Can you (really) not afford gas /electric bills and how are you managing

[Gasmyarse]

I had my heating on for the 1st time a couple of days back .it was on for 2 hrs and cost me 5.00. That is to much monru for me if I was to do that everyday or for longer. So I have decided not to put it on again at all . Although I'm considering having it on Xmas day if I'm able to.

My situation is not really bad but I just can't afford to have heating on . If i did do that I would end up at food banks.

I think people who say they can afford it who then say well I'm not going cold so I will put ot on anyway. Or say to others just put it on you can't go cold like that . I don't think some people get it. Some people (really) can't afford lt. Especially people on prepay meters.

Also people saying they can't afford it saying they can pay it later in the summer. Or they had to dig into savings.

I think there are different categories or can't afford it.

My house is not bad as its a new build. We have blankets , dressing downs warm clothes to be warm. My kids don't seem ti care . But i do feel bad for people in colder areas and in old houses. Who are truly choosing heat or eat .

I just pay my monthly amount, i will end up with a debit at the end of the winter, but will be back in credit by the end of the summer as usual.

I agree, and think this is why there is such conflict and misunderstanding around this topic.

I live in a very small 3-bed cottage. The room temp last week was around 6-8 degrees without heat. We use electric heaters (rented house, no gas mains). We heat 1 bedroom
for a couple of hours a day and the kitchen for a couple of hours in the evening. Averaging around £10 per day.

Last week we were all stuck in bed poorly, so had heating on a couple of extra hours in DDs room. Think we got up to around 16 degrees! Cost £16 per day.

This is on top of paying around £5 a day to fuel the log burner in the lounge (doesn't heat any other rooms unfortunately).

We're with British Gas and have just been informed prices will be rising again in Jan. Haven't been able to swap supplier for a better rate. Let's hope the cold snap is over!

Wow I'm in a similar house 5 bed 3 story. We do have all the typical things on . 3 tvs game consoles . Then the standard stuff. I had my heating on for 2 hours the other day. My total for heating and electricity was 10.00 . Where normally without the heating on its around 5.00 a day often less

hattie43

How is 2hrs costing £5. What are you using that costs that much

I had my heating on for half an hour this morning..Cost £1.59
That's how it easily costs £5 for 2 hours!

@proveit is that your actual usage at the moment? Or is that a monthly average of your annual usage (which will be higher in winter than summer)?

Also should add, changing your supplier will have zero impact on what your actual usage is.

My gas and electric is coming in at roughly £10 a day. So the government vouchers cover less than a week. That being said, I do have the heating on 16 overnight, 18 all day. That plus heated throws, oodies etc, for if it's extra chilly, makes it doable.

The truth is that yes, theoretically I could afford to put more money in. But £70 a week is a lot and I'm not rolling in cash! If this was some kind of short term thing then I'd be willing to pay extra but who knows if/when prices will come down (and they're set to go up) so I think it's better just to adjust.

"Afford" does mean different things to different people. You have the genuinely "I have no more money" group and the ones like me who could afford more but it would impact on disposable income and/or savings. I'm aware I'm lucky to be in the second group, so I do try not to complain. Don't always succeed! But I try.

It depends on how you define 'afford'. The excess is coming out of my savings - the savings which I was hoping would top up my not very good pension in the future

The warmer temperatures are really helping. Over the cold snap I'd have used £2+ of gas by this time of day
Today it's 50p.

We were £210 for both last month, that’s a 5 bed house in Scotland so very cold and damp. I am very lucky in that I don’t think about putting the heating on, I would give up other things before going cold, I have fibromyalgia and feel the cold really bad. I grew up in a house with no heating my parents couldn’t afford it. It was miserable we used to play pick the fluffy white mould off the walls. I think growing up poor makes you swear not to have the same things happen to your children, I do odd things like always having the cupboards well stocked and toilet rolls aplenty.

im so sad and disgusted that it’s 2022 and children are still going through what I did as a child, what I’m saying is it affects you throughout your adult life too

I wanted to check mine following on from this discussion, but annoyingly British Gas have upgraded their system and are moving everything across. So I can't access my direct debit and see how much I need to increase it by, for up to 3 weeks. Not sure if everyone on British Gas is in the same boat. I'm still waiting for a smart meter to be installed, so this is just monthly direct debit.

@hattie43 Do you really need the upstairs rads on? I never have my bedroom one on & shut the door & have a window open. I prefer a cool room & fresh air at night. It's not great in the morning, but the heating system wakes me up if I program it to to turn on early enough to warm my bedroom & id need to shut the windows anyway.

Did you turn your hot water OR water flow temperature down to 60°

the water flow is the one that makes the most difference to the cost. It does sound like that was the one that you turned down?!

I turned mine down to 60 a few weeks ago, partly to 'save the gas supply' & partly because I thought it might make my home cosier - longer slow heat rather than warm quickly then going off.

it didn't, it just took bloody forever to warm up a bit & didn't get up to temp. It felt like wasted gas!

so I turned it up to 75° (82° is the max) & it's much better.

i'm fortunate to be on a fixed rate, not super low as I left it too long to fix, but better than the variable. (Though that's only until Dec this year, so I'm thinking about what I can do over the summer to improve things!).

I didn't put the heating on until the cold snap,but I was getting concerned about both the house (maybe causing damp/mould & my health, as while I can keep my body warm with clotges/blankets. It's really not good for you to be breathing in cold damp air all the time! I have enough issues without causing myself more!

I turn the heat to frost setting at night (kicks in at 7°) for the pipes. When I'm home (which is most of the time as I WFH mostly, but also have to work outside, 1.5 hours twice a day) I set it to 18° when I'm busy, but up to 21° when I'm just sitting. I think I'll get a heated blanket instead for the evenings.

Luckily, we can afford them. It just means less money to spend on other things.

I dare say that there are many people in the same situation. It won’t help the economy much.

We are with EON and have a letter with a barcode on (used to have a card but they stopped it) we use the letter to pay through paypoint once a month using one of my smaller private pensions did a meter reading last week, with the payments and the £66 from the government we are currently just under £200 in credit will just keep doing the same, keep getting letters about a smart meter but we seem to be managing our bill very well so do not see the point, as pensioners we did get the £500 winter fuel allowance (£250 each) but shoved it in our savings account just in case

Worth checking the letters - EON just gave me £100 credit for changing to a smart meter
And £30 credit because they didn't turn up for the first appointment!

@Rebel2023 I dont want one