North Wales Housing

Please consider the costs carefully

Take 3 easy steps:

Step 1 - working out your income
Step 2 - working our your spending
Step 3 - working out the money left over

Notes to help you

• Rent - This is your normal weekly or monthly rent charged by your Landlord e.g. 1-bedroom 2-person flat £55.00 per week or a 3-bedroom 4-person house would be £67.00 per week
• Council Tax - This is the yearly bill less Council Tax Benefit and discounts (divided by 12 if you are using monthly figures, or 52 if you are using weekly figures). Check if you are entitled to Council Tax Benefit and any discounts, e.g. 25% discount if you are the only person liable for Council Tax in your household
• Water charges - This is the yearly bill divided by 12 or 52
• Utilities e.g. gas/electricity - visit uSwitch website or telephone 0800 4047908.
• Pay your bills by the cheapest method.

Monthly housekeeping/food budget

• Single Person £160 to £217
• Couple £270 to £338
• Each child £87 to £152
• Non-dependant £108 to £152

Clothing

As a rough guide allow £5 - £7 per person per week. Contact your Council to find out if you are eligible for school clothing grants.

Other - travel expenses, school meals, children's expenses, prescriptions, and remember unexpected expenses for birthdays or Christmas.

Fill in your budget sheet:

• Fill in your income. Include your usual take home pay (don't include overtime unless it's regular), and benefits you receive and contributions from family members
• Work out and write down your usual living costs (see above for assistance)
• If your outgoings are greater than your income you should seek advice otherwise your debts could continue to grow

Things to be included on the form:

• Other fuel - coal, logs, oil, gas bottles
• Household shopping - food - weekly/ monthly shop and daily perishables (bread, milk etc), toiletries, cleaning materials, school dinners for the children, lunch if working, eating out
• Clothing and shoes - school uniform, school shoes, trainers, work clothes, etc
• Entertainment - smoking, socialising, cinema
• Hire purchase - car, electrical goods
• Loans - student loan, bank loan, other loan
• Car expenses - MOT, servicing, tyres, replacement parts
• Other - subscriptions, hobbies, driving lessons, contact lenses, catalogue, Christmas club, pocket money.

Once you have worked out how much money you have coming in and going out, you’re in a better position already. If you haven’t got much money left over, or you think you might be getting into difficulties, don’t panic – there is free help at hand.

Whichever situation you find yourself in, always make sure you pay your priority debts ie. rent, council tax, gas and electricity. If you’re struggling, it’s best to get in touch with those you owe money to as soon as possible. They may be able to set up an arrangement where you can spread your payments until you get your finances sorted.

Think carefully before borrowing more money to pay off existing debts. It could make things worse. Check the terms of any loan, such as the interest rate and the length it has to run and make sure you can afford to pay it back.

If you find that the situation is spiralling out of control you can get help from the following organisations for free: