How A Flatmate Can Be More Economical For You

It is right to say that living costs are among the highest costs we have today. If you have to change your abode to another for your work or your study, it could be a very expensive affair. You might buy a home directly, or maybe you get it on a lease, but one thing is common—your budget will take a hit. That’s the reason a lot of people out there think of saving money by acquiring their accommodation on a lease and then sharing it with other people who are also looking for accommodation.

These people you share accommodations with are called as flatmates. You can find them through placing advertisements in the newspapers and nowadays you also have the possibility of using the Internet to get flatmates. They could be people from your own school or college or place of work, or they could be in an entirely different league from you. The main thing is that these people will be sharing the house and its resources with you, which also means that they will be sharing the costs.

That is where the great benefit of having a flatmate sets in—you can split costs of living with them.

Now, which are the costs that you can split with your flatmate or flatmates? Let us take a look at them.

1. You can split the rent of the accommodation. This is done according to the number of flatmates. As an example, if you are sharing your house with just another person, then both of you pay half of the rent. If there are 3 more with you, each will pay one-fourth of the rent.

2. Most utility bills can be split. This includes the electricity bill, the telephone bill, the Internet bill and so on. Here, some prior decisions might need to be taken. Now, electricity is something everyone uses and so those bills will be split in the right proportion. But, the Internet bills may be different. Suppose it is just you who uses the Internet and your flatmate doesn’t at all, then it is only fair that you pay the entire Internet bill.

3. Then there are the incidental expenses. Such as, you might need to repair a part of the house. (Usually landlords should pay for such expenses but that’s not always the case—minor repairs are borne by the tenants themselves). There could be things such as festival expenses and such. These could be split as well.

4. Then don’t forget the food. There are different ways to be fair here. All flatmates could take turns to buy the food, or could set a monthly budget for food and pay their share while one of them does the shopping. Related expenses such as those of dishwashers, refrigerators and water filters must also be split.

Hence, every way you look at it, it is moneysaving to have a flatmate. You also get other advantages such as more security where you live and having more people to chat with when you tend to get lonely.