MN vs. ID expenses

I began to get our info together to send to our tax lady. Last year I had already sent it off by this point. I am hoping to get everything together and send it by early next week. I found these expenses interesting.

City water/sewer/trash 2012 was $298.50 cheaper than 2011

Electric 2012 was $521 cheaper than 2011

And there is no comparison for propane vs. natural gas. 2012 all natural gas was $506. We usually prepaid our propane in MN to get a better rate and would pay about a $1000 a year. A fill was usually at least $350 and we often had 3 fills a year. Some years we had money left of that prepay for the next year, some years we had to pay more, it depended on how cold the winter was and how much propane we used and the price of propane. The propane was just to heat the house. Here natural gas is for my water heater, stove, fireplace, and heat.

This is not a good year to make a comparison because we lived 2 months of 2011 in a rental house and there were a few extra expenses to close accounts in MN and open accounts in ID. Then we did it all again in 2012 by living in a rental house for 3 months and the rest of the year in our new house. For a short time we paid utilities at both houses. I don't think the rental house furnace worked properly so our gas in that house was more expensive than our gas in the new house. So I expect next year our expenses will go down slightly because God willing we will be in the same house all year.

We have the same number of people in our house and have roughly the same amount of laundry, dishes, keep the temperature the same etc. Living in a small town was expensive because there were less people to pay for the city expenses. Electric was much more expensive in MN than in ID. Plus add in that it doesn't get as cold here and it gets hotter but not as much humidity as MN so it doesn't seem as hot to us. We love the expenses of utilities in ID after living in MN. Thank you ID Power and Intermountain Gas Company! I have just begun taxes but I'm sure I'll notice more things like this as I continue to work on them.