newtoallofthis Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 Wondering if anyone can offer any advice or experience, my family and I are hoping to move to Coogee soon, we have done lots of research on rental properties and we will probably be looking at a 3 bed apartment, Im just wondering what we should expect to budget for bills, such as gas&elec, water etc, we are a family of 4. Thanks in advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickyNook Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 I live in Coogee in a 4-bed house. We're currently a family of three adults. I log all our expenses and know to the exact cent how much we spend and where we spend it. Not really sure how much it will help you though, because our circumstances will be quite different. Last year we spent $2800 on electricity. That's $55 a week. We don't have gas. I suspect a lot of that amount goes on running the aircon for my son who's bedroom is up in our attic. We spent $1200 last year ($23 a week) on water. A lot of that would have gone on the garden which has a watering system. We do have a 2 bed rental property down at the beach where the water bill was $675 for the year. We also spent $1200 last year on phones and internet. We have Optus cable and super-cheap mobile plans with Aldi. Our house insurance includes the building so won't be of help to you and if you're renting the landlord pays the rates so our rates bill won't help either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northshorepom Posted February 9, 2016 Share Posted February 9, 2016 What people spend on utilities can vary wildly depending on lifestyle, habits, how economy focused they are, etc etc We don't have gas either, so ours is all electric. In a 5 bed house, family of 4, we spend $180 a month on electricity....BUT we have a 5kW solar plant on the roof that provides probably 30-40% of our electricity, so if we didn't, it would be $300, maybe $350. On the other side of the equation we have pool pumps that run every day, a 2 year old (hence lots of laundry) and between my wife and daughter people are at home in the day, most days. Which means more use of aircon than others may have In an apartment you should have less heating and cooling (don't forget heating, it's not hot year round here) bills than a house as you have less exposed to the outside surface area. It ought to be significantly lower but I've never lived in a flat here so don't know Water costs us about $1200 a year too, but like NN we have irrigation, and the pool and laundry also push up water usage Phone and internet costs us $100 a month for everything. Then there's pay TV if you want that, which will be a minimum of $80-$100 a month Insurance, from recollection when we were renting our contents insurance was $60 a month. We like to pay monthly as it's just one of the running costs then rather than a big bill once a year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newtoallofthis Posted February 11, 2016 Author Share Posted February 11, 2016 Thanks everyone, I think I'll put about $1000 a month in the budget for bills! I guess the only way I'll find out is once we get there and start living the dream!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickyNook Posted February 11, 2016 Share Posted February 11, 2016 $1000 a month is a lot. My monthly household bills are about $750 - and that includes building insurance and rates. If you're renting you won't be liable for those - or possibly even water. My monthly bill for power, phones and broadband is $350. If you are going to be renting I would say that $500 a month would be ample to budget for bills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newtoallofthis Posted February 12, 2016 Author Share Posted February 12, 2016 $500...That would be great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srh82 Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 Rent will be much more significant... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newtoallofthis Posted February 12, 2016 Author Share Posted February 12, 2016 Yes we have been doing lots of research on that, budgeting $5000 per month...hopefully we wont have to rent for too long! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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