Ok so have decided to buy my first home as ive saved up enough for a desposit on a nice new build in my home town

but while doing the very handy budget calculator on a certain money saving webpage there are a couple of questions i cant answer as i just dont know so looking for help

Q. How much does it cost per month to provide eletricity to a 2 bed flat (both heating and power) its only me living in the flat?

Q. How much would a individual spend on food in a month? not including booze at the moment i just pay my digs to my folks so no real idea how much should be in this bit

Cheers in advance (any other first time buyer advice appreciated)

If you are sensible, £30/mo for leccy (if it includes heating, in a new build flat) and £50/w for food I reckon. That's at the supermarket, and is pretty generous. You could easily get it lower than that if you wanted. That also does not include going out, or beers.

cheers molgrips I'm pretty good with food stuff i make almost everything myself and if I am out buying i buy from aldi lidl etc, going out / beers is a seprate bit on the sheet and ive already filled it in a scared myself at how much i spend in the pub!

Sounds about right. I live on my own in a two bed new build flat (for the last 4 years). My electricity is about £16/mth but I never have the heating on so £30/mth is probably about right.

Food I spend £30-£40/week at Sainsburys, so £200/mth should cover you easily if you're shopping at Aldi/Lidl.

i live on my own in a draughty sheffield terrace, well above the snowline.

i pay £80/month for electricity and gas, sometimes i'm ahead (summer), sometimes i'm behind (winter), but it seems to average out. a new build flat will be considerable cheaper.

i give myself £80/week for food and beer, not including restaurants.

my 100year old terrace was built by unskilled people who were paid with beer, in a hurry, to a tight budget. i dream of living in a new build…

We're paying:
£70 for Water and Leccy +
£12 for TV license +
£50 for Insurance +
£15 for Landline +
£110 for Council Tax +
£67 for Ground Rent +
£250 for food for 2

We Never use the heating or Tumble Drier.

Worked out all the other monthly costs?

TV licence – £12 pm
Water
Council Tax
Insurance
Phone
Broadband etc.

Reckon £200 would do you for food.

Go for it.

But would always buy a house/flat and expect something to be not quite right. New builds at least you should expect everything to work (make sure you get the guarantees etc. from the builder), but have a little bit of cash because they'll be something you've alway overloook. Like a dining table, or a TV, of just daft things like a kettle/microwave.

FWIW when we lived in a new build flat (a large city centre block, so concrete etc) we had fancy modern leccy heaters, and they hardly needed to do anything. I think our neighbours had theirs cranked up loads.

And if money is tight, scour your local supermarket for sale boards for cheap furniture.

😉

cheers folks
Breatheeasy yeah ive been working out the other costs, that budget planner from money saving is great

dont pay for water as im in scotland
insurance should be around the 200 mark
phone broadband and tv all going thro sky as my brother works for them and i can get a discount

food seems really expensive!!

It'll seem minor next to how much a new-build flat will drop in value over the next few years.

Don't forget, if you're buying a flat you're almost certainly only buying a lease. There may be annual "service" charges you also need to pay, and in any communal areas it may be down to the residents to pay for upkeep.

Check the small print 🙂

woody already asked this there is a factoring fee of 125 per quarter for the cleaning and up keep of the communal areas

I thought that was quite fair?

I'd still check the small print, there may be a limit on what it covers. Either way, it's still another £500 a year you need to find. And it'll go up at some point, I guarantee it 🙂

insurance should be around the 200 mark

That's way too much for home + contents. Or are you talking about all insurances together, car etc?

£125/qtr seems fair. My maintenance fee is £53/mth.

You shouldn't need to insure the buildings, should you? Contents insurance should be less than £200.

will do woody

i dont have to cover buildings insurance as thats part of the maintenance fee the 200 figure i put was only for contents….bit high??

£200/year maybe 🙂

Yes you always need to insure the buildings – it's a condition of the mortgage to cover rebuild if it burns down or a plane crashes into it or something, flooding etc. As a landlord and a renter at the same time I am very familiar with the vagaries.

don't do it! buy a barge and live on that, become a water pikey!

Why insure the building – it's not yours. As I said, it's a flat – you buy a lease, not the actual building.

*having had a bad flat experience
1 Go round block, pick some random flats and ask about freehold owner/management company/annual costs …. and whether they are meeting their side of the contract, if there is a residents committee etc try and speak to them
2 as I understand it (and I'm probably wrong) the owner has to insure the building, so check that buildings insurance exists – ie we found out the the freehold owner was saving money, by not insuring the building ….
3 – find out what you are expected to contribute to/for – I have never understood why a leaseholder should pay for structure – so if you pay for the roof I'd suggest you consider that (who pays painting/gardening/maintenance etc etc etc) and are there any big costs in the future and how are they divided across the flats – e.g owner had a flat that, surprise, surprise was excluded from the contribution mechanism
4 – I'd ask about noise, and problem tenants,

sorry how long is leasehold (*as it will devalue below certain suprisingly high %s more then pro rata) and see if you can enforce that when you sell the leasehold is reset to 999 etc years –

Sound advice Gus 🙂