I get my pool chemicals online through
www.poolgeek.com. They are delivered to my door and I save so much money buying through them than my local pool shops here on the Cape. I did buy chemicals through the local shops for about 20 years, but never again, I've saved over $1300 over last season and this season so far. I buy Bioguard products they are the same name as I used to buy here. I wouldn't use anything other than Bioguard. If you want to know specifics about which products I love you can send me a pm.
The electric is over $150/mo to run the pool and gas to heat is another $100.
How old is the pool? When our pool was around 15 years old we needed a new liner they get brittle and start getting holes after a while depending on use.
We have also completely redone the wiring (it gets old after about 20 years), got a new heater, new pump, chlorinator, new self-vac (Polaris), new filter and some new nets, vacuum hoses, heads etc.
Also, the lanscaping is being redone now, it was all overgrown and just ugly after 20 years, so we took out some trees and planted California privet, mulch with edging. The pool deck has to be power washed painted every other year if it's painted cement to keep it looking nice.
We have enjoyed the pool a lot especially when my son was growing up, but now not so much we just dip and it's nice, but with just the two of us it's not the lively back yard BBQ, lots of kids spot it used to be. If we had it to do all over again we would especially with kids!