My gas and electricity bill is £200 a month for a one bed flat

[evelynn03]

Any tips on how I can lower it?
Right now I shower once a day for 5 or 10 minutes
I use my air fryer for 20 minutes everyday
Washing machine once a week
I use my heating once or twice a week for an hour each time
I use a heated blanket for an hour before bed everyday
I use my toaster once in the morning for 5 minutes
I boil the kettle once in the morning and too everyday
I use my phone charger pretty much all the time

How do I lower my bills? I'm with SSE
Started a new job and have to pay off a few loans so I really can't afford to pay £200 a month anymore and am worried I'll be disconnected

Side note. People keep saying you can reduce your direct debit yourself and I thought you couldn’t? Can you - how? I’ve spent bloody years trying to get my energy direct debit reduced, because they always over estimate and they refuse. I didn't want to build up credit. I’ll pay what I owe! I keep having to claw it back and it’s such a pain. I have other outgoings that are higher in summer and can budget myself, thank you.

I got a smart meter. And I went round turning everything off in phases to see what costs. That does sound high, though. I was paying £99 a month (and using about £80) combined for a four bed house before 2022s drama. Now I’m using about £60, but the heating is off, we shower twice a week, everything is on smart plugs that go off at night, or turned off at the wall when not in use. I put timers on things like my kid’s electric blanket so they aren’t on all night. I turned the heating down, the boiler down, blocked up the draughts and only change beds and towels once a fortnight. It’s not my preference, but I’m already broke and worried about the winter. April was miserably cold in my house. I didn’t like it, but I’m not in debt and that’s the main thing at the moment.

I did a thread on it somewhere. (I’m necessarily obsessed with saving money at the moment!)

We are paying maximum per unit of energy as have come off a fixed rate. Live in a 4 bed detached house and our bills are lower than yours. How much energy are you actually using?

I am not a fan of being cold but even I’ve turned my heating off and we live in a draughty old house. A flat should be warm this time of year? Ditto the heated blanket but then I get boiling at night and have the windows open all year round.

A 5-10 min shower could be where you but down? That’s a long shower. I do about 2 mins tops?

My bill is huge though so I can’t talk.

I'm with Octopus and can change my direct debit payment up and down through the app.

When I submit readings I get a note of my usage and cost within minutes too.

@evelynn03 do you have the My SSE app?

Do you not know your tariff of usage as without knowing those details noone can tell you if £200 is the right amount to pay.

Have you got a bill to look at? I'm on my own in a 2 bed apartment
At the minute it says I use
6.98kwh per day gas
5.05kwh per day electric

Unless your flat is in an old georgian/victorian/similar building with old draughty sash windows, there's no way it should be that much.

We're in a house, kettle on 3x daily, use oven for cooking, washing machine 3/4x weekly, on top of which two people showering, charging phones, DH wfh sometimes with computer, laptop and two mobile phones using energy. We haven't had heating on or used electric blankets. We used £75 last month, this is based on monthly reads which I take.

I have a 2 bed flat. 2 of us showering daily (teen DD sometimes twice). Cook every evening, washing machine 4 times a week, dishwasher, many lights and appliances working overtime etc etc.

Bill is £91 per month. I seem to always be a little bit in credit so it's about right.

You need to tell us your actual useage in kwh, if you are on the price cap or a fixed rate and what form of heating you have and if you use an electric shower. Without that info it’s impossible to tell if your bill is high or not.
It’s like asking us if your petrol bill is too high without saying what your car is and how many miles you drive!

To keep the cold at bay I recommend bedroom athletics slippers, the boot style ones and an oodie, I have a cheapie from amazon which is great for cooler spring whether and DDs primark one is thicker and better for winter, you don't even need the heating on when wearing them.

I pay £90 total for gas and electric a 2 bed flat with British gas on their variable rate and this is adding up a surplus to cover the winter.

*weather

you can’t change your dd beyond a certain point on the app if sse don’t want you too though. Sometimes they freeze that function . They are really truly the worst. You have to really fight your corner against them.

A heated throw which isn’t an electric blanket is about 1p an hour.

Sounds high but you need to check your tariff. If you signed up to an expensive fix, it could be correct.

But if not, you need to work out your annual bill using your usage. Is there any debt on the account?

Once you have the above information, that will tell you what your DD should be.

I started turning off the tv and digital box at the wall at night on April 1st. It's saved me 20kwh a month or £5.40 a month so far.

I started turning off the router and land line base as well on 1st June. Interested to see what extra that saves 🤔

We are in a 2 bedroom flat. Last month electric and gas was £66.
We use electric cooker daily. Washing machine about 3 times a week. Both shower daily. Plus TV on loads.
Two phones charging daily. Plus kindles and tablets.
We don't have the heating on atm as warm here atm
As everyone has said if you don't have smart meters you need to send monthly readings. You can lower your direct debit

Hey, im the same 1 bed in Scotland , am about 140 elec 60 gas a month , I knownthere is like 17 I think sur charge but I have a 32 tv I watch everything is off always I charge my phone once or twice a day and normal livings ,cooker fridge etc , I do washing once a week , central heating on once a week for couple of hrs for dry washing , no shower just bath is crazy