Budget updates: Life in the new house

Our rent has gone up twice in the last six months or so. First, an increase from $250 to $280 a week. That was the prompt we needed to start looking for a larger place for our money, and for $320, we now have a garage for T’s motorbike, a living room (before we were in a studio where there was barely space for me to lie on the floor by the bed and do stretches), a kitchen we can both fit into at the same time (no more bitter cursing from me every other minute while I’m cooking), and there’s also all the little things:

• a decent laundry line
• our own recycling bin
• lightbulbs that don’t cost the earth to replace
• honest-to-goodness hot water in the kitchen
• saving on bus fare
• and saving on petrol, being closer to T’s friends and family

Our utilities are also going up, our internet package costs $10 more, and our electricity is also on the rise.

At our old house our daily spend ranged from $2.30 to $3.50 a day, or around $80 to $100 a month, with a decent on time, online discount of 22 percent. I think we were averaging around 250 kw a month in raw unit use.

Now, our usage is closer to 400kw, although our bills have not increased significantly (to date $99 and $80) thanks to Powershop.

But that’s a big jump in units used. Why?

I’ve lived in larger houses than this with flatmates, and power was usually around $40-60 each when split. And while we are in a bigger place now, I didn’t see any reason why we would be using more electricity. After all, we still only have the lights or fan on in one room at a time.

However, at our old place, the water was heated by gas, which we didn’t pay for (nor did we pay for water itself, actually. Another bill to add – usually $90 a quarter, depending how much rates have gone up in the last two years).

To compensate, we’re downgrading our TV package. I anticipate adding on the movie channels maybe once every few months when good films are on, or buying the odd Box Office movie – but our regular monthly bill will be lower.