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The biggest outgoing cost? Are you sure? I would like to see figures for that. I haven't checked the statistics but here in Portugal at least for me the bigges

The biggest outgoing cost? Are you sure? I would like to see figures for that. I haven't checked the statistics but here in Portugal at least for me the biggest outgoing costs are rents (by a large margin), followed by food. Gas prices and car maintenance costs are also high, whereas public transport is roughly on a par with monthly energy costs. Are people in the UK all heating their homes with electricity?

ricardo81 5y ago
I'd edited my post as you replied. Agree, food generally costs more. Mortgage/rent, highly variable depending on where you live, house big enough etc and if a mortgage, how many years are you able to spread it over. Most UK homes are heated by gas. My recent bill went up 50% to £1500/y. Is expected to increase by 50% again this year.
- jonathanstrange 5y ago
  I see, that makes more sense than your original post. I don't know about mortgage but rents should also be much higher than gas costs nearly everywhere. High rents combined with inadequate salaries seem to be the biggest problem in most industrialized countries.
  - ricardo81 5y ago
    The thing with mortgages (and rents) is they're highly variable across the country, I'm in one of the lowest paid regions of the UK and a town nearby can have 2-bedroom houses going for £60K. That could amount to ~£150/m repayments over 40 years. The same house in South East England may go for quadruple that. Gas is also one of the main sources of electricity generation here. Energy has by far outstripped inflation here over the past year.
rjh29 5y ago
I guess OP meant it's the biggest outgoing cost after rent and food. (Depending on area, council tax is also pretty high). It has gone up 2-3x in the last few months and now costs as much as food for some people. Gas heating is common in the UK but a) it's being phased out for eco reasons b) gas has increased in price as well

ricardo81 5y ago

I'd edited my post as you replied. Agree, food generally costs more. Mortgage/rent, highly variable depending on where you live, house big enough etc and if a mortgage, how many years are you able to spread it over. Most UK homes are heated by gas. My recent bill went up 50% to £1500/y. Is expected to increase by 50% again this year.

jonathanstrange 5y ago
I see, that makes more sense than your original post. I don't know about mortgage but rents should also be much higher than gas costs nearly everywhere. High rents combined with inadequate salaries seem to be the biggest problem in most industrialized countries.
- ricardo81 5y ago
  The thing with mortgages (and rents) is they're highly variable across the country, I'm in one of the lowest paid regions of the UK and a town nearby can have 2-bedroom houses going for £60K. That could amount to ~£150/m repayments over 40 years. The same house in South East England may go for quadruple that. Gas is also one of the main sources of electricity generation here. Energy has by far outstripped inflation here over the past year.

rjh29 5y ago

I guess OP meant it's the biggest outgoing cost after rent and food. (Depending on area, council tax is also pretty high). It has gone up 2-3x in the last few months and now costs as much as food for some people. Gas heating is common in the UK but a) it's being phased out for eco reasons b) gas has increased in price as well