How smart do you think you are when it comes to Bill Management?
If you've never had to manage a household before, paying your own bills can seem like a gargantuan task. Even if you've had some experience of managing bills for yourself, when you add 4 or 5 housemates in to the mix this seemingly simple task can quickly spiral into confusion. Going into it knowingly can help take the stress out of bill payments. So let's recap: Listed below are the main priority bills you should expect to pay in your student household unless, of course, you rent accommodation inclusive of bills. (Lucky):
* Water
* Gas & Electricity
* TV Licence
* Broadband & Line Rental
* Contents Insurance
* TV Subscriptions (Netflix, etc).
Don't worry if you're not paying towards all of these things. Some, like contents insurance, are discretionary. And sometimes your rent will also cover one or two of the above. It's quite normal for a landlord to include water rates in the total rent, but exclude gas & electricity for example.
So now you've got a handle on what you need to pay for it's time to start thinking about sourcing the best deals. We've gathered some top tips for you below. Our Utility Bill Hacks are designed to get you thinking around saving money and saving energy whilst you're at it:
If you've never had to manage a household before, paying your own bills can seem like a gargantuan task. Even if you've had some experience of managing bills for yourself, when you add 4 or 5 housemates in to the mix this seemingly simple task can quickly spiral into confusion. Going into it knowingly can help take the stress out of bill payments. So let's recap: Listed below are the main priority bills you should expect to pay in your student household unless, of course, you rent accommodation inclusive of bills. (Lucky):
* Water
* Gas & Electricity
* TV Licence
* Broadband & Line Rental
* Contents Insurance
* TV Subscriptions (Netflix, etc).
Don't worry if you're not paying towards all of these things. Some, like contents insurance, are discretionary. And sometimes your rent will also cover one or two of the above. It's quite normal for a landlord to include water rates in the total rent, but exclude gas & electricity for example.
So now you've got a handle on what you need to pay for it's time to start thinking about sourcing the best deals. We've gathered some top tips for you below. Our Utility Bill Hacks are designed to get you thinking around saving money and saving energy whilst you're at it:
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As you can see from the above, a few simple actions can go really far to helping you reduce your household expenditure. This can seem tough at first: negotiating the emotions of your new flatmates, getting them all to sit down and talk about bill payments, can seem really daunting at first. But whilst it may be a difficult conversation to get off the ground, it is well worth getting sorted early on.
The most successful student house shares work because all individuals communicate with each other in an open and honest dialogue - if you can't broach the subject of splitting the bills now, imagine how you'd feel if your student funding was delayed for some reason in future, and you had to explain to a bunch of near strangers that your portion of the leccy bill will have to go unpaid this month?
So get chatting now - you may even wish to make an evening of it, sit around the dinner table with lemonade, hot nachos and wax lyrical about bills!
Or better still try out our Quiz together. It's a perfect ice-breaker for broaching the subject of splitting bills. Simply answer 5 questions to find out what bill-paying personality you are. Then read our tailored advice for some top tips on how to manage friendship and bills at the same time:
The most successful student house shares work because all individuals communicate with each other in an open and honest dialogue - if you can't broach the subject of splitting the bills now, imagine how you'd feel if your student funding was delayed for some reason in future, and you had to explain to a bunch of near strangers that your portion of the leccy bill will have to go unpaid this month?
So get chatting now - you may even wish to make an evening of it, sit around the dinner table with lemonade, hot nachos and wax lyrical about bills!
Or better still try out our Quiz together. It's a perfect ice-breaker for broaching the subject of splitting bills. Simply answer 5 questions to find out what bill-paying personality you are. Then read our tailored advice for some top tips on how to manage friendship and bills at the same time:
Congratulations on graduating from the school of bills; we trust you've saved plenty of money? Click 'Next' to move on to our cookery section:
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