What do you spend on rent?

scarletleavy
scarletleavy Posts: 841 Member
edited October 7 in Chit-Chat
As a % of income? I'm looking to move out and get my own place, but I'm unsure of how much is realistic/advisable for me to spend?

I don't have any major expenses (no car, no debt) so all I'd really be paying for outside of rent would be food, monthly train ticket, mobile phone bill and other incidental expenses.

Any advice?

Thanks!
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Replies

  • robin52077
    robin52077 Posts: 4,383 Member
    my mortgage is one week's paycheck...so I guess about 25% of income
  • Johnnyswife
    Johnnyswife Posts: 1,447 Member
    When we do credit checks to see if someone can move into our place, the rule of thumb for them to pass is that they need to be earning at least double the rent. Ours is $925 for a two bedroom unit near the beach. The people that do the credit checks for us, want the person to be able to pay the rent, but also account for living expenses.
  • TheFitHooker
    TheFitHooker Posts: 3,357 Member
    $800 a month. WE live in a townhouse. Not really sure %. Right now my husband is the only steady income, 1 week's check goes to rent.
  • petergarcia82
    petergarcia82 Posts: 122 Member
    30% roughly is a.decent number
  • ZombieSlayer
    ZombieSlayer Posts: 369 Member
    23% of gross income
    27% of net income

    But we have the most awesome landlord in the world... he dropped the asking price when we moved in so we could afford the place and dropped the rent further for 4 months this winter to make the heating bill easier to pay and has given us grocery store gift cards for xmas the last two years.
  • HeidiMightyRawr
    HeidiMightyRawr Posts: 3,343 Member
    £600 rent, £900-950 for bills and leisure (for just me and my partner & dog - no kids or anything)

    So approx 40%

    I wouldn't advise going into a place with that much % on rent/mortgage though unless you have to. I've always heard that it should be less than a third if possible. Ours used to be around 30% when we first moved in but I left my job a year later to focus full time on uni so obviously it's no longer like that.

    It also depends how much you earn, as well as %. If a person earns 1500, and bills are 800, you obviously can't afford to spend 50% on rent. But if you earn 2000 you can afford it :)
  • nosugarcoating
    nosugarcoating Posts: 194 Member
    Roughly 37% of my income after tax.

    More than I'd like as my apartment is quite expensive for the area I live in, but that's because it's a 2 BR (that I live in by myself). I could never afford a place like this in a bigger city (in Munich I would probably spend twice as much on a place like this). I live in a small town and there are very few apartments available for rent here.

    When I moved here for a job, I didn't have much time to find one (I started my job 5 weeks after I got it and Christmas and New Year's fell into those 5 weeks), and this one was pretty much the only one available. Luckily it's a very nice apartment, and I will probably not be able to afford anything this nice for a while after I move away.

    I also spend half of my monthly rent on paying back a loan to my parents, so after that, I have a little less than half of my income left for all other expenses (though I don't own a car).
  • DizzieLittleLifter
    DizzieLittleLifter Posts: 1,020 Member
    As a % of income? I'm looking to move out and get my own place, but I'm unsure of how much is realistic/advisable for me to spend?

    I don't have any major expenses (no car, no debt) so all I'd really be paying for outside of rent would be food, monthly train ticket, mobile phone bill and other incidental expenses.

    Any advice?

    Thanks!

    It sounds like you have be responsible thus far that is a great way to start. Quite often people start out in debt and that's a bad place to be. I highly recommend the book by Dave Ramsey; just to get some great ideas for staying out of debt and money management. I believe the rule of thumb for rent/house payment (at least here in CA) is bout 30%.
  • Classalete
    Classalete Posts: 464 Member
    15% rent, 15% utilities. ;[
  • PinkAndSparkle
    PinkAndSparkle Posts: 324
    I think we pay about 20% of our combine income. BUT we live in Boston and pay an arm and a leg for a crappy 1 bedroom.
  • ravenwcatz
    ravenwcatz Posts: 105 Member
    My rent is $695... Percentage -wise, that is somewhere between 66 and 67% of my income. It's doable, but it sucks.

    Unfortunately, it's about as cheap a place as you will find in the non-murdery areas of Chicago. :P
  • christibear
    christibear Posts: 93 Member
    I am moving in the summer to a new city so I have been checking around to see how much apartments cost and I have seen a couple ads that say they want you to 4 times as much as the rent.
  • meggers123
    meggers123 Posts: 711 Member
    mine's about 25% of my income, sometimes 30% if I wasn't working much that month. BUT my health insurance (private here in germany is expensive!) is only 1/3 less than my apartment, so after those it's about 45-50%.
  • hellokathy
    hellokathy Posts: 540 Member
    Mine's about 25%, too. But then again...I live in Germany AND in a town that has pretty cheap rents so that's probably not very helpful for you. Sorry.
  • Pollywog39
    Pollywog39 Posts: 1,730 Member
    My rent is relatively low, and I like it that way. One bedroom apt, all utilities except electric, monthly = $530. That's about 20% of my take-home pay.........but then I have the cable TV, internet, car/gasoline costs, etc, etc.

    I'm not knocking it.....my life is good!! Being single has its benefits :bigsmile: :bigsmile:
  • _snw_
    _snw_ Posts: 1,298 Member
    25% of my take home pay (not including my husband's pay)
  • ymhand
    ymhand Posts: 188
    As a % of income? I'm looking to move out and get my own place, but I'm unsure of how much is realistic/advisable for me to spend?

    I don't have any major expenses (no car, no debt) so all I'd really be paying for outside of rent would be food, monthly train ticket, mobile phone bill and other incidental expenses.

    Any advice?

    Thanks!
    What about water, trash, electric?
  • scarletleavy
    scarletleavy Posts: 841 Member
    As a % of income? I'm looking to move out and get my own place, but I'm unsure of how much is realistic/advisable for me to spend?

    I don't have any major expenses (no car, no debt) so all I'd really be paying for outside of rent would be food, monthly train ticket, mobile phone bill and other incidental expenses.

    Any advice?

    Thanks!
    What about water, trash, electric?

    Included in the "warm" rent (I'm not sure there's an accurate English translation for that)
  • boomboom011
    boomboom011 Posts: 1,459
    i have an older 3 bedroom 2 bath home with a big back yard and nice sized front yard in a middle class texas neighborhood and my mortgage with insurance and taxes runs us a little over $1000.00 per month. Utilities (cable, water, electricity, internet, landline) = approx $600.

    i like my monthly bills to be small so I can enjoy my life and not stress out about water and electricity. :)
  • scarletleavy
    scarletleavy Posts: 841 Member
    So I picked an apartment today and I'm gonna be paying around 21% (including all utilities, internet, phone and such). I lucked out and found an absolutely amazing apartment in the center of the city for a a great price that I can afford.
  • ChasingHaven
    ChasingHaven Posts: 126 Member
    Congrats! Enjoy your new place!
  • Saruman_w
    Saruman_w Posts: 1,531 Member
    I live in an apartment. Rent amounts to about 19% of my income
  • Kimbulee
    Kimbulee Posts: 5
    I'm in the UK so this probably won't help but we pay £725 for a two bed flat per month, we have to pay utilities on top + tv, Internet etc then we have the car, petrol, mobile phone and gym memberships etc... About £1200 a month all in xx
  • stylistchik
    stylistchik Posts: 1,436 Member
    Less than 33% of your income is ideal. We rented a brand new 2 bedroom 2 bath 10 mins from the beach in FL for $850. Our mortgage is $1000. Nether includes utilities. We didn't realize oil for heating our house would cost $2000 - $3000 per year here in Virginia! In FL it was electric and stayed about $60 a month :grumble:
  • Diary_Queen
    Diary_Queen Posts: 1,314 Member
    I spend about 10% of my salary on rent.... and about the same on utilities. I count myself very lucky, but I live in an extremely rural community in a trailer house.
  • TheRoadDog
    TheRoadDog Posts: 11,788 Member
    About 15% of our montly income goes to mortgage.
  • dollipop
    dollipop Posts: 379 Member
    About 25% of our comibined fortnightly salary after tax.
  • dobenjam
    dobenjam Posts: 232 Member
    um, only about 15% of combined income pre tax. I live in DC Metro but we're getting a sweet deal. Walk to work in 5 min. WIll move soon b/c will try to have a baby this year.
  • chubbybunnee
    chubbybunnee Posts: 197 Member
    :smile:
  • plcarpenter
    plcarpenter Posts: 83 Member
    I live in the SF Bay Area in California, don't move here...you will have to eat cat food to afford your rent.
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