The time has come for me to fly the nest.

Much to my Dad’s and Sister’s delight, it is now time for me to fly the nest. Me and my girlfriend have just secured ourselves our first place, that we can call home.

This is a photo of the house taken by the estate agents on the listing. It’s a small 2 bedroom semi detached house tucked away in a quiet area, away from the noise of main roads, and other traffic.

Our move in date is currently 15th July 2017, but I couldn’t be more unready!!

This is a quick write up on the information I have gathered so far, in the hope that it helps somebody out there either just moving out, or is planning to move out, and wants a clearer idea of what is involved.

Boxes... Loads of Boxes!

The cardboard bins at work have been my best friend over the past few weeks. I never quite knew how many boxes I would actually end up using!

This is a relatively small pile of my belongings that are ready for the move. I have a whole other room in my parents house that is currently dedicated to storage.

If you think you have enough cardboard boxes, think again!!

It’s all about the money... Seriously!!

Once you have found yourself a nice new house, and everything has been agreed with the Estate Agent, it suddenly becomes really expensive!

We decided to rent our first house together, because we wanted to be sure that we could afford to live spending that sort of money every month. The rent is currently £650 per month, which is around what we would be paying on a mortgage. At least this way, we aren’t tied in for 25 years!

The first thing we had to arrange was a vehicle to help us with the move.

My girlfriend currently lives about 30 miles away from me, so I also have to move stuff from her current house as well (trust me, she has a lot more stuff than me!)

Luckily, I was able to borrow a work van for the weekend we are moving in, so I only had to pay for insurance. That’s one perk I guess!!

Van Hire - £180-£250 for a weekend

Utility Bills

No matter where you go, you will need gas and electricity. Finding the right supplier and the right tariff can be time consuming and frustrating, but is also the bit where you can lose a lot of money.

It is important that you not only look at the cost per unit, but also the ‘standing charge’. This is what the utility company will charge you per day, even if you don’t use anything!!

We decided to go with Utility Warehouse for our Gas and Electricity. I will be honest when I say that they were not the cheapest, but they offer a cash back card, which allows you to build up a discount off your utility invoice when you shop at your favourite shops. For example, we can earn 5% cash back on our weekly grocery shop, and that is deducted straight off of our invoice. Pretty Sweet!

Utility Bills - £70.00 per month

Contents Insurance

Once you have moved all of your personal belongings in to the house, you want to make sure they are protected in case something bad was to happen.

Your landlord should cover the building itself, but it is always worth checking with them/the estate agent, before you spend more money than you need to!

We went for a cheap contents insurance, which excludes accidental damage, as that is covered by our bank.

Contents Insurance - £60.00 per year

That is all the figures I have off the top of my head. I will update this post once I am back at home, and have all of my paperwork.

Please follow me for more updates!! 😊