To ask opinions on a reasonable budget for a single woman in London?

[LookForSnowdrops]

Background: I desperately want to live in a flat on my own, post-Covid. I’m 30, and have had a really bad year. I am craving a space on my own.

I’m worried about finances, though - and it makes me so annoyed that living on your own is so difficult if you’re single in London.

Here’s my proposed budget. Has anyone else done something similar on this?

Rent - one bed flats in the area I need to live (I say ‘need’ as I walk to work in normal times, so am saving on commuting costs anyway) : £1250 per month

Bills: gas, electricity, water, council tax, internet (I think that’s everything?) guessing: £250 per month max

Fixed extra costs: phone, Netflix, Spotify, standing order to a charity: £60 per month

So - £1560 total per month on rent, bills and fixed costs. That will leave me with approx £890 per month left for everything else. I get free lunch and gym membership through work.

That’s £890 per month for entertainment, food, going out, general fun travel around London. Savings, holidays. Gifts. Lots of friends are getting married next year, so all the costs their weddings (abroad! Gifts! Hotel costs for one. Argh!)

Pre-covid, I used to go out 3-4 times per week: meals out, drinks out, theatre and cinema trips, exhibitions and lots of trips abroad. But I’m finding it impossible to estimate what all that costs now - it seems so far away.

So, anyone else who has been in this situation: what do you think? Is it possible to still have a fairly good standard of living in London with £890 left over per month for food, fun money, some travel and savings as a single woman?

Living on my own has been a dream of mine for so long. It seems so depressing that despite having worked my arse off since graduating it’s still potentially not really feasible.

So...words of wisdom or advice really appreciated. Thank you so much!

Many families live on far less with no free lunch! I would question your bills though - my council tax is that, far cheaper part of the country! My bills comes to £720, that includes internet, Netflix etc - will be cheaper on a flat but not less than half price

That’s a lot for ‘free’ money but you don’t mention savings. Are you planning to put money aside too?

The £890 would have to include savings, too. And @mootymoo my council tax would be about £120 per month (and I would be eligible for a single person discount, I think)

Families live on way less than that OP. As pp said, you may want to think about putting a little aside for savings.

If you do struggle, you could cut down the amount of times you eat out/go out - you could have friends over if you love on your own or there is loads of free stuff to do in London.

Cross Post and also I clearly meant live.

@mootymoo that is helpful though. £720 is enormous! I figured - about £35 per month for water, £30 for internet, £40 electricity £30 gas? Is that wildly off?!?

The bills need looking at in my opinion.

When I lived in a flat the heating was more expensive than my much larger house. Council tax in London? I can’t see it being much less than £140 per month and broadband around £30-40 so I’d think £350 was more reasonable.

Otherwise your surplus is obviously loads.

First question which depends on your job is whether you need to live in London at all? Theatre and cinema trips could be only a few times a year, and a bit extra train fare for those could be more than offset by lower rent being a distance outside of London.

Rents are dropping in central and inner London at the moment (I know, I'm a LL). Don't be afraid to haggle, you might be able to shave £100-150 off the advertised price - if that's what you are using as a guide.

£1560 is my monthly wage that has to support both me and my child and that has to cover everything. I wish I had £800 pm to spend on going out with my friends, holidays, savings, etc. I'd be living the life of riley if I had that!

I think your bill estimates are fine.

You should be able to live comfortably as long as you are sensible about the ‘going out’ bit. It is easy to spend £60+++ on a decent night out in London (and much more).

Have you factored in drinks, taxis, meals out etc? These really add up.

So, you won’t have money worries, but you won’t be able to go out 3-4 times a week, realistically.

I also think you have underestimated bills, although a large driver of that will be the council tax and that varies a lot. Your leftover sounds fine for day to day living and going out but maybe doesn’t give a lot of room for savings and travel.

Hey, I think it looks ok. However do look at what it would cost to commute from a cheaper area it might be worth it. You won't know the exact sum for council tax and utilities as they will depend on the property. I live outside of London but the lowest council tax is about 110 a month. So do get an estimate of what your target area costs first.
890 is a generous amount to be left with.
Good luck!

Council tax in London is often the lower end. Westminster or Battersea are best and with single person discount could be less than £100pcm

@LookForSnowdrops
I think your utilities bill estimates are fine. I pay roughly that on a two bed flat (not London).

And if you have looked into council tax rates with discount in your area that is good too.

£890 left a month after main bills is a huge amount. I think you should be fine.

Sounds fine to me (and I am a single woman living in London). I spend about £50 on gas and electricity combined. Council tax really varies between boroughs, as I'm sure you know.

I live alone nearish London and my bills are higher than that. It's a new build flat with good insulation but poorly designed eco-friendly heating which costs more than it should, and needs portable air con in the summer, which adds to electricity costs.

more like £50 for electricity, £25 for heating, £125 for council tax, £16 for water, £16 for house insurance, £30 for phone/broadband. £8 for amazon prime videos. Also for me I have car insurance, which you won't have, and income protection and critical illness, which presumably you won't have either if you're on a salary, and all that adds another £200. Then TV license that I pay monthly, and prescription pre-payment, another £20 or 30 going out of the account. Service charge for the flats is another £150 on top of the rent. And then two hobbies that I have joined have subscriptions that are again around £32 in total a month. It really adds up quickly!

And hair cuts, another £60 or more a month, as I need colouring. Things like contact lens orders, dental plans, appointment costs for that sort of thing, upgrades for phones, etc all add up too and need saving for.

then anything you want to save for longer term, not just for holidays and short term stuff.

Living alone I find that a lot of things end up more costly than you think, with nobody to share any of the costs with, and even food somehow ends up more, as you are more likely to buy ready-to-cook meals rather than waste bits of leftover veg etc, and lots of things come in big packets that are more than you need, but have to buy anyway.

good luck.

Thank you, this is so helpful. Yep I have checked the council tax and it will be around £120. @IrenetheQuaint I’m glad you think it’s do-able.

@everythingcrossed yes, I’m going off the advertised prices online. That’s good to know there might be room for haggling...

I don’t have a good grip of utility bills (despite having owned for about 10 years), but instant thought was that was a bit low.

Have you also thought about any big expenses that could crop up and averaged that over the year (I guess most would be covered by virtue of the fact you would be renting).

You could have a look back over previous years to get a feel of any big ticket items and your previous general expenditure to see how that budget would ‘feel’ compared to now.

Also agree on savings and a rainy day fund.

But on the face of it, that looks like a good amount per month to have spare.

@Thimbleberries income protection and critical illness cover? Can you expand on that? Is that something necessary? I’ve never heard of anyone having that. Mortgage insurance, yes, but not additional income protection for renting?

If I’m ill I have 5 months full pay from my work. Interested to hear more. Is this something people have?!

In your shoes I would go for it. If you will be living pretty centrally there are so many free things you can do post COVID if you so wish. Galleries, walks along the Thames, all the fab parks, museums. I don’t think you will regret it. And if in time you team up with someone expenses will halve if you cohabit?

@Thimbleberries also thank you - it was really helpful to see fixed costs listed like that. I had forgotten about contact lenses and dental stuff, although I do have a Bupa plan through work which reimburses some health things.

Contents insurance?

Travel to work / season ticket / travelcard?

Could you manage in a studio flat. which might be cheaper?