Something interesting happened to me yesterday. I got my utility bill for last month. The fun thing is that it went down!

Please let me back up and explain a few things. My whole house is electric. My bill will never be under $200 unless I put in solar panels or don’t live there for a month. For the last four years, I had been on budget billing, which had been working out for me.

Until October. The utility company decided to raise my budget for the third time in one year. From $361 to $396 to $476 a month. I thought the last raise was ridiculous and I was justifiably irked. I went online and looked at my last two years’ worth of bills. On my bill, they show the budgeted amount and the actual cost for the month. My bill had only reached $400 once. Last year, when it got really, really cold in January/February.

I prepare budgets for customers at my workplace, so I am familiar with the process. I did the math on my utility bill and could not come up with the amount of $476 for a month. Again, ridiculous!

So….I went off budget. That is a big, scary step for someone who wants to be on a budget. I thought maybe I had been foolish, so I gave myself a timeline. Six months, which include winter. I would be off budget for six months to see if that would work.

Has it been working? Yes!

My bill for November: $211.
My bill for December: $379.
My bill for January: $344.

Have I become a light dictator? You bet.
Does the house feel chilly a lot? Yes.
Can we handle it? Yes.

I did the same thing with my landline phone bill. We were not using it and were paying $55-$60 a month for it. The phone company was not willing to deal, so I got rid of the landline. We all have cell phones and I needed that money back into my budget anyway.

Verizon got downsized too. I dropped my data plan from 4G to 3G. Then from 3G to 2G. My bill went from $110 a month to $90 a month. After I dropped to 2G, I got a text from Verizon about being a loyal customer and offering a free upgrade to 4G for the same price as 2G. So I am back to 4G and only paying $90 a month. Booyah!

The post is to pay attention to your bills!

These companies provide a service, and that is great! I need it or I wouldn’t be using it. However, they do not have the right to take more money than what is necessary. This is the money you worked for, and you deserve to have some say over how it is used.

Since you are working hard for your money, living on a budget, and trying to make it go further, NOW is the time for an audit of your bills. What are you being charged for? Why? Should you be? Should it be that much?

If you are on budget billing with other companies, check their math. Add up the last 12 months of actual month-end billing (not the budgeted amount) and divide by 12. Does your math come close to theirs? If you have anything rented from them, be sure to include that. If your math does not come close to theirs, call them for an explanation and an immediate remedy. My utility company could not explain well enough for me, so I dropped the budget billing.

Check your bank statements to make sure that the amount withdrawn matches the amount you are being billed. I have caught discrepancies there too. Call the company that billed you immediately for an explanation. They are only human and make mistakes too.

Your financial future is in your hands. That life lesson took me a long time to understand, but now that I do…I take it very seriously. Look closely at all your bills and don’t be afraid to question them. This is your money, and you have control over how it is spent!

Thanks for reading,
Erica

Updated 7/16/2026

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