Is £130 a month for gas and leccy obscene or normal?

[Januaryblue2020]

Trying to get a handle on finances, and our gas and leccy bill is huge- 130 quid every month. We have a four bed house and are working from home at the moment. Does that sound reasonable or are we paying too much and/or consuming too much? Tia!

No one can tell you, there's no such thing as normal, there's a mathematical average but that's all it is

If your tariff is too high you are paying too much, if you are wasteful with energy you are paying too much, if you have some kind of fault you might be paying too much.

Those are the relevant things not what anyone else pays, how can anyone tell you if you are paying or consuming too much without kwowing your tariff or your consumption

£120 for a 4 bed seems about normal, I know people who spend over £200

Yep, we pay about that (more in winter, less in summer). But we have a three-storey four-bedroom Victorian end-of-terrace with huge rooms, minimal insulation and mostly single glazing. We paid less when we lived in a much smaller 4-bed 1960s semi.

Big 3 bed. I’m paying around 70 a month for gas and electric with bulb. Both on the expensive prepayment tariff.

2 bed draughty victorian flat here £79 per month. Expensive I know! (Just gone up from £58 with gas price increases). I do have the heating on a lot and WFH

We got a letter from edf to say about a price increase to £145/month for a 2 bed flat!

Obviously going to change suppliers.

I'm at home all day with 2 preschoolers and we use the tumble dryer lots as not much space indoors to dry washing.

Will obviously be making changes as £145 a month is outrageous for gas and electricity

Plan is to tumble dry less and less cooking as I use the hob loads

Prices are set the rise soon. Have a look at the comparison sites. I used look after my bills for the switch.
Some of the utilities companies are also paying any fees your old supplier is charging for the switch.

Just remember when looking at competitors enter your actual usage not the amount you spend.

Doesn't sound outrageous at all. There will always be people who pay significantly less because of their lifestyle/preferences/forced to cut costs, but plenty of us do pay in that region - and some pay more.

Ours is £132 a month with Bulb and it seems to be set at the right level, going on annual usage. I WFH and have severe nerve/circulation problems, meaning that I simply cannot tolerate the cold and my bones would still ache painfully, even with my usual jumper and 4-season hiking socks on.

My personal take on it is, if you're lucky enough to be able to afford/budget for a higher figure and just accept that that's what it costs, it's easier to make peace with the situation and not fret about it.

I don't drink coffee at all, but plenty of folk accept that it costs £100+ each month for what they see as their essential Starbucks/Costa fix - I think it's just a case of prioritising and budgeting according to your means and what's most important to you.

Ours is similar. We've got all the gadgets and an old freezer. Trying to cut it down.

We are about £50/month on lekki (which I think is high, green tariff company), probably about £35/month on oil (no gas). Big well-insulated house, 4 people. OP's bill seems high to me.

Mine was that much over winter but dh has been working from home and the kids has been at home because of lockdown so the heating was on pretty much all the time. I would hope my next bill will be much less.

Thanks for all your replies, will look to see if we can switch, although it's sounds like this is kind of normal for our size of house (and working from home). Will have to start being more frugal!

Remember you will be likely to use less in summer

we have just moved house.
old house was a 3 bed semi. Bills were £100 a month for Gas and Electric combined, 2 adults and 3 kids. never scimoed on heatin, used tumble drier loads etc.

New house is 4 bed semi but has been insulated - government scheme to put insulation on the outside and conservatory is a million times better and retaining heat than our old one! hoping bills will remain similar as our usage wont be any different.

£160 a month, for both we have a three bed detached 70 year old house,it has all the insulation done and we kept the frames but triple glazed the house two years ago, we have no buildings at the rear and DH has just worked out that the next building to break the wind is 300 yards away. Which explains why this house is impossible to heat.

Added to which I have had radio and chemo twice in five years, ergo I am very thin and permanently cold, so the mantra in this house is warm at any price.

£111 for a three bed semi. We are at home all the time. Boiler is ancient so not very efficient.

3 bed heating normally between 19 or 20, wfh. Between the two £65

DH has just worked out that the next building to break the wind is 300 yards away. Which explains why this house is impossible to heat

That's interesting, we also have no buildings to the rear, it never occurred to me that that could contribute to the house tending to be on the chilly side.

Hope you are OK now Finally

We’re totally electric now but back when we were gas & electric we were paying £63 a month for a three bed house. We had the heating on lots but we never actually used that much because we were £210 in credit when we moved out.

£96 per month for a large modern 4 bedroom house with a solar panel. It used to be about £10 less before lockdown.
People at home all the time, washing machine once a day, oven once a day, hardly ever use tumble drier.

@pinkearedcow

I appear to be thank God, it has taken its toll, energy levels can be crap, but both times I acted fast.

First time out took a little while to nail, but my boob felt slightly tender so went to the doctor, on the two week pathway and when they removed the lump it was only the size of a pencil rubber top.

So early action is key. Here endeth my evangelising.

4 bed detached, both WFH, £80 per month with Octopus, we are not shy of having the heating on or using the tumble dryer etc . Yours sounds really high!

We pay double that. Two pensioners in 4 bed house. Husband is disabled and his pain increases if he is cold so lots of heating, can't go out much even in normal times so TVs, computers etc running all the time. It depresses me but not sure what we can do.

£96 a month for oil and electric. 4 bed well insulated barn conversion 2 adults heating on 24/7.