Readers from other countries will be bored shitless interested to know how much I’ve just paid for utilities for the past month.
And filling out the payment forms in my online bank won’t be quite so boring. By the way, our e-banks work wonderfully, and practically everyone with internet access uses them.
Heating and hot water: 56.27 Ls – no water meters, 1 room and a kitchen, 34 square metres
Electricity: 14.41 Ls – 194 kilowatts
Cold water: 7.58 Ls – no meters
Housing cooperative maintenance: 8.84 Ls
Gas – I don’t know yet, but I think it’ll be around 4 Ls
I don’t have a TV or landline
Add internet to that, and it comes to a hundred.
At the current exchange rate, that’s 182 bucks or 6,300 rubles. Also known as 141 euros or 126 pounds. My readers probably don’t normally use any other currencies.
As for the figures, the heating bill is shocking, of course. And that’s despite the fact that my flat is often cold and I occasionally turn on an electric oil-filled radiator. But the good news is that it didn’t gobble up 300 watts like it did last month. Firstly, it’s got warmer, and secondly, I’ve got smarter and now turn it on only at night and at just a quarter of its power. That’s enough to keep me from freezing under one and a half blankets (the second one being TKP).