Most people feel that the costliest thing about living right now is finding accommodation. You might need to leave your current home and move to another area for professional or educational reasons. When you do so, you will need to rent a home or buy it completely, which doesn’t make much sense. So renting is an option, but even that is not as cheap as one would think. The one way to make renting accommodations economical is to look for someone else who is sailing the same boat and you and invite them to becom e a flatmate.
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.
This is why you would find it so beneficial to have a flatmate. The cost-splitting can really help your budget get more breathing space.
So, what are the kinds of expenses that you can share with your flatmates? Here we shall try to understand what these are.
1. The rent is the first thing you can split. If you have more than one flatmate, the rent will be split proportionately between all of them. For example, if there is 1 flatmate with you, both of you will bear half the rent. If 4 more people are living with you, each of you will pay one-fifth 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. One more thing you have to think about is sharing the expenses of food. Since every flatmate will be eating, everyone living in the same flat must pay for this expense. This expense also applies to things that are connected with food, such as the refrigerator for example.
So, getting a flatmate could be very economical. Then there are also additional benefits like having more security around the house, having some company if you are the friendly sort and so on.
