Got my natural gas bill today (Scranton, Washington: real estate, insurance, house)

[Lehigh Valley Native]

$259.00 for the month of November. Four bedroom house with three floors. We keep the heat at 68-70 during the day and 66 at night. Have any of my NE PA friends experienced sticker shock yet? Maybe this is normal up here for UGI.

[NYRangers 2008]

Haven't gotten my bill for Nov. yet. Not looking forward to it though. It will probably be somewhere up in your range of $200 or more. How can middle class working people afford this anymore? With gas prices at the pump going up and electric soon to follow, I just don't know when it will end.

[MsMilford]

The gas bill I just got for November was over $200! We turn the heat down to 60 during the day as we're not home, and keep it pretty low at night as well. We're in a well-insulated, two-level house with basement with storm windows. Including electricity, my power bill is over $300 for November. Ridiculous!

My insurance company, made "adjustments" to our account when we moved up here and my monthly premiums have almost doubled (at least that's only temporary). We took salary cuts to move up to beautiful NEPA thinking they would be partially offset by a lower cost-of-living. This is not turning out to be the case. Hubby wants to move back to Maryland. It's very depressing.

[Lehigh Valley Native]

We didn't get out electric bill, but it will be around $130, based off last month. Almost $400 for utilities for 1 month is insane.
As Ms. Milford said, it is suppose to be a lower cost-of-living here, but i'm not finding that to be the case. I guess it is cheap if you want to live in a $50,000.00 row home in Scranton or WB. But given the fact that wages are lower here than other areas in the state, it makes you wonder. Gas is even more expensive. We are in the Lehigh Valley almost twice a week and gas is about 5-10 cents a gallon cheaper.

[SteelCityRising]

Housing prices are the ONLY thing that makes living in NEPA a "bargain" in relation to other areas. Most other expenses are either at or above the national average. People from NY and NJ look at our low housing prices and wet their pants. Then they flock here and start to whine about the astronomical costs for insurance, utilities, property taxes, etc. Once our housing prices get pushed up due to real estate speculation in the coming years, there truly will no longer be any reason to call NEPA "cheap."

[Lehigh Valley Native]

Originally Posted by ScrantonWilkesBarre

Housing prices are the ONLY thing that makes living in NEPA a "bargain" in relation to other areas. Most other expenses are either at or above the national average. People from NY and NJ look at our low housing prices and wet their pants. Then they flock here and start to whine about the astronomical costs for insurance, utilities, property taxes, etc. Once our housing prices get pushed up due to real estate speculation in the coming years, there truly will no longer be any reason to call NEPA "cheap."

The only reason housing here is cheap, is because the housing costs in the cities are so low.
I think suburban housing prices are inline with the state average.

I am really worried about our gas bill for the winter months. It will probably be over 300.00 a month.

[FightinPhils]

Originally Posted by Lehigh Valley Native

We didn't get out electric bill, but it will be around $130, based off last month. Almost $400 for utilities for 1 month is insane.
As Ms. Milford said, it is suppose to be a lower cost-of-living here, but i'm not finding that to be the case. I guess it is cheap if you want to live in a $50,000.00 row home in Scranton or WB. But given the fact that wages are lower here than other areas in the state, it makes you wonder. Gas is even more expensive. We are in the Lehigh Valley almost twice a week and gas is about 5-10 cents a gallon cheaper.

You must be using a ton of energy and have a very inefficient furnace. Even with last year's single-digit freezing temperatures, we didn't have a gas bill over $270 for a month, and that was for the absolute worst month of winter (and this is in an older home with its share of drafts and mostly older windows). My electric bill is generally in the $50-60 range, with the worst being an $80 bill during the summer heat from running 3 air conditioners. If you're using $130 worth of electricity in a typical month, you can definitely cut back somewhere.

Maybe this is just another reason that I am glad I have a home that is not large (but not tiny either, at least by my standards). The bigger the home, the more energy wasted, and the higher the energy bills.

[FightinPhils]

Originally Posted by ScrantonWilkesBarre

Housing prices are the ONLY thing that makes living in NEPA a "bargain" in relation to other areas.

Not true. Walk into a supermarket in a larger metro area and you'll be shocked by the prices. I was in a supermarket in suburban Washington, D.C., in Maryland, and could not believe how expensive food was down there compared to here.

[Lehigh Valley Native]

Originally Posted by conorsdad

Not true. Walk into a supermarket in a larger metro area and you'll be shocked by the prices. I was in a supermarket in suburban Washington, D.C., in Maryland, and could not believe how expensive food was down there compared to here.

Food prices are no cheaper here than in the Lehigh Valley or suburban Philly areas.
Comparing our food prices to D.C., N.Y.C or the city of Philly is comparing apples to oranges.

[MsMilford]

Originally Posted by conorsdad

Not true. Walk into a supermarket in a larger metro area and you'll be shocked by the prices. I was in a supermarket in suburban Washington, D.C., in Maryland, and could not believe how expensive food was down there compared to here.

You must have gone into a grocery store in one of the higher-priced neighborhoods. I just moved from Maryland and unless an item is on sale, I have not noted that the food prices in NEPA are any lower. For instance, back in September when we first moved here I got all excited that Price Chopper had rotisserie chickens for only $3.99 each, because in MD they averaged $5.99 each. Well, I realized later after looking at the Price Chopper receipt that the chickens were on sale. The everyday price is $5.99.

Oh, and don't EVER buy bacon at a Turkey Hill. $6.00 for a package of Oscar Meyer is downright larceny!