Direct debit going up to £600pm?

[nogella]

It's just me, DS and DD.

I don't even own a telly. They just get broken. Lights rarely on. I mostly just use the microwave for food, and oven a max of 15 mins a time. During the day none of that is in use really

What on earth am I spending £600 a month on exactly?! Charging phones and the shower?

I don't know what to do. What will I do! I don't really use my energy anyway. So I can't cut back either and I can't afford £600 a month. I don't have that. It doesn't exist even if I stopped eating

It will be worse in November because HEATING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's not the lights. It's anything generating heat.

We don't really put the heating on much.

Maybe a dozen times over winter when absolutely necessary.

My kids all run very hot.
Mwe all have hot water bottles. Oodies. Blankies. Big socks and booties... They're all teenagers and are either out of the house or cuddled in bed on games or reading so we really don't use the heating much.

My gas this month has been £30 for the whole monthive stopped using my oven and have 2 airfryers now.

I am on a smart meter though. I'd be scared to death of having quarterly bills turn up!

My gas is 30 this month too which is double what it normally is in the summer as it's only for occasional washing up and washing hands.

Lights aren't the issue.
Games consoles and TVs add up - lowish power but on for a long time.

But I guess with 6 people, it's going to be how you heat water and heat the house.

Ffs. Once again, I was half cut, had a look, was a looking at tumble dryer costing £2 odd an hour, saw 0.25p or whatever it was, and in my slightly befuddled state thought 25 fucking pence! Surely that cannot be right, hence questioning. As soon as someone politely pointed it out, I realised my error with the decimal and that it's a quarter of a pence.

I didn't do any multiplication obviously - I asked and it was easily sorted out. Why the need to go on about, I don't know - why keep making arsey comments about fire and cavemen, etc? You're just coming across like a prick.

Yes, fuck knows how me and my lonely brain cell get through life. That one daft post is wholly indicative of my IQ and educational attainment. You've got me there.

You're not coming across well.

Don't be coming on here quoting nonsense when you're pissed then.

What model is your tumble dryer?

If it's not a modern efficient heat pump one, and you need to keep using it a large amount, then it might be worth replacing. If you have the model I'm happy to have a look but to give you a rough idea - the usage per full cotton cycle for a random AIG vented one I just looked at on AO was 4.25kW. An equivalent Bosch heat pump is about 1.85kw. At October prices that's a difference of £1.25 for every full cycle.

Apologies if you already know this and have an efficient one.

Are you on a fixed rate from 10 years ago because your standing charges alone would be about 30 Pounds a month? @FlimFlam2

Fucking hell, everyone makes mistakes. Especially when pissed 🤣 no need to be a dick about it

From the August bill our standing charges were:

46.22p for electric
25.9p for gas
For a total of 72.12p a day or around £22pcm.

We're with bulb and not on a fixed rate.

Give it a bloody rest ffs why are you still wittering on about someone simply misreading a figure and asking for clarification? Ridiculous.

She called me a prick.

Im not surprised with the way you were carrying on you are really rude

I wish I understood what we were doing wrong. We live in a 3 bed flat. Granted it’s a big flat but only four of us. I work from home, dh uses the computer for work a lot when he gets home and two teenagers who are pretty heavy on tv/ gaming but our bill went from £238 a month to £405 a month on the last increase. Now if I want to fix, my options are £775 or £900 pcm. I earn a decent salary but can’t afford that. It’s more than our mortgage. Our water is heated via immersion since our gas boiler stopped heating the water (does still run the heating however).

Immersion heaters are expensive...that will nor be helping!

Can you experiment with how little you can manage to have the immersion heater on? I’ve gone from having the water heated for at least two hours a day to 45 mins every other day and as long as I’m careful I don’t notice the difference, but then I do live alone so must use a lot less, and I also have an electric shower so don’t really use the hot water for washing. But most people can cut down the hours they have the water heating for.

Seriously? You can’t run hot water on the immersion long term. It’s horrendously expensive. Get your boiler fixed instead!

Look at your electricity usage - compare your usage to this year and last year. Look at monthly usage.

Have you got a Smart Meter?

Using electricity to heat water is expensive.

Get the boiler fixed asap.

While it isn't cheap it is far cheaper heating water, rooms and cooking with gas than electricity.

Also if it's stopped heating your water the next step is for to breakdown completely.

Once it is fixed don't use your immersion heater unless it's an absolute emergency.

Not so simple. We had plumbers round and the younger ones said they’d never seen a system like it. The older ones said we’d need a whole new central heating system - about £10k not including the fact we’d have to pull up all our floors. However the time may have come to bite the bullet and get the work done