Monthly Household Bills

roberto · Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 9:57 am Post subject: Monthly Household Bills

Hi.
I'm new to the Forum and cannot find any information on this subject, so here goes!

I am looking at a 2 bed property in the Christchurch area and would like to know the approximate monthly costs for;

Electricity
Gas
Water
Telephone line rental
TV Licence
Cable/Sat.

I'm trying to decide if we can afford to live there and so any help would be appreciated.

Roberto

JCM · Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 12:00 pm Post subject:

Hi Roberto,

We live in a fairly large 3-bed house, so apart from the telephone cost, you could scale the costs below down somewhat. We have no gas and all of our heating is electric (we don't have a wood stove). We use a combination of off-peak underfloor heating and electric radiators.

Electricity Bills were:

July 2003 (mid winter) $210
August 2003 $209
Sept 2003 $185
Oct 2003 $130
Nov 2003 $85
Dec 2003 $70

Water is included in our council rates which cost $162 per month.

Telephone line rental is (I think) $30 per month which gives unlimited free calls in Chch.

There's no TV licence.

We don't use sat./digital TV but the main provider is Sky:

http://www.skytv.co.nz/

Hope that helps.

roberto · Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2004 12:29 am Post subject: Thanks!

Thanks for that info JCM, it is exactly what we were looking for!

JCM · Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2004 11:08 am Post subject:

Hi again roberto,

Just as a follow up, I see an article in today's newspaper telling us that we're being ripped off in Chch on power prices - average bills in Dunedin are lower than Chch, even though households there use more electricity. The figures are as follows:

1. The Annual electricity bill for households with one or two persons, no-one home during weekdays, using standard electric heaters and electricity to heat water.

Christchurch $1,176 - $1,194
Wellington $1,100 - $1,127
Dunedin $1,040 - $1,175
Auckland $831 - $914

2. The Annual electricity bill for households with five or more persons, someone home during weekdays, using standard electric heaters and electricity to heat water.

Christchurch $2,443 - $2,564
Wellington $2,226 - $2,240
Dunedin $2,150 - $2,381
Auckland $1,768 - $1,863

Data source www.consumer.org.nz

Grey · I Like It Here Joined: 05 Jan 2004 Posts: 74

..hope none of us stay at home in the weekdays!

Robert · Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2004 10:42 pm Post subject: Sky?

Hi

I have looked into sky here in Christchurch but it is not what you are used to in the UK - look at sky.co.nz to see the channel line up. You also get stuck paying equipment rental and they are still not all-digital.
Also the terrestrial TV, although not brilliant, has much newer films than sky movies in the uk. Overall, we decided it just wasn't worth it.

Hope this helps...

Rob