My oil bill alone is $400 a month (68 degrees set in winter, no cooling in summer)
My water bill in the summer is $800 a month (we subsidize CA and the stupidheads in Seattle decided to charge for water coming and going... aka prices doubled... to "keep people from watering their lawns". We don't water our lawn!!! I have NO IDEA what our water bill is the rest of the year, because we can't afford to pay $800 a month in the summer, so we usually are 2-3k in the hole with the water company and are paying our deficit off the rest of the year)
Electricity is $300 a month (all super low wat energy effient bulbs and appliances)
Garbage is only $50, and recycling is free... but our grand total is over $1500 FIFTEEN HUNDRED every month.
1032sqft house. 100+ years old. All wiring and piping redone, and it's Insulated 6 ways from sunday (including triple pane windows). The ONLY thing I miss about living in an apt is the $375 utilities bill!
((Umm.... you may have noticed that one of the conditions of the aritcle at one point was "moving out of expensive Seattle". I about died laughing reading that. No shit. NYC, SF, Seattle have 3 of the most overpriced 'costs of living' in the country.))
Our home was built in 1903, I think we have 1500sqft. Our natural gas bill (which covers cooking and water and heating) has never been above $260/mo, and that was during months when it went below zero for a week or more.
Electric is $60-80, depending on the season, higher in the winter from running the furnace fan. We don't have central air, but run the AC unit occasionally when it goes above 90 because the kids and I get heat exhaustion easily. It will go up to $100 any month I have to do that. I have an electric dryer, too, and do A LOT of laundry.
Water/sewer is $40/mo for SIX people. We all shower every day and water our garden in the summer. I love living on the Great Lakes :)
Garbage is about $15/mo.
So that's...$415 for utilities. Our heating bill will drop next year after we replace the windows and have the insulation blown into the walls.
My mortgage/insurance/tax cost per month is $533. It's the area, we were one of the few areas of realty that didn't experience a "bubble" or a "crash", our property values have pretty much stayed consistent over the past 10 years. And our property taxes have gone down due to a casino opening nearby.
we live in NE Indiana, live on a well and everything is electric (geothermal for heating) we keep the temp at 68* winter 72* summer our average bill is about 120mo we do set up a pool in the summer so that might spike it to about 135mo for about 3 months but in fall/spring we open up the house so our bill is around 80mo then christmas and colder months it might spike to about 180mo. we live in a 1400sqf 100yo farm house that is super insulated but needs new doors badly. Our windows are less than a 3yo. as for garbage it is 22mo.
Sounds great to me. When I lived in a small town, the electric ran about $300 a month for a 1200 sq ft rental.- just electric! I think a lot has to do with where you live as to how much you pay. You are getting a great deal!
I live close to Tulsa in a 1975 1600 sq foot house. My bills are usually:
Water/Sewer: $25
Trash: $15
Gas: $40-45 March-Oct, $70-75 Nov and Feb, $100-125 Dec and Jan
Elec: $30-40 Oct - April, $65-75 May and Sep, $90-100 June - Aug
I keep the house on 62 in the winter when we are home and we stay in the bedrooms most of the time since we can shut the door halfway and the heat stays in the room. Summer the A/C is on 78 when we are home and fans turned on. Programmable thermostats are wonderful! So about the cheapest I can get is $110 and about the highest I hit is $205. This winter has been very mild for us so far and my December gas bill was only $64!
depends on where you live. in northern MI where it gets pretty cold from Nov. - April (or more) ...I pay about $200 a month in winter months for water/garbage/sewer + heat (gas) + electric. summer months when I don't need the heat on, it would be maybe only $100. Buy my heating bill alone has been almost $200 some really cold and windy months. (I got a new furnace and insualtion last spring so hopefully I wont' have bills like that again)
Maybe they were also talking about phone/cable and internet ... that adds another $100 or more a month
I've seen my mothers utilities on a house built in the 80's. It's in a upper middle class neighborhood and is pretty well kept up. . . But during the winter her gas bill can be 200 to 300 dollars a month!
I think her house needs new windows all around and that would help minimum but you are talking about 20K for that. My husbands parents just got all new windows in their house and that was what it cost and they have rather standard sized windows. My mothers are floor to ceiling so it will pry cost more.
We pay 90 dollars a month for a 1000 sq foot apt for either gas or electric depending on if it's summer or winter. (hot summers and cold winters and not much inbetween seasons sadly). The other bill pry still gets us up to 150 a month on a 100 sq foot apt!!!! APARTMENT! So I can see very easily it costing more.
There are so many factors here that act upon the cost. So saying 150 is realistic is well for you but not necessarily for everyone.
I'm in Wisconsin and our house is about 1400 sq ft and almost 100 years old with bad windows, we're looking into getting our house tightened up (sans windows, not ready for that expense) and our utilities can easily be $500/month in the winter months. I'd love your utilities!!
Our home is only 6 yes old and about 1800 sq ft, we pay between $130-160 for electric and water (goes down slightly in winter) and $100-160 for gas in winter (oct - April). This goes down to around $30 in summer. So at minimum we are paying $190/mo in summer and $230/mo in winter.
Can I have your utility bill? Just this month I paid 319 for gas, electric, water and sewer. In the summer it drops to about 190ish. I have a 1800sq ft house built in 1930.