To ask what are your actual household bills? Given the way things are going?

[Threestripesurout]

Just that really, with the way things are heading what are your household bills?
What will you get rid of first?

Mine are
Mortgage 760
Council tax 192
Electricity 110
Gas 100
Water 60
Phone x2 49.99
Netflix 6.99
Broadband 17.99
Life insurance 22
Food 80 per week (family of 4)
Fuel 60 per week (dh cycles to work)
No childcare thank god! My mum collects the dc from school and then I collect from hers after work

Obviously the Netflix would be going first as my electric and gas haven’t gone up yet.
I don’t know what else could go…life insurance?? Need the broadband for work as I wfh…

What about you?

Don’t ever ditch the life insurance

£60 for energy (am in credit at the mo)
£30 for water (need to get on a meter as I am in a 3 bed and live alone)
£117 council tax
£14 TV licence
£14.50 phone
£65 broadband (need to sort that!)
About another £40 for Netflix and other subscriptions.
About £120 for food a month. I have a dog, so she costs some too. Is not insured.
I don't pay rent/mortgage

It might not seem much, but my incoming is not much over £600 a month.

Monthly we pay:
£658 Mortgage
£97 Home/income/life insurances
£210 Council tax
£170 gas/elec
£53 water
£80 mobiles
£90 sky (Inc netflix)
£4 amazon music
£30 car tax (2 cars)
£27 domestic and general (all kitchen appliances)
£14 TV licence

Then we spend £100-150 on food a week (I'm a childminder so the food bill includes what I buy for work aswell)
We run 2 cars, tax is direct debit but insurance was £660 for the year on multicar policy.
Petrol probably about 40-50 a week but varies depending where we go

This thread is an eye opener. Our bills are a lot compared to the vast majority here.

Mortgage 1490
Ctax 190
Gas and electric - soon to be 235
Water paid annually so we don’t count
Service charge paid annually so don’t count in monthly bills
Pet insurance 18
Life insurance 120
Car 320
Car insurance 50
Spotify and Netflix 25
Tv license 13
Broadband 42
Nursery 1310

Around £3800 per month, not including food, petrol and a few other things

no keep the life insurance

i was 37 with 3 kids and my edidnt pay anything for the kids or house but i really struggled but kept paying the endowment by myself long story short he died and the insurance paid of the mortgage and some spare and boy what a differrence it made

the house is all in my name now and has made life alot easier,it was a small mortgage £30k and10k cash house now worth appro £290k,ive never been someone who is extravagant and my income is low but life is so much easier and can always down size if i want

idont have any debt which is good but please try and keep the premiums up

Mortgage / rent 0
Car insurance 155 paid in full
Water 595 paid in full
TV not sure, paid in full annually
Fuel about to go up from 85 to 225 a month
Gym 16 on a dd ( cant pay in full
Breakdown cover 5.20 per month
Council tax. I cant remember but it was less than 2000 but more than 1500, paid in full annually
Broadband about 30 a month
Phones not sure Dh pays them through his business
Netflix about 15.a month
Home and contents insurance 100 paid in full.
No loans or cc atm although every now and then have a bit of a splurge life insurance about 60 a month.
Food bill varies so much . Some weeks it may get up to 60 but generally around 25 mark ( 3 adults)
Car tax paid I full around 2p0 I think.

@notacooldad

Mortgage / rent 0 Car insurance 155 paid in full Water 595 paid in full TV not sure, paid in full annually Fuel about to go up from 85 to 225 a month Gym 16 on a dd ( cant pay in full Breakdown cover 5.20 per month Council tax. I cant remember but it was less than 2000 but more than 1500, paid in full annually Broadband about 30 a month Phones not sure Dh pays them through his business Netflix about 15.a month Home and contents insurance 100 paid in full. No loans or cc atm although every now and then have a bit of a splurge life insurance about 60 a month. Food bill varies so much . Some weeks it may get up to 60 but generally around 25 mark ( 3 adults) Car tax paid I full around 2p0 I think.

how can your food be so low?

Monthly outgoings for 2 people in a small flat:

Mortgage: 370
Water: 30
Gas and electric: 70 (soon to be 80)
Council tax: 96
Food: 150
Broadband: 20
Takeaway: 15
Charity: 10

We each pay 12 for our phones
I pay 52 for public transport
I pay Amazon Prime (yearly 79)
OH pays for most car related things
Ground rent/service charge are low (can't remember exact figures)

Monthly outgoings for two adults and a toddler in a 3-bed terrace:

Food (supermarket): £400
Mortgage: £215
Council tax: £123
Gas & electric: £115
Food (takeaways): £70
Water: £39
Broadband: £30
Contact lenses: £15
TV license: £13
Mobile: £12
Audible: £8
Supermarket delivery pass: £8
Netflix: £7
Amazon Prime: £6.58 (paid annually, £79)

We don't run a car and DD's 2 days at nursery are free as she is over 3.

Omg I'm bookmarking to show DH how the other half live. He thinks we can't afford our outgoings...

Mortgage: 258
C.Tax:. 139
Gas&elec: 118
TV licence 14
Water 47
Sky TV/phone/broadband Inc Netflix 67
2 X SIM only 11 each
Mortgage cover: 11
2 X life insurance 52
Building/contents 44
2 cars & insurance Inc 335
Fuel 30 both WFH
Food 360 - 3 adults
Static caravan 100
Caravan ins 11
Dog food 7 - 2 dogs
Ejuice 19 - 2 vapers
Spotify 9.99 shared
Credit cards 0% 110

Combined income 51,850.
I'm really thinking about giving up my car now we both WFH, it's on PCP my balance for which is 11085. Out of curiosity done a couple of sell my car queries and average offer has come back at 14400 so coul possibly make a little profit 😸

Mortgage £1k (we overpay)
Council tax £220
Water £80
Electric/gas £309 just been increased from £180
Virgin package includes phone line, fast broadband, sky Sport, by sport, sky movies, oomph package £120
Mobiles £20+£25+10
Disney Plus £7.99
Amazon £9.99
TV licence £13
Cleaner £110
Karate/swimming/cricket for DFS £208
Life insurance £78
Food £500 including pet food and toiletries.
Takeaway £160 (once week
DFS pocket money £50
Cats Protection £5
National Trust £11
Sponsor child £25

Other random birthdays, karate gradings/belts, clothing, shoes, meals out, etc

Lucky we take home £5400 between us.

I shall be cutting back on meals out and clothes as I have plenty I can wear from last year. I might cut out NT too as hardly ever use it. If necessary we can go back to paying £700 for mortgage.

I totally forgot fuel. £280

This is really interesting to see. All those payments to Spotify/Netflix/Apple & Google cloud back-ups/Amazon/Microsoft (Word, Excel etc...) All add up don't they?

And the broadband/TV packages like Virgin Media just go up all the bloody time.

Will list mine tomorrow as it's very late now and I should be sleeping but funnily am up worrying about our finances

But it's useful to see how other folk are faring.

Interesting to see the difference in food bills too

So your total outgoings are £1928 a month, and you and your DP earn 75k between the two of you? Meaning that you probably take home close to 4k a month between the two of you?

I think you'll manage without having to cancel your Netflix or life insurance OP. But if it comes to that, wouldn't it make more sense to cut your £100 phone bill?

Mortgage 720
Ctax 200
Gas and electric - estimated 120 (was 60 before fixed deal ended last month)
Life insurance 30
Car insurance 100
Netflix 7
Broadband 20
Food 200
Kids activities 60+40+60+50+50+20=280
Gym 30
House insurance 20
Pocket money for parents 200
So just under £2000 for these fixed outgoings. The rest is just occasional day out and meal out.
Joint income 180k

How come everyone's mortgage payment is so reasonable? We are in the USA and pay $3200 a month!

Mortgage - 620
Gas and electric - 170
Council tax - 215
WiFi- 45
Phone contracts x 2 - 70 (ish)
Subscriptions (Prime, Netflix, Now TV, Disney + etc.) - 50 (ish)
Water - 49
Fuel (petrol/diesel) - 500ish
Food - 600ish
Dog food - 40ish
Childcare - 700-750
Life insurance - 12
Various work related insurances for DH - 70ish
Horse share - 75
Cleaner - 115
Window cleaner - 22 (every other month)
Gym - 70

We'll be saving £200 a month soon as DH won't be working away anymore. 30hrs free starts soon, too, which will make a bit of a difference - actually, with the way inflation is going it'll probably just take us to net zero, but that's better than a loss.

Not in a position where we need to cut anything out at the minute - aware we are extremely fortunate. First things to go if we do will be Now TV, the horse share, the gym, and the window cleaner, plus shopping at a less expensive supermarket and choosing more unbranded options/less luxuries. I commute a long distance for work a couple of times a month but will look into taking the train instead if we start feeling squeezed as, although it would be really inconvenient to use the train because of the location, with the way fuel prices are going it will be cheaper to do that with my rail card than to drive.

I found a website that calculated the average cost of appliances.

TV off not on standby - save £24 a year!
LED energy saving bulbs - save £35 a year
Switch broadband off overnight - save another £24 a year

Peoples mortgage payments seem low. Ours is £1234 but we overpay. Are all these repayment mortgages or are some interest only because I don't understand why they are super low!

@youdialwetile

How come everyone's mortgage payment is so reasonable? We are in the USA and pay $3200 a month!

Contrary to popular belief not all housing is stupidly expensive in the UK. In many areas you could buy a family home at today's prices and have a mortgage of around £1000 per month, or possibly even less.

Then there's the people who bought years ago when prices were lower, or had a larger deposit etc. To be making payments of thousands of pounds/dollars a month, you must live in a very expensive area and be a high earner. Most people wouldn't qualify for a mortgage that size.

At the risk of sounding like a Viz top tip, lower your mortgage payment by living in a smaller property in a cheaper area.

Mortgage:£1700
Childcare: £2800
Water/sewer/bins (not Uk): £150
Gas: £80
Electric: £80
Broadband: £50
Phone: pay annually but maybe £20 for the family
Cleaner: £300
Petrol:£90
Health insurance:£350
Netflix/economist/Atlantic/newspaper:£50
Food: £750/month
Property tax & home insurance £750

We’ve cancelled Amazon prime and some other streaming and sharing more with family (everyone pays for 1) and driving less but we also hardly drive at all. Putting dc in full time preschool in the autumn instead of nanny + preschool. Redid mortgage early in the pandemic so very low rate. Throwing fewer treats in the cart at the shop. Should really cancel the Economist because it costs a bomb but I want newspaper journalism to still exist soooo…

@youdialwetile is that including your property tax and insurance? You must have a pretty big mortgage or a bad interest rate?

@Threestripesurout

You cannot afford to cancel life insurance. Ditch Netflix. Live on sardines and beans if you have to but do NOT cancel this. Please.

Where is your home insurance buildings and contents? How would you afford it if another storm hit your house?

Giff Gaff offer way cheaper mobile (contract free) deals. Leaving contract Vodafone and going to GiffGaff was the best hing i ever did. I now pay £6/month.