My gas & electric costs is crippling me.

[ColinRobinsonsfamiliar]

I know it’s the same for everyone.
Its gone from £180 per month for both to £490 per month.
3 bedroom semi.
This is more than our mortgage.

I’m planning on seeing how the bills are until January then will reassess the monthly payments.
We have stopped using the dryer, turned heating down, switching off switches, filling a bloody flask with hot water instead of boiling the kettle, only doing one laundry load every other day, drying on the radiators.
Trying to pick up extra shifts.

I don’t know how long we can keep our heads above water.

Is this it now? Is this life for ever?

Is there any way you can contact them and speak to someone?
I hate that the website doesn't let you reduce payments below a certain amount especially when there's a huge amount of credit on the account. She'll do similar, won't let me go below £154 and my account is in enough credit to last 3 months.
You really need to get that direct debit amount down though as its way more than you are using

Your energy cost is how many units you use plus your standing charges.

If you are not happy with your direct debit and they won't let you change it, stop it and just pay monthly.

Have a look at how much energy you used last year then do the maths, this is basic stuff.

Don't bother with a flask, it saves nothing.

This thread contains useful facts.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/cost_of_living/4618028-the-how-much-does-this-cost-to-run-thread?page=1

Point to one single comment that indicates this tone.

I'm with Bulb. I couldn't reduce by dd on the app, but phoned and they were very helpful and lowered the dd dramatically

That’s quite a difference isn’t it. You may be right, perhaps our windows aren’t as bad as I thought.

I agrée.

As he said when I asked if we could have the hot water on for a shower or a bath “no, that’ll cost me as much as a Mars Bar, and I’d hardly give you one of those for free.”

For comparison, we are high users (elec 5200kwh and gas 20,000) and paying £280 a month.

Shell would like to increase it to £400. I haven't done the maths, but I know our unit costs are 2.5 times what I was paying this time last year when I was paying £130 a month, so I think their estimate is fair.

However, I've not used my tumble dryer or heating this winter. I've cut back on oven use, stopped leaving everything on standby and stopped people doing half loads on the dishwasher. Everything else normal, but for us the heating is a huge part of our energy costs and normally, like OP, I would have had it on the last couple of weeks.

So, if you are using your heating (even on low), I can see that with only £350 credit, you would need to substantially increase your DD. Things like boiling the kettle less aren't going to make a big enough difference (and no difference if you're boiling the same amount of water). I've rejected Shell's increase - the website allowed me to reduce the amount to £300 (from £400). They warned that it was too low to cover predicted use, and asked why I thought it should be lower. There was a 'I am using less energy' option.

That is a huge difference our house hasn’t actually dropped below 20c from what I can tell so far. I’m about to put up door curtains to the boot room bit to keep more heat in. My youngest is running around in just shorts.

Such a difference a different house makes, our heating would of been on loads by now at the old house and that was a mid terrace we are now in a semi.

We do have a lot of south-facing windows which let in a lot of heat in the day.

My office was at 21.5 degrees yesterday afternoon without the heating having been on at all.

For comparison, we are high users (elec 5200kwh and gas 20,000) and paying £280 a month.
Shell would like to increase it to £400. I haven't done the maths, but I know our unit costs are 2.5 times what I was paying this time last year when I was paying £130 a month, so I think their estimate is fair

I have done the maths - and it seems unfair.

Assuming you are on the price cap, your predicted bill is about £4000 per year. That's before the £400 discount and then there's any credit / debit you have.

@Cynderella £300 is around what I would estimate your payment should be going by your usage, current prices and the £400 credit everyone is getting.

Although that's assuming you don't have a debit balance at the moment

We pay less than you and run 400 miles of electric car! Bulb are criminally overcharging you.

Stop the direct debit and just pay for what you use each month.

Bulb wanted to double my mum's dd to £270. After I'd already told them she'd died and the house was unoccupied.

Get your meter readings done and get on the phone. You might be a while...

That only helps if you are prepared for large winter bills and lower summer bills. A lot of people don't have many savings or flexibility in their budget.

They give out almost no heat and I know of more than one that has almost caught fire so I'd send them back if unused Also they aren't that cheap: 18p per hour to do basically nothing.

Read the reviews, there's a reason there's only 8 in all and the star rating is only 3

I have about £800 credit balance, and that's why I thought £400 a month was excessive. I suppose it would have been more like £330 after the winter credit was applied.

@BrownTableMat £260 is over 4 months bills for me! The government grant thing should cover the increase in rates for me. I reduced my DD because my credit went up last winter not down.

@Cynderella that's even worse if you have a credit balance of £800. I wouldn't be paying more than £280/£300 in that case

Predicted bill - about £4000

Subtract £800 credit = £3200
Subtract £400 Government subsidy
£2800

£2800 / 12 = £233.

Thank you - I think I'm going to reduce my payments - I'm determined to cut my gas usage this year, and so I should be able to reduce that £4,000. Electricity was 5,200kwh last year, and is probably going to be much the same this year. I am going to try and use my tumble dryer less, but there are three of us working from home full-time - but last year it was just me. So the savings will probably be wiped out by the extra computers, monitors, lighting etc.

Do you have to do so much washing? I have enough clothes to last me two weeks and I put my and dh wash on every fortnight and dd clothes on once a week. I also have a few bedding sets so build up the wash for them once a month too. Works for us anyway.

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Surely you still do the same number of washes but just all on one day instead of spread out?

You must have a big washing machine, mine doesn’t spin if I put any more than a full set of king sized bedding in it!