Home Running Costs Annual Summary

Who this is for

What the house costs to run in a year, on one page. Each standing cost gets a line with the amount and how often it is billed, and the yearly figure is worked out so monthly, quarterly and annual costs can be added together honestly.

Owners working out the true cost of a property, buyers comparing two houses, landlords setting a rent against costs, and anyone whose budget keeps being ambushed by a bill that only arrives once a year.

What this helps you track

• Every standing cost of the property in one list, with who it is paid to
• What each one costs and how often it is billed
• The yearly figure for each, so different billing cycles can be compared
• The total for the year and what that works out at per month
• Which costs are fixed and which you have some say over

How to use it

1. Write the property and the year at the top. The common cost lines are already printed; cross out any that do not apply and add your own on the blank rows.
2. Write the provider for each line, and the amount exactly as it is billed to you.
3. Pick the billing cycle from the list — monthly, quarterly or yearly — and the per-year column is worked out in the browser and the workbook. On paper, multiply by twelve, by four, or leave it as it is.
4. Use the note column for anything that varies: a bill that is estimated, a cost shared with someone else, a fixed-term deal that ends.
5. Read the total and the per-month figure in the summary; that monthly figure is the one to carry into a household budget.
6. Start a fresh sheet each year and keep the old ones — a run of them shows what is rising.

Formats

• Printable PDF (A4 and US Letter)
• Fillable PDF with form fields
• Fill in online, saved in your browser
• Excel / Google Sheets workbook

The printable is laid out inside a box that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the two files are identical and neither one is scaled. The fillable PDF has real form fields. The workbook uses plain formulas only — SUM, IF, COUNTIF and the like — so it opens in Excel, LibreOffice and Google Sheets without anything breaking, and every calculated cell is grey so you can see which figures it worked out.

How to print

Download the A4 or US Letter file to match the paper in your printer, open it in a PDF reader and print at 100% — not "fit to page", which shrinks the writing space. Both files leave a 14 mm margin, which clears the unprintable edge on home printers. To print the online version with your entries in it, use the Print this sheet button, which prints only the sheet and none of the page around it. More on printing.

Questions

Which costs should I include?

Anything you pay because of the property rather than because of the people in it: mortgage or rent, local taxes, insurance, energy, water, waste, broadband, service charges, garden and chimney work. Food and travel are not running costs of a house.

How do I handle a cost that changes every month?

Use a typical month's figure and say so in the note column, or total last year's bills and enter that as a yearly amount. The sheet takes either.

Does it include maintenance?

Only what you pay on a schedule, such as a boiler plan. One-off repairs belong on the maintenance cost tracker, which totals the year's jobs separately.

Why convert everything to a year?

Because a quarterly water bill and a monthly broadband bill cannot be added together as they stand. A yearly figure is the only unit they share; the summary divides it back to a month for budgeting.