My gas bill is about $50 a month. Electricity is $400 every 2 months, on average (not much difference between summer and winter as I use the split systems for both heating and cooling). Water is about $300 a quarter including rates - usage is about $80 a quarter.

However, I'm anal about turning things off at the power point, and the heating and cooling is only used when we are at home (which is not during the day, five days a week). And I don't have the kids here every second weekend, so I only use one split system overnight during that time. I am not at all worried about using the dryer for every load of washing - it's worth it to me for the 80c or so that a load costs, rather than the time that I'd spend in the morning and night taking it out to the line and bringing it back in. I'd rather spend that time with my kids - it's worth the money.

When I renovated the house, I bought very expensive but cheap to run appliances. My Bosch washing machine uses 56L per wash and has a 5 star energy rating. My Bosch dishwasher (that I use for EVERYTHING - if it can't go in the dishwasher, it's not in my house) uses 11L per wash and also has a 5 star energy rating. My Westinghouse dryer doesn't have a 5 star energy rating lol - no dryer does! The 55inch Panasonic TV is turned off at the wall when not in use. The Westinghouse fridge is a 5.5 star energy rating. The Mac computer is on all the time - but I do turn it off rather than leave it on standby. The three split systems are the most expensive Fujitsu on the market - energy rating very high (can't remember exactly what, but the running costs were minimal compared to other brands). So the expense I had at startup has resulted in extremely low ongoing costs. I'd rather do it this way - buy quality and have lower running costs - than buy cheaper and pay more to run things. JMHO.