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Post by katlady on Apr 27, 2020 18:30:54 GMT
We've been talking about saving on gas (for the cars) and eating out, but we haven't talked about utility bills. Ours is definitely higher for April 2020 than it was in April 2019. We are running two computers 8 hours a day, and using the dishwasher every 2 days instead of 4 now. And we are having an early summer and the A/C actually kicked in the other day. This probably offsets all the savings we have for gas (for the cars) and for not eating out.  |
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Post by freecharlie on Apr 27, 2020 18:40:40 GMT
Our usage seems to have gone up about 50kwh per week in average. No a/c yet.
We have solar panels so our loan payment stays the same. I did have an electric bill for $7 this past month.
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tracylynn
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,899 
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Post by tracylynn on Apr 27, 2020 19:00:43 GMT
Our electricity charges aren't that high here. My highest bill this winter was $85 I think. Everything electric here. Last month it was around $70, this month, down to $53. I've been working from home for almost 7 weeks now.
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QueenoftheSloths
Drama Llama
Member Since January 2004, 2,698 forum posts PeaNut Number: 122614 PeaBoard Title: StuckOnPeas
Posts: 5,955
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Post by QueenoftheSloths on Apr 27, 2020 19:10:40 GMT
I did notice our water bill was higher than last month by like $10.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Sept 28, 2024 22:52:55 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2020 19:18:51 GMT
We are on the budget plan for electric. I have a feeling when they do their annual adjustment, it'll go up. Three computers are on all day long. DH keeps leaving lights on. One kid has fans going. DH is cooking and reheating his lunches. All this on top of what we usually do.
Water average will go up. It's usually $65/month. Last one was $75.
Gas will go down as it warms up.
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Post by maryland on Apr 27, 2020 19:30:18 GMT
Our water bill will be very high. We have 5 of us here, so I use the dishwasher 2-3 times a day. We are washing our hands more, but have been turning off the water when counting the 30 seconds to wash hands.
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Post by atomicdog on Apr 27, 2020 19:30:34 GMT
The crisis for me is that I'm having to potty here all day every day and that means I'm burning through the TP!!!!!!
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Post by **GypsyGirl** on Apr 27, 2020 19:33:51 GMT
Our gasoline bill was less than half normal. The savings will be re-directed to the electric company instead. I'm not really sure how much it's gone up as we have balanced billing and I haven't gone into the website to find our actual bill. It's definitely higher though because when DH isn't home, I have the a/c set at 74. He keeps it at 70 as much as he can. The thermostat wars are alive and well at our house.
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used2scrap
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,079
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Post by used2scrap on Apr 27, 2020 19:39:10 GMT
I think we’re about even, but only because the dish washer has been broken for two months now so we are saving water and electricity! Temps have been mild, so the blissful period of no heat and no A/C is upon us. Hope it stretches into May.
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Post by bearmom on Apr 27, 2020 20:16:19 GMT
Ours was a lot higher, dh and I are both working from home in the basement. Our basement had 13 lights that were on for 11 hours each day 5 days/week. When dh saw our bill, he unscrewed 9 of them.
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Post by *KAS* on Apr 27, 2020 20:19:36 GMT
My electric bill has decreased even though I'm home full time because I've had my windows open for 2 weeks. No heat / A/C.
I fully expect my water bill to increase because I bought a power washer and have been doing major amounts of power washing the last two weekends. Totally worth every penny! I bought the house a year ago, but I'm pretty confident it hasn't been power washed once since it was built 12 years ago. Front and back porch, front and back of house and garage doors are done. Just have to do the driveway!
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likescarrots
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,879
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Post by likescarrots on Apr 27, 2020 20:37:35 GMT
Our water bills should be lower since we are each only taking 1 shower instead of 2 per day. I'm not doing nearly as much laundry because I used to wear work clothes, then home clothes, then sleep clothes and now I've eliminated the work clothes.
I think our gas/electric has stayed the same but the temps have been milder obviously than Jan/Feb so the heat has not been running as much. But we keep our thermostat steady so the temp would be the same whether or not we are at home or work.
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Post by mikewozowski on Apr 27, 2020 20:43:32 GMT
i doubt your utility increase would be more than your typical eating out for a month.
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Post by jubejubes on Apr 27, 2020 21:00:09 GMT
The Province of Ontario has everyone on the lowest usage rate until at least May 7th. The high-peak and mid-peak prices are gone. Only billing as lowest time of use for everyone - homes and businesses. Along with the low gas prices, there are savings to be had.
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Post by 950nancy on Apr 27, 2020 22:29:06 GMT
Once our two kids moved out, our bill dropped by 40-50%. What were those boys doing?
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Post by MZF on Apr 27, 2020 22:41:28 GMT
Our usages will probably go down--not so much due to the SIP, but because DS moved out.
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Post by workingclassdog on Apr 27, 2020 22:42:03 GMT
Our water bill will be very high. We have 5 of us here, so I use the dishwasher 2-3 times a day. We are washing our hands more, but have been turning off the water when counting the 30 seconds to wash hands. OMG.. we were a family of five and never had to do wash more than once every few days.. I can't even imagine twice in a day.. ZOIKS.. lol Our water company is doing something weird and I still don't understand it. They are 'letting' us skip a payment and not sending out bills. But they are just adding it to the following month. I have no idea what their reasoning is because that is going to put people in a bind doubling up if they don't realize it. I called them and just made a payment like normal so I won't get hit as hard. These months are typically lower for us because no AC yet and not much heat needed anymore. The only one home all day is DD and I stress to her to keep the lights off.. but who knows. I'll find out soon enough. I am still reeling over 2 or 3 times a day.. hahaha |
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smartypants71
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,815
Location: Houston, TX
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Post by smartypants71 on Apr 27, 2020 23:02:12 GMT
Lighting your house doesn't costs that much, especially if you have LED bulbs.
Aside from cooling and heating, your appliances are a pretty big consumer. People have fuller fridges right now and are opening them a lot more.
Mine has gone up some but that's because DS keeps turning the a/c down because he's hot-natured. I'd be happy with the a/c off or set to around 76.
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Post by Skellinton on Apr 27, 2020 23:15:11 GMT
Ours wasn’t too much higher, just the water, but that wasn’t too bad. Our house remains a constant temperature if we are home or not because of the cats. Don’t want them boiling or freezing, so the thermostat keeps things the desired temperature all day anyway,
We both have long commutes, so we are definitely ahead without paying for gas, I imagine the break we got for car insurance will balance out the water bill difference.
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AllieC
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,086
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Post by AllieC on Apr 27, 2020 23:46:47 GMT
Ours has been pretty much the same. There are only two of us so that helps. The weather has also been mild up until now so no air-con or heat has been on for the last month or so.
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Post by maryland on Apr 27, 2020 23:51:42 GMT
Our water bill will be very high. We have 5 of us here, so I use the dishwasher 2-3 times a day. We are washing our hands more, but have been turning off the water when counting the 30 seconds to wash hands. OMG.. we were a family of five and never had to do wash more than once every few days.. I can't even imagine twice in a day.. ZOIKS.. lol Our water company is doing something weird and I still don't understand it. They are 'letting' us skip a payment and not sending out bills. But they are just adding it to the following month. I have no idea what their reasoning is because that is going to put people in a bind doubling up if they don't realize it. I called them and just made a payment like normal so I won't get hit as hard. These months are typically lower for us because no AC yet and not much heat needed anymore. The only one home all day is DD and I stress to her to keep the lights off.. but who knows. I'll find out soon enough. I am still reeling over 2 or 3 times a day.. hahaha My daughters like to make themselves a good breakfast and lunch. So use a lot of dishes! And I admit I only wash one dish by hand!  So everything goes in the dishwasher. We had to get a new dishwasher 5 yrs. ago and my husband loves to get what Consumer Reports recommends. It was a Bosch dishwasher. We got it home and I couldn't fit many dishes at all! I was so upset because we go through so many dishes. We ended up returning it and I took a bunch of dishes to Sears and made sure they fit before we bought it. They must have thought I was crazy!
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Post by huskermom98 on Apr 28, 2020 0:54:26 GMT
Despite cooking every night which means running the dishwasher & doing dishes more, I'm pretty sure we're using less water because our 14yo son isn't showering every night (because he doesn't do much during the day anymore)...that makes a HUGE difference!
We're on budget billing for gas & electric so I don't notice the difference unless I go looking at the monthly bills.
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Post by elaine on Apr 28, 2020 1:24:35 GMT
OMG.. we were a family of five and never had to do wash more than once every few days.. I can't even imagine twice in a day.. ZOIKS.. lol Our water company is doing something weird and I still don't understand it. They are 'letting' us skip a payment and not sending out bills. But they are just adding it to the following month. I have no idea what their reasoning is because that is going to put people in a bind doubling up if they don't realize it. I called them and just made a payment like normal so I won't get hit as hard. These months are typically lower for us because no AC yet and not much heat needed anymore. The only one home all day is DD and I stress to her to keep the lights off.. but who knows. I'll find out soon enough. I am still reeling over 2 or 3 times a day.. hahaha My daughters like to make themselves a good breakfast and lunch. So use a lot of dishes! And I admit I only wash one dish by hand! So everything goes in the dishwasher. We had to get a new dishwasher 5 yrs. ago and my husband loves to get what Consumer Reports recommends. It was a Bosch dishwasher. We got it home and I couldn't fit many dishes at all! I was so upset because we go through so many dishes. We ended up returning it and I took a bunch of dishes to Sears and made sure they fit before we bought it. They must have thought I was crazy!
We normally run the dishwasher every night. Now, with 4 adults eating all their meals here, with occasional delivery, and lots of baking going on, we run the dishwasher - and it is packed - at least twice per day, sometimes 3 times per day too. 4 adults x 3 meals x prepping those meals x baking bread = a literal mountain of dishes. |
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mlana
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,523
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Post by mlana on Apr 28, 2020 2:14:32 GMT
My daughters like to make themselves a good breakfast and lunch. So use a lot of dishes! And I admit I only wash one dish by hand! So everything goes in the dishwasher. We had to get a new dishwasher 5 yrs. ago and my husband loves to get what Consumer Reports recommends. It was a Bosch dishwasher. We got it home and I couldn't fit many dishes at all! I was so upset because we go through so many dishes. We ended up returning it and I took a bunch of dishes to Sears and made sure they fit before we bought it. They must have thought I was crazy!
I did something like that when I was looking for a stovetop. I carried my big pot and 4 other smaller pots and pans with me on my shopping trips. I wanted to be sure that I could use the other 4 burners when I had a big pot on the center burner. Salesmen looked at me like I was crazy, but they were amazed at how many burners were set up in such a way that when you had a Dutch oven or larger on the center burner you couldn’t use at least 2 of the other burners. The sales guys were even more aghast when I wasn’t impressed by the BTUs the center burner could produce. I had a side burner on my grill that could do so much more than any stove, so any hot cooking was going to take place outside. Meanwhile, I wanted a burner than could cook very low without going out. I spent a lot more time simmering sauce than I did wokking ! Marcy |
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mlana
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,523
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Post by mlana on Apr 28, 2020 2:25:50 GMT
We've been talking about saving on gas (for the cars) and eating out, but we haven't talked about utility bills. Ours is definitely higher for April 2020 than it was in April 2019. We are running two computers 8 hours a day, and using the dishwasher every 2 days instead of 4 now. And we are having an early summer and the A/C actually kicked in the other day. This probably offsets all the savings we have for gas (for the cars) and for not eating out. I work from home normally, so the utilities aren’t changing just because DH is also working from home. My mom is also SIP with us, so she does laundry as soon as one of us takes a piece of clothes off. I still expect our water bill to go down this month since I just had 3 of our 4 toilets worked on. We finally reached a point where a plumber visit couldn’t be avoided. do you all have a service from your utilities where you get a daily report on how much power you used the day before? I find this very helpful in tracking what changes we make that cause us to use more electricity. Marcy |
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tracylynn
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,899
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Post by tracylynn on Apr 28, 2020 2:48:57 GMT
I did notice our water bill was higher than last month by like $10. My water bill was up by around $4. It had been pretty consistently within a dollar of the same amount several months in a row. |
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Post by aj2hall on Apr 28, 2020 4:11:34 GMT
Not sure about electric, but the price of propane was lower than its been in a long time. It fluctuates like crazy and is not always in sync with gas price trends. Whatever the reason for the lower price, Im grateful.
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Post by chaosisapony on Apr 28, 2020 4:28:59 GMT
My electricity bill has been higher, yes. The dishwasher is running more, I've been doing more laundry. Plus lights, computers, and the tv are all on a lot more. I've turned on the a/c much earlier this year than normal too. It's been a hot spring.
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Post by pierkiss on Apr 28, 2020 4:30:44 GMT
Our water bill will be very high. We have 5 of us here, so I use the dishwasher 2-3 times a day. We are washing our hands more, but have been turning off the water when counting the 30 seconds to wash hands. OMG.. we were a family of five and never had to do wash more than once every few days.. I can't even imagine twice in a day.. ZOIKS.. lol Our water company is doing something weird and I still don't understand it. They are 'letting' us skip a payment and not sending out bills. But they are just adding it to the following month. I have no idea what their reasoning is because that is going to put people in a bind doubling up if they don't realize it. I called them and just made a payment like normal so I won't get hit as hard. These months are typically lower for us because no AC yet and not much heat needed anymore. The only one home all day is DD and I stress to her to keep the lights off.. but who knows. I'll find out soon enough. I am still reeling over 2 or 3 times a day.. hahaha If they have an online payment portal go in there and pay it as usual if you are able. That way you won’t have to worry about paying double next time. |
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Post by workingclassdog on Apr 28, 2020 16:18:42 GMT
OMG.. we were a family of five and never had to do wash more than once every few days.. I can't even imagine twice in a day.. ZOIKS.. lol Our water company is doing something weird and I still don't understand it. They are 'letting' us skip a payment and not sending out bills. But they are just adding it to the following month. I have no idea what their reasoning is because that is going to put people in a bind doubling up if they don't realize it. I called them and just made a payment like normal so I won't get hit as hard. These months are typically lower for us because no AC yet and not much heat needed anymore. The only one home all day is DD and I stress to her to keep the lights off.. but who knows. I'll find out soon enough. I am still reeling over 2 or 3 times a day.. hahaha If they have an online payment portal go in there and pay it as usual if you are able. That way you won’t have to worry about paying double next time. They don't have an online option... so I always call in my payment. (As a matter of fact, they MIGHT have an online option but they don't advertise it if they do... I should check into it.) But a quick call is all it takes for a payment, and by a live person.. no automated service either. |
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So everything goes in the dishwasher. We had to get a new dishwasher 5 yrs. ago and my husband loves to get what Consumer Reports recommends. It was a Bosch dishwasher. We got it home and I couldn't fit many dishes at all! I was so upset because we go through so many dishes. We ended up returning it and I took a bunch of dishes to Sears and made sure they fit before we bought it. They must have thought I was crazy!
