Cost of Utilities: 2014 vs 2015

Last year, I did an analysis of our utilities expenditures.

Here's a summary of my findings last year:

• Gasoline: $1,299.65 (Down $496.51 from 2013)
• Natural Gas: $950.75 (Up $83.64 from 2013)
• Hydro: $782.80 (Up $63.37 from 2013)
• Water: $450.16 (Up $50.52 from 2013)

At the end of the year, I tallied everything up.

I was surprised to find that our gas expense for 2015 was only $1,012.48. A decrease of  $287.17.

Last year, gas ended the year at 92 cents a litre. This year, gas has been hovering around $1.05 a litre. So why the decrease? I think part of it is the fact that in 2014, gas was still $1.30/litre+ for stretches in the spring and summer. For 2015, the most I can recall gas being was $1.15/litre. Additionally, my father-in-law wasn't here for most of the year. Nine months in total. Plus, now we're only using one car. The second car is just sitting in the garage (Trying to sell it, more on that later).

Natural gas for 2015 was $786.41, down $164.34 from 2014. So why the huge difference? Compared to the winter of 2014, 2015 was mild. Extremely mild. We had temperatures in the teens for a stretches in December. December! The regular average in December is supposed to be around the freezing mark. We didn't come close to that. As a result of the mild temperatures, natural gas wasn't needed as much to heat the home. It would be interesting to see if the prices come down. Now that the demand for natural gas has lowered, the commodity price of natural gas has also dropped due to over supply. We'll see.

Hydro for 2015 was $693.20, down $89.60 from 2014. Despite the increase in hydro rates, the lower difference is likely due to the in-laws being away for a long period of time. Now that they are home with us more often and the Ontario Government is phasing out the 10% bill credit, I would expect higher rates for 2016.

Finally, water. In 2015, we paid $382.03 for water. Down $68.13 from 2014. Again, the decrease is likely due to the fact the in-laws were away. I believe water rates also increased, so I expect the water bill to also increase for 2016.

Last year, I mused that I hope the cost of utilities don't skyrocket. In fact, the opposite happened. In total, the cost of our utilities decreased a total of $322.07. This is something I didn't foresee.

Of course, some people would look at that and think shopping spree or pampering was in order.

Not Loonie IT Guy!

Instead, this money was likely put into our investments over the course of the year.

This $300 was probably enough to get us 12 ETFs of something or another. That's the gift that keeps on giving.