House/flat renting help and/or advice in London?

[Celini]

what is your closest tube station at work?

[canadian_turtle]

Farringdon is a 10 minute walk and Angel 15 :)

[Rainey]

Are you including your gas, electric, water, council tax into the £600 or on top, these are not cheap at the moment, you then need to add your mobile, broadband, food, clothes etc on top.

I would suggest doing a proper budget checklist, something like this http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/monthly-budget-planner that includes absolutely everything and don't underestimate as you could end up really srtretched.

[canadian_turtle]

Are you including your gas, electric, water, council tax into the £600 or on top, these are not cheap at the moment, you then need to add your mobile, broadband, food, clothes etc on top.

I would suggest doing a proper budget checklist, something like this http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/monthly-budget-planner that includes absolutely everything and don't underestimate as you could end up really srtretched.

Thanks, that's a helpful link! I have no idea how much water/gas/electricity is though (as it's currently included in my bills) but I was estimating £100 a month.

I don't use my mobile (only PAYG a few quid a month), don't need a TV-license or a phone. All I need to look into on top of the previous mentioned bills is wifi I think.

[Celini]

in a flatshare, utility bills+council tax are around £100 usually (WIFI included); after that, some people advertised with or without bills included

[Beate]

You will not get around a TV licence if you own a TV or a computer with which you can watch TV: http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/
Don't underestimate the costs of utility + council tax. We are p*ying £100 council tax a month alone, never mind gas + electricity that can add another £60 a month or so. Think about a water meter if you live on your own or with just one other person. You might not need a phone but if you want internet you will still need to p*y for a phone line.

[Celini]

You will not get around a TV licence if you own a TV or a computer with which you can watch TV: http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/
Don't underestimate the costs of utility + council tax. We are p*ying £100 council tax a month alone, never mind gas + electricity that can add another £60 a month or so.

I can watch TV (on demand) on my computer and don't need to p*y a licence... only if you watch live programmes...

I am also p*ying £120 (council tax/gas/water/elect/internet) and I live alone
This is why I think it can't be much more than this (per capita) when you flatshare...

You might not need a phone but if you want internet you will still need to p*y for a phone line.

or not, you don't need to have a phone line for Virgin (cable)

[canadian_turtle]

You will not get around a TV licence if you own a TV or a computer with which you can watch TV: http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/
Don't underestimate the costs of utility + council tax. We are p*ying £100 council tax a month alone, never mind gas + electricity that can add another £60 a month or so. Think about a water meter if you live on your own or with just one other person. You might not need a phone but if you want internet you will still need to p*y for a phone line.

You scared me with that one O_O But thankfully the site says:

Many TV channels are now available to watch over the internet. If you’re watching programmes on a computer or laptop as they're being shown on TV, then you need a TV Licence. However, you don’t need to be covered by a licence if you’re only using ‘on-demand’ services to watch programmes after they have been shown on TV. So, you need a licence to watch any channel live online, but you wouldn’t need one to use BBC iPlayer to catch up on an episode of a programme you missed, for example.

I don't own a TV and I do have a laptop but if I watch television on it it's only ever BBC iPlayer (good thing they listed that as an example!)

Council tax is expensive though, yikes. I suddenly appreciate listings that say "price includes council tax" a lot more!

[raj101]

you definitely dont need a tv licence if you are not watching stuff as its being broadcast. prerecorded but not live is all free of tv licencing laws.

theres practically unlimited amounts of tv you can watch that way, we've got a projector wire to the pc and its better than having a normal tv, to be frank.

[Beate]

Ok, ok, I just naturally assumed people have TVs!