Sharing bills and stuff.
Share bills and other stuff
In the early days of designing and thinking about extending you’re living space, consider what bills you might share.
One of the things we did worry about when not there all the time was how was mum coping with her bills. That was as far as the thinking went.
Since moving we have now taken on all the bills, set up direct debits and use the internet for the best deals.
Mum did none of this so now she saves money. To decide what she pays we just have kept to her old bills payment. She is never without power, or a phone due to an unpaid bill. And she is glad because it removes one of the more mundane elements from her life.
This aspect would also be useful for people with memory issues. Or just for people not used to looking after themselves or good with bills/money.
Now back in the beginning I never thought once about this issue and so did no planning for it. Luckily it turned out rather well for us in lots of ways.
Electricity. This is something you are going to share unless you go to the expense of putting in another meter. There is a sub meter option which could be fitted to give you another reading for your relatives bill. This you would have to pay for though.
Us, we have set up a direct debit and pay a percentage based on old bills. We both gain as there is only one standing charge and help heat each others houses!
Gas. Here you would normally only have one meter.
We did think about having 2 gas boilers in our new space. One for mum and a larger one for us because it was easier to refurbish the house this way, but decided against that. [this issues will be raised in another post]
Again with the gas bills we split it with mum paying what she used to and us the rest. Only one standing charge.
Tv licenses. Great we pay nothing as its one house and over 80,s don’t get charged.
Water. Not much you can do about this, we are meters so just careful with what we use. We pay one and mum pays the sewerage.
Sewerage. Mum pays this one.
Council tax. We just split the cost here 50/50. But annex living is quite a minefield in relation to this so will cover it in its own detailed post soon.
Telephone. You could have a separate line fitted if you want.
We only have one line and just split the bill as before, what mum used to pay she still does.
There is only one line rental to pay, we have a cordless handset so both areas have a phone. Cheap and simple and normally always someone around to answer the phone!
Recent Comments