Share - and watch those bills tumble!

03/04/2018
Share a Mortgage has in the past given reduced bills and expenditure as a really powerful reason to share a home with others.

Now that the financial year has ended, we think it's a good time to reiterate this or encourage you if you haven't fully looked into the matter.

Cut your Council Tax by nearly half

The first obvious contender is Council Tax bills. If you live on your own in a property you own or rent, you get a 25% discount on the full bill. But it's clear that if you have another person sharing this bill, then you can both pay nearly 50% less than this figure.

This situation alone can probably save you around £500 per year.

Line rentals (phone and broadband) halve

Although a landline and broadband may well have a variable cost element, the fact is that you will naturally halve your line rental – a fixed cost – if someone shares this part of the bill with you.

Electricity and Gas – save on standing charges and share the variable ones

Both electricity and gas are always charged with a standing daily charge, which might be perhaps 30p per day for each. Over a year, this equates to around £220 – which naturally would be halved if you were sharing with someone else.

Naturally you can also look to save money on the variable costs of energy. You can use less heat and light by doing things like heating only a main living room which you both share and cutting heating to the rest of a property.

If you're not on a water meter – and meters are gradually being rolled out countrywide – then you stand to half your bills on water as well if you share them with someone else.

TV subscriptions (Sky, Virgin etc.) – cut these in half!

In most sharing situations, if you subscribe to services like Sky or Virgin for your TV, if you split the bill, you can look to halve what you pay. Naturally this doesn't mean you won't have arguments about which sport to watch on a Saturday (if at all)!!

Buildings Insurance

You can look to halve your payments on buildings insurance if you have another person contributing to this bill, another reduction in your monthly outgoings!

Gym and other memberships and incentive schemes – is there a +1 option?

Gym memberships frequently have an incentive where one other person can, through one person's full membership, pay a reduced cost. This is also normally the case with railcards which offer discounted off-peak travel.

If you take up these incentives then split the whole bill between the two of you, this is another area where you can make considerable savings.

The simple fact is that there are myriad ways to save money when you share the costs of living with someone – a fact which isn't normally lost on people who are romantically interested in each other!

This is just one of a number of huge 'carrots' which are available to our members as they look to co-buy with other potential mortgage buddies on our listings.

So what's holding YOU back?

Join Share a Mortgage today and start your journey towards home ownership! Want to chat? Just call 0333 344 3234