Home alone (what now?!?!)

Mum and Dad sigh with relief because finally, you have left the nest - but now you have to experience the rocky road that they call tenancy.

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You may start to wonder how the people around you make it look oh so easy, but i'd be lying if i said that it was done wrong. You will be ending your journey to independence as fast as you can start it.

I'm telling you from experience the grass may seem greener on the other side, but you have to take into consideration the cost of maintenance of such good looking grass.

Its so very important that you are ready to take this step into unfamiliar ground, so ask yourself, are you ready???

If your answer was yes, then im about to give you some advice that i hope stays with you to then one day pass on to your own children. I wont start with the glum, scary and quite boring parts of living alone.

Living alone is great, for me the best bit was no curfew, being my own boss, having my friends around, throwing my clothes around without that nagging voice behind me yelling "clean it up". No!!! i became queen of my own castle and I was loving it.

There are so many pros to living alone, you learn so much about yourself with taking a journey like this. This would be a step towards your future as a progressing adult, learning skills that you could never learn living with mum and dad.

With that said lets get down to the serious stuff. I'll start at the beginning, now the type of property that you will get is uncertain. But what is 100% certain is that it will come with bills. If you are not used to budgeting I suggest you start to get yourself into such habits now.

The most important thing when living independently is sufficiently budgeting. Right now your priorities probably consist of the newest trainers, the most expensive clothes that your favorite celeb got snapped wearing and lets not forget the top of the range phone.

Im sorry to break the news to you, these need to be bumped down on your list of top priorities. Dont get me wrong, you can still have all of these things in abundance but they no longer come first in your day to day life. The key bills you will face are rent, council tax, water rates, TV licence, gas and electricity.

These are your "can never get away from bills" They are there from the day you move in. Before you can prepare yourself to pay for them, its very important that you get them up and running. Id hate for you to end up like me, non the wiser trembling in a dark cold corner of my flat.

Most properties for safety reasons have the gas capped(shut off) and it is your responsibility to get in contact with your landlord to have this reinstated. I personally feel that once the keys are handed over this should be the first thing on their list. But hey, once you all vote for me to be the next prime minster ill be sure to put that rule in place.

Until then it is down to you to organise who is going to get your custom for the gas and electricity. Its sign up time!!! and just as thrifty as you are when you are choosing your mobile phone contract , haggling o2 and giving EE an old tom-atom. The same skills will be needed to get you the best deal from your energy provider. Sites such as compare.com and money saving expert are quite useful.

Now that you have your gas on and your lights working, dependent on your circumstances you may be entitled to help and support through benefits. Check your eligibility as every little helps, if you can get a bit of assistance in small areas take it. Don't ever feel too proud to accept help.

Also don't feel disheartened if you are not eligible for such help, all will be fine. I mentioned earlier about your key bills, first and most important being your rent. This starts to be charged from day 1 of your tenancy. Make the relevant arrangements to have this paid. Whether it is setting up a direct debit or requesting a rent payment card from your landlord.

If you are eligible to apply for housing benefit attempt to have a form filled out and submitted to your local council the day your move in date is confirmed. This will ensure that your rent is covered from the day you drop your first bag in your new home. Next your council tax, what is this you ask??? council tax is a cost that you are liable to pay as a tenant.

This money goes to your council to cover cost such as police, churches, bin collection, maintenance of areas of the community etc. You cant opt out of this, believe me i've tried.

And from experience i suggest you pay this promptly. Failure to pay will lead you to being taken to court and banging your head against a wall screaming "why didn't i just pay" its not worth it, and besides if they don't do all of these things I hope that you're prepared to take your own rubbish to the dump each week and arrest your own local criminals.

I didn't think so...so pay your council tax to have such things done for you. id like to soften the blow a bit and say that all of these bills don't come demanding money all at once, you can pay monthly amounts or weekly, whatever suits your lifestyle.

you will have running water in your property and your landlord should be able to advise you on who provides your water but if all fails our good old friend Google could answer that question for you.

And yes you will need to ask that question, Do not think you have got off easy because there is already running water. Avoid paying for your water and the bill will grow out of control. Pay it! you have options of how you pay.

Always remember that you are in control of when and how you pay. make arrangements with your provider. They want to get paid so they are more than happy to help. Last but not least your TV license, if you have a TV and you are watching live television then you must pay this.

If your feeling a bit smart and want to pull the wool over their eyes because you don't have a TV, but you use a laptop or mobile devise for this purpose. You are still expected to pay this, its not just whittled down to having a TV so don't be fooled. Failure to pay this quite reasonable amount could result in a £1,000 fine as it is a criminal offence not to pay.

Once these all important key bills are sorted and you have applied for any benefits that you are entitled to....it now becomes time to get your new pad feeling like your own personal comfy heaven. This wont happen over night, it took me nearly 2 years before i felt at home in my flat, but rest assured 8 years after signing on that dotted line it takes a lot of convincing to get me out of my house, my home, my place of solidarity.

Buy items in order of use for example my first buy was a mattress, then a fridge and then a microwave. The reason being is that i needed somewhere to sleep, somewhere to store my food and a fairly cheap microwave to heat up any food for the time being. Only until i could afford a cooker, but make the decision on what you need to your own personal standards.

There are many organisations that do give support to new and young tenants to buy white goods so once again i urge that you accept help when offered. Rest assured all will be fine, just keep your priorities in check. live by your means and DONT! I REPEAT DON'T avoid bills. if you cannot pay call the company and make arrangements to pay.

With that all said i wish you the best of luck with this amazing life changing decision you are about to make. One in which id never change.

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