To ask what your monthly bills are

[crimson72]

I'm trying to do some budgeting at the moment as DH and I need to tighten our belts. I was wondering if our household bills sound broadly in line with other people's, or whether there are some areas where we may be overspending? Here's what we pay per month on average:

Council tax: £110
Electricity/gas: £105
Water: £37.50
Internet: £21.50
TV licence: £12.43

We also pay pet insurance at £27.20 per month and home insurance at around £370 per year.

It all adds up to a total of about £4150 - which sounds like an awful lot!

I live in a two/three bed fairly small terrace in London and it's just me and DH - no DC's.

@NoSquirrels just checked and it does all add up to over £4K with the home and pet insurance.

We don’t have any debts other than DH’s £1K overdraft. I’m not sure whether he’s charged for that - I need to get him to check.

Council tax - £80 (single person discount as live alone).
Tv licence - £12
Phone bill - £40
BT - £40
Pet insurance - £13
Pet plan at vets - £11
Dental plan - £12
Water - £29
Netflix - £6
Heating & elec - £120

I also pay £8 per month to two animal charities. And I pay £120 into a private pension

My mortgage is £400 (East Midlands) and food is about £200 pm. I don’t have a car

If the overdraft is costing money, the cheapest way to get rid of it will probably be to transfer it to a credit card.

Either using a card that can transfer a lump of cash to a current account, or an 'introductory spend' card, where you divert the appropriate amount of spending from the current account to the credit card, until the credit card balance gets to the value of the overdraft. Then cancel the overdraft and work on paying off the credit card before the 0% period ends.

Look on Moneysavingexpert for details of credit cards you qualify for, with the lowest fee and a 0% period you can pay the overdraft amount off in.

@BarbaraofSeville thanks for the advice - I hadn’t considered that.

Mortgage £577
Childcare £1600
Council tax £149
Gas & Electricity £96
Internet £25
2 x mobile phones £60 total
2 x Life insurance £70 total
Car Insurance £40
House insurance £28
Car finance £240
Food £450
Fuel £80
Water £27
Contact lenses £33

2 adults and 2 young kids
Childcare kills us, triple our mortgage :-(

How have you all got such cheap council tax? Ours is just under £200 a month 😥

Our council tax is about £90 pm for 12 months of the year but we live in a band A house in a large city.

Whirlygig what kind of house do you have?
I am in a 4 bed semi in the Midlands for £149 a month council tax. Think we are band c

£750 Rent
£125 gas/electric
£40water and sewage
£206 council tax
£65 mobiles X 2
£35 internet & phone
£20 gym
£15 car tax
£63 car insurance

£160 petrol
£300 food
£380 credit cards
£200 htb isa

NoSquirrels just checked and it does all add up to over £4K with the home and pet insurance

Housing £1400
Food £200 (bet this is more!)
Council tax: £110
Electricity/gas: £105
Water: £37.50
Internet: £21.50
TV licence: £12.43
pet insurance: £27.20 per month home insurance: £30.83 (£370 per year)

= £1944.56

It all adds up to a total of about £4150 - which sounds like an awful lot!

So what is the other £2,000 being spent on?

I’d bet your food bills are not just £200pcm.

Entertainment, travel, going out, household goods, clothes etc?

You need to separate out bills & fixed costs from discretionary stuff.

@NoSquirrels Ah, hang on - I meant it adds up to £4k-plus a year! Sorry - wasn’t clear from my OP.

Food bills honestly are around £200 a month - I meal plan so have a pretty good idea of what we spend. That doesn’t include wine or dining out though I must admit -two areas where we could definitely cut back.

Ah! I see... that makes more sense.

Depends on how it’s most useful to you to see it - as a monthly figure or as a yearly one. Yearly gives you more if a satisfying feeling if saving a chunk, but monthly is easier to track for discretionary spending particularly.

Council tax: £240 (band F)
Mortgage: £680
Electricity and gas: £105 (we both work from home though)
TV, broadband, phone: £38
House insurance: £15ish (but we pay annually)
Mobile phones: £30
Car insurance: Maybe £30 but again paid annually (for two cars)
Car tax: About £30 I think for two cars
Pet insurance: £15
Estate maintenance: £20
Petrol: £100-£150 but OH claims his back

In my budget sheet, our outgoings including food for us and pets and all the other miscellaneous stuff like Netflix etc come to around £1800 (if I stick to our food budget which is rare as I'm a glutton).

Your fuel bills seem high to me we live in Scotland in a old cottage and our duel fuel is £65 a month.....
House insurance is dependent on the area ours is £160 for the year but we are rural Scotland.

You can also see if its possible to switch your water to metered so that you only pay for what you use.

We spend £1500 a month to our joint account for all bills but we overpay our mortgage at £900.

Ways to cut down easily is reduce meals out/takeaways, lunchtime shop visits so take your own, daily Starbucks/Costa etc

Mortgage has now gone down to £900 odd as it's under 50% we got a great deal.
Council tax £260
Gas & Lecky £100
Security monitoring £25
Sky & internet £80
Life insurances £100
Home & contents £30
Tv licence £12

I'd say you could be over spending on your gas & electricity. We're in a large 1930s 4 bedroom in Scotland and spend the same as you. We built up £200 credit paying that amount too.

Rent £425pm
Council tax £90 (band A flat with single person discount)
Electric £40 (no gas at my place)
Water £12
Various insurances £50pm total (life, contents and annual travel)
Internet and Sky telly £50pm
Mobile phone £30
TV license £12ish
Food about £200.

I have no loans and no debt, not even a student one as I didn't go to uni. I live in a rented flat with my one DS. No car as I don't need one where I live and it's an unnecessary expense while I'm trying to save for a mortgage.

I am a low earner but my outgoings are also low so I feel fairly comfortable.

Rent 356
Council tax 126
Water 35
Gas and electric 65 ( only use around 40 though)
TV 25
TV licence 13
Union 6
Car tax 15
Car insurance 104
Mobile 60
Food shop anywhere from 100-200 a month.
Holiday payment for next year of 60.

This is all for one adult and a 6 year old child, of a part time wage and maintenance from child's dad.

£360 Rent
£120 council tax
£50 Bt
£30 debt
£36 DDS dancing
£40 electric
£40 gas
£20 television license
£20 02
£48 bus pass

Our monthly out goings are £4k plus, that's for all household bills.

The person with the 2200 mortgage is making me itch 🙃

3 adults and one toddler in 3 bed semi. 2 of us work full time.

I actually don't think your outgoings are that bad. If you're looking to save, you should also be looking at how much you're spending on non essentials.

Our budget looks like this. We are not high earners. We each have £100 after paying for all this stuff!

Rent £900
Council tax £126
Gas & elec £112
Water £30
Virgin £45
Mobile contracts for me and DP £90
Home insurance £12
DPs car insurance £800 per year
His fuel 150 per month
My travelcard 4124 per year. Not a typo.
Childcare £850 a month with tax free childcare
Food £60-80 per week.

I've just entered my gas and electricity spend (along with my postcode) into Uswitch and they said they can't find me a cheaper deal at this time! Good to know I'm on the least expensive deal out there, for now at least.