Vietnam Utility Costs

Prior to moving here, we were interested in the cost for household utilities, to plug into a budget to see if we could afford Vietnam and save for retirement at the same time. These days, our Vietnam retirement funds are invested in gin, but that's a different matter...

So what's the tally for an apartment in Hanoi?

• phone: $2/month for the landline that we don't use
• internet: $3/month for adsl at home and light surfing; you pay by KBs downloaded (or you can pay $60/m for unlimited), so a month of flouting the MPAA costs $30 or so
• cell: $10-15 for each postpaid cell
• cable: $3/m, but the programming is determined by the set channel list for the whole building. About 5 English language stations, 5 VN language ones, 4 CCTVs, and sundry others
• cooking gas: so marginal that they haven't collected in 4 months
• electricity: $15 or so earlier this year but it's starting to get hot; $35 last month when we used the AC at least every other day if not full time when we're home. We just cool the bedroom and not the whole place. We also probably do laundry more often than the average expat without kids - cold water washing, as there is no such thing as hot water for the laundry, and an electric tumble dryer. I'm repeating myself here, but: Best. Purchase. Ever.