Money in my Pocket!

If I titled this post "Utility Bills" or anything including those two words, you probably wouldn't be here right now.  But who doesn't love money? Or pockets for that matter??

 We got our first FULL month's worth of utility bills.  No one ever talks about utility bills, but for us it was a major thing we took into consideration when purchasing a home.  We wanted to make sure we could easily afford our mortgage AND utilities before jumping on the homeownership bandwagon.  So, throughout our 9 month house hunting journey, when we really liked a house, we called up the city utility company and the gas company and asked them what the average payment over the last year was for the particular address we were looking at.  We also asked what the highest payment was and what the lowest payment was.  Then we researched internet and cable options and prices and added those costs in as well as any HOA fees.  We did this for approximately 6 houses that we were seriously considering and all of them added an additional $300-$400 at least for the utilities mentioned above.

When we called on this house, the quotes added up to an average of around $208.  We were floored and called and checked again because something didn't seem right.  But the numbers didn't lie.  Our town has a pretty sweet system going on with cable and internet ALSO provided by the city.  And I think it helps that our house has TONS of natural light so we never have to have the lights on until it gets dark outside.  We still budgeted for $275 to go toward utilities every month just to be conservative.  Our bill this month for: