House hold bills

[SamDelta1]

I’m moving soon and trying to budget for bills. Given that I haven’t actually been the main finance person before I am
hoping someone could advise what the average costs for 2 people living in small 2 bed house would be. Gas, electric and water are my main concerns.

I’m based in the South East

I would say £140 a month for gas and electric.

Gas
Electricity
Water
Council Tax
Broadband and TV package
Buildings and contents insurance
Sinking fund for essential repairs and maintenance
Window cleaner

@missmarks Really, that much?! I had in mind less than £100. I don’t know where I plucked the figure from, perhaps just wishful thinking.

£30 water
£120 heating and electric
That’s what we roughly pay for a very small 3 bed semi detached in the Midlands

Thanks @OhTheRoses. I’ve budgeted for
those costs too, I’m just not sure how much to allocate to gas, electric and water.

£65 a month for gas and electric here in south west, family of four in three bed

We pay £55 a month for gas/electric and £35 water, 2 adults and one child in a 2 bed mid terrace house.

£140 sounds steep to me. We pay about £40 electric and £30 gas for a similar property with 2 of us in it. Water is about £400 a year (not on a meter). Council tax £150 a month. Internet and TV £45.

Myself and 13 year old son. I pay £75 a month in gas and electric and usually end up in credit by summer. Less than £30 a month water. I guess I’m careful but not excessively so. My son runs hot and I tend to be freezing whatever so lean towards curling up with a blanket rather than turning the heating higher.

Council tax is the killer for us as my home was converted after the time they take house prices from and is banded higher than 3 beds with massive gardens in the same area.

I’m always surprised at how much people say their bills are. I only work part time so am home a lot and da has PS4 running etc yet we manage to keep lower bills.

Thanks All, this is really helpful. I think my estimated amount is realistic after all. I just hope we don’t get a nasty surprise.

2 living in a 3 bed house north west

£70 direct debit for duel fuel. Recommended to pay lower but we build up to use the credit over winter. Depends on how much heat you like that can really quickly increase bills!

Council tax we pay in April outright but it would work out £140 ish a month over 10 months
£42 water United utilities
Tv and internet is personal but we pay £28 I think for internet - and have Netflix and prime( have for delivery anyway) . I have Disney plus too atm.

Food is approx £200 a month but we eat out too normally.

It will vary on lifestyle types too. Maybe if you can have a little set aside for emergencies or if you under budget etc.

We're two people in a 2 bed semi. Our gas and electric are £76 pm, but I'd expect that to be higher this year due to WFH.

Our water is £40 pm on rates - we tried for a meter but there was nowhere to put it and there was a shared pipes issue. I should look at this again now we've had an extension built as that may have changed and I would expect it to be lower on a meter.

But the costs can vary quite a bit depending on insulation, heating efficiency, appliance use, how much time you spend at home, how warm you like your house and the tariff you are on. Variations in those factors could lead to differences of a good few tens of pounds a month. It could quite easily be under £100 pm, but equally be more than that.

Make sure you are on the best tariff, that you have the best insulation available with extra measures like turning things off, closing curtains at night, not heating unused rooms etc, keeping the temperature lower -19/20 C instead of 23/24 C - put a jumper on or move around more if you are cold, dry your washing outside on dry days instead of using the tumble dryer, so you can reduce the cost as best you can in your circumstances.

Maybe take monthly meter readings for the next year to get a really good handle on your usage?

And don't forget home insurance.

We have a 2 bed semi in Medway and for 2 Adults our bills are as follows:

1. Gas and Electric: Ranged from £75 to currently £41 when eon recalculated
2. Council Tax: £130 (depends where you are, my parents pay about £160 in Kent)
3. Water: £27.60

and then I think house insurance is about £13

We are pretty frugal though and save where we can by keeping items unplugged when not in use, sharing baths etc :)

we live in a 3 bed semi in the north west, our electric and gas is £80 and our water is £30, we do have a very old boiler which i m sure puts the gas. Our buildings and contents insurance I get for the whole year which was about £130 this year.

Can someone explain how they're paying so much for gas and electricity? Me and my partner live in a 3 bed house in the SW and pay £25/month in total for gas + elec, plus £20/month for water. Sorry not trying to show off or anything, just don't know why it costs so much! We're on a fixed contract so am sure that changes things slightly.

@crambosk our boiler is very old and we use a dishwasher and shower daily.

The average bill in the UK for gas and electric is around £100 pm so £25 pm sounds suspiciously low unless you never have the heating on and are out a lot, don't cook at home etc.

£20 pm is not right for water as your region has notoriously high water rates. Somethings not right with those bills.

yeah, as i said i'm on some fixed rate with British Gas, online only deal so they might offer better rates, TW for water. I actually WFH (even before lockdown), so am home quite a bit, and we have two PCs on running pretty much constantly everyday (we're techy freaks), i just didn't realise that g&e could cost so much. we have dishwasher too and use the shower every day... though brand new boiler so that might account for something.