Roughly how much do you pay...

a) for a haircut
b) for your weekly groceries
c) for your monthly rent
d) for monthly gym membership (if applicable)
e) for your monthly gas and electricity
f) for your monthly water rates
g) anything else you wish to add

Where do you live?

a) I pay about thirty dollars a year for a good haircut. I trim it myself in between.
b) Weekly? About thirty or forty dollars.
c) Our mortgage is $570.
d) N/A
e) Gas is about $120 a month for two cars.
f) We don't pay for water.
g) ;-D

I live in North Carolina, USA

Oh gosh - language difference thingy! I meant gas as in the gas that powers central heating or a gas oven - a fuel supply to your home, like electricity. Totally forgot you guys call petrol gas! ;D I totally should have had another question about monthly transport costs!

Heh. Oops! Well, that's how much we pay for petrol! Our gas is filled about once every eight months or so and it's about $600 a fill. So... about $75 a month. ;-D

a) £25 ($39)
b) Difficult to say as I usually go a couple of times a week and buy lots of stuff in the supermarket that isn't food, but probably somewhere around £40 ($62.50)
c) £350 ($547.10)
d) n/a
e) Included in rent
f) Included in council tax I think.
g) Petrol - £50/tank ($78.17/tank)!

Where do you live? UK

Gosh, are water rates included in council tax in Scotland? No such luck here, alas. Or maybe they're included in your rent if gas and electricity is too. That's a pretty good deal actually.

I love how you've converted into American dollars, for international access! The Americans should totally convert theirs into pounds too! ;D

@ puck: I think because we don't ever run out of water here! Unlike in England where the occassional very hot summer can cause a shortage. We don't need an incentive to be careful with our use of water, and so everyone pays the same for it, with their council tax.

Gosh, but we never run out of water where I live too - even though it's warm, it rains all the time, so there's never any danger of drought! And yet the water rates where I live are the most expensive in the entire of the UK! Three times as much as when I lived near London (where water shortages did actually occur!).

@Puck

We would be hard pushed to ever be short of water in West Wales, yet water here is rather expensive (we are on a special rate as our property isn't registered properly), in our last house we were paying £50 a month for water.

Transit, are you by the coast? The reason given here for astronomical prices is that it's for upkeep of the beaches. Although they've never struck me as particularly well up-kept! ;D

@Puck

There is only one water company in Wales so it doesn't matter who lives near the coast and who doesn't, we all have the same rate for the same condition so a household in Wrexham with 6 people will pay the same as us, although Welsh water only gives a tiny proportion for beach upkeep, the rest comes from the council and government budget.

I know Welsh beaches aren't well kept at all, the actual beaches and water is extremely dirty due to the levels of sheep waste entering the sea from rivers, here we also have a significant problem with heavy metals from ex mine sites.

Maybe it's the same (warped) logic as the South West - that Wales has a lot of coastline, so it could all be seen as relatively near the beach. I dunno. Maybe it's related to the sewerage. The South West has the highest water rates by far, and Wales seems to be second highest, from a quick google. And they are supposedly both the wettest parts of the UK!

@Puck

It makes me wonder if our prices are possibly higher as we supply much of the West Midlands, such as Wolverhampton, Birmingham etc, I know the they pay more than us from how much my sister had to pay her water while she was at university. But I very much doubt that the extra transport costs etc are only passed onto consumers in the West Midlands. I'm from Lincolnshire and the prices aren't too high, well they don't seem it anyway, my friend pays about £15 a month, she is on a meter and there are three of them and they don't exactly do anything to conserve water.

a)Hair cut - 30? ish.
b) groceries a week - about 100/wk for a family of 4.
c)Monthly rent - 1400/mo.
d)No gym membership.
e)Monthly gas: 40.00, Electric: 400.00
f)water: 100.00
g)We live in Dayton, Ohio. We have a basement and an upper level. Four bedroom home. My husband has his office in the basement and part of our electric bill being so HIGH is that he has a huge server room for our business in there which must run 24-7 ;)

a) nothing, mom cuts it
b) usually between 70 and 100 dollars for 2 of us
c) mortgage is about 600
d) gym membership is around 30, i think
e) in the summer, gas is usually 20ish and electric is 120ish, in the winter gas is in the 100 range and electric is 40ish i think
f) I'm not sure, we pay it either quarterly or semi-annually, and I really don't pay much attention to how much it is for some reason

ohio, usa

Roughly how much do you pay...

a) for a haircut: 40$, only bc its an extra 20$ for long hair, so I go once a year.
b) for your weekly groceries: 125-150$
c) for your monthly rent: 1300$ (4 br/2 ba HUGE house we own, with huge yard)
d) for monthly gym membership (if applicable): If I go to Baileys Gym it’s 30$ but right now I’m at Karate America and its 125$
e) for your monthly gas and electricity: 200-250$
f) for your monthly water rates: included with electric
g) anything else you wish to add:
Gas for 2 cars a month: 160-190$

Where do you live?
Jacksonville, Florida

a) for a haircut - $20 with tip
b) for your weekly groceries - between $70 - 110 Publix is expensive!
c) for your monthly rent - I don't rent. Mortgage is about $1100 with taxes
d) for monthly gym membership (if applicable) - joining today! $59 startup plus first and last month and its $10 monthly with no contract. Quit anytime.
e) for your monthly gas and electricity - I'll admit I don't know. My husband does the bills. I believe we stay around $86 though for electricity and he is the only one who drives so gas is a good guess. The average price here is $3.36 right now (it went down from $3.49)
f) for your monthly water rates - we pay $216 in maintence fees and I think its taken out of it...among other things like lawn and pool
g) anything else you wish to add - not really

Where do you live? Fort Lauderdale, Fl

a) for a haircut - $3 every 3 or 4 months. I go to the cosmetology school up the street from my university and have a student cut my hair. Every 6th hair cut is free.
b) for your weekly groceries - I would say no more than $20 a week (and that's a lot) unless there is a super good sale/deal on something I can stock up on, like organic soups for example (I open the cans and put them in glass jars and then freeze them). I typically don't spend much money on food during the school year because my job offers me one free meal for every 4 hours I work.
c) for your monthly rent - Total rent for the house I live in is $1250, but we currently have 6 people living here, which makes my share of the rent only $210 (normally it would be $208, but we just round up to the nearest bill).
d) for monthly gym membership (if applicable) - $22
e) for your monthly gas and electricity - Gas last month was only $25 for the whole house, so split 6 ways it was $4 per person. Electricity was $60 for the whole house, or $10 per person. I'm pretty sure since winter is well on it's way here, our gas bill will be skyrocketing because of the three gas-burning fireplaces we have in the house.
f) for your monthly water rates - Our water bill is usually high because we have a HUGE hot tub that we drain and re-fill at least twice a month. I think my last share of the water bill was $15
g) anything else you wish to add - For my car, I typically spend $100 a month if I don't travel out of town, $150 if I do travel out of town.

Where do you live? Southern Utah, USA

That is, $100 in gas a month for my car.

a) for a haircut -- $40 before tip
b) for your weekly groceries -- Between $100-180
c) for your monthly rent -- $395, without taxes (we pay them in a lump sum, twice a year, instead)
d) for monthly gym membership (if applicable) -- Mine was free, because I worked there
e) for your monthly gas and electricity -- I have no idea about those two, as husband pays them
f) for your monthly water rates -- no idea, husband pays it


I live in Michigan, USA

a) Anything more than $20 is just silly.
b) Roughly $130 for the entire house.
c) 250 for me, 750 for the entire house.
d) My gym is free!
e) $100 for gas, I fucking drive everywhere, $50-ish for electric.
f) Water is included in my rent. Showers all day err day.

a) for a haircut £33
b) for your weekly groceries £10+ (depends what I buy)
c) for your monthly rent £286
d) for monthly gym membership (if applicable)
e) for your monthly gas and electricity, We don't have gas here, our electric is £66 each, there are 6 of us
f) for your monthly water rates, I'm not sure, we pay £70 a year per person
g) anything else you wish to add, nope!

Where do you live?

West Wales

a. 30 a month
b. 150 for a month of groceries (we don't shop every week)
c. 675 a month for rent
d. not applicable
e. 160 a month, since it's about to go up for winter (this month was 134, which includes 35 for internet service)
f. 35 (a year ago, it was only 20 dollars T_T)
g. Here are additional things we include in our budget (which we totally made last night) for each month: phone bill 65, fuel 240 (hubby works an hour away, ouch!), toiletries 20, eating out 280 (another ouch since hubby eats most lunches out at work), clothing 20, and I don't remember what else was on there, but that's what I could remember. All values given in American dollars, of course.

I live in the mid south.

It should be noted that these totals are for my husband and I. Two people.

Yeah in Scotland water and sewerage charges are part of your council tax the band you are in for council tax is the same band you are in for water, it also means people who have lower council tax for reasons such as being on benefits also have a reduction in water costs, and in some cases have no water costs at all.

http://www.pkc.gov.uk/Council+and+government/Council+tax/Council+tax+-+banding/Council+Tax+Banding+and+Charges.htm