People who live on their own

[Largest of Gregs]

we(could) pay less than £40 a month all in

[Exit_W0unds]

I use a pre payment meter for both gas and electricity. I'm spending around £20 per month on electricity and far less than that on gas.

[Pier Angeli]

Originally Posted by Fenntastic

im the same. i totally notice how much stuff is on when im house sitting. but at home i dont bother about it.
lights hardly use any power, and in a one bed flat theres maybe going to be 5 ceiling lights or something. i doubt it'll be too sky high a month. maybe 25-30 quid or something. though it depends if you get somewhere with gas central heating or electirc storage heating....

I'm avoiding storage heating like the plague. Hate the fuckers.

Great, so £40 a month I can manage. My friend in EK says he pays £60 a month which I thought was a bit much, but I think he has storage heating.

Going to view a flat after work now!

Anyone got any horror stories about 24/7 Property Letting?

[Fenntastic]

aye, storage heating is horrible.

[Syxx]

I'm paying debt back to them so i'm paying more than usual, but around 45 on the leckie.

[Largest of Gregs]

Originally Posted by Pier Angeli

Great, so £40 a month I can manage. My friend in EK says he pays £60 a month which I thought was a bit much, but I think he has storage heating.

yes, storage heating is horrible, but the point of it is that it's economical and costs less.

Anyway, you can well do £40 a month as long as you're good at switching things off all the time when not in use!

[JennyPiccolo]

my electricity bill for 3 months in a one-bedroom flat was £144, btw. That's with a storage heater i use occasionally, and a tumble dryer. Also, i dont have gas so all the cooker etc is electric. You'll be fine. Living on your own is expensive, but well worth it.

[L@ur@]

i have one of those payment stick things that i need to top up and they are generally a lot more expensive.

but even at that i would say i pay about £40 a month.

it was like £60 when i moved in though. Just getting the place heated up.

Obv more expensive in the winter months.

the one thing about living on your own as well.. if youre cold you put on a jumper, you dont have a flat mate who just turns on the heater or constantly drying washing in the dryer n that. you are paying for what you are using.

xxx

[doogie]

Originally Posted by Pier Angeli

Anyone got any horror stories about 24/7 Property Letting?

Nah, I used them for the place I'm in just now - the place I'm in was with the Paisley branch and their office is in the same block as my flat so I can go and shout at them whenever anything goes wrong .... only been here a month and had a bit of a ceiling leak and they had someone round the next day.

[blondie]

I paid about 40 quid a month, by direct debit (you normally get a fraction of a discount doing it this way, and the cost is spread out over 12 months, so winter doesn't seem expensive to your bank balance). Once I was totally on my own I started to save a wee bit and the direct debit costs went down to accommodate the drop in usage. I then started to really try and save electricity, and just by turning lights out when I didn't need them, and only using the exact amount of water I needed to in the kettle, I left them and got about 200 pounds back off them That came in handy!

[~LEE~]

Where i work, we deal with gas and elec bills all the time so il give u all the info i can.

danny and i are on a monthly direct debit of £45 each on gas and elec. this works out with us paying a set amount each month and the bills balancing themselves out over the year. (paying the same amount each month yet in the summer you use very little gas yet still paying the same but in winter using tons more gas but still paying the same.)

with regards to elec, just make sure you are turning off things that you dont use. even the switches on the wall slowly burn elec, so switch them off, the saving will build up.

read both meters once every 1 to 2 months, keep a note of the readings and the dates and keep all of your bills, statements etc in a folder. when owing a bill that you want to dispute as being wrong, too high or estimated, this is the documentation you will be asked to provide to successfully dispute.

these months danny and i are in credit with both utilities since its summer, albeit the elec is just a few pounds in credit but the gas has a lot of credit.

if accounts are ever in credit when you cancel them, the credit will go to your final calculated bill so this is where you supply them your final meter reading. if, after allocating all credit to a final bill you have credit left, you get a rebate. if you do not, you will be sent the remaining bill.

hope this helps and anyone can pm with any more questions...

[Pier Angeli]

cheers for all the info guys

I found a flat, signing the lease and getting the keys on Tuesday! woo, my first place

[GreatKingRat]

Living on your own is great btw, I love it.

[Headwork]

Scottish Power tried to charge me £120-something for less than a months worth for gas & electric. NPower got me fixed at £40 a month for both. Which is nice.

[yummy mummy]

Originally Posted by madvoice

I've only moved into my flat so not got an idea yet, but set up a monthly payment of £39 (just for electric, not got gas here) to start with to see if that'll cover it, and then change it after a few months. That was the estimate given from scottish power so shall wait and see.



I thought it seemed like a lot, but gonna wait and see after the first few months if its too much/too little.

Wee tip for you, if you are all electric, Scottish Power are the most expensive supplier. Go on to moneysupermarket.com and check what's the cheapest for your area.

Originally Posted by Pier Angeli

cheers for all the info guys

I found a flat, signing the lease and getting the keys on Tuesday! woo, my first place

Well done