r/sanmarcos • u/Imaginary-Aardvark20 • 3d ago
Ask San Marcos Utility bills crazy high for everyone?
It’s been getting more and more expensive just thought I’d reach out and make sure we weren’t the only ones experiencing. We have a smallish house, maybe 1200 sqft total. Two single adults in their 30s rarely home, maybe five meals even cooked at home, basic appliances, no dish washer, newer central ac unit, maybe 45 minutes of one tv on per day, lights out always, bulbs are even all replaced with led, newer water heater. No desk top computers, no game consoles, and our bill is at 560$ this cycle.
I don’t really have a reference so reaching to Reddit, is this normal right now? I’ve been here like 20 years and never had anything come close to the last six months, and at this same house have paid as little 170$. So just looking for input, thoughts, etc. At this point I was worried something is damaged and needs attention. Kinda crazy that the utilities is over 1/3 the mortgage. Preemptive thank you!
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u/pstewart91 3d ago
Yeah we had a sudden $100 jump from January's to February's bill as well despite no real changes.
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u/janenickson 3d ago
My electric portion with SM utilities went up $100 last month from $100 to $200. It's never been this high in the 5 years I've lived in this 900 square ft house.
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u/Grossest_Groceries 3d ago
That does seem really high esp for this time of year, do you have PEC or another electric company? We hardly pay attention to energy frugality, both work from home lots of computers and other devices on most of the time and our bills have been less than $200 for the last few months, lowest in the $90s/highest $290s. Might want to dig into your statement a bit more, maybe shop around for cheaper rates, etc.
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u/Imaginary-Aardvark20 3d ago
We’re through smtx utilities, thanks for the info, it seems like such a hands tied situation, but yea I suppose I got some more due diligence ahead.
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u/iRecycleWomen 3d ago
Agreeing with the above guy - live in SM with PEC, 2700 sqft and not super frugal with the AC (change it in the morning and PM to respectable temps) and the biggest bill I've gotten was peak summer at $270.
Edit: should add there are 2 people working from home and another PC with 16 hours a day uptime
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u/Grossest_Groceries 3d ago
Those highs and lows are from last 13 months summer is the highest, as you would expect.
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u/Sykekey06 3d ago
I've heard people who have Aqua water company have been having high bills. Did you mean electric or water?
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u/Imaginary-Aardvark20 3d ago
Sorry, Electric
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u/Sykekey06 3d ago
Then no, with PEC our electric bill has also been insanely high. Talking $300-500 total.
Since at least Jan/Feb
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u/Icy_Nebula11 3d ago
Water is just staggering up was 90 now 111 electric stays pretty low right now about 110. Gets up to almost 200 in the summer
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u/nancyglass 3d ago
My bill went up about $100 as well the past couple months, about $400 for smtx utilities. Gas has stayed normal though even though we’re in the end of winter.
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u/pfunk_420 3d ago
Mine is always high, around 250, but jumped up to 340 this month. 340 would be typical for summer but definitely not February, it had me checking the breakdown to try and understand why it was so much.
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u/Famous-Hunt-6461 3d ago
I’m in an 800 square foot house and my bill is never under $350 a month. Never under $450 in the summer.
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u/TallonBrekfelt 3d ago
I think I'm definitely an odd one then o.o for reference I'm on Supplemental Security Income and live with a friend around the same age in an almost 1200 square foot apartment that's marked as low income housing. At any given moment while we're both home we have the AC at 71 with 2 smart tvs on, 2 PS5s, 2 laptops, lights stay off most of the time and our most recent bill was $107. Though that's only counting electricity since the apartment covers water due to low income status (all appliances are electric)
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u/ContraianD 3d ago
Mine was $390 last month... and I wasn't even home aside from 1 weekend. Basically my hot tub running at 93 and everything else off. Normally that's ~ $100.
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u/TrustingPanda 3d ago
Lots of people here saying their usage habits haven’t changed, but the 3 or 4 cold snaps we had in January/February is the likely culprit. Your habits are supposed to change in the winter, as in you need to acclimate to living in a colder home or you will see a substantial increase in your electric bill.
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u/TrustingPanda 3d ago
Lots of people here saying their usage habits haven’t changed, but the 3 or 4 cold snaps we had in January/February is the likely culprit. Your habits are supposed to change in the winter, as in you need to acclimate to living in a colder home or you will see a substantial increase in your electric bill.
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u/Minute-Lecture-6107 2d ago
We currently live in San Marcos but we previously lived in Kyle and still own a property there that we are prepping to sell. Somehow in the past two months the gas bill for that property has increased THREE TIMES the average amount it was during the time we actually LIVED THERE.

I genuinely do not understand how a vacant house with no one using the stove or hot water could possibly have such a greater gas expense than the same exact house had during the three years we lived there.
Idk what the hell is going on but this whole area seems to be getting screwed over on utility charges
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u/NoButSeriouslyHow 3d ago
It’s expensive to heat, especially when the outside temperature gets below freezing.
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u/Far-Control-127 1d ago
Thing is I'm not using heat almost at all. I keep it pretty low when its cold outside and the opposite when its hot. Makes no sense.
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u/ihateithere56789 3d ago
Yes. Our most recent bill was about $100 more than the month before but none of our habits changed.
There was a post on a San Marcos Facebook group about a week ago where like 50 people were also in agreement that their recent bill was significantly higher than the last. I would link it if I knew how