It’s been a while since I wrote a World Events View, but I have to write about the state of living on your own today. The simple reason is that while I lived in Walsall, I saw the cost of living in the two-bedroom flat sky rocket, mainly as a result of my flat mate not sharing the costs, and in fact in the end buggering off to god knows where.

I have been making the argument with Mum and Dad for the longest time that to live on your own; you have to be on some substantial money. Regrettably I have been stagnant these last two years in terms of wage increases, I suppose it’s because I have moved into three different jobs during that time with two different companies, Capgemini and now Fujitsu, both major players on the outsourcing stage in their own right.

But during this time, despite living at Aunty Betts during the majority of this, I have still gotten into debt because of a few key areas;

1) I overspend on useless tat for the laptop, DVDs and games. Hoes will have their trinkets in my defence. And if I didn’t have the 500GB NAS, well, I would be able to install as much shit as I do now.
2) The Car. As Dad rightly put, it is a very expensive hobby, and petrol alone costs me over £200 a month due to travelling back and forth to Telford and other exotic places. That doesn’t include any breakdowns I might incur or the Taxes, MOT etc. The last one clocked in at £430.
3) The Social, I went seriously overboard on social activities as I found a pattern forming, when I went out, I had fun. I desired more fun, therefore I went out more. Strange that really….:)
4) Ladies. Put simply, I can’t help but spend money on my lady friends. I feel compelled by it, and frankly I think it’s worth it by the companion I gain.

Add these up and you find that currently I am overdrawn. By quite a large bit. To pay this all back may require yet another loan, but I have aspirations of going to places again this year, it may be for a larger amount repaid over 2 years instead.

But in order to live by myself, I would have to give up the social life, the girlfriend, and frankly buying anything for myself. Even borderline things which are required such as clothing. Essentially become the same hermit I became while living in Walsall, and even then I still spent money, so all in all I am fucked.

Let me price it all up as an example for you all:

First we have the Flat, a modest one bedroom affair in Shrewsbury and Parking Space. Price of £350pcm. Now then this price takes into account that the place is unfurnished, and all bills you will have to pay for. Bedsits and other scenarios we will look at later.

Next we have the good old council tax, which as it stands right now for living in Shrewsbury is £871.76 for the Band A category which would fit the flat description. Now if you are on your own you get 25% knocked off, notice this is not 50% as you would believe as the full price is dependent on 2 people at least living there. Per month, this translates to roughly £55.

Next are the Bills, now for some one with gadgets like me, let’s put the electric at around £70 due to rising costs. Now add the Water rates, which as it stands you can’t really find out without moving in but utilising Uswitch, we came out at £260 for the year. This can be cut down with a meter to around £191, but we will go with the slightly higher figure as an absolute maximum. Gas, well we won’t have for this scenario because it will make some people cry. Makes me cry at the prices of it again going up.

And of course, let us not forget food. This of course varies but lets say this reflects the most anyone would normally spend per month on their own (this includes lunches out from work) is say £150. By far too much, but it’s best to be sure even though there are those of us which will go over this regardless. Fat Bastards.

Now then we have the absolute bare essentials there. Lets total that up

Flat : £350
Council Bollox: £55
Electric: £70
Water: £22
Food : £150

Total Per Month = £647PCM

Now you might think that is very reasonable isn’t it? Lots of people can live on that. Now shall we add some figures to that, because we don’t take into account other things we need to do in order to work to live.

Travel: We need at least to travel to and from work. You have one real choice, and one other that unless you live in London, maybe Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester, is crap. The real choice first is a car. The bastard requirement of the 21st century. You need a car to go to work, do shopping, drive to other towns in other places for a mixture of activities. It has got to the point where if you need to go anywhere, you go by car. More and more people are using the roads, causing congestion and misery just for going to the place where you acquire the very cash needed for doing something they want you to. I know you can walk to work in some cases, but only if you are fortunate to live right next to it, or live in a city which leads us to the other (at the moment, joke) option. Public Transport. The very name makes some people laugh and cry.

In London, for that is the capital, and besides Birmingham is the one city I have spent the most time in, the public transport is very good. The tube system runs frequently albeit it’s hotter than my arse after a nasty curry during the summer, and all through the year at rush hours, which people tell you is a complete and utter nightmare. Buses run at all manners of times throughout the day, and the trains there are loads of trains to the capital, some cases every half an hour.

The rest of England frankly is shit. There is no other word for it. And more often than not it takes you longer on public transport than going in your own car. In some cases like the trains it can cost just as much if not more on some routes rather than just going by car. The cases of overcrowding on Trains is getting worse, which is now apparently pushing the pricing up. And to round things up nicely often you cannot get where you want to go via public transport. Unless it is a major town or city. Frequency as well is another question. It just is not worth it unless you live in a city.

Which brings us back to the car and the costs. First we have the car itself. You have to tax the bugger. This costs between free (if you have an expensive green car with no emissions) and £215.00 per year depending on the length of tax you pay for and also the type of car you are driving along with when the car was registered. Then for maintenance and insurance purposes, we have the MOT. Of which something always fails and you end up paying more than what was actually needed. Then we have the running of the car i.e. Fuel. The thing which is taxed so heavily it’s fucking stupid. As of the high costs of last year, for a tank which does 300 miles, I paid £26. this was coming up once or twice a week depending on the social side as well as work, so with this in mind I have come up with the running costs of £200 per month. I figured less because I would be travelling less distance from Shrewsbury to Telford. Still a lot.

Didn’t mention insurance in any of this have I? Car insurance is an inexact science and depends on allsorts of conditions. In Shrewsbury, the average cost for someone like me who has no claim history is £750 per year, which turns into £62.50 a month. Naturally this figure will vary and be cheaper really, but for this example it’s a fair amount.

Speaking of Insurance, I haven’t said about contents insurance for that flat of ours have we? Indeed we may have some things which are expensive and may wish to protect. But for now we will assume we don’t have any.

Now, let us factor in a phone. Either Mobile or Landline, but we tend to have both. Standard Landline from BT costs £11.99 a month at the moment. Mobile phones are a different thing entirely, and range for pay as you go to contracts. We will pretend that we talk lots and text lots and therefore have the contract at £30 per month. The landline is there for cheaper calls or for broadband which I will go into later.

Do we want to watch TV? I assume yes, despite the sheer amount of shit that is broadcast. The T.V. license currently stands at £131.50 for the year which is £10.95 a month.

I like Broadband. It allows me to have lots of TV. Not saying how, but it’s bloody good, and allows me to email, download shite, and play games online. People now rely on it to work from home in some cases. Chuck it in at £25 per month.

The price we had was £647. Now we have added other actual useful things

Car = £260.50
Phone Stuff = £41.99
TV License = £10.49
Broadband = £25

Total now reads = £984.98

Oh blow me down, you haven’t got any replacement clothes and shoes that wear and tear through time, factor in £30 a month for that and we are over a grand. Remember we haven’t even gone out with friends, allowed really for any circumstances except some of the car and clothing which could force you to pay out money, such as things breaking down, Holidays, all the good stuff which make life worth living. And the result is;

It’s turning more and more to be one or the other folks. Either Live at home, having the ability to go out and do actual things, or Live on your own, and do nothing. Of course this is not reality and some people are able to enjoy living on their own, but I don’t know many. Most people I know are sharing with others to cover the bills. Which I suppose brings us to Bedsits. Bedsits are great in that the bills are all shared and if we all pull together; we can have a really tidy place. Problem is you have to stand the people you are with, and in my experience, you end up pulling your hair out at them and end up wanting a place of your own anyway!! The example above only showed one type of living, a tiny flat, and in some places this would be a fantastic price for a 1 bedroom flat. It doesn’t factor in living in other places around the country and in London, the price is at least double, if not triple for the exact same thing.

As it stands, to live a decent life, and live in a tidy place, you have to have a lot of money coming in. A lot, and what I am currently on, doesn’t cover it at all. Will be a long time before I can achieve what I had before, and even then I was living on my overdraft.

Sorry campers, I went off on a rant but when I investigated costs of going back on my own again after all this time, it was just as ridiculous as before if not worse, and it really gets to me, that well I work full time, and it is not viable for me to be on my own. Makes you wonder if all that you do is worth it?