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AIBU?

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Original poster

1st energy bill since the rise.

100 replies

StupidUsernameUnavailable · 18/04/2022 22:38

Based on actual meter readings

March: £61
April: £133

More than double despite only having the heating on 3 times (for one hour at a time) this month. All points switched off overnight, apart from 2 phones charging.

I've seen a lot of threads recently about how to save on energy bills etc. All very nice and well to do, but why should we HAVE to do that? Why aren't we up in arms and protesting over this? Why are we being so fucking British about it?!!

Its OK to say i lived in the 60s with ice on the inside of our windows in the mornings, but we are not in the 60's we are in 2022 for fuck sake!!! These companies are making billions in profit. Why are we sitting back and just accepting it should happen?

I have no plausible solution, just makes me so angry!!

Rant over. Apologies 😔

OP posts:
rc22 · 18/04/2022 23:27

@doggiescats

Am actually worried…tonight my bloody husband put the heating on 😢He was cold…really!! I went into every room and switched off radiators…bloody ridiculous!!
I've really had to have it out with my DH who has a habit of wanting to wear shorts and t-shirt indoors throughout the year ams keep warm by kranking the heating up!! It's annoyed me for years but I'm finally having to get it through to him.
bctf123 · 18/04/2022 23:33

I went on holiday end of March and my meter said 3 weeks of electric left. I come back about 10 days later and it says just 1 day left!! Im spending £1.50 a day electric to run a fridge and my landlords cctv smh. Im thinking of moving to a cheaper property

Original poster
StupidUsernameUnavailable · 18/04/2022 23:35

So say roughly 28m households in the UK. Come Oct, even if 2m of those can't afford the hike (I will be one) what are they actually going to do? Cut us off?

OP posts:
MaryAndHerNet · 18/04/2022 23:37

I got an email that listed a before rise and after rise.

£1.20 a day before rise
£1.85 a day after rise

I'm not sure I can cut it down anymore.
Heating, multiple clothing loads washed a week, Daily showers, lots of coffee and kettle boils or cooking food for hours... All gone already.

This is going to cripple a lot of homes whilst the rich people and energy companies avoid paying billions..

Manekinek0 · 18/04/2022 23:42

We have about 18 months left on a fix and after that we will just absorb the increase I suppose.

I am worried for family members and I did join a FB group which I thought was going to be about protesting. But all the members are too busy arguing over the great reset and whether the vaccines are being given out to kill us off.

I think many people are angry but are waiting for someone else to organise something. I do think September would be an ideal time once we know what the October increases will be.

Daisychops · 18/04/2022 23:54

I've just checked my Shell Energy bill and it's really confusing. At first look my gas seemed to have doubled but they have in fact calculated the gas for Feb and March and then credited the Feb charge, is yours the same?

Flatbrokefornow · 19/04/2022 00:19

I have (finally, I’ve been asking for one for years) got a smart meter fitted, so I’m nerdily obsessing over the cost of everything. In other circumstances I would be quite interested, but necessity makes it a bit grim. I allow my DD a bath on Sundays (40p) for a treat, and we now have showers (10p) (we both love baths and miss then a lot). I’m trying to wash on lower temperatures (laundry seems to be quite expansive) I did three loads yesterday and I think it was 60p. washing up (10p) kept to a minimum.

Today, we had a pyjama day. Just lolling about on our (already charged) tablets/phones or reading and eating chocolate. I had one coffee, and she reheated some sausages in the microwave. We had toast for dinner. No heating, no laundry, no showers, no cooking, no TV or PC, all the sockets off when not in use. Nothing. About as basic as you can get. Cost £1.60 in gas and electric. Almost fifty quid a month to do fuck all. It doesn’t seem fair that very basic use is going to be so expensive. I’m used to not going out, eating out etc etc as a lone parent, but now I’m going to lose some of my greatest simple pleasures in life (hot baths, warm feet, homemade pot coffee and cake and the odd takeaway or steak) because it’s too expensive. It doesn’t seem like much to ask out of life, yet it’s not going to be doable over the winter for us. I don’t earn great money, I know, but it’s hardly wanting to live in the lap of luxury to have a warm house, a chippy tea and a hot bath on a Saturday night, is it?

Sugarandspice213 · 19/04/2022 00:38

@Daisychops

I've just checked my Shell Energy bill and it's really confusing. At first look my gas seemed to have doubled but they have in fact calculated the gas for Feb and March and then credited the Feb charge, is yours the same?
They added on an extra month to my bill in March…. So prob same as you. I don’t understand it all.
greenlynx · 19/04/2022 01:09

I agree with you. It’s 2022 fgs the idea that people go without hot food, restrict washing, bathing, cooking is shocking and unbelievable. However I don’t know what to do.

Bedsheets4knickers · 19/04/2022 01:11

I've already tried to rally the troops in fighting this . You look at other energy threads of late . No one was interested.

Sugarandspice213 · 19/04/2022 01:47

@greenlynx

I agree with you. It’s 2022 fgs the idea that people go without hot food, restrict washing, bathing, cooking is shocking and unbelievable. However I don’t know what to do.
Everyone cancel their direct debit. Why should Shell make huge profits?
Hunderland · 19/04/2022 01:51

[quote StupidUsernameUnavailable]@FAQs Shell Energy[/quote]
Fuck. We're with Shell too (not our choice).

dipdye · 19/04/2022 02:06

It's not about usage - the price has tripled.

Confused

What is it that people don't understand?

If milk had tripled, the answer wouldn't be stop drinking milk, would it??

MrOllivander · 19/04/2022 02:20

@dipdye

It's not about usage - the price has tripled. Confused

What is it that people don't understand?

If milk had tripled, the answer wouldn't be stop drinking milk, would it??

But the problem is you could stop drinking milk and have water. Or any other available drink You can't use no gas or electric, and if you've cut your usage to the bare minimum and can't afford it WTF do you do? Why should energy companies be making giant profits still while people are literally going to freeze to death?

Wages aren't really going up, how on minimum wage are people meant to afford gas and electric? It's not a luxury, or it shouldn't be in 2022. I'm lucky as mine is fixed, but in October I come off the fixed rate. My wage has gone up £1000 this year so nothing really after tax/NI/student load. Add the petrol increase, the food increase, the council tax increase...

I saw a job advertising for FT at 17k. How the fuck do you afford to live and pay your bills on that?!

Daisychops · 19/04/2022 07:08

Just to clarify, my shell energy bill is up to 31 March, so before the increase. But they have for some reason shown the gas charge as 2 months worth (Feb and March) so it looks like double but then they have deducted the Feb charge as a credit on the line underneath so you need to add these together to see the March charge.
Mine looked horrendous but my March charge was less the February as I had been using the heating less. It's next months bill that will be issued in May for the April charges that will show the increase.
Also not with Shell Energy by choice!

Ifailed · 19/04/2022 07:15

Mainly because the French government own a large percentage of the generating companies, we have privatised all of ours

The French government also own UK power companies, maybe they are using money from here to keep the prices down in France?

desiringonlychild2022 · 19/04/2022 07:19

@StupidUsernameUnavailable I believe they will try to put you on a prepayment meter if you can't pay the direct debits. Where the energy costs a lot more.

The thing is, a significant percentage of the population have been living like this ever since austerity. We never cared as a society as it didn't affect us..I hope we care more now... Is this hitting people who thought they were comfortably off?

Fishwishy · 19/04/2022 07:33

Energy has been far too cheap (compared to the damage it does to the planet) for too long. These price rises are forcing people to look at saving energy and forcing the government to wean itself off russian oil and gas, hopefully to renewables. Yes the government should have done something earlier about it but that would have been more expensive bills earlier to provide the infrastructure.

desiringonlychild2022 · 19/04/2022 08:03

The thing is a lot of people can easily afford the increased charges even if it doubled or tripled to £400..people spend thousands on holidays and non essential home improvements; it was absolutely heaving in at pancras station over Easter break despite the increased cost.of tickets... People were paying extra hundreds of pounds over the pandemic to go on holiday cos of tests..people will grumble but as it's not an existential crisis for many, they wouldn't protest.

The other half will suffer but most of them have been suffering for the past 10 years... I predict the prices will increase and people will starve and perhaps some will die from cold but zilch will be done about it..

Whenyougonnalearn · 19/04/2022 08:06

* I've seen a lot of threads recently about how to save on energy bills etc. All very nice and well to do, but why should we HAVE to do that*

Sounds like my 4 year old this morning about getting dressed

Did you foot stamp as you wrote this out?

mogsrus · 19/04/2022 08:31

Look at it like petrol. 1£ per litre. Next week £1.50 per litre you still only get one litr you are not using any more you’re just paying more, it’s so simple. 3 million people shy say to the companies..... can’t pay this...wonder what the outcome would be

CatDogMonkeyPOW · 19/04/2022 08:48

@TrickorTreacle

I know the Russia-Ukraine war doesn't help, but the hikes really started around COP26.

I was on £80/month for the last 2 years and now they want £260 for the same usage. All bulbs are LED, 1 laptop, 1 phone, only take showers (not baths), boiler on for 1 hour per day for water/ch, boil 2 x 250ml of water per day for 2 hot drinks, fridge/freezer.

£80 to £260 for the above. That's an £180 with nothing to show for it.

F U GRETA.

Yeah let's blame an autistic teenager for an energy crisis instead of a mixture of unfortunate situations and poor decisions that include:
  • countries burning through their gas reserves during the extremely cold winter 2020-2021
  • an increase in demand following the lifting of pandemic restrictions
  • a poor summer 2021 for wind energy leading to increased demand from other sources
  • lower production of gas from Russia long before the Ukraine war that was thought to be politically motivated
  • the closure of a significant portion of the UK's gas storage facilities by the Conservative government in 2017 as a cost saving exercise.

But yeah it's definitely Greta's fault Hmm

Have a Biscuit as an award for the most moronic statement I've read on this site this week.

mrziggycoco · 19/04/2022 08:58

Protest then? Don't pay. Rack up a huge debt. Then apply for the fund to slash half.

mrziggycoco · 19/04/2022 09:00

[quote StupidUsernameUnavailable]@cakeorwine

If mine goes up to (a minimum of) £266 in October I can't pay it. End of.

What are they going to do?[/quote]
Depends if you own your home? If not, they can't do much. I owe Shell thousands, have done for years.

MrsPelligrinoPetrichor · 19/04/2022 09:04

@Flatbrokefornow

I have (finally, I’ve been asking for one for years) got a smart meter fitted, so I’m nerdily obsessing over the cost of everything. In other circumstances I would be quite interested, but necessity makes it a bit grim. I allow my DD a bath on Sundays (40p) for a treat, and we now have showers (10p) (we both love baths and miss then a lot). I’m trying to wash on lower temperatures (laundry seems to be quite expansive) I did three loads yesterday and I think it was 60p. washing up (10p) kept to a minimum.

Today, we had a pyjama day. Just lolling about on our (already charged) tablets/phones or reading and eating chocolate. I had one coffee, and she reheated some sausages in the microwave. We had toast for dinner. No heating, no laundry, no showers, no cooking, no TV or PC, all the sockets off when not in use. Nothing. About as basic as you can get. Cost £1.60 in gas and electric. Almost fifty quid a month to do fuck all. It doesn’t seem fair that very basic use is going to be so expensive. I’m used to not going out, eating out etc etc as a lone parent, but now I’m going to lose some of my greatest simple pleasures in life (hot baths, warm feet, homemade pot coffee and cake and the odd takeaway or steak) because it’s too expensive. It doesn’t seem like much to ask out of life, yet it’s not going to be doable over the winter for us. I don’t earn great money, I know, but it’s hardly wanting to live in the lap of luxury to have a warm house, a chippy tea and a hot bath on a Saturday night, is it?

60p per load or for the 3 loads?