House Expenses (how much, utilities, living in)

[Hannaellis93]

I am planning on moving into a house, and I would like to estimate my budget for house expenses. The house is one story, a little less than 1,800 square feet built in 2000. It has 3 bedroom 2 bath with just me living in it. It uses gas and has vaulted ceilings. I would say I am conservative with utilities.

What is the estimated cost of Gas, electricity, and water? Is it too low to assume about $50 for each of these?

This is my first home and I am not entirely sure what to expect. Thank you for your response.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Make you a deal. You tell me how much I will spend on groceries this spring and I will tell you how much you will pay for all your utilities combined.

Your utilities are all on meters, so you are going to pay for whatever you use. Nobody can guess how much you are going to use. Different families in the exact same house can use wildly varying amounts.

[PNW-type-gal]

Originally Posted by Hannaellis93

I am planning on moving into a house, and I would like to estimate my budget for house expenses. The house is one story, a little less than 1,800 square feet built in 2000. It has 3 bedroom 2 bath with just me living in it. It uses gas and has vaulted ceilings. I would say I am conservative with utilities.

What is the estimated cost of Gas, electricity, and water? Is it too low to assume about $50 for each of these?

This is my first home and I am not entirely sure what to expect. Thank you for your response.

You can call the utilities and ask what the bills have been running. That won't help if you don't know how many people were living there prior or if the house has been vacant for months, but it's better than no info.

It should be relatively efficient, 2x6 walls and at least the minimal insulation, relatively modern windows. Assuming it has an HVAC that is in good shape, it should be pretty good. $150 might be doable as the average for a monthly utility bill, although it's likely bills will be higher in winter.

If it is just you, close off vents in rooms you don't use, like the other 2 bedrooms. Use the setback feature on the thermostat so that when you aren't home, the house isn't over heated/cooled.

[patches403]

I have a 2,000 sq ft two story house built around the same time with 2 of us living there. We have our electric and gas bills on equal pay and pay $202 a month. We do have A/C and use it daily June - September. The most recent water/sewer bill was $125 for two months and that's for the lowest 2 month usage period of the year since there's no yard watering included. In the summer it can get up over $180 for 2 months and we only have a 5,000 sq ft lot. Also don't forget garbage, ours is about $45 every other month. If you average our bills out over 12 months it comes to around $295 a month.

Most likely your estimate of $150 is too low; it will more likely average $200 - $250 a month.

[Silverfall]

You forgot garbage which is $17.50 a month. Water and sewer are together in a bill from the city and it depends on whether or not you take long showers. I think $50 a month for the water/sewer for one person taking a normal daily shower would probably be about right, and then add more for the summer when you need to water your yard.

I think the $200 a month average given by patches for gas and electric is probably about right.

[bler144]

And don't forget the cost of internet, which will be roughly $1,000,000 per month.

Or at least it feels like that.