Energy tariffs/price rises. What are you doing to lessen the impact?

[AlternativelyWired]

Shamelessly posting here for traffic.

I currently pay £140 a month which includes some arrears otherwise it would be £110 a month. If I go on a fixed tariff it would increase by £50 on a 1 year fixed tariff and £80 on a 2 year fixed tariff.

I'm trying to figure out what to do for the best regarding the tariff. I've already stopped using the tumble drier and use a clothes maiden instead (no chance of drying in my garden unless it's summer). The shower isn't electric and just uses the hot water from the tank that gets heated twice a day for an hour. The heating is on minimally with an hour in the morning and 4 hours in the afternoon/early evening. It's set at 18 degrees. There are 3 of us with another dc visiting regularly for a few nights. It's a modern house with double glazing and I have thermal curtains on the front door and patio doors. Curtains are always closed once dark. I'm on UC and I can't see it being increased to allow for the energy increases.

Loft has been lagged which definitely helps and also have double glazing.

Hot water bottles at bedtime - plus peri/menopause helps a lot - thanks night sweats - hot flushes!

We're currently on a fixed tariff but I've set up the monitor for our smart meter and am watching our usage closely, making it a challenge to use as little as possible. Our energy account is currently in quite a bit of credit so want to try and up that. Will put the council tax discount aside for later in the year. Have definitely been using our heating less. We just about break even each month and my husband already has 2 jobs so we don't have any wiggle room for an increase.

Shell made almost $20bn in profit this year - compared to almost $5bn the years before. A fourfold increase.

Sunak should tackle that. That's obscene.

dont know, I dont heat the flat I have one fan heater in the main room, all the lights are energy saver and I tend to only keep one light on anyway, our TV is small 22inch and then we just have the laptop and xbox.

I think I will swap the fan heater for a electric radiator, cant see what else can be done, the windows are single glassed and getting on for 90 years old now, covering them in bubble wrap doesnt help much but they have been covered in that and duct tape for years I only keep a small section clear for opening two of them.

@lonelyapple Why does she need more help if she is only paying £96 annually? Most people who don't get the rebate are paying thousands per year in council tax and they are the ones who need the help, not people who already aren't paying it or paying very little!
She doesn’t need more help with her council tax, it’s help with her energy bills she needs.

I didn’t do this for the heat but the light, but in summer 2020 we went to ikea and bought a couple of cheap black fleece blankets (about £3 each) because DD was harder to get to sleep, and was waking up earlier, when the days were longer.
We took her curtains down and pinned the blankets to the outside and hung them back up. Much cheaper than having them lined (we inherited them when we bought the house and they are quite thin), and her room is darker but also much warmer with the extra layer. A proper thermal lining would probably be even better, but she has a very large window and this was the cheapest way to get an extra layer in.

Fuck me. A £200 loan given to millions who don’t need it which will cost money to administer. And for the people who do need it, it will have to be paid back with god fucking knows what money along with the ever increasing cost of every other fucking thing.

But hey, have £150 off your council tax bill which if I’m lucky might just be enough to offset the council tax increase for this year, but probably won’t.

Fuck.

The new standard rate will be 28p kWh for electric and 7p kWh for gas.

We have cut the use of the dishwasher and dryer. Have also unplugged a load of little things like clocks and cordless phones, etc. On their own they take very little, but together it all adds up.

I can't wait to see what the bloody standing charge will go up to. I think it should be flat rate. I mean why does it cost more for British Gas then Octopus. Then again, maybe that will change and they will flatten it.

Thank you @Jarnss
I was frantically trying to find new prices and couldn’t. It’s all about rise for typical household but there is no figures what new prices will be.
Do you know new figures for standing charges be any chance?

@Jarnss sorry just saw that you can’t find them

I'd rather not have the fucking loan, thank you very much.

My thoughts exactly.

There is always the strong possibility that something will 'go wrong' with a loan from the government, or basically anything from the government. And no - I don;t want to owe them anything.

[Still angry about having to pay back child tax credit after they overpaid us by thousands of pounds, despite being repeatedly phoned and written to with our change of circumstances and even telling them that we wanted the payments stopped]

You're welcome @greenlynx. I got those rates from the ofgem site. I could not find anything about standing charges unfortunately.

Hopefully someone else will know. I don't know if standing charges are capped tbh.

We keep oil radiator in the bedroom. Hot water bottles, electric underblanket to warm up bed, wool socks and fleeces around the house, low energy light bulbs and a floor lamp in every room so you can get light exactly where it’s needed. I’ve also got new 13.5 double duvet for DD to replace her old single one. Luckily none of us like sleeping naked but DD needs to take bath very often for her health issues and sometimes shower twice a day.
I think we will survive but the problem is that other prices are going up as well so it’s not only about heating.

Bugger all. We're pretty good on our usage anyway and never had eye-watering bills.

@Chely

Bugger all. We're pretty good on our usage anyway and never had eye-watering bills.

Yet!

As well as all the things suggested with regards cutting the bills I have also been looking at other outgoings - applied to move to water meter, changed broadband and mobile packages etc to save more money (which will probably go straight to the power company!)

Cutting spending elsewhere.

My elec/gas bill has literally just landed and the extra 63 per month is roughly what I spend at the hairdressers so that will stop.

May consider a wood burner for next winter.

We both work and life feels pretty shit atm. Wages stagnant but rising costs of everything else.

I don’t want a loan. I hope there’s an option not to get it.

We won't get any financial help at all with all these price rises and the NI to think about. I've economised in anticipation by ditching the Ocado order and shopping myself at Tesco which is saving us nearly £30 some weeks, always £20+. I'm doing more clothes drying over the bannister and will line dry more when the weather permits. I've lobbied with my colleagues for a pay rise, which is likely to be forthcoming, though not large. I've also cut back on clothes buying, though that is more to do with having too much in m wardrobe and no room. I'll sell off the surplus and use that for the first few new things I do need. One thing I won't be doing is sitting around in the cold at home. I'm thinking of getting a heated throw to sit under if we have a long cold spring.

The heated throws are amazing.

I know from times living with no heating that a thermal vest is the layer you really want.
Other than that I'm going to suggest clothes are worn for longer between washes in my house.

I have been trying to keep my smart meter under £5 for both electric and gas per day. M we pay £150 a month for both. So we should be okay.
I heat the house for when I get up and then again in the evening about five.
My teenager walks around the house moaning about the cold but insists on wearing shorts. So u can imagine what I say to him.

I have my heated blanket when I’m sat down. But I do plenty of stuff around the house during the day to keep me from getting cold.

I don’t use a tumble dryer. I hang everything I can out on the line. Or on my kitchen curtain pole as the sun shine through there everyday and it dry by the evening. Get a good windy day like the other day I got three loads dry on the washing line in a few hours.
U would be surprised how much it dries on the line in the winter.

It is really worrying! As a household we don't have much disposable income left each month, which I know is better than some, but it's tight.

I've turned alarm clocks off in bedroom and may just put in on during the night, as think looking at phone for time wakes me up.

Blankets, slippers and oversized hoodies for when in the house. Hot water bottles to warm up bed.

Doing a load of washing more regularly, rather than doing loads at the weekend, so can leave it on the clothes horse rather than use the tumble dryer several times in the 2 days. Also wearing clothes for longer, especially non work days!

Leaving oven door open when finished cooking.

Turning the heating off once our dd goes to bed, if not slightly before.

Closing bedroom curtains once it get dark.

Not done it yet but might fill up a flask when boil a kettle and make teas from there, especially in the morning when I have 2 or 3 straight after each other.

Might set timers for showers, see if can reduce daily shower to under 2 minutes. Hair wash ones longer.

Charge phone in car and at work, similar for laptop.

@LampLighter414

More cuddles and shags to keep warm in the evening.

Make sure you use protection, otherwise you'll need to turn the heating up anyway.

General price rises are eye watering too. Bistro the best veggie gravy is something I buy maybe twice a year and I looked yesterday and it's gone to £2.99 a jar! None Maman blueberry conserve is now over £3.00 a jar. Good job these are rare luxuries but things are more expensive generally. I don't drink coffee anymore but my mum dues and I get her shopping delivered with mine. £7 for a jar of Nescafé decaf!!! Starbucks is one of our couple of times a year treats and the prices there are over £4 for our favourite drink. It used to be £3.25.