Prior to buying the house, I only had one bill to pay; my cell phone bill.
Everywhere I lived before, the bills were included in the rent.
Understandably, I had (and still have) no clue what all the numbers on my bills meant.
I didn’t even know the difference between Horizon Utilities and Union Gas. I thought you got to pick which utility company you wanted. To be honest, the term ‘utilities’ still confuses me.
Here is a breakdown of my typical bills (and what they mean) *I think*. If you can offer better explanations, please, tell me! I included a rough estimate of how much I pay per month (for people who are thinking about buying a house, or are curious about home bills.)
| Type | Monthly Fee | Description |
| Property Tax | Around $200 | Tax I pay to the City of Hamilton |
| Home Mortgage | Around $900 | How much I owe the bank per month. Yes, I put a huge downpayment down. Refer to my previous posts about saving money and budgeting. |
| Reliance Water Heater | Around $30 | Most homes rent water heaters and have to pay a rental fee. Pay this quarterly (but I broke it down by month). Looking into buying out the heater but it is not worth it if I live in the house for less than 2 years. |
| Horizon Utilities | Around $250*bimonthly | Pay bi-monthly. Pretty sure Horizon charges me based on my electricity use. |
| Union Gas | Around $15 | Still trying to figure this out but I think it’s the transportation cost to bring gas in, to heat the house? |
| Home insurance | Around $40 | Happy with my Square One Insurance service so far. Getting insurance for my home was so complicated and stressful. I had the quickest closing ever so collecting quotes and answering questions about the house was such a challenge. Luckily, Square One Insurance was all online and there were lots of pictures to help guide the process. |
