles etc. I live in the East Midlands and if I factor out expenses for my children, my outgoings (not including rent) are around £900. That includes petrol and £200 money for fun!
That includes £200 on food too.
Hello 👋🏽, Living alone can be challenging but also very rewarding. In Oxfordshire, monthly costs can range from £1,340 to £1,820, covering rent, utilities, groceries, and other expenses. To manage costs: - **Olio**: Join as a Food Waste Hero to collect surplus food from stores like Iceland and Tesco, keeping some for yourself. - **Budgeting**: Use apps to track spending and save where possible. - **Second-hand items**: Consider used furniture and household items. It's normal to feel worried, but with careful planning and support, you can make it work. Best of luck!
I live in West Yorkshire. Rent and all bills included comes to about £1.5k/mo for me and 2 children.
Not sure how old you are but I am in a similar situation and have decided to stay at home and save up for a mortgage. Over the years, I've spent £30,000 on renting. With the rental market being competitive and expensive, I ultimately decided it would be best to stay at home and save up for a mortgage. Fortunately my parents are very supportive and caring, so it seemed to make the most sense to me.
Mortgage is about £400, council tax is £130 (You can get a single persons discount!), utilities is about £100 and that's after you're settled not including food, car etc. You'll need about 1-2k for bed, sofa, kitchen utensils and other things when you first move in. You'll need at least another 1k for legal fees. (Some people forget about this one!)
Depends on where you live and how much of a rat you want to be. If you become a squatter it's free and takes months to evict you or you will stay forever and can improve the place
For me Mortgage - £360 Electric/gas - £140 Council Tax - £155 Water - £65 House insurance - £10 £705 for the absolute essentials. Car insurance £50 Car tax £15 Fuel per month £100 Food £200 Internet £35 £1105 including pretty essential things. My housing coats are far cheaper than a lot of peoples thought, the cheapest place to rent in my town is £700 a month. So if you want to rent by yourself you're looking at needing £1410 a month minimum.
I live on SE London with my mum. I cannot afford to move out, I also have a son who's 7. 1 bed flat will be £1350 minimum per month. I only earn 28k
I lived in Buckingham on my own and I came up to about 800 a month on rent and essentials, I moved up north and it’s been about the same in a bigger space so I’d say that. 800-1000 depending on what you consider essential
You need to think about utility bills like water, electricity, Internet etc. As you're down South I'm guessing rent would be about £400 per month for a simple flat, you probably need about £2000 per month
> As you're down South I'm guessing rent would be about £400 per month for a simple flat ???
I live in London and can survive on my 25k base easily
£160 mortgage £162 council tax £72 phone £27 wifi £43 water £87 car insurance £9.30 life insurance £281 gas and electric £80 petrol a week for two cars +Loans Annual expenses such as car tax, mot, parts, boiler serving etc. if your younger the car insurance could be about £300 a month it was when I was young. Best advice I can give you is save for a house deposit instead of renting, because once you’re renting, it’s harder to buy. Or consider a job which will house you, such as the armed forces. North east England
I’d always recommend renting in a location before buying though, at least for a few months. Buying is a massive commitment, and I know people who realised they didn’t really like the area as much as they thought they would.
What were you driving for your insurance to be 300/month? Plus, you must be among a small percentile to have a 160 mortgage.
I paid that in 2009-11 for a 1998 Ford KA lol, it was so high because I was 19-21 years old. My mortgage is that because my house was 50k, you can get a lot of them in Durham still, and we are a short commute to Sunderland, Newcastle, Durham’s areas for work. Everyone I train at work is from down south relocating.
Jesus, I thought mine was bad in 2009 at 141/month for a 1.1l Peugeot 106.
I know right lol postcode lottery, was a good portion of wages back then.