After five months of living here, we just got our first electricity bill. The damage? £77! Given that I'm up most nights and that I leave a Mac Mini on upstairs 24/7 as my media centre, I think that under £20 ($35) per month for electricity is pretty good for a household of two people. We spend double that on (heating) gas. Last, but not least, our water bill comes to even less than the electricity.
As a regular lurker of the Motley Fool's excellent boards, I began using people's SOAs (Statement of Affairs, detailed info about their income and expenditures so the Fools could give debt management advice to them) as guides on how much it'd cost to keep a home running. Turns out everyone else is clearly a resource hog. We spend £160 per month on groceries for the two of us each month, £16 for electricity, £20 for gas, and about £15 for water. I often see double these figures for couples.
Of course, Ed often used to impress me with his £5 of electricity per month..
Now that there are two of us in the flat, our per month electricity bill is approximately £7.50, yes £7.50. That's with the Mac mini on 24/7 and cooking happening practically every morning and evening; plus lighting on more often than not. We pay every two months, a total of £15. So £20 for two people is of no surprise to me, and simply suggests there's a few additional things you have/use that we do not. Eg. we have TV via the Mac mini, do you have a "proper tv"? + We use purely laptops + TFT, no CRT or big box computers..
Posted by: Ed at April 11, 2006 08:47 AMWell, we have five rooms :) And a boiler which spends most of its time pumping stuff around. But yeah, we have TV(s), and quite a lot of lights (all energy savers though), and I leave a lot of stuff on permanently like the speaker system, the boiler, etc, so yeah, we have quite a bit more I imagine. Oh, and the washing machine / tumble dryer really adds up!
Posted by: Peter Cooper at April 11, 2006 09:25 AMThis is impressive. I think I spent £160 on "groceries" just last night at a restaurant for dinner. Maybe my wife and I need to get some food in the refrigerator as a first step.
Posted by: Kelly Smith at April 14, 2006 07:53 PMI can't speak for the Northwest, but in LA the level of eating out is crazy. It's reasonably affordable though I find, whereas eating out here is very expensive (unless you want fast food).
I'm a bit of a frugality freak though, so if I can get that grocery bill down any more, I try!
Posted by: Peter Cooper at April 14, 2006 08:45 PMReturn to the homepage.
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