Just got a pay rise and im trying to work out what I can afford to rent.

Anyone here willing to give me some rough monthly costs of rent and bills along your salary? Or any advice in general.
I've obviously looked around and read some guides etc but just after any additional/first hand info.

I'm now on 19k, I am thinking a high estimate would be around £500 on bills (including food and petrol) which means I should be looking to spend £600 as an absolute maximum on rent.

Where do you live, as that would have the biggest impact.

I would say you need to calculate...
Known bills
Energy, Internet, phone, food shopping budget etc

Unknown and non-monthly bills
Things like MOT and car tax, car maintenance. Take a guess annually and divide by 12.

Luxuries
Games, drinks, fancy lunches, vibrators, sex swings, lube, candles, strawberries etc
Be totally honest with yourself with the luxuries bit.

Add them together, take that off your take home pay, knock off another 10% for wiggle room and that is the rent you can afford.

Congrats Funk.

You won't be regretting it in a few years time when you have doubled your money.

er, I mean thanks! It needs some serious TLC, but nothing structural, so we can make it our own home for hopefully not an arm and a leg and an RSJ.

BTW thanks for the advice re: kitchens, we've been well put off freestanding, so we're gonna try and find a cheap fitted instead with nice doors / handles / worktops.

You still zone 2 funk, or moved further out to buy? NW wasn't it?

I have calculated everything. I was just wondering what happens in real life. Just being over cautious.

What are you paying for man?

Our mortgage is £975. We pay in, in total to cover mortgage, bills ( including aa, life cover) and food, £1500. I'd say £1200 a month to cover your rent, bills and food should be more than enough?

We've been saving to buy, got to about £12000 relatively quickly between us. 

All saving had stopped from last summer as the misses maternity pay dried up following little mans arrival and i've been the sole bill payer up since, putting money aside has been nigh on impossible but i've refused to dip into the savings.

I've just got a new job with more pay, and my partner is now working part time which means we can now finally begin to put some aside again. I think it will take us another 18 months or so before we have enough to consider looking for places but its good to be back on track.

I lived in a shitty party of East London for about a year once. Every time and i mean EVERY time i left the flat to go do anything on the high street there was some kind of 'incident'. 
It was incredibly tiresome.

I'm going for a second viewing of a house this afternoon. Last time I made a quip about a watch that had been left on the kitchen side. Is that included, I asked, it's not a deal breaker but I would like to know.

Classic Partridge. How I laughed!

I am quite settled in my flat, decent landlord and the rent is a good £150 below market value.
Unfortunately the landlord is considering a loft conversion this time next year so I will be out.

Not looking forward to it as my understanding is it will be a dick around as I now freelance. Looks like Dad will be guarantor again. Yay for independence, fucking lol.

He might sell it as a let property with tenants already installed. Suggest it if he does ever bring it up.

The lady and I have been talking about buying somewhere for a little while now but discussion about where to live (in or out of London, which zone, etc.) and the type of place we'd like took ages. Thankfully we've now narrowed our options sufficiently to actually start the process.

Been in touch with a mortgage broker this week so we can get a much firmer idea of budget, which could ultimately mean a further change of plans but we've been quite realistic I think.

Focus will be on Walthamstow area initially as it meets both of our various criteria pretty well. Would be interested to hear from anyone who knows or has lived in the area, especially if there are places to avoid, etc. Any other general tips welcome too of course.

Anyone else currently going through the buying process?

I wish anyone moving the best of luck. It's a total ballache, and much of it is out of your control. You just have to roll with it.