Utility Bills - curious cat wondering????

[Myra]

While looking over monthly budget, I got thinking about utility bills and wondering what they are for everyone else.

 

I live in upstate New York and pay monthly:

 

$90 for propane gas (for water heater and backup forced water/furnace heating)

$40 towards wood (heat by wood stove so put this aside each month to save up to buy 4 cords of wood in the Fall)

$90 electricity

$25 town dump (take 2 trash bags there every Saturday)

$0 - water as have own well

$80 month for terrible and slow internet (have no option as only one carrier provides service in area)

$115 - cellphone (no land line)

 

SO what is everyone else paying/using?

 

Just curious,

Myra

Edited July 23, 2016 by Myra

[Guest]

Typically, before we moved, roundabout:

 

Water $50 (includes trash pickup & sewer)

Electricity $250

Internet $15

Cell phones $ridiculous amount (6 unlimited phones)

[StaceyinLA]

We pay:

 

Electricity - $160-200/month

Water - $25-35/month

 

Garbage pickup is free in our area.

 

I don't usually consider my cell phone part of a utility bill because if I HAD to, I could function with a much more minimal plan. As it stands, we have our DirecTV, cell phone and internet (which is unlimited cell phone data because of where we live) wrapped up into one bill, AND it's for 6 devices (my kids still on my bill each pay their portion). Our total bill for that is $650.00.

[DawnM]

Ours are somewhat similar to yours.

 

$200 for electricity (no gas)

$0     water (also on well)

$26   trash service

$125  cable TV and 80gbpm internet with turbo boost

$160  cell phone for 5 of us  (it would be more but DH's job subsidizes 

[RegGuheert]

We live in northern VA (near WV) live in an nearly-all-electric house and pay monthly:

 

~$10 for propane gas (cooktop only.  I've never understood why it is so much)

$5 towards wood (we have a pellet stove which we burn only when the temperatures are below about 10F)

$11.40 electricity (All electricity an 8000 miles per year in our EV provided by our photovoltaic array.  In other words, we have prepaid our electricity.)

$0 town dump (take it there ourselves)

$0 - water as have own well

$80 month for terrible and slow internet (Same for local wireless internet.  Not overly slow lately.)

$162 - cellphone (seven lines with unlimited calling and 2.5 GB fast internet each.  No land line.)

$400 - Property and personal property taxes.  (AFAIC, these are a utility that I cannot change!)

 

Edited July 23, 2016 by RegGuheert

[hjffkj]

Cellphone: $12 for me and dh's phone is paid by his employer

 

Internet: $80 for fast internet that also comes with basic cable and HBO

 

Electric: between $80 and $120 a month depending on if we use the AC or not

 

Water: $50

Sewage: $300 a year

HOA: $63, provides lawn care weekly, trash and recycling pickup, community pool, community gym, and snow plowing

 

We don't have gas anything

[SemiSweet]

Central Maryland

 

$400 electricity and gas (almost half is taxes, but we just turned on our new solar so hoping to see a drop there)

$0 garbage

$35 water

$195 cable/internet

$130 phones

[Zinnia]

Electricity/gas equals around $280/month average.  We heat with gas, as well as hot water and stove.  Our AC is electric.  That means higher electric in summer, higher gas in winter.  We have four really big months (Dec/Jan, then July/Aug), and the rest are less.  But it averages to $280 over a year.

 

Water $80

Cell phones $65 (we use Ting for 2 phones)

Internet (cable, but no TV) $70

 

We rent, so taxes are included in that, as well as garbage.

Edited July 23, 2016 by Zinnia

[RegGuheert]

Central Maryland

 

$400 electricity and gas (almost half is taxes, but we just turned on our new solar so hoping to see a drop there)

$0 garbage

$35 water

$195 cable/internet

$130 phones

 

Congratulations on getting solar!  Do you have a link to your array?  If not, how big is it?

Here's ours:  Guheert 12.75 kW photovoltaic array

[SemiSweet]

 

Congratulations on getting solar! Do you have a link to your array? If not, how big is it?

Here's ours: Guheert 12.75 kW photovoltaic array

We don't have that, but we have 34 panels.

[RegGuheert]

We don't have that, but we have 34 panels.

 

Each panel today is more powerful than the ones I installed in 2010.  Your 34 panels likely equate to about 9.5 kW, which is a very nice array!

 

Assuming your panels are well-pointed (depends on your roof), I will estimate that your array will produce about 13.5 MWh/year.

[Bambam]

Texas

Electricity - $100-$350 depending upon season

Gas - $20-$40 depending upon season

Water $80-350 depending (MUD, so our water is very high for TX, probably slightly over 1 acre has sprinklers)

Garbage - $21

Septic tank - maybe $600 every 4-5 years to have it emptied

Phone/internet - $100

Cell phones (4) - $50 (2 are Republic Wireless, 2 are Tracfones that aren't used that often)

Edited July 23, 2016 by Bambam

[BlsdMama]

While looking over monthly budget, I got thinking about utility bills and wondering what they are for everyone else.

 

I live in upstate New York and pay monthly:

 

$90 for propane gas (for water heater and backup forced water/furnace heating)

$40 towards wood (heat by wood stove so put this aside each month to save up to buy 4 cords of wood in the Fall)

$90 electricity

$25 town dump (take 2 trash bags there every Saturday)

$0 - water as have own well

$80 month for terrible and slow internet (have no option as only one carrier provides service in area)

$115 - cellphone (no land line)

 

SO what is everyone else paying/using?

 

Just curious,

Myra

 

 

Our electricity (12 month average pay) is $205.  (We live in an area where we use heat and A/C heavily but our heat is liquid propane.)

Wood heat - free  The boys cut everything.  We don't heat much by wood as we only have a fireplace but it's nice to keep the heat lower and use the fireplace in the evenings.

LP gas is currently right around $1/gallon.  We use approximately 1600 gallons a year so that's about $130-$135/month

Garbage pickup (rural) $27/mo     To drop off at the dump is $15/load

$0 - water for well, but it will need a new pump soon.

$60 for "unlimited" internet that disconnects about 20 times a week. (Usually you just have to reconnect, but I call them to fix it internally or come visit 1-2 times a week.)

$240 - cell service

$17 -land line

$300/year to empty the septic.  We emptied at 18 months last time and it was too long for our size septic/family.

Edited July 23, 2016 by BlsdMama

[Kathryn]

Electric $240

Water/sewer $80

Cell phones $150

Trash pickup $15

Internet $50

[mellifera33]

We're in the PNW. We pay about $370 every two months for water/electric/garbage. Gas ranges from about $25/mo in the summer to $150/mo in the winter. Phones are $45 per month each for dh and me. Internet averages out to about $50 per month. 

[RootAnn]

We are all-electric. Our trash is now rolled into our utility bill, but it is about $12.50/month.

 

Land line + free long distance + dsl internet = $77/month (taxes keep going up on this)

A/C, heat, water, sewer & now trash (see above) = $265/month

Cell phone (1) = $10/month (Tracfone, non-smart phone, on annual plan)

 

I would love to get solar panels, but based on my research, I want to wait another year or two before investing. They are still improving so quickly & the cost keeps going down.

[Pawz4me]

We just moved to this house three months ago, so some of these are estimates.

 

Gas -- We only use it for gas logs and haven't had them hooked up yet. Probably about $10/month (which I think is the minimum).

 

Electricity -- Should average around $200

 

Trash -- Weekly curbside pick up of trash and recyclables is covered by our taxes

 

Water -- Should average about $20

 

Internet and satellite TV -- $160ish

 

Cell phones -- $240

[Kim in Appalachia]

For us, it varies depending on the season.

 

Water is somewhere around $150 a month (water and sewage)

 

We use around 2 1/2 propane tanks a year, at about $800 to $900 a fill.

 

Electric, during the summer I think it runs close to $400, last month it went over that.

 

Cell phones,  a lot. We currently have 4 lines, though my oldest pays us for her line, and my dd18 is going to start paying, but we are also going to be adding 2 more lines.  

 

I think trash is $12 a month.  

 

Internet is $60, but it just bumped up and I can't remember to what.  We have ATT U verse

 

We have Direct tv, It is also around $90 a month.

 

When we move we will save a ton on utilities, but property taxes are way higher, so it will come out even.   

[kubiac]

SoCal, single-family home

 

ESSENTIAL HOUSING UTILITIES

Water: $50 ($70 if the damn sprinklers break again)

Gas: $10-$70 (summer low, winter heating high)

Electric: $50-$100 (increase is usually AC, hottest months are July-Oct)

Internet: $60

 

LIFESTYLE-CHOICE UTILITIES

Cell phones: $150

Online TV services: $20

 

Sewage and garbage pickup are bundled in property taxes. No landline.

Edited July 23, 2016 by kubiac

[retiredHSmom]

I live in Northern VA, just outside Washington DC.

 

We have natural gas (basement and 1st floor) and electric (2nd floor) heat, electric AC, electric oven, gas water heater, gas stove, gas water heater

 

We pay

 

150/month (average for the last 12 months) electricity

66/month (average for the last 12 months) gas

54/month (average for the last 12 months) water and sewer

 

trash is included in our HOA dues as is snow removal

 

We have no cable and pay 76/month for very high speed internet

We have VOIP for our home phone at 5/month

 

Our cell phone is crazy ($300) as we have 5 smartphones

Edited July 23, 2016 by Tania

[Pippen]

Midwest

 

$50/month gas (furnace only)

$155/month electricity

$100/month water, sewer, trash (trash/recycle hauls everything)

$95/month landline and internet (reimbursed by employer)

$115/month - 4 cell phones

 

no cable - $10 Netflix plus Amazon streaming included in Prime

Edited July 23, 2016 by Pippen

[KarenNC]

NC

 

no cable---pay $27 for streaming video ($12 for Hulu, $10 Netflix, $5 Acorn TV)

water/sewer--abt $50

cell phone (3 smartphones) --abt $130

Internet (cable modem)-- abt $49

gas (water heater and furnace) -- $30-$100

electric (a/c and general) --$70 - $180

[Guest]

I am in upstate NY so very similar. No cell phone or cable competition so our rates are very high.

[Tita Gidge]

I live in the Bible Belt.

 

Electric averages out to about $80/month over the year, depending how mild summer and winter are.

Water averages out to $50/month. Our well broke last year and I haven't prioritized fixing it, but should.

Trash and recycling are $14/month for twice weekly curb service.

Sewer fees average out to $15/month.

Gas averages out to about $10/month.

 

Internet with landline runs us $80/month - very high speed, no problems with multiple streaming devices.

Cable TV runs us $90/month.

 

My cell phone is $55/month for AT&T unlimited everything, on a family plan with my brothers. I wouldn't pay for a smartphone. I only keep one because my ex-husband pays for it per our decree. I know people whose family cell phone bills are their largest monthly expense!  My kids don't have cell phones because they don't want the expense of one at this point. And they know I sure as shiznit am not paying for it!

 

[The Girls' Mom]

Electricity: around $180-200 in the summer, around $140 in the winter.  

Gas: $40 in the summer and $90 in the winter (gas oven and water heater, gas heat with a heat pump)

Cell: $230 (5 smart phones)

No land line

No trash fee (we don't have pick up, and our dump is free within our county)

Water $40

No sewer

Dish: $50ish.  

Internet: $145 (but it is business internet through Comcast and dh's company pays for it)

Edited July 23, 2016 by The Girls' Mom

[elegantlion]

LCOL Midwest

 

electricity/water/trash all bundled through the city $90-$175 depending upon season

gas $50-$150 also depending upon season as the only thing gas is the furnace. 

Internet $55

Cell phone $37 ( we do not have land lines) Ds pays his phone bill which is the same price

[Joshin]

Inland Pacific Northwest:

$134 electric (all electric house on the "budget billing" plan that allows a flat rate averaged from previous year's usage.)

$90-ish for water/sewer/garbage/single stream recycling -- combined billing.

$60 for highspeed business-class style internet. We own our modem, which saves us $10.

$165 for mobile service (Sprint business class). This includes four lines with unlimited data/text/talk, a tablet with mobile hotspot for my work, and an included netflix/hulu subscription - which is handy since we don't have cable.

[lllll]

nm

Edited August 7, 2016 by ~ d9n

[Carrie12345]

I wasn't going to post, because it makes me sick, but you made me think about it, making me sick, so I may as well.

 

Our house is all electric.  We're on a budgeted bill, but it still varies from quarter to quarter, anywhere from $220/mo to $385/mo.

Garbage and recycling is included in our dues. Our dues payment is about $1,000/yr.  I don't know what chunk of that goes to our garbage contract.

We have well and septic, so no monthly bills, but maintenance and repair costs. 

We have 1 choice for internet, and they require a commercial account for our usage ( we stream, no cable.) $100/mo.

5 smart phones, no landline. $280/mo.

[Arcadia]

Silicon Valley (1 bedroom condo)

Electric - about $30 per billing cycle

Gas - less than $10 for gas stove and gas heater

Garbage and water - included in HOA

Internet - $50

Cell phone - all prepaid plans, we just top up $25 every 3 months, no landlines

[MooCow]

House gas $25 in hot months, $200 in cold ones

Electric $250 in hot months, $75 cold ones

Water/sewer $150

Cell phones (4) unlimited $180

Edited July 24, 2016 by MooCow

[Rachel]

Electric averages $125 in summer, $175 in winter

Water/sewer $80, includes epa fines

Phone $55

TV $35 (sling tv and netflix)

Garbage $100 per year; includes recycling and rental fee for the trash can

 

 

No gas, cable, or landline.

 

Someone recently asked about electric fees on a local Facebook page. It is all over the place in my town. It seems newer houses use a lot less electricity even if they aren't LEED certified. There were multiple people with 1000 square foot houses paying $200+ per month for electricity, one person over $400. Our house is more than double that size and we paid less, lots of people said the same thing. It seems newer meters, ac units, and windows (even if cheap ones like ours) made a big difference.

[DawnM]

I don't usually consider my cell phone part of a utility bill because if I HAD to, I could function with a much more minimal plan. As it stands, we have our DirecTV, cell phone and internet (which is unlimited cell phone data because of where we live) wrapped up into one bill, AND it's for 6 devices (my kids still on my bill each pay their portion). Our total bill for that is $650.00.

 

 

Yikes.

 

Internet/TV bundle: $125

Cell phone is $160 or so.  

 

We only pay for the cable TV to come into the house though, no boxes.  In full disclosure, we have Tivos.  We have one I got off of eBay for about $150 with lifetime service.  And it snowballed from there.  A Roamio for $400 with lifetime on a special deal, and then 2 Tivo Minis on 2 other TVs.  

 

So, the initial cost was higher, but we don't pay monthly on those and the older Tivo I got off eBay 5 years ago is a 12 year old Tivo, still working.  I am hoping we get the same amount of use out of the others.

[mamakelly]

We are in southern Ca. We pay:

 

electricity/gas-$130-$150 per month

Water-$125 per month

Trash-paid for in taxes

Cell phones-$250

[SparklyUnicorn]

Also upstate NY (but that's huge so...)

 

$260 ish for gas/electric (part of the killer with this is living in an entire 2 family with separate meters so all those damn fees that get tacked on for each bill we get more than once)

trash is part of tax bill (?)

water is part of tax bill (? but not metered)

$150 for Fios (TV package, VoiP phone, extra super duper fast Internet)

next to nothing for prepaid cell phones we hardly use 

 

[kubiac]

This thread motivated me to review our cell phone bill and cancel insurance coverage for my three-year old smartphone. Canceling the insurance will save $11/mo or $132/yr.

[Shellydon]

Here--

 

Water $100 per month

Electricity-- $80 in winter, $350 in summer

Gas-- $12 in summer, $80 in winter

Internet -- $50 per month

Trash $25 a month

Edited July 23, 2016 by Shellydon

[BarbecueMom]

$200/month - electric

$185/month - cell phones/crappy satellite dish

$110/month - water/sewer/trash

$40/month - internet

 

Electric is budget billing and may be too high. Cell phone bill should drop by $35 in January.

[PeachyDoodle]

Electric: $200

Gas: $90

Water: $35

Trash: $17

Cell phone: $60

 

No sewer, as we're on septic. We don't pay for cable, internet, or home phone. One of the few perks of working for the cable company.

 

Our electric bill is low in the winter and INSANE in the summer. We have gas heat, but the air conditioner here is way too small for the size house (it should have had two units). When we hit the upper 90's, like we have this week, it runs nonstop. DH keeps it cleaned and the filters changed, which helps, but still. We're on the fixed-rate plan, so we pay the average monthly rate. That makes budgeting easier, at least. Looking forward to moving next month -- our new house should be significantly cheaper!

[Guest]

While looking over monthly budget, I got thinking about utility bills and wondering what they are for everyone else.

 

I live in upstate New York and pay monthly:

 

$90 for propane gas (for water heater and backup forced water/furnace heating)

$40 towards wood (heat by wood stove so put this aside each month to save up to buy 4 cords of wood in the Fall)

$90 electricity

$25 town dump (take 2 trash bags there every Saturday)

$0 - water as have own well

$80 month for terrible and slow internet (have no option as only one carrier provides service in area)

$115 - cellphone (no land line)

 

SO what is everyone else paying/using?

 

Just curious,

Myra

Electricity: $250-$325

Heat: varies. We have a wood-burning furnace with oil back-up. Heat and hot water on wood is practically free, but variables make it impossible to average the cost of oil.

Trash and recycling $85/3 months

Water is well.

Landline phone $40

Cellphones and internet: an embarassing amount I can't type out without vomiting. Our wifi is theough a mobile unit, is limited and horrible, and costs too much. We try to patch it up using other data on other devices. Adding them all = absurd amount

Directv: $98 of wasted money

Edited July 23, 2016 by Quill

[BrittanyM]

California:

 

Electric: averages about $90 a month

 

Cell phone: This is on a big plan with a bunch of DH's family. Because we organize and send bills out to them all ours ends up much cheaper for us for unlimited texting and calls with about 10 gb of data for DH and I. I think we end up covering about $30 of the bill

 

Gas: $30 a month

 

Water & Sewer: $102 a month

 

Trash: DH usually just takes dump loads for customers and then throws ours in. If we didn't do this it would be about $12 a month for a load to the local dump

 

Internet: $50 a month can't get anything cheaper here

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MaeFlowers]

North GA:

 

Electric: $120-$280. All electric.

Water: $25-35

Cable/internet: $130

Trash: $14

Cell: $260 for 3 lines. DH had to switch carriers 😒 so we have two bills right now.

[Rachel]

Just realized I forgot internet, I have no clue what we pay for it, more than I want to pay for sure.

[foxbridgeacademy]

Middle Tennessee

Electric runs $175-$275

Water is $60-$80

Cable/phone/internet is $150 (first time we've had cable since 2009 but we couldn't get the 300mg download with out the particular package)

Cell phone 45

Trash is free

 

Southern Indiana

Electric and Water $250- $350

phone/internet $100

Cell phone $45

Trash was paid by buying a roll of 30 gallon bags, 10 bags for $7.50 We used 2 bags per week.

 

Edited July 23, 2016 by foxbridgeacademy

[JFSinIL]

Northern Illinois here, five bedroom drafty old house.

 

Gas - $51 year round.  Still can't believe this. Sometimes Nicor lowers it to $30 a month.  Whatever. Gas furnace, water heater, stove/oven, dryer, yet bill stays low.

Electric - $80s winter, up to 250 summer, depends on need for a/c.   Note - ComEd keeps sending us notes on how we are using more electricity than our neighbors. Seriously?  Our neighbors are either in much smaller houses and/or single retired men or smaller families, and half the houses are empty during the day and do not have central air like we do..  I have five adults living here and rarely is no one home.  Of course we will use more electricity!  We are signed up to get a $30 per month discount during summer months since we let ComEd finangle a doohicky so they can turn off the a/c for 15 minutes every hour if they need to to avoid area brown-outs.

Water - about $75 - 80  (all those showers!)

Cable/phone/internet = $175ish now. Hubby needs to call and get it reduced. 

Trash is part of property tax bill, which we pay as part of mortgage payment each month, so no idea.

Individual cell phones - about 30 - 40 bucks each.  Everyone pays their own bill.

Edited July 23, 2016 by JFSinIL

[Scarlett]

My electric, gas, water and trash average $350 per month.

 

 

Cell phones for 4 $180

 

Internet $80 ncludes home phone

[Rachel]

Northern Illinois here, five bedroom drafty old house.

 

Gas - $51 year round. Still can't believe this. Sometimes Nicor lowers it to $30 a month. Whatever. Gas furnace, water heater, stove/oven, dryer, yet bill stays low.

Electric - $80s winter, up to 250 summer, depends on need for a/c. Note - ComEd keeps sending us notes on how we are using more electricity than our neighbors. Seriously? Our neighbors are either in much smaller houses and/or single retired men or smaller families, and half the houses are empty during the day and do not have central air like we do.. I have five adults living here and rarely is no one home. Of course we will use more electricity! We are signed up to get a $30 per month discount during summer months since we let ComEd finangle a doohicky so they can turn off the a/c for 15 minutes every hour if they need to to avoid area brown-outs.

Water - about $75 - 80 (all those showers!)

Cable/phone/internet = $175ish now. Hubby needs to call and get it reduced.

Trash is part of property tax bill, which we pay as part of mortgage payment each month, so no idea.

Individual cell phones - about 30 - 40 bucks each. Everyone pays their own bill.

Natural gas prices are at all time lows right now.

 

We more than doubled the size of our house yet our electricity in the summer is about half what we were paying when we lived in a 50 year old house with a similarly aged ac unit. We may have actually replaced instead of repaired the thing if we had realized how much money a more efficient unit may have saved us.

[Um_2_4]

SoCal here

 

Trash -$23/mo, weekly curbside with 3 bins: trash, recycling and greens

Water/sewer/city ambulance - $110/mo

Electricity - level pay of $102/mo (our first summer doing this, I think that amount will go up, before we paid $30 in winter and average $300 in the summer)

Gas (cooking, hot water and heat) - avg $28 month except maybe 2 months we use the heater some, then it is about $45/mo

Internet - $65/mo up to 300Mbps (includes basic tv)

Cellphones: about $25/mo for 2 tracfones (smart phones, DH usually uses about 1GB of data a month calling friends/family overseas, much cheaper than LD calling used to be :laugh: )

 

[AngelaNYC]

I'm in New York City and we rent.  Our monthly rates are:

 

Electricity:  $400 (summer), $200 (winter)

Gas:  $16

Cell phones:  $350 (5-phone family plan, unlimited everything + insurance)

Cable/Internet/House Phone:  $20 (every channel + 300mbps internet - I work for the cable company ;) )

We don't pay for water or trash.

[frugalmamatx]

Our bills are very low, but I work hard to keep them that way. I'm in the same city as Kinsa used to be :)

 

Electric / Gas - $75-$150. Higher in winter as we use space heaters. Summer I've actually seen a $60 bill, but normally it is about $75. We don't have a/c - I'm sure when I finally manage to get a windor unit it will go up a bunch in summer. 

Water/Trash - $30-40. Hoping this goes down as I fixed one of the bigger leaks

Internet - $10 I prepay through a program that is set up for low cost / low income

Bus Fare - $20 ish a month normally. Depends on how much we end up going. Also lately we've been carpooling some places with the neighbor which helps. 

Cell Phone - $0. Freedompop phone cost me $25 a year ago, and I get 500 mb data, 300 minutes ad 200 texts free every month. I use WIFI everywhere and skype so I never use it all.