Cost of Living

[mac]

Hi all,

 

We are moving to Adelaide in July and we are trying to work out roughly what our finances would be. We are a family of 5, we are looking for a 3 or 4 bedroomed house to rent. Could someone tell us roughly how much our outgoings would be for utilities for the summer and winter months just so we could get some idea of what to expect?

 

Many thanks.

[NicF]

It's a difficult one this as everyone's bills will vary immensely depending on the house they live in and their personal usage and circumstances. Reverse cycle air con adds loads to your electricity bill if you use it a lot in a house with poor insulation and single glazed windows but won't add that much if you hardly ever use it. Just to give you an idea though my summer bills when we rented were around $750 a quater, winter similar but slightly less and the other two seasons were around $350. In the house we are in now our meter is read half way through the seasons (was 20 January this time) so the bill is more even throughout the year and we recently had a bill for $450 for the quarter.

 

Other bills to consider are gas, if you have it (not every house does) and water, although you don't pay the full amount in a rental. Our gas is about $150 a quarter and the water about $350, although in the rental we used to pay $180 a quarter for water.

[Tamara (Homes Down Under)]

A lot will depend upon the property and the systems in the property.

A lot will also depend upon whether you are energy conscious or don't really worry about the bills. It will also be affected by the weather. We have had a mild summer with very few extreme heat days compared to previous years. This has drastically reduced the electricity bill from aircon units, especially reverse cycle systems. In previous years however there were periods of long heatwaves and they were running for 2 weeks non stop! The same issue applies with winter. It can get quite cold in those areas and reliance on electricity could be expensive.

My own bills are around $170 per quarter for gas in summer (gas hot water and hob) and around $550 in winter (gas heating).

My electricity is quite low in summer as I have the latest energy efficient aircon...and solar panels! About $200 and more in winter due to lack of sunlight!...$300.

The rental houses are a completely different story though and it does depend upon the occupants. I have had electricity bills as high as $1850 per quarter and gas over $1000.

Utility costs can be very high here. We don't have central heating (but we do have ducted gas heating) but careful and efficient use (like turning off aircons when you go out) can save a fortune.

[RachaelOs]

Agree with the above, will totally depend how you live as a family. We only had our air conditioning on a couple of times during the summer - we just opened the windows and there was a breeze coming through and we were fine so I think our electric was about 250. Our neighbours love the air conditioning so there bill was over 1000.

Not sure how we'll do over winter - lots of houses, including our rental, don't have double glazing which means the house gets cold but then you put the heating on, warm the house up, then as soon as you turn the heating off the warm air just escapes through the windows so it feels like a waste of money to put it on although my husband disagrees!

Food bills will vary massively dependant on how/what you eat - I prob spend between 250- 300 a week (me, my husband and two young children) but that does include husbands pack lunch for the week.

[Kingpin]

I love these threads! Everybody's answers vary so wildly. We are also a family of 5. Over summer our bills were Water $600, Electric $850 and Gas $250. We have a pool and my three boys and their friends would swim 24 hrs a day if they could so pool filters were on a LOT. Air con - not so much. Water was high, again, because of the pool and a nice new lawn my husband likes to water!! Having said that I find it difficult to spend more than $150 a week on grocery shopping so it evens out.

 

Hth