Future budget

Last year I had done an estimated budget of our expenses living in the house we build.  Now that I have a better idea of what things cost in this area, I'm working on updating it.  Electricity has been quite a bit more than I thought it would be compared to where we used to live.......but I think in the  new house it won't be as much as we are paying for this 1400 sq ft house! Two reasons. One is we will be on a different electricity company - a co-op, which is usually cheaper (and the co-op said they are cheaper than the power company we currently have to use). We were on a co-op power company at our old house and it was much cheaper than the other for profit electric companies around us.  The second reason is that we will be having a heat pump at our new house. The furnace will only be a backup to the heat pump. While there is the initial cost of the heat pump, it will more than pay for itself in saved electricity/propane bills. They typically pay for themselves in 3-5 years, according to statistics. We asked our property neighbor, the other day, what her electric bills are, and while I can't remember now what she said, it was under $100 a month for their big 5000+ sf. house. These summer months I have paid $160/mo ($400 in winter) for this little house!

Another monthly savings will be water/septic. I averaged $50-60 a month until summer and we like to keep our lawn green and the bills have been about $100 a month the last 2 months. We will be on our own private well and septic, with no monthly outlay. The experts say a well pump should last about 12-15 years and cost about $1000 to replace. So, I need to set aside about $70 a year for future well pump replacement. Much cheaper than paying that each month, like I am now.

Both of these savings (and now the $25 a month phone/internet savings) can go toward the higher house payment we will have.

The other item that is going to come down one way or the other is health insurance for DH! Seriously, I am done paying over $500 a month for basically nothing. Since the worthless politicians can't get their act together on repeal and replace, I really think I am just going to drop the insurance at the end of this year (maybe even in November) and start putting that money in a savings account to pay for doctors visits and medicines. Within 3 years I could have almost $20,000 saved for medical emergency, in 5 years it would be almost $31,000. I can pay his (on average) once a year dr visit and prescription out of that each month, too. From what I have read, the "tax" "penalty", whatever you want to call it, only gets taken from you only if you have a refund, which I never do. You have to have insurance for 10 months to avoid the penalty, so this year I would not have to pay it, if I keep the insurance on him through the end of October. I guess next year we'll wait and see..maybe something will at least be done about the penalty by then. Maybe at some point a more affordable plan will be available and I would then purchase that again.

I am just done with paying this exorbitant rate for what amounts to what is a catastrophic plan. The high deductible makes it unusable for regular office visits/care. On top of the $512 a month I still have to pay for any visits to the doctor and his monthly prescription.

We will be 10 miles closer to the city, where we do a majority of our shopping, so that will save a bit on gas over a years time for each trip there (average a couple times a month). We will also have our mail delivered to our house, eliminating the need to drive to the post office 3-4 times a week. While it's only about a mile each way right now, it adds up and it's having to star the car up each time, etc.

That's all I have come up with so far. I plan to try my hand at a few chickens for eggs......but I'm sure the cost of keeping the chickens will be more than the cost of eggs, LOL.