Anyone else worried about their heating bill with everyone home all day?

[Hotcuppatea]

In winter, we normally have our heating on for an hour in the morning and then it clicks on again at 3pm in time for the children getting in from school.

I WFH mostly and normally just wear warm clothes/ have a blanket on my knee and I'm OK. However, now the children are home from school, I have to have the heating on for them, especially as they are sitting at their desks for such a big part of the day.

I'm stressing about how big the winter fuel bill is going to be, but can't think of any alternative to having the heating on. How's everyone else coping? Anyone got any good ways for keeping the costs down?

I don't understand how some people's bills are so low. Ours is more than that and we only put the heating on for a few hours in the evening.
Think it depends on the house, Our bills are around £110 for gas and electric for a 3 bed 30 year old link detached so good insulation. Usually 2 or 3 of us working from home everyday. Heating is set to 17 during day but usually put it up to 21 in the afternoon. Morning and evening it is automatically about 20

Yes to loo roll consumption increasing! Also tea, coffee and milk, a pack of tea used to last several weeks and now I seem to be opening a new one every week.

A hot water bottle on your lap or in the small of you back , sitting under a blanket whilst working really heats you up. My teen does this whilst doing her lessons at home.

Yes. Very.

@poorbuthappy

Lunch was £3.90 a day per child at school. Breakfast club £4 per day per child.
If I give them a ham sandwich, some veggies and a bag of crisps, that's pennies compared to school prices.
We shop at Aldi so all very cheap - probably only increased weekly spend by around £15 with us all at home.

We're in the same situation we're normally in as we were home all day before the kids were home so the heating is as it usually is in winter. But we put thermostatic valves on all the radiators a few years ago so we have switched off the ones in unused rooms and higher in the two rooms my two use for their school work plus kitchen and living room.

[quote JMAngel1]@poorbuthappy

Lunch was £3.90 a day per child at school. Breakfast club £4 per day per child.
If I give them a ham sandwich, some veggies and a bag of crisps, that's pennies compared to school prices.
We shop at Aldi so all very cheap - probably only increased weekly spend by around £15 with us all at home.[/quote]
@JMAngel1

Sorry - yes I meant that people saying they are offsetting the utilities bills against the saving of lunch money doesn't make sense because my food bill has gone up just from kids grazing and eating more and the heating bills have gone up!

We have heating on all day at the moment. I’m not going to sit wfh in the cold. We’re not paying for commute, coffees etc. so happy to spend more money on heating.

My fares are £11 a day im saving about £160 a month atm (work p/t) in travel alone

Electric and gas both gone up as dh been wfh since march and kids on and off .
Be nice if electric/ gas companies had a bit of goodwill and gave everyone a little token discount as they won't of lost money .

Our gas and electric bill last month was £250 but it is always nearly that high in the winter months - we overpay the rest of the year so it balances out. It all depends on the size of your house and how well insulated it is. If I had my heating on at 21 I'd be sweating!

I'm definitely in the 'using more loo roll' camp!

I actually over-estimated our annual usage when I signed up with our current supplier, so they've just reduced our DD from £83 to £68 as we're in credit. I'm saving the extra as I don't think they're right that we've been over-paying, given the change in circumstances this year.

@EssentiallyDelighted

Yes to loo roll consumption increasing! Also tea, coffee and milk, a pack of tea used to last several weeks and now I seem to be opening a new one every week.

Just came on to say the same thing! I reckon a box of 8- tea bags lasts just over a week and coffee slightly longer. I never realised how much we all drank - the 16 year old has at least 4 cups a day...

Husband puts ours on all day too now we are all at home all day and moans when I go round turning it down. I upped our direct debit by £50 a month a few months ago and had enough in there to cover the bill that just came with a bit left over in credit. We are saving a lot on commuting and costs though which more than makes up for the excess (my commuting costs alone were £5 a day which is £100 a month).

I have pre-pay. I pay just under £50pm from march -November. I started December with £320 on the meter. I'll top it up by £25 from now until March. My heating is on all day and I estimate that I'll come out of the winter still in credit to the tune of £100+. Had I stayed on an ordinary meter the gas company would be charging me £80 pm....that's why I switched. It's a lot cheaper for me.

@Titsywoo

Our gas and electric bill last month was £250 but it is always nearly that high in the winter months - we overpay the rest of the year so it balances out. It all depends on the size of your house and how well insulated it is. If I had my heating on at 21 I'd be sweating!

do you live in a castle?! Surely it would be more cost-effective for you to get more insulation?

I completely agree @catsneezies.

People dont wringe their hand about other bills / mortgages in the same way. I won't stay in cold houses, or visit them a second time, and all this 'jumpers' stuff annoys me. How much do they cost!

I've always felt the cold and despite a smart meter our gas and electricity in our last house was £176 a month for the bit of winter we were there. We are now electric and whilst the apartment is very well insulated and I wrap up warm I usually have to have the heat on by 10am. I think we will have huge bills

I'm very worried about how high the bills will be. We live in a large, draughty Victorian house with shit windows and poor insulation.

But I've been ill all winter and I can't bear being cold so the heating is on. Like a pp - I will prioritise being warm over holidays, etc. It's not a luxury as far as I'm concerned. It's a basic necessity.

@Boatonthehorizon

I have the heating on 21 degrees all day (24/7). It's not that expensive. £74 a month for gas and electric. Life's too short to live in misery.

For both or each you mean?

I've put my direct debit up so i don't get stung after winter.
Normally I try and put it on in morning for a couple of hours, lunch for a couple of hours and then from around 6-11pm. Would have only been morning evening when i was working out the home. Got it on all day this week though, so cold!

Been WFH for years now so used to the bills.

Grew up in an old and freezing house. Used to toughing it out, wearing woollies, moving a lot to keep warm and so on.

Now in my 50s with a health condition involving bad lungs. Very slim too and feel the cold so badly. I bought an electric throw this year to keep the bills down. Sadly, I realised that will only take me so far as I discovered that I need warm air coming into my lungs. Just keeping body warm not enough. I had a couple of days of uncomfortable lungs before I gave in and whacked the heating up again.

Doesn’t help that our house is very old!

I'm definitely using a lot more I have kerosene oil it is prepaid a 1000 ltrs I'm going to need a half tank refill it usually lasts the year.
It is cheap to buy ATM.

My heated blanket is around my knees at my desk, hoodie, fluffy socks, wrist warmers. Soup for lunch and warm drinks all day really helps.