Tips For Budget Planning: Budgeting Your Utilities

The second group of expenses you need to add to your monthly budget is your utility expenses. Our utilities are a priority because lets face it, it’s hard to function without basic necessities like lights and water. By adding this to your monthly budget, you can see for instance how much you are spending on your electric bill and possibly make some life style changes, as well as, energy-saving changes that would help you to save money in this area of your budget.

The first part of budgeting your utilities is electricity. Your electric bill will include the amount of energy your family has used over a month time period and will possibly include the electricity usage on your well, if you have a well as your primary source of water. You should figure high on this number since electric companies are always raising their rates, and different seasons may cause you to use more energy. By getting this amount down on paper, you will be able to see how much you are spending, and it may cause you to makes some changes that would save you money on your electric bill. Such as taking shorter showers or replacing your light bulbs with a more energy efficient light bulb. It could even cause you to go as far as replacing your windows, because while replacing your windows may be expensive now, it could save you a lot of money in the long run. Plus, there is that new tax credit available for making your home more energy efficient. You could look into that as an incentive to not only making your home more energy efficient, but also saving you money on your energy bill.

If you rent or own a home inside the city limits, then you most likely will need to include water/sewer on your monthly budget because those will not be included in your monthly electric bill. This is usually a separate bill you will receive from the city that charges you to use the city’s water and sewage systems. This bill won’t be as high as your electric bill, but you should still figure high on your budget.

If you don’t have all electric appliances, and some of your appliances run on propane, then you need to include natural gas on your monthly utilities budget. While you may not fill up your propane tank every month, it is important to include this on your monthly budget as a way of saving money for when you do have to fill it up. Propane prices fluctuate more that electricity prices, so its important to keep tabs on what the going rate is, and fill up when it’s cheap even if you don’t need much. This will always save you money in the long run. Another way to keep your propane bill from breaking the bank every three months or so, is to put your name on your propane company’s list of tanks they fill up monthly. This may not save you money, but it may help save you from having to sacrifice to fill it up when it’s completely empty. If you choose to go this route, then it is extremely important to figure this into your monthly budget and figure high to accommodate propane price fluctuation.

The last item on your utilities budget is your phone bill. This should include both your landline and cell phone bills if you have both. Unless you have your phone bill on a pro-rated plan such as unlimited long distance, then it will most likely vary from month to month. So, as always, you should figure a higher amount on this portion of your budget to be safe. If you feel like you are spending too much money in this area of your budget, a suggestion would be to call your phone company and see what they can do for you to help you save money on your monthly bill. This may be lessening the amount of minutes you pay for on your cell phone or getting unlimited long distance added to your landline service.
Your utilities are a vital part of your monthly budget, but unlike your mortgage/home expense part of your budget, this is an area where you can usually save money by simply making a change whether that is to take shorter showers or talk less on your phone. You really do have more control over this area of your budget than you may think.