Average cost of running a household

[maym]

Hi all

Me and my boyfriend and currently in the process of buying our first house.

We have never lived on our own and although we have been paying bills/rent to our parents we want to get a general idea of how much per month minus the cost of a mortgage and food shop it is to run a household.

We will be buying a 2 bed flat in Essex and it will be just us two living there with our DD who is due in January.

The things we are thinking of are:
Council tax
Water
Gas
Electric
Tv License

Just a general idea of what people pay would be great I know everyone's situation is different but a rough average would be helpful.

Thanks in advance!

I’d imagine that £250 might be doable for a 2-bed flat.

However, it can vary surprisingly as some places coucil tax can be double that of other councils. Very efficient appliances and lightbulbs etc can half your bill too. And you need to shop around for deals as pricing on gas and electric does vary a lot.

Make sure you budget for service charge too (usually there with flats).

Don't forget contents and buildings insurance.

Service charges.

Yeah, insurance (contents and any appliances that are insured separately) Netflix, Spotify, amazon prime, car costs, etc all add up.

Go to comparison sites to get the best deals. And all the Netflix type stuff is not essential, but if you want them, it's worth fa toeing the cost in.

All of the above but I would also factor £50ish a month in for a "rainy day" fund like your boiling breaking or some other unforeseen event. Just set up a DD for it to go automatically into a savings account.
If things are tight it can be difficult to be disciplined enough to do this but much better to have it there just in case rather than getting stung by high interest loans etc at the time of need!

Gas
Electric
Water
Council Tax
Tv license
Mortgage repayments
Buildings & contents insurance
Life insurance
Mortgage protection
Mobile / landline
Sky / netflix
Car insurance /tax / fuel
Groceries
Savings

Shop around using comparison sites for your insurance and utilities, there are 2 adults my 15 year old Ds and a cat in our house and I work on an average of £60 a week for groceries (food, toiletries, cleaning stuff).

We pay between us for

Water
Electric
Gas
Council tax
Tv license
Sky tv and internet package
Netflix
Amazon prime

Comes to around £450 extra a month

As well as things mentioned above you might want boiler cover if you don't have savings to cover the cost to repair or replace it if it breaks down.

Is it freehold or leasehold ?
If it's leasehold there are generally extra charges to pay
Are there communal area charges ?