Andrea Feagin thought she did everything right before getting her own place.
She socked away as much money as she could. She put together a budget. And she found an apartment she could afford on her income.
But what she still never saw coming was a $493.35 utility bill during the first winter she lived on her own. Feagin’s electric bill claimed she used 2,206.77 kilowatt-hours from Jan. 15, 2025, through Feb. 15, 2025. That’s more than double the 899 kilowatt-hours an average American household uses a month, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration…