To go and live in a cheap room for a month or two

[Ripsinead]

With my partner who I currently live with (providing he agrees)
We currently live in the city centre (this is very convenient for us as non drivers due to work locations).
Paying £1050 per month including all bills and council tax, however this is for a studio flat. I pay a bit more due to our incomes, so I pay closer to £600.
I also have to pay £55 to student finance each month (this is due to a period I was working abroad) £110 CC debt, and honestly it's killing me.
Our flat is lovely but absolutely tiny.
I've just changed jobs and gone from weekly to monthly pay which is also killing me atm. I only have around £600 n savings.
Our tenancy is due to end on the 1st September. Part of me is very tempted to go and live in a flatshare for a month or two, where rent will be more like £350 each including all bills. I have seen some where you can just rent on a month to month basis without having to sign a tenancy which will be ideal.
We'd also get the deposit back from our current place.
I'm not saving and I'm anxious about paying next month's rent. I just want a month or two to save up a few hundred, then we can look for a more affordable property. Does this sound like a good idea? We're in Manchester.
Obviously he has to agree too.

It definitely sounds very sensible.

dose your work have showers or are you a member of a gym? When I flat shared I wouldn’t always use the bathroom at home for showers, I’d either go to my gym in the morning or at one job I had the company had a couple of showers for staff to use.

I flat shared through my 20s & early 30s I only stopped when I finally had enough and needed my own space, my rent tripled, commute tripled and travelling costs more than doubled, but at 34 I’d had enough of flat sharing.

I think it’s a great idea, I would look at doing it for 6 months to 1 year in order to really save up a chunk of money.

Which older people are we talking about? You certainly couldn’t get a 100% mortgage nor even borrow 4 times a person’s salary when we bought. We were lucky as it was post the late 80s crash, which was crazy scary. In the late 80s, houses also were totally unaffordable. Things go in cycles and hopefully they will again without massively crashing again.

Food and clothes were way more expensive in income percentage terms. To compare prices, I bought a leather jacket for £100 in 1987. My winter coat, which came from a now defunct shop similar to Dorothy Perkins (I forget the name) cost £80 in 1990. Leather winter boots over £50 and needed as there was snow, which turned to ice on the ground for about 2 months. My 65 litre rucksack bought at about the same time was £80. We can get all of these items for the same price today over 30 years on.

Considering your debt your partner should be contributing 50/50 surely as your salary is higher but your disposable income possibly isn't?

Why should the partner share the cost of the debt repayment? They aren't married or have kids.

We have read the thread properly but slapping short term plasters on long term problems keeps people poor.

Risking your current tenancy in a crazy rental market to save a few hundred would very likely end up costing you more down the line.

I think a lot of posters are just pointing out that you should review your spending/budget otherwise you'll always be in this situation.

Why should OP fund his living expenses partially? Using your logic they're not married or don't have kids.

OP said she contributed more to rent than he does

Well, quite. All rent and bills should be split 50/50. Then she covers 100% of her debt on top.

Yep, but currently they're not splitting things that way. Which is fine, I'm all for splitting based on income.

But in that case OPs debt should not absolutely taken into account too rather than her paying more towards the shared expenses and then having debt to pay for too. You're being taken for a ride OP

You have so much disposable income as a couple after you’ve paid your bills. I mean.. saving money is great and yes you’d possibly save a lot more if you did decide to go into shared living but I’m struggling to find the appeal especially as from my point of view… you aren’t struggling for money each month? I’d much rather have my privacy and freedom as an adult than be sharing unnecessarily.

I agree with this. Make sure you're splitting things right.

For me if you want a short term flat share fine, but make sure you will actually be able to get back into a solo flat after that. Will you be able to compete?

It might be better to get a summer job if you can.

As you’ve got a flexible tenancy so can leave before it’s due to end, I would look for something now for at least six months as others suggest, so you can save more. To be blunt, not many landlords will take couples in flat or houseshares, but you’d eventually find a double room in a decent area for £500 exclusive of bills. Good luck!

My biggest concern would be actually finding a suitable flat at a reasonable cost after you spent a few months in a flat share. The rental market is awful at the moment with as many as 20 applicants fighting for the same place and landlords jacking up the prices as a result. We are in an unfortunate position where we were served section 21 notice because our landlord wants to increase our rent by 65% and we only managed to secure another house from a client of my partner who asked us for 6 weeks deposit plus 2 months rent upfront. This is almost 5k gone just to be able to get somewhere to live. I would absolutely not leave a property voluntarily at this point in time.
If you struggle to afford rent over the next month, can your parents give you a loan? Then, you should be able to easily cover your expenses come September.
I would look at every conceivable option including extra job over summer, partner picking up some of the slack temporarily etc. before leaving a long-term tenancy.
I know you don't want money management advice but I would also seriously consider prioritising CC payments over savings once your work situation improves.

Me and my now husband started off our live together 22 years ago in a house share, it was fine. I'd do it OP and save as much money as you can.

the tram from zone 3 is £85 a month

sound sensible to down size for a while.

but with rental properties being much sight after, is it wise to let go of a tenancy ?

Sorry just read the update, could you get a bar job in the evenings?

but then surely the boyfriends will be reducing his rental payments further whilst the OP increases her rental payments as they share the rent on the earnings percentage they both make?

You have my sympathy OP; I'm currently doing a review of bills etc because it feels like we should have a lot more disposable income than we do, and when you look at your bills, it's depressing to see how quickly the little bits add up - I found I was spending in excess of £100 a month just on quick trips to the local co-op for things I'd forgotten in a normal shop or for snacky lunch bits! Definitely spend a bit of time reviewing your expenditure before making any big decisions.

The houseshare sounds like a good idea but the rental market is absolutely bonkers at the moment, so your plan of "just a couple of months" may end up being more than that while you try to secure somewhere else. That's the only bit I'd be reluctant to risk.

I was in a similar situation with Student Loans, not sure how it happened but the wrong payslips were used to calculate my loans one year and when I applied for postgrad study, they spotted it and set up a payment plan for me to pay it off. Might be worth getting in contact with them to see if you can reduce it further due to fluctuating income or even if you can pause the repayments until October? They definitely paused mine for a while when I was struggling to repay.

Completely agree with previous posters who have said you need to consider carefully if you’ll definitely be able to get somewhere else in a few months before you give notice. The rental market in Manchester is crazy at the moment - I just had a look on Rightmove and the cheapest non-sharing options I could find (in Chorlton and Gorton) were £650 per month. Assuming something similar were suitable/available and you didn’t have to offer over to secure it would you actually make a saving once you take transport costs into account?

Whilst I do think it's a good idea, I do think it would be better to do it for longer than just 3 months. Otherwise, you're not really getting much debt paid off or savings started. Is your current rent now at current market rates? Firstly, I would go back to your LL and say you can no longer afford the rent since the £200 increase (which in my personal opinion is a really big increase in one go), and try to negotiate it down to say £100 instead. It will cost your LL more to get new tenants in and if your LL is paying a letting agency, that'll cost a hefty re-let fee for LL, so really it's in LL's best interest to negotiate with you. Agree with other posters that getting back into a rental property will be tough as there is so much demand but if you have good credit scores, hopefully you'll get something eventually.

The OP is clearly young (late 20s, early 30s?), she has no kids, does not have regular work and from the sound of things hasn't been with her partner that long. That's why she should be in a houseshare. I lived in house shares all through my 20s, as did all my friends because that's what was normal in the 90s. Living in a houseshare means you reduce your living costs and had flexibility until you had more stability in your life. DH and I didn't buy a house until our 30s (in the early 2000s when prices were rising between the slump in the 90s and the crash in 2008).

As far as the cost of housing goes she lives in the NW where average house prices (£212,814) are considerably lower than the English average, and there's plenty of flats and terraces well below that in Manchester. So this isn't about how hard it is for young people in expensive areas to buy a house, it's about cost of living and how her RENT has increased dramatically and what she could do to ameliorate that.

A room in a flat share for a couple, in central Manchester that including bills for £350? No tenancy? I’d honestly be concerned it could be a scam, or there would be a catch somewhere.

You are also underestimating the hidden costs of moving. Even if you do get your full deposit back from your current place, some of it could be eaten up again in extra costs.

The deposit on your next permanent flat could even be higher again, so you could end up in the red.

You may need to buy some new things/ storage, even if the new place is ‘furnished’. E.g lamps and storage.

Kitchen might not be effectively kitted out/ people may not do their dishes. You may need to buy kitchen equipment if you don’t already have it.

What will you do with your existing belongings? Have you factored in the cost of storage?

Also, next summer you may find yourself in the same position if you don’t have permanent employment ….

Would you not consider looking for a cheaper flat/ permanent room to live in longer term? Save over a longer period?

Moving somewhere for a month or two is a lot to go through for the sake of saving a small amount, when you could live frugally to get yourself though the next few months instead.

I will still be considering the flatshare.

Just be careful who you share with. If one of the flat mates defaults on rent or shared bills , the ones remaining may be liable for those costs as well as your own.

I flat-shared for 8 years and only stopped when I reached 30 and found I couldn’t stand it any more. Having my own space became more important than having more money.

However, 8 years of saving meant I had a deposit to put down on a flat and only spent around 8 months renting solo (which I believe to be THE most expensive living arrangement, especially in London where I live).

Good luck and make sure you find nice flatmates because you always ends up flat sharing longer than you think you will be.

Depends. Are you sure you will be able to rent a comparable flat again in (about) 6-12 months? That would not be a given where I live... There is so much competition on the renting market currently.

Would you rent one room together or two rooms each? Sharing one single room, especially if there is no large(r) common area - which you would obviously have to share with your other flatmates - could put a massive strain on your relationship. I personally really would not want to do it unless absolutely necessary.

I agree with this:
Just to check, your joint income will be £3,200 a month in Sep and your total bills are £1,100 (housing) + £165 (debts) + £400 (average for food + essentials for 2 people) = £1,665. No travel costs. So if you have £1,535 left each month, why can’t you save some of it?