How Much do You Spend Per Month on…

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How Much do You Spend Per Month on…

By JLP | August 9, 2006

your household bills? By that, I mean stuff like phone, natural gas, water/sewer/trash, electricity, cable TV, and internet service. Here’s our breakdown this year (2006):

Our electricity is on levelized billing so those amounts aren’t what we actually pay each month. Our water bill really jumped in June thanks to a running toilet that I need to fix.

I’m curious to know what you guys spend each month on these items.

Topics: Budgeting |

Comments to “How Much do You Spend Per Month on…”

Vlad Says:
August 9th, 2006 at 3:08 pm

Phone (fixed line) - $65-150. I have both a traditional land-line and a VOIP line, and this covers both. The bill varies depending on how many calls we place overseas.

Gas - average of $150/mo. While it may top at $300/mo in January, it goes down to about $40 in the summer.

Electric - average of $150/mo. August bill typically runs around $400. And btw, I use Gexa, which is typically the cheapest electric provider in Texas (where we have a large choice of providers to pick from).

Internet - about $65/mo. I’ve got the top option, an 8 Mbps pipe.

Water/Sewer/Trash - $65 in winter, $95 in summer. The sprinkler system drinks a lot of water.

AJ Says:
August 9th, 2006 at 3:25 pm

Phone: $17 (Vonage $15 plan)
Cell Phone - $58
Gas - Avg $60
Electricity - Avg $80
Internet - $20 (introductory plan for 6 months from comcast) will cancel and restart after 6 months
Water - None (Apt. Complex)

m@ Says:
August 9th, 2006 at 3:28 pm

Phone: 19.95/mo for 5 more mos. then $24.95 (Vonage)
Electric: $35 (summer) to $105 (winter)
Internet: $39.95
Water/Sewer/Trash: because I have a washer/dryer I pay an extra $20 rent to cover excess water, otherwise it would be zero, well, included in my rent.

sam Says:
August 9th, 2006 at 3:36 pm

I’ll have to quit complaining about my utility bills after seeing what you two pay. This is in suburban Salt Lake.

Phone - $37-40/month including long distance
Nat Gas - $25-40/month in summer, $100-150 during the three winter months.
Elect. - $40-50/month except for three summer months of $100-175
Internet - $35/month for DSL, AOL soon to be free
Water - $15-20/month except during summer when it goes up to about $40-50/month
Sewer and trash - about $10/month including recycling pickup
Cable TV - $50/month
Cell phone - $75/month for three phones.

samerwriter Says:
August 9th, 2006 at 4:30 pm

Interesting comparisons.

I live in the boonies, so I have no trash, sewer, or water service. I pay about $35 every couple months to haul a truckload of trash to the landfill.

Phone (including internet): ~$100
Electricity: ~$100
Cell Phone (2 phones): ~$70
Trash: ~ $18

Total Utility Bill: ~$288

kurt Says:
August 9th, 2006 at 4:33 pm

Electricity: ~$125
Phone+Internet: ~$45
Cable: $32
Water/Sewer/Trash: $10
Cell: Nothing (company)

Single Ma Says:
August 9th, 2006 at 7:34 pm

My utilities (elec, gas, water, trash pickup, cable, phone, cell, internet) average about $400/month. The most expensive is electric because I can’t stand to be hot. My A/C must be on at ALL times, no higher than 73 degrees.

Stacey Says:
August 9th, 2006 at 9:28 pm

Monthly averages for Chicago suburbs:
Water/Sewer: $90
T/P: $30-35
Natural Gas: $150 (ugly 1st qtr at $1056 killed the avg.)
Electric: $100 (this month’s bill will be ugly w/our heat wave)
Cell: $25 (50 minutes a month…so try not to go over…)
Direct TV: $48.99
MSN internet: $21.95

Garbage is part of our subdivision association fees. Monthly fee is $100, so probably $10 of that is for waste disposal.

JLP Says:
August 9th, 2006 at 9:50 pm

Stacey,

$25 per month for 50 minutes for a cell phone seems pretty high to me. My plan with Cingular is $25 per month (after a discount) for 250 minutes + 1,000 nights and weekends. And, my plan isn’t really that good compared to what’s out there. I just wanted a smaller monthly payment. I don’t use my cell phone that much.

Foobarista Says:
August 9th, 2006 at 10:58 pm

Electricity/gas: $65 in summer, $150 in the coldest winter month
Landlines/DSL (need two landlines for biz use): $80
Water/sewer/garbage (one bill for all): about $50
Cellphones: $59 for a two-phone family plan
Cable: $50

We’re in Mountain View, CA…

Khyron Says:
August 10th, 2006 at 2:26 am

Hmm, these are more like my target allocations. Most of these come in way lower, but I can afford to spend this much w/o breaking a sweat.

Phone - $100 (last bill was $75; only cell phone, never had a landline)
Electric - $96 (last bill was $46.80 - whoa!)
Water/Sewer/Trash - $30 (can’t remember, the leasing company bills me for this)
Nat Gas - $65 (last bill was $21.63 - wow! - I didn’t think it was that low)
Internet - $45 (last bill was $42.95 but this might go away soon)

Stacey Says:
August 10th, 2006 at 12:15 pm

It’s usually closer to $20, but when I go over my 50 minutes (every once in awhile), the minute rate goes to .49

I haven’t seen (m)any packages that are under $25 w/100 minutes or so. What’s the name of your pkg? (I have Cingular, too, and haven’t seen anything better for our area.)

sam Says:
August 10th, 2006 at 3:50 pm

Stacy,
I have a 100 minute/month anytime/anywhere plan for $20/month plus taxes. I use Consumer Cellular, which has good plans for people like me who don’t talk much. Uses Cingular’s system, at least around here. And its month to month, no contracts. http://www.consumercellular.com/

Sam

Stacey Says:
August 10th, 2006 at 3:53 pm

Thank you, Sam! I’ll check it out!

JLP Says:
August 10th, 2006 at 3:58 pm

Stacey, I would take Sam’s advice and shop around. Also, depending on where you get all of your services (home phone, internet, and cell) you can get a bundled plan that will give a discount on your cell service. At least mine does. $20 per month for 50 minutes a month seems kind of steep to me.

Is this an old plan?

You may not want more minutes but if you are going over your 50 minutes each month, you probably should bump it up to at least 200 minutes per month, which shouldn’t cost you more than $30 per month.

Making Our Way Says:
August 11th, 2006 at 1:33 am

here are our utilities, they’re higher than when we lived in the big city:

Internet $48
cell phone $126 (3 telephones)
Telephone $90 (3 lines - home and work: 2 vonage, 1 land line/POTS)
Other utilities (electricity, scavenger, water, sewage - expensive $250 - $400/mo ), propane (as needed) - total is about $590/mo. Could be lower if I reclaculated formally.

I have a detailed list of my household expenses here from May. I’ll update it in October, which should enough time to have a good multi-season view of our housing expenses.

I think our water is much more expensive than most others. Well that’s rural NC for you.

Have a great day,
makingourway

brett Says:
August 11th, 2006 at 8:54 am

here’s our monthly utilities. 1400 sqft townhouse in arizona. In case it’s not obvious, energy efficiency is one of our hobbies.

internet $10 (we are part of a community account so it’s cheaper than if we were on a standalone account)

natural gas $12 (haven’t used the furnace yet in 3 years)

phone $30 (1 landline)

cable none

water $12 personal + another $10 for community water (included as part of our dues).

electricity $5 (we have solar panels so are just paying a nominal service charge to the utility at this point)

Our electricity bill would be much higher if I spread the cost of installing the solar panels (a few years ago) over the 20-30 year expected lifespan. All I’m showing is the actual bill we receive each month.

fivecentnickel.com Says:
August 11th, 2006 at 10:03 pm

Weekly Roundup - 08/11/06

Here’s a quick look at some of things that caught my eye over the past week…

JLP wants to know how much you spend on your household bills.
FMF has some tips for improving your home’s value with a steam cleaner.
But MBH disagrees&#82…

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How Much do You Spend Per Month on…