Do You Budget Your Utility Expenses Or Just Pay As You Go?

I think it's a great idea. This way, you're prepared during winter cold snaps where you need more heat or summer heat waves that require more fans or air conditioning.

The same goes for that occasional phone bill where you go over your minutes or data, etc.

Tucking away the money or overpaying will eventually balance out instead of dealing with unexpected surprises.

 

It's a good idea and would take me a lot of restraint to not spend what I've put back.

I much rather pay as the bills come in. If I can't pay all at once I set up a payment arrangements so that my service doesn't get interrupted. I usually like to pay at least half of the amount and break up the remainder. That has worked pretty well for us.

 

I am on pay-as-you-go meters for both my gas and electricity. The price per unit remains the same, contrary to popular belief and it allows me to budget on a weekly basis. Another advantage of pre-payment is that it forces you to keep an eye on your power usage and inspires you to cut back wherever possible. Seeing the meter go down slower is a great incentive to try and save as much energy as possible.

 

I think its smart to put in what your estimated utilities will be in for the month, especially during months where you have to have the heater or AC on more often. That way, you don't have any surprises when those months come up. Usually my bill is between $50-$70/month and maybe an extra $20 or so during when I need to have the AC or heater on.

 

I pay as I go. For some reason it seems harder to predict some of the utilities. I might need to start controlling it more buy being proactive with the electricity we use and how much we use.

 

Of course we budget our utility expenses. But when summer comes and the heat becomes unbearable, we are used to seeing our electric bill jumping to twice the normal. But now that rains are coming in slowly, the use of air conditioning is somewhat sparingly and more likely our electric bill will come down.

 

I generally pay as my utilities come in, but I recently signed up for budget billing on my electricity bill. I live in S. Florida, so we don't need heat that often and my winter bills are generally low, however, summer bills spike quite high. Our electric company takes the 12 months and averages them for us, so now I will just be paying a set amount every month. I'm hoping it will help my overall budget.

 

I don't budget for utility expenses because all of them come included with the monthly rent that I pay for my apartment, kinda unmettered bandwidth, err, I mean services I can make use of without having to set aside a budget since no matter how much or how little I can use, if it's summer or winter, the rent is invariably the same month after month.

Even though, sounds like a great idea set aside utility bills money to fall back on in emergency case.

 

I am a pay as you go person but I really like this idea of saving the extra money that you didn't spend for a rainy day when you need it. It's a great idea. A few years ago I tried putting an extra $5 on my monthly water bill and by December I had enough credited on my account I didn't have to pay that month's bill. It worked out especially with all the Christmas bills coming in it was one less utility bill to pay.

 

I try to do a high end budget for all of the utilities and then can use any surplus money for other things. It is better to save more than enough and have money left over than to not have enough prepared to pay the bill. My OH and I are actually going to open up a checking account that is devoted to nothing but bills so we will not have to keep our spending money in the same account as the bill money.

 

I would say that budgeting system sounds like a good one. No one can predict the future and sometimes bills can be higher than usual. Then there are times when you have to embrace a bad economy and if you don't see it coming fast enough, having even rainy day money can make the difference. I don't always like the pay as you go when it comes to big bills like rent. I'd rather have the money for rent with nothing left over than to hope the landlord will give me an extention. What ever style you chose, those bills have to be paid for.

 

We always just pay as we go, though it'd be a lot better if we could have the money set aside for it. But anytime we try to set money aside, something comes up and we end up spending it. So that wouldn't ever work. We don't have much trouble getting it paid on time, so it's not that big of a deal for us. Maybe in the future. It'd be cool to have the money put away and organized for certain bills, but for now this is how we do it.

 

I do this too because I incur a stable average utility expenses every month so it's easy for me to just set aside the budget for all of them and not have to worry about spending too much of my other money that it gets in the way of paying my bills. This way I can spend as I like elsewhere without having to worry too much. It's one of the things I honestly hate thinking about so the less I have to pay attention to it the better.

 

Although I didn't used to - as there are no late payment options where I live and the consequences of not paying your utility bills within 2 months of date of issue - results in automatic cut off and an extortionately high fee to get reconnected and also - after having experienced a few very nasty shocks when a large water leak ( which I was unaware of ) and a faulty electric meter resulted in me having to pay bills that were so ridiculously high - that it was a real struggle to pay them before the due cut off date - I do yes - now use a budget system for all my utility costs - which is generally adjusted at the beginning of each year to ensure that all price increases for the current year are included.

 

I just add money onto my utility accounts when I have spare cash, and it seems to be working fine at the moment. Phone bills are taken out monthly, but never change so I know exactly when I have to pay that one. I have a rough budget, but this will vary with the seasons of course.

 

I pay as I go with utilities. It's sometimes hard because of my high heating bills but I am used to paying more during the winter. I just remember that if I want to walk around without layers on that I have to be prepared to pay the gas company for that privilege. In the summer when I don't have a high heat bill I have a high electric bill, because of the air conditioners, so basically I pay the same all year round. High electric in summer, high gas in winter. I guess that is a budget .

 

That's a really good idea that we may have to start implementing this year. Usually we just pay as we go, but I really like the idea of tucking away extra money to be saved for later. That's really helpful and that extra money would really come in handy during those times when you ave to scrimp and save to get by.

 

I think being on the 12 month budget is a good idea to know what your bills are every month. Our house is all electric, during the winter the bills can be very high as it does get cold here not as cold as some other places but we need the heat on. During the summer the humidity and heat can be unbearable so that runs the bills up also, the only way to win the seesaw bills is to be on the monthly budget plan.