Average cost of utility bills?

A question about : Average cost of utility bills?

Official MSE Insert:

If you've arrived from Google, our Utilities section may be useful. It's also worth checking out our Budget Planner.

Back to the original post...

Hi all, I'm just wondering if I could ask what your average utility bills are?

Now that I've graduated and have got a job for September, I'm planning on moving out with the g/f and renting a 2-bedroom flat. I'm just trying to do a budget/cost breakdown to make sure that we can afford it whilst still being able to save money each month.

I've put down Ј50 for electricity and Ј30 for gas, then Ј20 for water but am not sure if this is a good estimate or not?

I'll be working full time and will be out of the place from 7 til' 7 and she works as a nurse so will be home at different times each day.

Thank you

Best answers:

• Not sure if this helps but myself and boyfriend work 9 - 5pm daily Mon - Fri and have a one bed flat and our bills are:
  Elec: Ј16 per month (cost of bills over year divided by 12)
  Gas: Ј22 per month (again, split over the year, use less in summer).
  Council Tax: Ј120 per month
  Water rates: Ј36.66 per month
  TV licence: Ј139.50 per year
  BT Broadband and Land line: Ј32 per month (Option 3 deal)
  Dont forget insurance too - we pay (I think) Ј150 ish a year just for contents.
  You can get phone bills down by doing a 1899 or 19185.com override provider to get cheap calls in the day, and Primus free calls eves and weekends - check the "Phones" advice on this website. There is also cheap broadband - check this website too.
  Hope this helps!
• I am in a similar situation to you and have recently been doing the same as you, due to move into a 2bed house in september. I based my estimates on my mums bills who lives in a 2bed flat with 3 of us living there!
  Her electricity is approx Ј30 a month, Gas Ј50 a month, water approx Ј35 - remember there are 2 water bills, the normal water and also sewerage
  I have seen a couple of bills for this new place we are moving to (2 occupants), there gas is under Ј30 a month, water Ј15 a month and the sewearge Ј18 a month, I havent seen an electricity bill though. My advice when you move in is to check the price comparison sites to see if you can save any more pennies - thats what I plan to do. Also consider using a supplier who offers a capped rate - energy bills are on the up! Also dont forget things like your council tax, TV licence etc.
  Hope that helps a little bit!
• think my mum needs to take my advice and get on the price comparison sites - poppysocks whos your elec supplier??
• Also forgot to say, with the Council tax, although its Ј120 a month that is for 10 months of the year, so you dont pay it in Feb/March, you just do 10 payments of Ј120 (or whatever your council tax band price is).
• I have a 2 bed flat that I live/d in on my own. My bills are as follows :
  Contents Insurance Ј13 (Buildings ins included in quartlerly management fee)
  TV Ј11.95
  Countil Tax Ј78 (25% single allowance included)
  Gas / Electric - Ј35 per month for both - paid standard DD (gets adjusted accordingly in winter - dependant upon usage)
  Maintenance charge - Ј130 a quarter
  BT Ј32 a quarter (Option 1) - don't use the landline much - mainly use mobile for free minutes
  Broadband Ј15
  Water Ј22
  
• It will depend a bit on whether your heating is gas central heating or electric storage heaters, whether your cooker is gas or electric, whether you plan to have/use a tumble dryer (uses quite a bit of electric).
  For a guide - we have a 2bed flat (2 adults at work all week plus 2 kids for half the week) we are on prepay (which are a bit more expensive and use:
  approx £1.10 a day on electric (electric cooker, no tumble dryer but use a dishwasher most days and kids have tv and sky box on all weekend in bedroom and front room :rolleyes
  Gas in the summer is about £15 a month for the hot water and in the winter works out about £60 a month with hot water and heating.
  Our water rates are just under £30 a month.
• Thanks for the advice so far
  I think I've included everything needed, everything from utilities through to tv licence, internet, food/drink/household, emergency money, council tax, insurance, etc but just wanted to get an idea of utility bills. I've now changed the budget to Ј40/month for electricity and Ј35/month for gas and Ј35/month for water, hopefully that will cover our usage with price increases.
  We've still got money left over for savings (Ј500/month) plus emergency money (Ј50/month), entertainment I put as Ј60 'just in case' but hopefully won't use all of that, misc items Ј20/month plus costs of running one car.
  The more we can save each month the better!
  The flat we are going to look at is a newly renovated one (by a family friend) and will have a new kitchen, bathroom and brand new gas fired central heating. It's going to cost between Ј750-Ј800 a month according to the friend but hopefully it'll be worth paying a little extra to have a 'new' flat. We live in the SE of England.
• Oh right - My water and sewerage is the same company. Didn't know it could be supplied by two! ... Learn something new everyday! (We are oop North - United Utilities)
• Hi
  I was with EDF so based costs on this, but as they hiked up their prices i just switched to e-on capped rate, but to be honest we have such a small flat and I am out the flat from 8am to 7pm and have showers at the gym so I dont use much elec or gas really. But worth doing utility comparisons to see who is cheapest for gas and elec when you move in and turn things off if not using them etc. We only put heating on as a minimum as partner has asthma and it makes it worse. Would rather put jumpers on, have a hot drink and sit under a duvet!
  Its a great idea to do a spreadsheet of all costs and have reminders to check when contracts run out so that you can run price comparisons (with advice from this website). Good luck, you will be fine!
  Also - we do online tesco shopping so we always know what our food bills will be by the way, which does help.
• Good idea about online shopping, it might be worth paying the Ј5 delivery charge a couple of times to see how much it'll actually cost us in total.
  I've put down Ј60 for food/drink per week and Ј10 for household items (cleaning products, loo role, etc), do you think that'll do for 2 adults? We won't be buying extravagant things but I want to make sure that we've got everything covered!
  Thanks
• Forgot to say, to help us budget we set up a joint account for bills only, so we both have a big amount per month automatically put into the bills account so that we know we have paid the bills. And it stops arguments on who pays what! We also set up monthly direct debits for all the utilities from this joint account so that there is no big bill and the phone, elec, gas, water, tax etc all get taken monthly by DD. We budget the amount for the tvlicence and house insurance over the year and split it by 12 to know what the monthly amount is to cover this, which again comes out of joint account.
  It really helps, then you know that money left is yours. We also put in the monthly amount we spend on food, so I have a lump sum of Ј600 going into the joint account to cover rent, food, all bills etc so at least I know where I am with money. Its worth considering, and it takes no maintenance as its all done by Direct Debit, with a standing order between my current account to the Joint Account.
• Yes Ј60 a week is fine - we do Ј120 a month online, then top up with local fruit and veg and meat. So it really works out ok. we tend to buy in bulk so a bit cheaper.
  I assume you dont have a car as havent mentioned that in your budget?
  Asda do home deliveries and they may be cheaper than tescos. Look on the spending/shopping link and there is a supermarket comparison link. Differetn times of week are cheaper too.
  re house insurance, when you renew its worth doing online quotes, and that goes for any of your suppliers.
• My weekly 'big shop' last week cost me Ј43 - thats for 2 people - Didn't include alcohol or washing powder this week. I also don't buy any ready meals as I like to cook from 'scratch'.... did include a few 'fancy' items as my parter calls them.... Italian meats, artichokes (Ј2.89!!), and extra virgin olive oil (Not cheap!) and elizabeth shaw mints! mmmmm.
• Sorry missed the bit about your car, but you sound really organised, so that is great, its nice to know you have covered everything and its great to know what you have left, plus you can just transfer any extra savings to your savings account at the end of each month.