Creating and sticking to a
household budget can be made a little less complicated if your electric
utility offers budget billing, sometimes known as a levelized billing
plan or average billing plan. Budget billing doesn't reduce the
amount you pay over the course of a year, but it does make your bill
about the same each month so you can more easily manage your budget.
Take a look at this chart for a
typical South Florida household that spent $1,800 on electricity in
2003. The monthly bills ranged from $130.68 in April to $174.78
in July. Imagine receiving the highest electric bill of the year
right as you are going out to buy back-to-school supplies?
If this customer had taken advantage of budget billing, his monthly
bill would have been between $147.94 and $151.61 each month. He
would still pay
the same $1800 over the course of the year, but would have avoided the
checkbook shock during the Summer months.
All five of the investor-owned electric utilities regulated by the Florida
Public Service Commission offer a budget billing plan.
The programs vary slightly from utility to utility. Check with
your electric service provider to see if budget billing might make your
budgeting easier.
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