....to be really cross at our energy bills?

[laumiere]

I've been a WOHM since DS1 was 4mo old, now he's 2.5 and I'm expecting DS2, DH is going back to full time work. So far, so good. Except I've just got the energy bills for the last quarter and we're going to have to TRIPLE the gas payment and double the electricity payment to cover them.

I'm cross because I'm going on mat leave, so my salary is going down, DH's salary is not as much as mine, and I'd budgeted for the original payments.

I'm more cross because DH leaves the heating on 25 degrees and prefers to sit in a T-shirt with no socks. We rent, so house is not double glazed and there's limited stuff we can do to warmth-proof, but I'm really ticked at the prospect of needing to keep the energy usage to a minimum during the coldest part of the year and using money I was earmarking to pay off longstanding debts to cover the bloody energy bills!

I think your DH might benefit from a bollock credit crunching kick up the arse. Seriously, it's more energy effecient than wasting your time talking to him

Try www.uswitch.com to double check you are with the most effecient energy suppliers.

I'd be more cross with your dh

I'd also be a bit at the energy company. Ours doesn't hesitate to amend our payments if they think they can and it goes through automatically cos it's Direct debit

My FIL's electric company and gas company both tried to up his dd recently, despite the fact that he was in credit. Do watch out, they are all at it.

That said, energy prices have rocketed in real terms recently. We are in an all-electric house (on a meter) and I pay about £60 per week for power

I agree with ramona, 25 degrees - ARE YOU INSANE?

god, our thermostat is set at 18 degrees at the moment and on the rare occasion (when I am bloody freezing) I might put it up to 20 degrees. It also goes off during the day and when it is cold I might resort to boosting it for a couple of hours. No way would I have it at 25 degrees - no wonder your bills are high!!

I had a chat with DH and we're going to see if we can 'overpay' now to cover the next 3 months, as if we end up £150 in debit by April they will take it straight out of our account. We've agreed to keep the heating down for a while.

Ok, having given the power company up to date meter readings, they admitted that we only need to adjust our bills by £27 a month, which is a bit different to the £130 they were initially suggesting and were going to take from my account every month.....

Blimey. Our house is half that temperature and I don't think it's even possible, let alone affordable to heat it even to 18 degrees. I'm pretty actually.

PS Send your DH here for a while. When he returns home he'll think your house is tropical and turn the thermostat right down.

I know. Everyone I speak to is having massive bills, me included.

We have one of those OWL energy monitors and it's helped. You can see how much it costs to do everything.

For example: electric shower £1 an hour, boiling kettle 35p per hour, dishwasher 38p an hour, electric blanket 2p an hour (yes, very pensioner I know but an excellent investment! ) washing machine varies depending on the wash.

Got the OWL monitor free from the Daily Mail (I know!) with free tokens and they sent us two by accident so we have a spare one up for grabs if anyone wants it for the cost of postage, just give me a shout.

HolyGuac, can I have the OWL?

Yeah Laumiere, no problem

Mail me your address to holyguacamole123 @ googlemail dot com