Those who moved from city to burbs

I know everyone's situation was different, and I am not factoring housing costs (i.e. mortgage/HOA), but how much did your monthly expenses increase from being in a house (assuming you went from an apt) and are now further away from city/work.

We now have to contend with:
Increased electric bill
Monthly train ticket/parking
Second car (train car)
Landscaping

I know I must be leaving stuff off-- but of course it's more to maintain a home than it is an apt-- although we have had a VERY expensive year in our apt (we do currently own).

Re: Those who moved from city to burbs

I moved from my parents house to my own house when I got married and the expenses were hard to deal with!! LOL

Train parking $100/year
Train ticket $460/month
Electric $115/month (we pay this every month of the year and have central AC and a pool)
Landscaping $100-250/month


In the city there was no parking expense and commuting cost me $200/month and DH drove (now takes LIRR)

A pool is very exp too! It cost $315 to open and maybe $200-300 to close plus the cost of running filter/heater and chemicals are probably $100-300/year.

Car insurance decreased A LOT when leaving the city and there are no more city taxes from check with a HUGE savings.

Hope this helps!!

Re: Those who moved from city to burbs

How is your electric so cheap??!! That would be a cheap month for us here!!

Our new house, the homeowners say they pay about $400/month-- and that is without a baby and the amount of laundry I will be doing!

Good point about the car insurance!

Re: Those who moved from city to burbs

We are never home so maybe that helps the electric! We leave for work at 5-6am and dont get home until 5-8pm. My DH hates having the lights on because they hurt his eyes! LOL

Re: Those who moved from city to burbs

Def factor in spending more on gas! But I would also say my food shopping bill increased, and my eating out bill decreased!

Re: Those who moved from city to burbs

Re: Those who moved from city to burbs

Homeowners insurance

Re: Those who moved from city to burbs

Our garage bill cancelled out our train ticket costs and is better because it's eligible for flex spending. We paid cash for the 2nd car (bought certified preowned) and amazingly pay the same rate for car insurance for two cars as we did with one in the city because our we switched to the company that does our homeowners insurance (Liberty Mutual).

Our electric bill is surprisingly basically the same but we have village utilities so that may be why.

Landscaping is ~$30/wk plus various fees for treatments periodically.

The heating bill was probably the biggest additional cost but even that hasnt been so bad (havent been here a year but on track to be ~$1800 which is WAY less than I expected).

There are things you'll save on too. We save HUGE on food shopping/restaurant bills (the novelty of having a BBQ & yard hasnt worn off yet
)

Re: Those who moved from city to burbs

We moved from Queens, and it is a BIG difference.
We used to both commute, but now it is just my DH - and that is almost $400 month.
We didn't pay for heat/hot water in the apt - now the gas bill in the winter can be $200-$300/month.

We had only one car then, now we have two, so that's another car payment + insurance.

Then there are property taxes - we were renting so we didn't pay those at all in the apt.

Re: Those who moved from city to burbs

They increased a lot!


Increased electric bill - it varies by season, but in the winter its around $150-200 and summer it's $300-$500 depending on how often I use the CAC.
Monthly train ticket/parking - $321
Second car (train car) - We already had a station car, but needed another car for me. $33K
Landscaping - About $2400 a year

There's also gas (heating) bill - around $250
Water - $20 every 3 months
Alarm - $129 every 3 months

Then there's other expenses if you hire out to do stuff like we do:

powerwashing the deck - $375
Additional landscaping (trimming bushes) - $150-300 a year


There's also stuff that comes up:
-last year our fridge died. New one was like $1400
-this year the microwave died - $600
- we had squirrels in the attic over the winter - $1K
-the last couple years (not this year) we had carpenter ants - $300 for exterminator

etc...the list goes on and on!!

Re: Those who moved from city to burbs