What are your monthly living expenses?

[popcornpuppy]

Quote:
New England has some of the highest electric rate in the states. Do you run electric heat or use a lot of hot water from an electric water heater?

I thought ours was kind of high at $350 a month. I put a meter on the barn and found we were using $150 a month out there for lighting, ventilation, and hot water. The remaining $200 on the house is hot water, well pump, a freezer, two refrigerators, and a lot of gadgets.

We do have an electric water heater.. but we take short showers.. ( i make sure of that.. i'm the shower nazi around here...lol)
But... we run a dishwasher.. so... that may be part of it.. but darn..how much electricity do they take?
we also do have an extra fridge running in the basement..(filled with frozen animal food/greens from my garden and left over food and extra frozen eggs i froze to feed them in the winter..etc...)
.. we also have a big cube freezer running too... (more animal food and our extra meat..)
So..i hate to turn those off and lose all that food for my animals..

In the middle of winter..we sometimes get $600 bills... With running a small wall heater for my pigs outside( i dont want them to freeze..*sigh*..) and a heat bulb for the birds.(sometimes).... and another heater in my bedroom.. (cause my room is in a finished basement... and its gets a bit too cold for me sometimes down there.. even though we do have heat vented in..)

But we dont leave lights or t.vs on all the time... they are mostly off all day long..
only turned on a few hours at night.
OOh i forgot to add..our heat is oil.. wonder if our furnace is electric start? must be..

In Redhen's defense, if she has national grid as her electric co. than I can attest to her pain with the light bill. Here in MA we don't have the choice of what electric co we want to use and national grid robs us blind. I thought my bill was high with an average of $300 a month. Now I know it's the electric co and not just me

 

[redhen]

Quote:
We do have an electric water heater.. but we take short showers.. ( i make sure of that.. i'm the shower nazi around here...lol)
But... we run a dishwasher.. so... that may be part of it.. but darn..how much electricity do they take?
we also do have an extra fridge running in the basement..(filled with frozen animal food/greens from my garden and left over food and extra frozen eggs i froze to feed them in the winter..etc...)
.. we also have a big cube freezer running too... (more animal food and our extra meat..)
So..i hate to turn those off and lose all that food for my animals..

In the middle of winter..we sometimes get $600 bills... With running a small wall heater for my pigs outside( i dont want them to freeze..*sigh*..) and a heat bulb for the birds.(sometimes).... and another heater in my bedroom.. (cause my room is in a finished basement... and its gets a bit too cold for me sometimes down there.. even though we do have heat vented in..)

But we dont leave lights or t.vs on all the time... they are mostly off all day long..
only turned on a few hours at night.
OOh i forgot to add..our heat is oil.. wonder if our furnace is electric start? must be..

In Redhen's defense, if she has national grid as her electric co. than I can attest to her pain with the light bill. Here in MA we don't have the choice of what electric co we want to use and national grid robs us blind. I thought my bill was high with an average of $300 a month. Now I know it's the electric co and not just me

Yup! National Grid.. And NO choice on electric companies..

 

[PineappleMama]

I asked for those vampire power strips for Christmas... hoping maybe that'll trim down some of our electric... it's okay in the winter, gas furnace and stove, but in Texas Heat in summer the A/C bill is just killer.

 

[CrazyChickieMama]

We had to move 2 years ago from Wilmington to Bolton. DH was working for the city fire dept, and it just was not enough pay. Now we can afford to scrape by some months and other months we're sitting pretty.

House with 2/3 acre: 381 (we pay taxes and ins. with our tax returns once a year)
Car: 360
Power: around 80-100 a month (power is usually cheap, but we live in a 91 yr old house with original windows...yeesh)
Internet: 35
Gas: around 150 a month. DH works 2 hrs away in Camp Lejeune and I drive the kids to and from school every day. 20 minutes away.
Water: 11-12 a month. CRAZY cheap.
CC Debt: about 75 a month 1 CARD TO GO!!!!
Trash: We drive it to the dump on the way to pick up the kids.
TV: All about the free through the antennae!!!
Netflix: 9 a month
Food: oh boy....I'm starting to coupon so this should go down drastically.
Heating: We use our woodstove for all but the coldest days, then we use our propane heat. That crap is expensive.
Incidental: way too much for cigarettes, but DH is buying me a roller so I can roll my own.

We do go out to eat too much and are cutting back. I'm the money spender and he's the saver so it works out.

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

We pay 15 cents per kwh, and no matter how little we use stuff, its still a high bill.
One thing we do have is a special all house surge protector.
It is hooked up permanently between the outside and the fuse box.
It requires and electrician to install.

We do not get any more brown outs, and, it cut out electric by 10%, because it stops all the extra free flow
electricity.

 

[mom'sfolly]

I admit I'm surprised that people only have $500 worth of regular bills....

This summer my electric bill was $300...16cents/kwh; new electric company is 11 cents/kwh
car insurance for two is about 120/month
property taxes about $350/month

so with three bills (admittedly using summer electric is weighted) my monthly expenses are almost $800

When you include mortgage, car insurance, car payments, phone, gas, internet, food, gasoline, newspaper, cell phone, water, sewer, garbage....it goes up from there.

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

mom'sfolly :

I admit I'm surprised that people only have $500 worth of regular bills....

This summer my electric bill was $300...16cents/kwh; new electric company is 11 cents/kwh
car insurance for two is about 120/month
property taxes about $350/month

so with three bills (admittedly using summer electric is weighted) my monthly expenses are almost $800

When you include mortgage, car insurance, car payments, phone, gas, internet, food, gasoline, newspaper, cell phone, water, sewer, garbage....it goes up from there.

Not everyone uses air conditioning, so that makes a huge difference in costs.​

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

mom'sfolly :

I admit I'm surprised that people only have $500 worth of regular bills....

Hers mine.

Power/gas $50
water $14
Phone/Internet $80
Trash $15
Cell $60
Insurance $50
Land an Auto tax $11
Total $280

Then add about $200 a month at the grocery store an I'm just under $500.

I dont own credit cards. I dont buy cars that I cant pay cash for. An I wouldn't have any phones If I didn't need them for business.​

 

[ams3651]

500-1000 for 3 of us. I cook mostly from scratch, order out once a week and dont have unnecessary bills except for the satellite tv and internet. $500 mortgage.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote:
Hers mine.

Power/gas $50
water $14
Phone/Internet $80
Trash $15
Cell $60
Insurance $50
Land an Auto tax $11
Total $280

Then add about $200 a month at the grocery store an I'm just under $500.

I dont own credit cards. I dont buy cars that I cant pay cash for. An I wouldn't have any phones If I didn't need them for business.

You are really inspiring.