What do you pay for utilities?

My wife and I are moving to Ajijic in a couple of weeks, renting a 2 bedroom near Ajijic centro for a year. I see that most rentals have property tax included, some have some utilities included, and a few maybe all.

To help us budget and bargain, we'd appreciate knowing some ballpark figures for expenses to keep the household running.

I've gleaned the following figures (all Yankee dollars per month) from previous postings here, but haven't found any figures for Electricity. Electricity, anyone? Internet seems to run $35-50 depending on speed and whether it's bundled with a phone. That's wi-fi, right?  Propane for cooking and hot water might be $35-40, and potable water in bottles for drinking, food prep, etc. about $10-15.

We won't need TV cable or a dish if all we do is stream through our laptop--and that's possible--right?

Some places advertise that they have internet available. What's the value of this?

Anything else?

Also, some rental listings include maid and/or gardener every 2 weeks. That seems to be valued at $2-4/hr, right?

My sense is that all these expenses might add up to about $150/month. Does that seem about right, generally speaking?

I've read about some of the unexpected adventures one might have when paying bills--we're just interested here in attaching some dollar or peso value to what we'll be paying.

Thanks for your help.

Since this post I see that CanuckBob in a 5 year-old FAQ suggests US$60 every two months for electricity. Is this close to current cost?

Totally depends on your usage. We have solar electric so pay very little, before that we paid over $3000Pesos/2 months. You propane bill will depend on whether or not you have a dryer too, but $1000pesos/2 months is generous. If the rental provides internet it comes with the phone. If not, Telmex charges $389 or $599/month. Prices here are in Pesos so you need to adjust to that. Depending on your exact situation you may not need bottled water as many homes have in-house water purification systems.

tombo wrote:Since this post I see that CanuckBob in a 5 year-old FAQ suggests US$60 every two months for electricity. Is this close to current cost?

Jaja.....now I have a place that has a pool, multiple refrigerators, TV's, etc., etc. and my bill is about US$300 every two months. Like David says it really depends on the situation. If your rental place doesn't have a pool or multiple appliances then you will not likely pay more than US$100 every two months and probably a lot less. The electrical billing system here is tiered and anyone using more than 500KWH every two months is put into a much higher rate per KWH. The trick is to try and stay below 500KWH per billing period.

You nailed it Bob!

I pay anywhere between 250 and 350 every 2 mths for electric. That is with TV, ceiling fans, laptop etc. TV on many hours/day even though I am not watching,LOL. Laptop on all the time, even when not in use.

The big powers suckers are water pumps (both pool and house), fridges, freezers, old tube TV's, washers and dryers. You can save a lot by replacing any old appliances with new HE appliances. Old tube TV's and fridges are particularly bad for excessive power consumption. Because we have rental casitas we have 3 fridges, 4 TV's and heavy usage on our washer/dryer and water system pump so in fact US$300 every two months really isn't that bad. I have considered a solar system but our tile roofs are not really conducive to have the panels and grid work attached to them and I'm not sure if we will keep this property long enough to see the payback.

itsme wrote:I pay anywhere between 250 and 350 every 2 mths for electric. That is with TV, ceiling fans, laptop etc. TV on many hours/day even though I am not watching,LOL. Laptop on all the time, even when not in use.

Must be pesos

I assume people living in Mexico are speaking in pesos unless they specify differently.
I have been here 7 years and 300 (pesos) was the most I paid for two months of electricity. The lowest was 120. I still can not figure out how/why it was that low. But, the majority of the time, my CFE bills are between 200 and 250 every two months. I do not have a pool, television or dryer. I do have a desktop computer (on all the time), ceiling fans and a box fan that run a lot in warm/hot weather, new-ish refrigerator and washer.

for the last 2 months we paid $321p

Jumping back and forth between pesos and dollars in the same conversation can be confusing .... especially to new immigrants

With 5 fans on constantly (warmer here), neighbors using my washing machine and a small pool pump in the summer ..... mine is never over 500 pesos. Water heater not needed in the summer (black Tinaco).

sparks wrote:Jumping back and forth between pesos and dollars in the same conversation can be confusing .... especially to new immigrants

With 5 fans on constantly (warmer here), neighbors using my washing machine and a small pool pump in the summer ..... mine is never over 500 pesos.  Water heater not needed in the summer (black Tinaco).

Well the OP started the thread in USD so I answered in USD. It probably did get confusing for the OP when others started talking pesos without indicating it.

For 6 years we averaged about 600/2months on our CFE bill,which I thought was high,since our next door neighbors moved away last year it has averaged about 350,go figure...

New folks should as for electric consumption history before agreeing to rent. If the previous tenants were energy hogs, the property may be in the DAC rate structure and electricity can be 4-5 times what has been quoted above. That cannot easily be changed without the account being changed to another owner. The landlord or management company has little incentive to do that and such accounts are maintained in the name of the property owner.

When I first moved here the landlord had his little house and 3 apartments.  When he put in the pool he added new meters for each apartment and the pool. When the first bills came the two people that always used air conditioning had bills of a couple hundred pesos. Mine who never used air was something like 2300.

Landlord gave me the meter that had handled the whole complex ...... and all he could say was - "well it's yours".  I gave him 500 pesos and moved out at the end of the month.

Forgot .... it was a Gringo landlord

Thanks to all of you for taking the time to share your experiences! This has been very useful. Sounds like we should ask to see previous bills for the property.