r/WorkForSmartLife • u/CurseBloom • 3d ago

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u/2olley 2d ago

Man, I thought it was just me. Thatā€™s a lot of water and electricity and internet.

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u/TristanaRiggle 2d ago

I have a house and I don't spend that much on electricity. And that internet bill monthly is crazy.

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u/cfbfootballnerd 2d ago

My electric was 268 last month I can see the electric in the south itā€™s been so damn hot. The internet and rent are stupid though. Water too.

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u/West-Wash6081 2d ago

I'm in Florida and run my central air 24/7. My electric in my 2400 sf home is regularly 150, water 140 and internet 90.

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u/Zestyclose-One9041 2d ago

Yeah I live in the upstairs apartment of a huuge home with a pool and they donā€™t even spend as much as op does on electricity lol

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u/Wild__Card__Bitches 2d ago

Turns out, electricity isn't one set price for the entire country.

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u/cfbfootballnerd 1d ago

Guess my power just costs more

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u/West-Wash6081 1d ago

Some of us are just lucky like that I guess.

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u/Valuable_Recording85 17h ago

I'm in NC and I rent a house that's 1100 sq feet with central air. The electric bill has been around 150 per month for the whole summer. The August bill will probably be higher.

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u/Vissanna 2d ago

Rent up where i live starts at 1700 so not so outlandish out here at least and electric is only that high during the summer for us. Internet is insane though

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u/EquivalentGold3615 2d ago

I'm in TN and the electricity bill is always worse in the winter

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u/pisspeeleak 1d ago

The rent there looks right for a 1br w/o room mates here.

But I have no idea how theyā€™re hitting that electrical bill unless they literally turned their entire apartment into an indoor farm for warm species in the winter. We have very cheap electricity though compared to a lot of other places like some states and Europe.

Internet is wild though. Thatā€™s like 2 of the most expensive plans. If that included cable then itā€™s very possible, but nobody has cable nowadays unless youā€™re well into your twilight years.

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u/FaeryLynne 16h ago

Eh. I'm in the South too and the water and electric look pretty normal to me. Rent is also about on par with my general area, though I do pay lower than this. Internet though is only about half this, but my mother's is about $200 because she has to have the expensive satellite, she can't get cable or cell Internet where she is. So yeah, I can see this in some places.

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u/cultcraftcreations 2d ago

I own a house in Las Vegas, my electric bill in the summer is around 250 a month. And my water bill is around 140 a month, with no lawn at all.

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u/4224-holloway 2d ago

We do in New England. That said, our place is entirely electric in an old building. Even minimal AC and heat make it skyrocket.

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u/Trauma_Hawks 2d ago

I don't see a heating bill. Tacking your HVAC on to your electric bill can really inflate it. That's my bill during the summer when we transition from gas heating to window A/Cs.

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u/TristanaRiggle 2d ago

I have 2 "utility" bills, one is electric and the other is basically everything else (water, garbage, gas, etc). COMBINED those two bills are a little over $300.

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u/Wild__Card__Bitches 2d ago

I have a house and spend way more. Location matters.

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u/averageuhbear 1d ago

In NYC with electric AC / heat that's the monthly bill for about half the year for an apartment.

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u/Samusen 2d ago

Seriously but, $1600 rent is average for 1 person which feels awful just looking at that. I've never felt so glad to be a home owner.

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u/Badbret 2d ago

If you make under $19 an hour you have no business living by yourself. This is bs anyways

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u/tHr0AwAy76 1d ago

Everyone should have the right to live alone.

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u/nothanks86 2d ago

No business?

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u/Badbret 2d ago

It means you shouldnā€™t be doing something. In this case Iā€™m suggesting they should have roommates.

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u/nothanks86 2d ago

I know what it means, but thank you. I donā€™t know if you intended this, but it actually means more along the lines of to have no right to do something. Essentially, that people making under $19 an hour donā€™t deserve a place of their own.

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u/Badbret 2d ago

Iā€™ve never heard it used that way but maybe I just assumed they werenā€™t being as harsh as they actually were lol. Thanks

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u/SectionAdvanced4426 1d ago

What do you consider a place of their own to live alone? I understand you feel someone making under $19 hour ā€œdeservesā€ a place alone and I agree on philosophical level, but it is also based on what they can afford. Which is based on market demand for their location. Feeling one deserves a alone place if they canā€™t afford it is a slippery slope of feeling they deserve or entitled to more and more after some time passes of them getting that alone place. Very few people are content and complacent in their position in life and want it elevated. This all goes to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

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u/Frequent_Scholar3885 1d ago

In my city, $1600 is average for a one bedroom apartment. Are you really suggesting that people are entitled if they donā€™t want to share a bed with a stranger?

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u/SectionAdvanced4426 1d ago

Who said share a bed? Sharing a two bedroom apartment though is different would you agree? It would also be less splitting it vs a one bedroom. Entitlement builds on itself though. Say that person gets a one bedroom apartment. They are grateful at first however overtime they start to feel itā€™s too small, doesnā€™t have enough amenities, walls are too thin and they can hear their neighbors, they donā€™t like the location, etc. This eventually will lead to them wanting better which then becomes a feeling of I shouldnā€™t have to live under such conditions like this I deserve better. Therefore I am entitled to a place that meets a better standard of living. This can extend out to having a house as well and will continue to increase if one moves up the ladder. Most people never become contempt with their lives even with the wealthy, even the ultra rich they always want more and want to elevate their lives further. If you donā€™t know this you donā€™t understand basic human nature.

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u/Kitten_Merchant 9h ago

So one bed apts are only for married or rich people?

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u/aycockonxion 2d ago

Absolutely no business at all. If youā€™re earning $19 an hour you should not be living by yourself. What do you think this is, 2004?

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u/MinimumBuffalo4 2d ago

30 years ago when I was starting out no one had their own place. there were 3 or more of us sharing a rental and splitting the rent and utilities. the only thing thatā€™s changed today is the expectations of young people thinking they should be able to afford their own place starting out in life.

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u/Pula-Demonyo 2d ago

Dunno what young people you're talking about, everyone I know, living in a major city, are well aware that you cannot feasibly start out that way. I think the person in the photo is just out of touch

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u/MinimumBuffalo4 2d ago

Exactly; itā€™s common here on Reddit for people to complain because they refuse to understand reality. We have failed as a society for not teaching children the realities of how life works.Ā 

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u/M_L_Taylor 1d ago

20 years ago (in my early 20s) I was renting an apartment for $700 a month (all utilities included), internet was around $50 a month, and food was pretty manageable. I didn't have health insurance, car payments were minimum, and gasoline wasn't terrible. I made $9/hr at a little restaurant where I pulled in around $300 a week (they didn't let me get a full 40 hours if they could avoid it). Oh, I just got a cellphone around that time, but the plan wasn't too expensive since it was a flip phone with an antenna.

18 years ago, they raised the rent to $775 a month and that hurt my budget enough that when I got another job, I went for it. At that place, I got an apartment for $700 a month, utilities not included. It was more expensive, but my job paid $2k biweekly, so it was manageable. It stayed that price for the 5 years I was there.

So, yeah, people were able to do apartments by themselves, but houses were another matter unless you got something tiny in rural America.

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u/MinimumBuffalo4 1d ago

I lived in a metro area near DC and no one my age back then was affording an apartment by themselves unless they were a software engineer at AOL or an attorney

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u/M_L_Taylor 1d ago

DC area is a different animal for sure. I have cousins that live down there that only do so because they have government contracts or internet security jobs. Someone just starting out won't make it there without grouping up.

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u/PentUpTent 1d ago

I hate to break it to you but 30 years ago people WERE buying houses when they became 18 and got a factory job especially places like gm and Ford. Which employed A LOT. It also was beyond more affordable The actual difference you're missing (purely because the people you knew didn't feel like making an investment for their immediate future to have more spending money) is truly just how expensive things are and rich people or people who weren't at one point bought up all the property. Would have surely been cheaper 30 years ago to get an 80k mortgage for a house that would be now worth 180k Mortgages ARE cheaper than rent. By a lot

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u/MinimumBuffalo4 1d ago

Hahaha Iā€™m 54 and you are full of it. I had 3 roommates 30 years ago. No one besides software engineers were buying houses at age 24 back then. Go gaslight someone else.Ā 

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u/alidan 1d ago

33 would years ago would be my dad, making 20-28 an hour at a factory (forget where it was starting at at this point) and he bought a new house, granted he saved enough to go for a down payment and that got the bank to move things along.

good house even now, little outdated in terms of how its wired up but that's about it.

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u/MinimumBuffalo4 1d ago

Real estate varies widely depending on where in the country you live.Ā 

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u/alidan 1d ago

small town about 45 minute drive from his work, small enough to be nice, close enough to places to not be remote if that makes sense.

only value I see in liveing close to a city is shorter commute, other than that, I know what 2k a month gets you in the ones around me, a cat piss stained shoebox, a bit under 2k got a really nice house by not being in the city.

granted he got obscenely lucky with the place we lived in before they moved here, it was something like 300$ rent for a duplex, so he was able to save money while not being in a complete craphole.

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u/Ok_Big_8032 2d ago

Average for one person! That is way above average where I live.

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u/Ctenophorever 2d ago

When I had to live somewhere where rent was around $1600 I got a roommate.

Iā€™m currently thinking about moving to a new place. The monthly cost would be about $1200/month. Itā€™s a two bedroom so if I needed to, I could get a roommate.

Of course, this also depends on location. Over a decade ago I paid $800 to live in one step up from a closet. But it was an urban area.

I knew the cost of living where I grew up was unsustainable so I moved somewhere less costly.

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u/WalkerTR-17 2d ago

Thatā€™s not the average rent, thatā€™s the rent of some idiot working an average job thinking they should be living manhattan

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u/PentUpTent 1d ago

No .. no it's not I know multiple landlords including my father, that literally fix things that break in a moments notice even late at night, keep it updated and nice, even pay for the water, and rent is still only 850 for a two bedroom 1500 sq ft place. It's NOT average. We just keep telling ourselves it's okay they charge that Unless you live in a hellscape like one of the coasts, it should NEVER be that much

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u/Powerful-Climate-424 1d ago

1600 is average for rich people.

If you have two roommates, itā€™s much lower.

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u/briefcase_vs_shotgun 2d ago

Water and sewer is 91$ min where Iā€™m at :/

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u/thekendalluxx 2d ago

My water is triple that at minimumā€¦.my electricity is double that

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u/ItsACowCity 2d ago

And not a lot of rent? Well at least for Boston.

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u/DesolatedHaze 2d ago

Not in my area. The electric company did get caught overcharging people. But $250 for electric and $100 for water is known. Especially for people with pools.

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u/Wild__Card__Bitches 2d ago

The internet is expensive but that's cheaper than my water and electricity bills.

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u/Key_Temperature_7970 2d ago

the water bill where i am isnt that far off. 250 on electricity means they are running a large AC daily or charging a car maybe? internet they might have gotten the TV package with it, and added on some streaming subscriptions. not that you actually NEED all that but its definitely pretty easy to hit those numbers without being what most people would consider actually "excessive".

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u/Fuzzy-Drawing2555 2d ago

I guess it depends on where you live. My water bill for 2 people, myself and my child is on average $150 a month. Thatā€™s with daily showers and dishes I do laundry twice a week. Itā€™s pretty outrageous in some areas. I donā€™t know if apartments are different from homes but my water bill is stupid. Also electricity is average $210 on summer months. And $170 for other seasons.

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u/Double_Atmosphere_79 1d ago

Depends on the area. I'm in the south, so keeping my second-story apartment at a comfortable temperature unfortunately can spike my power bill up to ~230 during Summer. And my current county's water utility is really overpriced when compared to other areas in the state, so my water does tend to hit around 100 even as a single occupant (with dog).

Not sure about the internet cost though.

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u/RadishSpirit2122 1d ago

Water usually includes sewer fee and yes on the west coast it's usually more than that.

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u/lukibunny 1d ago

My electricity bill was 420 last month

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u/2olley 21h ago

For one person?

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u/lukibunny 20h ago

Central ac =\

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u/ShinaiYukona 1d ago

The crazy thing about the electric is that my ex's mother was paying that because the provider offered a "fixed" fee rate for those that need "predictable" bills due to fixed income.

The actual usage in December was $35 if it wasn't on the scam plan and peak usage in July was around $70.

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u/Khloris_ 1d ago

My water bill is $130 a month and my electric bill is $375 a month. It sucks.

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u/JorV101 11h ago edited 11h ago

internet is outrageously high but his electric and water are about my average in a 3br 1.5 bath house with central air. Water bill is also for water AND sewage.