Energy crisis and rise in costs: how to manage?

[SoSadSoSadSoSad]

i simply do not have the budget to pay for higher energy costs. I don’t know where they think consumers are going go be able magic up extra money to pay. I mean it’s predicted they will soar. All passed on to consumers naturally because we cannot allow energy companies to take a hit to their profits.

Will those who cannot pay be cut off? And simply accrue debt with the energy companies that they spend years paying off?

Fucking Trump.

@Crunchymum do you pay any fees if you change tariff earlier?? I'm with octopus too, my tariff runs out in June. I'm going to bite the bullet though and fix it as soon as I can. Otherwise it's going to be sky high 😞

You do, as I know I paid extra to change to the current tariff I'm on.

I'm with the poster on the Council Tax thread who wants to go and live off grid in a forest eating bark and raising bees. Normal life is about to become unsustainable and unaffordable.

I’m with Octopus, our fixed rate runs out this weekend. We looked last night to fix again and the tariff was much higher, we will be paying an extra 1k a year!!

Fxxking hell!!

I fixed in January for a year but its Electricity only, i'm off grid for gas, so that form of heating is a no no now.

That's rough.

What if you don't have an extra £1k per year?

And its not just the extra £1k per year for this as all bills have gone up.

My water went up from £66pcm to £98pcm (I'm looking to get a water meter installed but live in an old house and typically I need a specialist engineer. They couldn't just do it from outside the property like they would for most people). My CT has gone up £150 a year and let's not even go into the cost of food.

We can't sustain all of these increases permanently.

my fix ends in summer which was an expected fall now a probable large increase 😳

Thank you for not saying damp squid.

They won't cut you off. They'll offer a payment plan or at worst install a prepayment meter.
Grim isn't it.

Makes me despair . As if climate change is the kind of thing we can only afford to worry about when everything else is sorted.

Not everyone buys into the theory that bankrupting ourselves now will make things better in 30/50 perhaps never years time . For every person who supports net zero there will be someone who doesn’t . The biggest pitfalls are the reports that none of it works , and that all the while the biggest players are spewing out crap me not lighting a scented candle makes not a jot of difference.

Working people will have even less money to meet these challenges after April due to that idiotic woman Rachel Thieves raising taxes!

More renewables can only be a good thing, along with nuclear but it doesn't help us right now.

Sky News is reporting we have 29 days supply of vehicle fuel and plans drawn up for rationing.

Err what taxes has she increased on working people?

I am worried sick. We literally have nothing tk give anymore. We both work full time in good jobs as well.

Mortgage went right up, water bill, council tax , fuel and now bang, another energy crisis. I literally do not understand how people can be expected to afford it. Life is utterly miserable, and that is without mentioning the food prices too.

People don't use their legs enough. Suggest an able bodied person (no kids in tow) walks to the supermarket two or three times a week and lugs back a couple of bags and you'd think they've been told to go up Everest.

People cutting cars for short journeys will also empty the roads and make journeys quicker for people on essential and longer journeys. Towns should have been designed for safe walking routes. Our town is still building housing estates four miles from the centre without a safe, visible walking /cycle route to the middle of town.

I think they mean the frozen tax bands that the Tories introduced in 2021, weird it took years for people to notice.

Quite, so Reeves/Labour haven't increased taxes, in fact all our energy bills (gas electricity) will fall by around £120 next month.

Would be good to hurry up with making energy companies offer lower standing charges for those who are frugal.

Hopefully, as Trump is now talking about withdrawal, the worst predictions will not happen.

I dont live near a supermarket im combining journeys so shopping when my son is dropped off at college but this is ridiculous we have mismanaged our own oil fields and shorted ourselves through greed

We could have put solar panels on every new builds roof to help but that's far too easy put solar panels on housing association stock noooo why would we do that make the insurance company's not charge outrageous prices for EVs put in infrastructure for public chargers but no we just keep adding to costs not helping reduce costs

This.
If you can’t afford it you have to use less.

People will walk and cycle if there are safe routes & it is made easy for them - as in the Netherlands.

I’ve just been thinking of Covid Active Travel plans where I live that were scrapped mainly due to often spurious* complaints from drivers - those plans would have been rather useful to have in place now as they would have made it much easier to cycle.

• complaint example “this will block the emergency services” scaremongering - the emergency services are actually statutory consultees to transport schemes.

None of it works? As I type this, 26% of all the electricity being generated in the UK is from renewable sources: solar, wind and hydroelectric.

As soon as Trump hit Iran I got a decent two year fix. Had to pay exit fees on existing deal, at the moment, it is looking a good move and at least I have certainty. Heating off, using heated throw and air fryer not oven. Will not use dryer now until next winter. Off to market today to get supplies for batch cooking.
Am going to sew some salad leaves in the garden as cheap and keep going all summer. Keep surfing for cheap days out and deals and tips.
I know that these rises will have a massive effect on some, but at least am making a positive difference and doing what is within my power.
Hope the government come up with meaningful help for those on heating oil, they have little choice and I heard a lady on the radio this morning who is risking her health, due to not being able to afford heating oil.

How does the log burner heat the whole house? I have two downstairs but even if they’re on it will be cold upstairs?

It's been quite low over the last few days as well. Last week it hit about 70%, and gas was down to 6% at one point.

These are years in the making, its actually quite dangerous to cycle in the UK, even in France, the home of cycling, car drivers are more aggressive towards cyclists.
imho more so than the UK.

The courts dish out pathetic sentences to drivers too even those who have deliberately driven at other road users... calls for cyclists to have reg plates... pay a road tax....

We also need billions to build proper segregated paths but these then become walking routes, and more conflict - see the angst on the Camel Trail in Cornwall, calls now for Cycling to be banned on it... a route built primarily for cycling...

...we are a million years away from a Netherlands style transport system, too selfish, fat and lazy