To just think fuck it now in regards to the heating?

[FuH]

I have a 2 year old who has chest issues. We've been in and out of hospital with him more times than I can count, he has two inhalers daily, steroids, children's nursing team who are regularly asked to come and see him etc..

It's always worse when it's cold. He's been really unwell again this past week and I was fretting about the heating, being home all day as he's off nursery, but needing to keep the house warm for him and I have just woken up this morning and thought FUCK THIS.

I cannot let my two year old child get even worse in -3 frost because I'm so worried about bills. I don't know what the answer is but I've decided from today that I'm not going to care.

Has anyone else just though 'fuck it'.

What a sorry state we are in.

we're in a damp-leaning older house in a very wet part of the world. I spent October and November acclimatising to feeling chilly and wearing extra jumpers. As a consequence I spend the early part of December finding mould in several unloved corners of rooms, usually behind furniture. And I have a hacking cough...

We're now more liberal with the heating, and if this ends up meaning we miss a holiday or delay replacing the threadbare carpet so be it. I can't imagine how awful it must be for those who have already cut back to the bone.

I was going to start a similar thread. I am disabled and WFH and have the heating set to 20 (because the landlord refuses to fix the windows!) And it's on from 6-10 then 1-3 then 6-10 so 10 hours all in. I don't have a smart meter so no idea how much it's costing and I refuse to stress over it.

I refuse to be cold and feel I'm paying a monthly amount towards my bills, account is in credit, so any debt accrued can be tomorrow's problem. I'm broke but I'm also layered up to the hilt in outdoor clothing and thermal blankets etc so now feel I've hit full fuck it.

Everyone please make sure you apply for help if you are eligible. There are extra grants available if you're on a low income and in debt due to the increased cost.

There are also thousands of unclaimed support payments, mainly to people on prepayment meters, so generally some of the poorest in society. Keep an eye on Moneysaving Expert and make sure you're getting all the help you're entitled to.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/housing-and-energy-grants/

Also the cold weather payments, where eligible people receive an extra £25 are being paid in many areas this week, and likely next week too, going by the weather forecast.

www.gov.uk/cold-weather-payment

We have 3 young children (one has had similar issues in the past) and I wfh. I've just decided we won't be rationing it at all, I'll use the heating as normal. We can afford the bill with the increase but who wants to spend what is normally savings/disposable income on a heating price hike?! I'm not happy about it but I refuse to be cold.

I feel really awful for anyone who isn't in the position we are and really can't afford to have it on, it's scandalous this is happening today!!!! It makes me so angry and the fact it's the most vulnerable who will suffer, awful.

Mines off but I did a dry run last year and I don't have any littlies. I think it's different when you have young kids.

It's a shit situation, I'm sorry man.

YANBU I'm paying £170pm for a 2 bedroom flat. I'm having the heating on. I can't bear being cold. It's costing about £6 a day at the moment according to the meter.

Yes, me. It's midday and still in the minuses where I am.

I cancelled my DD and we just pay each month for what we've used. We are lucky that we remain on a fixed rate tariff until Feb.
We've had the heating on. It's -3 here. I absolutely refuse to allow my child to go cold. I've been there, living in a cold damp flat I couldn't heat with my child getting recurrent chest infections. I've also been really sick the past few weeks, and can't get better in a freezing cold house.

Same here - toddler and baby, heating is on all night and all day if we’re here.

Why would you cancel your direct debit when your bill is likely to be far more than that amount at the moment?

If you pay by direct debit, you'll be effectively spreading the cost until next spring or even summer.

If you're on 'pay as you use' you're paying it all straight away.

Same I absolutely refuse to be cold in 2022. They'll get as much as I can afford to pay.

I am immunocompromised thanks to being in biologic injections for auto immune diseases. Every winter for the last 8 years I've had pneumonia and/or shingles and while I know that Cold doesn't always mean you get Ill, it's very much for me that being warm means I'm much less likely to be Ill. I recover much quicker in warmer temperatures too. So yeah, my heating id on for 2-3 hours in the morning and 2-3 hours in the evening. I am wrapped up in an oodie and have blankets too.

I don't see this shit show changing in the future regarding heating and energy bills. So I will just have to over pay as much as I can on the gas through the year to cover mid November to March the 1st. I'm even working out that I can use my old duvets when I replace them in spring to make extra thick pads to effectively "block up" the windows to prevent heat loss in winter. Even if I just do it downstairs it's got to help a bit. I lose loads of heat from windows, I live in a council house and we have TWENTY TWO windows and doors and I want to cry imagining all the lovely warm just passing through them.

Because my energy company tripled my DD three months in a row for no actual reason, I had to go via the bank to have that money back and when I checked my energy account I was 400odd in credit. Good old EDF.
So I cancelled their DD and I pay them my original DD amount. We are currently in credit.

Same I absolutely refuse to be cold in 2022. They'll get as much as I can afford to pay.

If they end up putting you on a prepayment meter you might be able to refuse to be cold.

A bit, I've just set it to come on for a few hours in the afternoon/evening with thermostat at 18C. Bill was £450 last month and we barely had the heating on, just a bit in the morning and an hour or two otherwise on cold days. A lot of the additional cost was the tumble dryer though, as I've gone "Ah fuck it" with that as we have a lot of laundry and I don't want it hanging about in the house all the time. It is galling that the bill is twice what it was in previous years with lower usage.

Yep. I've put the heating on as it is too bloody cold. I also put the underfloor heating in the bathroom because I couldn't go in it was so cold.

I'm self employed and my earnings are 20% down. My mortgage payments are doubling in the new year too. However, I know I'm lucky that I actually have enough money to pay for the heating, I know some people literally don't have it.

I'm fed up of worrying about it now - not letting my babies be cold.

Can be next years problem.

I am surprised how much everyone's bills have gone up. Luckily we're oil and we are finding that it's still cheaper than 2012-2104 prices. It's gone down a bit in recent weeks so still only 76pish/litre, given we are being careful and turning things off so it's luckily not affected us too much, as unlike gas we have to pay up front in bulk and you have to track the price and only buy when the price is right (height of summer when nobody is buying, keeping an eye on the exchange rate and Brent Crude rate as it's bought into the country in US$, = most competitive price).

Why would you cancel your direct debit when your bill is likely to be far more than that amount at the moment?

In my case, I was already in credit, I don't want to build up a ridiculous amount of credit in case anything goes wrong in the switch over to Octopus, because Bulb's usage estimates are way off, I know exactly what the costs are as I have a smart meter, and they wouldn't let me reduce the DD below a level which was far too high, and it makes no odds tariff/cost-wise whether I pay by DD or by Stripe on the first of the month. And when I pay by Stripe the sum leaves my account on 1st of the month and is credited to my account the same day. When I pay by DD the money leaves my account as a "pending" transaction and it often takes them a week to update the credit to my account. In the meantime they send me a shitty email saying I owe them money or my payments are going up because their email algorithms are piss poor. They just want me to be their funder - no thanks, I'll keep the extra money in my own bank.

Horrible situation. How much does it cost you each time you are in hospital with them? Transport, food, time off work etc? But also the mental costs? In a way you might not be far off if the heat being on helps him.

Ours is on from mid morning to late evening. We only have 3 radiators on. Living room, and the two bedrooms (the ones in the bedrooms need replacing as we can't turn them off or change the temperature of them!!)

We both work from home in our living room, and I absolutely refuse to sit here being freezing cold and miserable.

We have solar panels which helps, and we were £800 in credit at the beginning of October, so I'm hoping that will carry the brunt of whatever we're spending.

I've got children with autism and sensory processing disorder who won't wear more than underwear at home. I'm certainly not having them cold so fuck it the heating is on and iwill just have to rob peter to pay Paul 🤷‍♀️

My attitude is keep warm now when it’s freezing and level it out by having less heating when the weather is milder.
Also, as it’s sunny today, sit in the sunniest room.

What happens when you all get into debt.....how will you manage if put on a prepayment meter?

2 year old ds might be toasty warm this year but what about the 3 year old ds of next year?

I'm in the fortunate position to be in credit going into the winter. This will get wiped this winter and rebuilt over the summer. I will continue to pay through the summer at winter rates so hopefully will have a credit again next winter.