Comments on: How Much do You Spend Per Month on…

By: Worldwide Success » You Blew Your Budget? Congratulations!

Worldwide Success » You Blew Your Budget? Congratulations! — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 18:57:43 +0000

[...] All Financial Matters – How Much Do You Spend Per Month On… gives you a benchmark of how much other people spend on utilities – make sure to read the comments. [...]

By: fivecentnickel.com

fivecentnickel.com — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 03:03:25 +0000

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 disagreesR…

By: brett

brett — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 13:54:56 +0000

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.

By: Making Our Way

Making Our Way — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 06:33:53 +0000

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

By: JLP

JLP — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 20:58:51 +0000

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.

By: Stacey

Stacey — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 20:53:55 +0000

Thank you, Sam! I’ll check it out!

By: sam

sam — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 20:50:32 +0000

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

By: Stacey

Stacey — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 17:15:32 +0000

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.)

By: Khyron

Khyron — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 07:26:25 +0000

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)

By: Foobarista

Foobarista — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 03:58:12 +0000

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…