Realistic bills budget (single parent)

[FancyCatSlave]

I’m mid divorce and prepping for what the bills are likely to be. I have lived alone before but not for a long time.

Me and DD (will be 6) 50/50 custody.
DD has school dinners (universal free) and goes to wraparound where she has an early tea so only needs snacks/light supper on school days.
Shop at mostly Lidl/Aldi but live rurally so not a huge choice of shopping elsewhere.

Do you think £350pm (inc cleaning/detergent/basic toiletries) is realistic? Too much? Not enough? I think we do £500pm or thereabouts now but ex does the catering and he is not frugal.

Gas/Elec - for an average 3 bed is £200pm likely to be enough? We have an efficient air source heat pump and insulation so I’m out of touch with more normal set ups. I don’t want to be cold but also don’t need it heating to tropical temps.

House insurance - ours is listed and thatched and costs a huge amount. I know it’s area dependent but is £40pm realistic for a more normal house (nice areas, I’m not moving far and it’s low crime/rural)?

It’s months away yet, we’re not ready to sell until the winter so I have no specific house in mind yet but trying to knock up a spreadsheet of reasonable costs. I have all the rest like council tax and tv/broadband etc but these are the ones I am stuck on.

Those sound about right to me. My gas and electric are £210 for a 3-bed terrace but it’s old and draughty in Winter, so yours will likely be a bit less.
Your grocery bill sounds doable too. £350 will cover you if you are being frugal, £500 would leave room for a few treats, or the odd takeaway, bottle of wine or whatever.

I’m a solo parent so my kids are here 100%. We are 320 pm for food shop inc cleaning. Kids are primary age and get universal dinners.
£80 pm for electricity/gas. We have a new build which retains heat well thankfully.

I think you'll be fine with a £350 pm grocery budget if you have access to Aldi/Lidl, you might even be able to do it for slightly less than that so able to free up money to save or spend on other things. You'll probably save more than you imagine when you're not feeding a man, they tend to eat more and want more expensive food - lots of meat. So many women say they're not that bothered by a big meal in the evening but their partners insist, so imagine the reduction in cost from steaks all round to a couple of omelettes for you and DD.

Your gas/electric could well be quite a bit less than that unless you move somewhere with poor insulation and/or electric heating. Ours is about £110 pm for an extended 2 bed with electric shower and cooking, which is more expensive than gas and we're not stingy with the heating.

Insurance is also likely to be cheaper - ours is about £25 pm and we pay extra for very expensive mountain bikes.

When you're house hunting, bear running costs in mind. You can check council tax online, but if you're rural, heating might be a big variation, especially if the property doesn't have mains gas so you're stuck with expensive electric heating or oil, best avoided unless the house has other significant advantages.

I am a single parent , two DD's . We spend probably 400-500 a month on food so yours sounds reasonable if she is only there 50% of time.

I pay £110 a month electric /gas for a 2 bed house.

We’ve had oil plenty of times, the current house we converted over from oil last year. If I stay in this village (the ideal outcome) it will definitely be oil as there’s no gas and I’ll convert it as soon as I can. But if I am further away where there is gas then I won’t necessarily convert straight away if the boiler isn’t old. It just depends on what the other spending priorities are. I don’t mind oil in some ways as you don’t get nasty surprises on your usage and can manage the cost to some extent by filling in the summer when the price drops. But on the odd occasion when there’s none to be had it isn’t much fun! And environmental credentials matter to me (also drive an EV). Ultimately I love a heat pump, we’ve had them in 3 houses and they are ace when working well in insulated houses but the wait list to get them in can be long so I need to expect 1-2 years of living with what I buy.

I’ve got all the other costs eg council tax, broadband, water as they won’t change much apart from the 25% discount on the council tax but good to know on the food/insurance. Current house is around £125pm to insure as the rebuild costs are massive. The thatch alone is about £60k. I’m trying to resist buying another although they are hard to give up. That’s the thing I am saddest about. Ho hum.

That sounds very reasonable. I’m trying to plan for a worst case scenario just so I don’t leave myself in a stressful position. I earn reasonably well (circa £60k FTE although currently on slightly less as not quite full time). So it should be possible to live a fairly ok life, even if not a flash one.

Once I know what the likely outgoings are I can assess what maximum mortgage I am comfortable with. I keep getting tempted with things at the likely top end but have to remind myself that it is probably better to play it safe. I lived in 2 new builds before that were so warm and cheap to run so I am definitely keeping them in the mix, although there are very few around here. It’s mostly cottages or 1950-80’s housing stock.