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!

We pay £141 for both and I think it’s high. Electric alone the last few months have been nearly £100. And I’m always cold and sitting in the dark 😂. In fact have a thread about it. Just doing investigations as we don’t use much electric at all.

Currently have our fridge freezer plugged into a usage meter and it has guzzled 2kw of electric in the last 16 hours so there is part of the problem!

5 bedroom detached, no close neighbours, windy - we are paying hugely more. With four wfh over the last year ours has increased £50 per month. Used way more water too......we are metered, used a lot in the summer on the garden, and use the dishwasher, washed, showers, baths a lot more. Sadly it is what it is, I went on comparison sites, and we are in ballpark for usage.

Family of 5, 3 bed semi. In the winter the bill is around £120 for both with Octopus, but I'm expecting it to be much lower in the summer. Currently heating on 24/7 (we're in the North!)

FinallyFluid really glad to hear you are OK, and yes early action is so important to cancer survival. Too many people are afraid to "bother" their GP with suspicious symtoms.

3 bed terrace and I pay £125 a month with EDF. I think I can reduce it with octopus later in the year.

Two adults in a large 1960's 3 bed detached @ £140 a month for both... I've checked around and seams to be normal based on usage... although having all my 20+ year old UPVC changed this summer + garage ceiling insulated so hoping for a reduction possibly... it's EDF...new-ish combi boiler.

£90 roughly for 4 bed. Currently on mat leave with 10 week old and 1 year old home all day! When i was working it was about £50 all in all!

3/4 bed semi here, we pay £100 a month for electricity and £40 for gas. me, Dh and two teens

Blimey we are getting royally ripped off then. £120 per month for G&E in a 3 bedroom, top floor maisonette (to be fair it's a big old Victorian property so draught and high ceilings) but still.....

Those of you who think their bill is high are you regularly switching suppliers and looking for the best deal?

Those of you who think their bill is high are you regularly switching suppliers and looking for the best deal?

Yes & no. DH keeps an eye out but I don't think he tries that hard on the Lekki. We do have solar panels which probably reduces our monthly bill by £5 or something smallish. We're on oil otherwise.

Our house is very insulated & not kept super warm. No Tumble Drier.

We have a four bed semi and pay £150 a month. However, with everyone being at home we have just had to pay £200 for the month, so your rate sounds better!

We pay £100. Large 3 bed detached and we have insulated well and are careful with use. Plus we haven't had to work from home although I only work part time so am home half the week. I think it would be pretty rare to pay less unless invested in solar etc.

Five bed draughty victorian villa.

£352 pcm.
I can only dream of £130...

4 bed detached bungalow... £292 a month. 🤦‍♀️

Ours is £120 per month (averaged for the year), has gone up £20 per month since lockdown as two of us are at home working full time.

Would help if I said it's a 3 bed Victorian semi.

@ChelseeDagger surely at that point better insulation/glazing (/solar panels??) is much more cost-effective?

I'm in a 2 bed bungalow, on pre paid meter for gas and electric. I pay £80 per month, but am £368 in credit on the gas and £196 on the electric. The heating is on all day.

Forgot to add OH is here all day.

i have been telling my DH to change our electricity supplier for ages, he is now looking at it after a £950 bill for last 3 months. This is more than double usual usage - due to home working using the garage loft conversion, it has its own electric boiler for the radiators and hot water. We have oil CH in the house.

Why does your dh have to look at changing supplier? Could you not have researched a better tariff?

We pay £165 a month for a 4 bed semi with 3 reception rooms but I've just worked out our average monthly usage for the last year was £125 but I'm a childminder so heating is on all day. We deliberately over pay as OVO give us 5% interest each month on our credit balance so we see it as a little pot of savings that we can withdraw if we need it. At the moment it's our daughter's wedding dress fund.

It really depends! Since getting a smart metre i have been obsessed with bringing the cost down whilst having the heating on almost constantly. I can really see the days where the dishwasher, washing machine, oven has been on - radiators have minimal impact. I try to keep the spend under £2 per day - I have used things like slow cookers so much more since seeing how much the electric oven costs

Large 3 bed victorian house

Oh, and I switched lightbulbs to LED