babysinead

We are moving into our first Aussie home in 1 months time.

Can anybody tell us approx how much we are looking to put aside each WEEK for Gas, Electric and Water Usage ???

Do the bills come in Weekly/Quarterly/Monthly ????

Bermudashorts

Our electric is about $20 a week, water is minimal and I have not seen a gas bill yet (although we do have gas cooker). That is in a 3x3 house. I am aware other people pay a lot more though. I suppose it depends how much time you spend in the house (we are both at work all day) and how much you use the heating / air con though. Quarterly bills.

babysinead

Good point i should have stipulatd that !!

There are 3 of us, 1 young child (aged 4) im a stay at home mum and husband is out at work........so quite alot of time in the house.

HelenTD

Gas and electric are usually every 2 months, water usage is usually every 6 months. Don't forget to add in telecoms, which can be every month. As to how much they might be, depends on how frugal you are, especially with heating in winter and aircon in summer. If you have a gas-boosted solar HWS, then your water heating charges will be minimal. If you have a storage system for hot water, that will be more expensive than an instantaneous system. There will be tips on reducing costs on the utility websites:
Water Corporation http://www.watercorporation.com.au/Y...2738-4388-1663
Synergy (electricity) https://www.synergy.net.au/at_home.xhtml
Alinta (gas) http://www.alinta.net.au/home/

BTW, are you renting or have you bought a house? July is a terrible month for bills if you are a home owner. Will have to dig out the bills to give you some numbers.

chris955

We are in Brisbane so not sure how it compares really. Electricity every 3 months around $5-600, water is around $300 per quarter. No gas.

babysinead

Helen, Very kind off you. We thought we would put aside $100.00 p/w to cover gas, electric, water and phone. It is our first proper rental (in holiday rental at moment all bills covered !!!)
Do you use a compare site over here for best prices on gas & electric ??
Does everybody use telestra for phone or is their better out their (need it for phoning back to UK more then anything else)

Thanks for the tips of how to save.....i can be very frugal

HelenTD

There is no comparison site for gas and electricity because there is only one provider for each! A lot of people are anti-Telstra (some call it Helstra), and you can make a lot of savings by shopping around for telecoms. Have a look at the mountain of info on www.whirlpool.net.au, plus there are various comparison sites for telecoms. One thing you need to check carefully is that there are some dead spots in the Perth metro area for broadband and mobile. I think that there is a check that you can do on www.iinet.net.au to see if ADSL is available in your area. If you're planning to spend a lot of time outside the metro area, or broadband access is difficult, then Telstra might be the best bet as they have the best access nationwide. For most of us urbanites, we are lucky enough to have more competition to choose from. Some people don't have a landline at all and use VOIP for phone calls. Others might be able to give you info on using SKYPE here, afraid that I haven't got into it yet. I can ring the UK or most European countries and it costs $1.50 for 30 minutes. I've just got to remember to put an alarm on to remind myself to stop the call before the 30 minutes are up, then I ring them back again and have another 30 minutes for $1.50.

I've been too busy watching TV, so haven't dug the bills out yet. Ours tend to be on the low side and $100 pw would more than cover our costs. Watch out for medical fees, though, they can cost hundreds.

EvannTel

Only two of us but reck less.
Elec is 400 for 2 months but we have bore and pool but no reverse a/c.
Gas is 60 per month with two heaters plus hob and hot water.
Phone and Internet is about 150 per month.
Water is negligible.
So 400 a month! I reckon youll be ok on 100 per week and even surprised.

northernbird

My bills are as follows (I also live in Connolly):

Broadband/Home phone with iinet - $100 per month
Electric (4x2 with reverse cycle and a pool) - $55 per week average over year
Gas (water and hob) - $20 per week average
Water - $500 usage per year.
Mobile - $49 per month with Telstra

Don't forget contents insurance. I only work part time so spend half the week at home. I also have much older kids than you so my bills are higher due to more tv, computer, shower use.

You will also pay much less if you have no pool and no heating/aircon.

Hope that helps.

HelenTD

Our recent bills:
electricity $200, for 2 months, May-July
gas $32, for 2 months, May-July (includes using heater)
water usage $320, 6 months, Oct-Apr
internet/phone, $100 per month, $30 for landline, $30 for mobile (need to cut some costs here)

Gas: hob, 1 heater, gas-boosted HWS
Electricity: 1 computer, 2 TVs (rare to use 2 at same time), oven, general household equipment, pool pump, fans for cooling
Water: 2 adults, 2 kids, pool (3 of us take short showers, still working on the teenager)