Utility bill costs

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pipharrison
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Utility bill costs

Postby pipharrison » Sat Dec 29, 2007 10:36 pm

Hello again guys....just wondered if anyone can give a rough idea of costs for utility bills...electric, gas, water telephone etc.
I know it will depend on how big the property is (looking at Three-four bedroom places soon)
I am just trying to compile my budget :lol: :?

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dido72
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Postby dido72 » Sat Dec 29, 2007 11:30 pm

Hi I have a 3/4 bed townhouse and my utilities are around 40-50 euros for electricity, 80-90 euros for phone/broadband, using about a gas bottle every 1-2 weeks at the mo for calor gas heater so approx 40 euros per month, I have no idea how much water/council ax is as we haven't got a bill yet but the landlord said it is approx 10 euros every 3 months.

All together it is about 170 euros a month on average. :D

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Postby ashtondav » Sun Dec 30, 2007 11:48 am

2 bed apartment. No gas, just electric. max out in summer with the A/C running at £13 per week. Winter about £10 a week. Spring and autumn £7 a week.

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spanish_lad
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Postby spanish_lad » Sun Dec 30, 2007 6:18 pm

dido :shock:

we have phone/broadband at €120 a month, electric about €100, plus gas but only have 1 or 2 bottles a month so €25...

wish ours was as cheap as yours !

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Postby palmtrees » Sun Dec 30, 2007 7:53 pm

Broadband/phone around 67€ a month. AND I THINK THAT IS DEAR.

Electricity about 30 something euros every two months.

Water about 30 something euros every quarter.

Butano, about 15 a month, used for cooking and hot water in the bathroom (always turning off the pilot to save on the gas).

Council tax, around 135€ last year.

Probably not comparable - this is two one bedroomed houses, ie six rooms not including bathrooms. Oh, and we don't like to spend money unnecessarily. :roll: We do have a lot of warm clothes, and a very sunny south facing terrace. :)

Not sure that we are the norm. Most people we have met spend more than us.

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Babby
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Postby Babby » Mon Dec 31, 2007 8:29 am

Broadband - check with your local Town Hall - they offer WIFI for a very reasonable rate, between 10 and 15 euros a month.
I used to be indecisive but now I´m not so sure.

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Postby frank » Mon Dec 31, 2007 12:52 pm

[quote="spanish_lad"]dido :shock:

we have phone/broadband at €120 a month,[/quote]

Gordon Bennet! Nearly £90 a month! That is expensive! :(
Regards, Frank

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dido72
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Postby dido72 » Mon Dec 31, 2007 2:01 pm

That is expensive, there are 5 of us too, I presume a lot of your phone bill is calls but I don't know how you use so much electricity though!!!!

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Postby peteroldracer » Mon Dec 31, 2007 5:30 pm

I can never understand how some people only pay a few Euros for electricity - our bill is creeping inevitably towards 200€ for 2 months - we are all-electric, for water, cooking etc, but I reckon some folk live by candlelight, with no tv or fridge, no pool, and only take cold showers! :D
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Postby frank » Mon Dec 31, 2007 7:30 pm

Agree with "peteroldracer", whilst some seem to be living the good life, others seem to be existing. :D All this talk of one wood burner heating the whole house, sitting around in big jumpers/sweaters etc, ain't my idea of a fun time!
Regards, Frank

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country boy
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Postby country boy » Mon Dec 31, 2007 8:09 pm

Yep...I reckon we are frugal with lectrickery but we are doing €150 per Two months and we cook with gas.The Pool is only running for an hour a day now and we heat with wood/gas. We have about 150 watts lighting on at any one time and then a 'puter and the telly: Wish I could get it down to €30 per month.

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Postby spanish_lad » Mon Dec 31, 2007 8:20 pm

dido72 wrote:That is expensive, there are 5 of us too, I presume a lot of your phone bill is calls but I don't know how you use so much electricity though!!!!

its about €90 charges and 30€ calls ! and we get our calls free cos of the adsl !

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Postby palmtrees » Mon Dec 31, 2007 8:56 pm

peteroldracer wrote:I can never understand how some people only pay a few Euros for electricity - our bill is creeping inevitably towards 200€ for 2 months - we are all-electric, for water, cooking etc, but I reckon some folk live by candlelight, with no tv or fridge, no pool, and only take cold showers! :D
frank wrote:Agree with "peteroldracer", whilst some seem to be living the good life, others seem to be existing. :D All this talk of one wood burner heating the whole house, sitting around in big jumpers/sweaters etc, ain't my idea of a fun time!
I think I am one of these people with a frugal life who sits round in a woollen jumper (wearing one now in fact), has no tv, no pool, and one wood burner to warm the two houses.

I don't use electricity for cooking. I do use candlelight when the electricity goes off, otherwise I put the lights on when it is dark. Normally during the day I use sunlight.

We don't have a working tv, because they all seem to die the dust death. At one point we had four. Don't ask. They were never on much anyway, noticias, gata salvaje, and arrayan. No pool - the sea is ten mins walk away (and there were a few people in on Saturday). Cold showers - yes in summer, but they aren't cold, they are at least tepid anyway. Sometimes the water is hot after the sun has come round and heated the pipes. We do have hot showers in winter, and I enjoy long hot baths (heated by butano).

The woodburner does heat the whole house, and the small house too. We usually have to open a window, or go and cool down on the terrace.

More seriously, we didn't come here to live a consumerist life. It suits us. I actively dislike central heating, air conditioning etc as it a) dries out my skin b) dries out my contact lenses. I like wearing big jumpers/sweaters, I have lots of them.

Having said all that, when we had a very affluent, comfortable life in the UK, we were not a lot different, and invariably sat around the Rayburn in the kitchen, or occasionally lit a fire in the sitting room.

I think horses for courses - choose your lifestyle and you will choose your bills accordingly.

But I do have a fun time. Just a different type of fun I guess. I'm doing what I want every day. And I have done for the last six years. That's important to me, not whether I'm sitting round in a jumper or not (which I also want to do). I came to live more of an outside life, and I get to do that. I came here not to go to work, and I don't. I like that. Very much.

People on here may think it sounds like a hellish life, but to my amazement, there are an awful lot of people who are out there with green eyes and want to be where I am.

[/rant off]

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country boy
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Postby country boy » Mon Dec 31, 2007 9:13 pm

:lol: What it's all about is being happy and contented....HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE...VIVA!! 8) 8)

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Postby j4mes » Wed Jan 02, 2008 1:08 pm

just had the electric bill for oct-nov....€315....thats BEFORE any of the christmas lights went up, AND before our place was "invaded" by guests all over xmas!!!! dreading the bill......

Also, the only gas we use is for hot water and oven, and we use two large bottles every 1/4....when we first ordered them a year ago, it cost me €65 for two, last week it was €92!! General increased cost of gas the guy told me!

Also, it's lovely to have real fireplace, but the wood costs around 150 euro per ton, and since we started using it at the beginning of Nov we have almost used two tonnes!!!!!

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Postby Colinm » Wed Jan 02, 2008 1:20 pm

j4mes wrote:just had the electric bill for oct-nov....€315....
jeez, is that for real? Are you running floodlighting for a football stadium or something? That is horrendous :cry:

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peteroldracer
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Postby peteroldracer » Wed Jan 02, 2008 1:24 pm

Thank goodness for an honest poster!
While I agree that it may be possible to get by on 40 or 50€ per month electric, it is far better for prospective emigrants to budget for quite a bit more. We do NOT live a life of luxury, with lights all round the garden and everything running all the time. Far from it, we are careful about switching things off, have a curtain over the stairs in winter to stop heat vanishing up the stairwell, burn logs for fuel (although the chimenea does have twin fans to spread the heat), and still end up with bills of nearly 100€ per month!
It is still cheaper than the UK, but these days if you want to really save money compared to the UK, IMHO you must go somewhere much more remote than Spain - there are cheap houses and low costs in Kenya at the moment, I believe?
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Postby frank » Wed Jan 02, 2008 3:01 pm

[quote="peteroldracer"]Thank goodness for an honest poster! [/quote]

Peter, wash your mouth out, what are you trying to imply? :D That in order to paint a rosy picture, people are not telling the truth? That couldn't happen, could it?
Regards, Frank

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Postby j4mes » Wed Jan 02, 2008 6:01 pm

Colinm wrote:
j4mes wrote:just had the electric bill for oct-nov....€315....
jeez, is that for real? Are you running floodlighting for a football stadium or something? That is horrendous :cry:
It's a 3 bed 3 bath villa...250sqm built on 850sqm plot....

each of the bedrooms have air con heating, and we use them for approx 1 - 2 hours per day just to take the chill off before the kids/we go to bed. We dont use the heaters in the lounge or dining room as the fire takes care of this....

We have TV, Sat, xboxes, nintendo's, mobile phones, house phones, laptops, clock radios etc always on charge.....theres approx 20 outside lights around the property and perimeter that are on from dusk till midnight/1am when we go to bed, after that there are 4 sensor lights....

kids are 6 & 7 so plenty of washing machine always and tumble drying at this time of year.....

Then theres the pool (c6 hours per day) and electric gate (maybe I should turn this off!! lol)....A koi pond with a constantly running pump.

I am sure i could unplug everything every night and save a euro or two from not having things on standby, and could not have the outside lights on all evening but other than this, I don't think we are excessive users of electric!

Like I said dreading the next bill!

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Postby palmtrees » Wed Jan 02, 2008 6:05 pm

peteroldracer wrote:Thank goodness for an honest poster!
While I agree that it may be possible to get by on 40 or 50€ per month electric, it is far better for prospective emigrants to budget for quite a bit more. We do NOT live a life of luxury, with lights all round the garden and everything running all the time. Far from it, we are careful about switching things off, have a curtain over the stairs in winter to stop heat vanishing up the stairwell, burn logs for fuel (although the chimenea does have twin fans to spread the heat), and still end up with bills of nearly 100€ per month!
What is an honest poster? :( Mine was honest. We do not use much electricity. Our bills are 30+€ every two months for lighting, computer use, and occasional electric water heater, even now after all the price increases over the past few years. Why would it be more? Our Spanish neighbour has a family of six and pays at the most, nearly twice as much as us.

I agree that people should budget for more than they actually want to spend, and not take the minimum they read about (which seems to be mine at the moment).

But at the same time, I still can't believe people are buying their dream properties for 20,000€. We never found one seven years ago. At least our on-costs are minimal.


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