Written by: Madeline Blake
Date:

The quality of our life is greatly affected by the costs of living in the city or the state we live in. Depending on how much money you have to spend on everyday expenses will determine how much you’ll be able to save up or enjoy yourself. That’s exactly why, for example, moving trends today are largely motivated by the cost of living, giving a huge advantage to states that are affordable. Utility bills are some of the major and unavoidable expenses in our life, and it’s very important to know more details about them. Our team will, in this article, introduce you to some of the main things you need to know about utility bills, as well as some ways to save money on utilities, so make sure to read on.

A laptop, money for utility bills, and many papers on the table
Knowing the basics about your utility bills will be very useful. It can help you plan your budget among many other things.

What is included in utility bills?

Well, since this is an introductory article, with the intention of teaching you everything important you need to know about utilities, it makes sense to start from scratch. The first thing we need to cover is the very meaning of utility bills. Or, to be precise, explain what we mean by this. This is especially important to someone who is moving to the USA from another country. So, besides looking for a reliable company here at Verified Movers reviews, any person who is about to relocate should understand how utility bills work. That’s why we have put all the things that count as utilities in the list below, so let’s take a look.

  1. Electricity
  2. Water
  3. Gas
  4. Internet
  5. Cable
  6. Sewage
  7. Trash

These are the main utilities, and this list works for practically all the states in the country. However, what largely varies from state to state is their price. Setting up utilities when buying a house is one of the first things you need to take care of, so you may find much useful information here. Don’t worry, we’ll cover everything in this article. Therefore, let’s go step by step and learn a thing or two about each utility.

Electricity

While some other bills may have a small, pretty much negligible price, that’s never the case with electricity. It is often the largest expense out of all utilities, which is precisely why we decided to start with that. As you’re surely aware, almost all appliances in our homes run on electricity, and each and every one of them costs. Of course, some are more expensive than others, but more on that later. Without electricity, we would have completely different lives, and this is of the absolute essence to maintaining our life habits. That’s why we usually say that this is not something to take a cheap route with, although there are a few things you can do to save money on utilities without noticeable adjustments.

A pylon photographed from the ground.
Your price on your electricity bill will be determined by the number of kWh you’ve spent.

So, in order to introduce you to electricity bills properly, we first need to see how is this calculated. Electricity is measured by kilowatt hours (kWh) and the cost of your electricity bill will be determined by how many kWh you spend over a month. If you want to save a few bucks on electricity, make sure to take a look at your bill and see how many kWh you’ve spent. This will be very important for planning your future habits.

The average cost of electricity bills in the United States

The average American household spends 870 kWh a month. How does this translate to prices? Well, that depends on the rate in your state. In the USA, the average cost for one kWh is between $0.12 and $0.13. Twelve cents may seem small, but when you multiply it by almost a thousand, you get a three-figure number in dollars. To be precise, the average cost of a monthly electricity bill in the United States is $105. As we said, the exact cost depends on the price of one kWh in your state. To give you a few examples, here are the states with the cheapest rates for 1 kWh in our country.

  1. North Dakota – 10.03 (cents/kWh)
  2. Idaho – 10.07 (cents/kWh)
  3. Washington – 10.14 (cents/kWh)
  4. Nebraska – 10.36 (cents/kWh)
  5. Utah – 10.45 (cents/kWh)

On the other hand, here are the five states with the most expensive rates.

  1. Hawaii – 39.97 (cents/kWh)
  2. California – 26.70 (cents/kWh)
  3. Connecticut – 25.60 (cents/kWh)
  4. Massachusetts – 25.33 (cents/kWh)
  5. Rhode Island – 23.46 (cents/kWh)

While it’s not related to relocations per se, we can count high electricity bills as one of the potential unplanned moving expenses in the sense that if you didn’t know this and decided to relocate to CA or HI, you would certainly be unpleasantly surprised by huge rates.

Is there any way to save some money on electricity?

There are actually many ways to save money on electricity. For starters, you can ask your utility provider what the peak hours are. Usually, electricity costs more during certain times of the day, so if you avoid doing laundry during that period, or using some other appliances, you would definitely spend less. When the temperatures are really high in the summer, you could use fans instead of the AC. LED lights are also one of the great ways to save some money on electricity. Finally, and probably the best tip we can give you, is to unplug all the devices you’re not using or don’t need to use at a certain moment.

A red piggy bank
Unplugging some devices that you’re not using at that very moment could help you save some money on electricity.

Water

Another utility that is truly of absolute essence is water. However, keeping track of the amount of water you spend is maybe even more difficult than with electricity. It would be easy if it were only the water you’ve used for drinking. However, that’s almost nothing compared to other things that require water. Showers, washing dishes, laundry, etc., are all activities that require a significant amount of water, and it’s very difficult to keep track of them.

How is this expense calculated?

When it comes to water bills, there are three methods of charging you – fixed rate, metered service, and block rate scheme. A fixed rate is usually implemented in apartment buildings, and by using this method, every household pays the same price. Measured service is purely based on consumption, while the block rate scheme brings large differences in prices, also based on consumption.

A person holding an apple under the faucet.
Water consumption in the USA is 8 to 10 gallons a day per household.

Now, as far as consumption goes, the average American household spends between 8 and 10 gallons of water per day. However, in households where there are several people, this can easily go beyond 10. And, the thing that interests you the most, prices, again vary from state to state. This depends on the water resources of one state among many other factors. The average water bill in the USA is $70 a month.

A few tips for spending less money on water

Most of the water costs simply can’t be avoided. One of your appliances will spend the same amount of water in every running. So, the first option is to use these appliances less (such as the washing machine) if it won’t affect you too much. Something that everyone can do, although it won’t change their water bill drastically, is take shorter showers and turn off the faucet when washing their teeth. Also, make sure to check your pipes for leaks, because this, if unnoticed, could make your water bill go way up.

Gas

There are three utilities we’re mostly focusing on here, as they are usually three of the most expensive ones, as well as the most-needed ones. We’ve covered the first two, electricity and water, and the third one is gas. Gas is essential for heating, as well as the functionality of your kitchen. The consumption of gas is measured by either 100 cubic feet or 1000 cubic feet. 168 cubic feet are used by an average household on a daily basis, but these numbers, once again, are very prone to changes based on the state live in. Why is this the case?

Orange gas pipes.
Gas expenses are, naturally, bigger in colder states.

Well, the consumption of gas depends a lot on the climate. People require much more heating in the colder states. For example, in California, the average gas bill is only $34 while in much colder New York, it’s $102 a month. There aren’t too many ways you could save on gas. In fact, it is usually charged at a flat rate. So, the best thing you can do is maintain your appliances regularly, or eventually set up a smart thermostat which would make your life much easier by regulating the temperature automatically throughout the year.

Other utility bills

Now, let’s have a look at the other utility bills we haven’t covered yet. While their calculation might be more straightforward, or their price might be fairly less at times than the three aforementioned bills, that doesn’t make them irrelevant. So, here are the rest of the utility bills along with some saving tips.

Internet and cable bills

In today’s day and age, the Internet is a necessity for every household. Moreover, with the rise of remote workers, Internet consumption grows steadily. Your Internet bill is calculated based on the usage, but the rate depends on the speed (megabytes per second – Mbps) The average household in the US uses the Internet at the speed of 100Mbps, and the total usage is around 270GB a month. Now, to translate this into the price, we would have to know the terms your provider has set. The good thing is that you can always choose among many providers to find the package that suits your needs and your budget. And, know that the average monthly Internet bill in the USA is $60.

A woman learning about utility bills online.
Internet is neither among the most expensive nor most affordable utility bills.

Cable TV is not so necessary anymore, especially not with streaming services that are slowly but steadily taking over. However, watching TV the old-fashion way is still a habit for the majority of US citizens, and it won’t become irrelevant anytime soon. You’re probably in this group as well and you love watching TV from time to time, which means you’ll have this expense as well. This bill is surely the most simple and most straightforward one because you pay a fixed fee for access to a certain amount of TV channels.

When it comes to saving money on the Internet and TV, there’s really not too much you can do. Our suggestion would be to just look for the best offers. Or, to be precise, look for offers that suit you the best. Eventually, you can go with a provider that combines Internet and cable bill, as these packages tend to be less expensive.

Trash and sewage

A sewage bill is sometimes included in the water bill. However, it makes sense to look at it separately either way. It is the expense for all the water waste you accumulate, or better said, to dispose of this water properly. It usually costs $15-$30 a month. When it comes to savings, basically the same advice we mentioned when talking about saving on water bills works here as well.

A trash bill is usually the least expensive utility bill in every household. It costs only $12-$20 a month, and, similarly to sewage bills, this money goes to the maintenance of facilities that keep control over the accumulated trash.

Utility bills are not a negligible cost and it’s very important to know how they work

In the end, we wanted to once again stress the importance of knowing what utility bills are, why and how are they being paid, and if there are any ways to save money on them. As we said, costs of living were one of the driving forces of moving trends in 2022, and it won’t be different in 2023. So, by that logic, your decision on a moving destination could be made based on the cost of living in a certain place, and utility bills are definitely one of the main regular expenses that affect that.