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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Oh my god !! has anyone else had sky high gas and electric bill yet !!

94 replies

kristatwin · 12/02/2009 09:39

I have just had my gas and electric bill through and on average it has cost me £180.00 a month to heat and use my appliances, i live in a three bed semi, not a castle in scotland, been on the phone most of the morning and apparently this is correct,(as she put it bills have gone up) has anyone else nearly had a heart attack at the cost of living lately, this is crazy

OP posts:

Poppycake · 12/02/2009 11:10

hiya duckyfuzz [waves through the snow] I just looked at your pictures - snowy! Very pretty - glad I am working from home today

Amani - you're doing very well. Our house is 4 bed, and rather a draughty sort of place despite all our efforts with double glazing and insulation etc. We've now gone up to £177 per month on dual fuel. Both dp and I work from home some of the time, so that means the heating's on more, but we don't ever have it on all the time. Do you live in a modern house?

Amani · 12/02/2009 11:15

Built in the 1960's I think. House is insulated but really have to put heating on high the past few weeks. Gosh am panicking now - am going to be one of those people that end up £100's in debt over their winter gas bill - must admit thought when I called Southern Electric to set up my direct debits they said the £35 and £25 a month was sufficient......

robinpud · 12/02/2009 11:15

We have 4 bed detached house, and currently paying £75 a mnoth for electrictiy and £80 for gas. We have the heating on for 90 minutes in the morning and about 5 hours in the evening, but more on the weekend. We are using a bit more than previous years but mostly it's just the cost of the fuel.

Poppycake · 12/02/2009 11:20

Amani - Scottish power really underestimated our fuel use (which did make me feel like we were being extravagant, tho I couldn't work out where), but when the reckoning came with an actual meter reading, they never seemed to bother about how much in debit we were, so I worked out my own little payment plan and paid an extra amount each month over about 10 months to pay it off. They seemed never to notice! I guess it means you're stuck with them, because if you changed providers you'd have to pay off the balance. Anyway, there was no comeback.

Amani · 12/02/2009 11:23

Thanks poppycake - am kind of living in hope that the gas bills will come down and that furture payments will somehow cover this winters fuel usage.....actually I am going to call them tonight with a meter reading and ask what they think i should be paying

Monkeygi · 12/02/2009 11:44

We just had our leccy bill-£341 for 2 months!! Am mystified why is just for 2 months? Bills usually come quarterly. Gas was half that but we only have central heating on gas and that's on all the time at the moment. (I think the theory is that keeping it on all the time means you can have it on lower temp as you don't have to heat a freezing cold house?? Not sure on that tbh).
Poor hubby was like the man on the ad- went round the house saying 'but WHY is this light on? Do we NEED to have it on?' etc etc.

Original poster

kristatwin · 12/02/2009 11:47

I paid £85.00 a month, from nov to feb,(£340.00) and they now want of me £520.00 extra usage i have used, find this ridiclous, yes i am a stay at home mum, with 18 month old twins, and yes have had the heating on more than normal, but 180.00 a month to heat your bloody home, can you imagine how much money these companies are making it is scandoulus.
If i won the lottery i would turn my back on bleary britain, trouble is we all put up with it !! Look at the state the banks have got us into !!

OP posts:

ThePgHedgeWitchIsCrankyBeware · 12/02/2009 12:16

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Original poster

kristatwin · 12/02/2009 12:30

Have been looking at EDF think will go with them, but will have to use savings to pay reminder off

OP posts:

mowbraygirl · 12/02/2009 20:33

We are on the fixed rate till 2010 with British Gas pay monthly and have paperless bills i.e. it comes through on the computer. The last bill for gas was £189 and electricity £98 we have a large 3 bedroomed semi. The heating is timed to come on at 6.30am and goes off at 11.30pm now DH is retired has it quite high above 22oF. Cooking is by gas we have all the usual electrical goods except no tumble drier. The one I did have was 33 years old and was about to give up as there is now only 2 of us didn't bother to replace it.

wrinklytum · 12/02/2009 20:41

I'm with EDF and have capped bills.Currently paying £60 PM GAS and £40 pm electric.

Have had gch on 1 hr mornings and 2 hrs nighttime,except last few days has been left on as we are under thick blanket of snow and its freezing!!!

Live in a 3 bed semi.Have fgch but no dishwasher or tumble dryer...have dual fuel cooker.

pocketmonster · 12/02/2009 21:02

Got our bills today. Gas £430 and electric £245. We live in an Edwardian 4 bed semi. OMG. Its obscene.

starbear · 12/02/2009 21:21

I dread to think what our bills are going to be. We live in a 1850's 2 half bedroom house. There are so many things wrong with it.
1)I noticed while the other house had snow on the roof we did not. DH boarded the loft to get extra storage space but I don't think the insulation has been done properly by him and his cousin.
2) No loft hatch as we thought it would be nice to have permanent ladder going into the loft
3) Very beautiful old front and back doors that are ridiculously drafty. Have heavy curtains but shrank when I dry cleaned them
UPVC windows are great but my bright idea to have blinds in the front room so losing heat there.
4) Front walls are very old and I have now been told need cavity wall insulations (DH has only lived here 20 years !
5) All floors downstairs wooden

We are leaking money all over the place.
Once DS is in school I'm going to spend the nursery fees on fixing these problems.
See you all next year in realationship & AIBU threads

kiddiz · 12/02/2009 22:33

We haven't had a bill for ages. I pay £89 a month for both. We were about £200 in credit at the end of the summer and I'm hoping that will go some way to covering the extra winter usage. I have been really careful. We didn't have any heating on at all until Oct. half term when mil came to stay and complained she was cold. I am at home all day with ds1 who has sn but we don't have the heating on. It's just on for a couple of hours in the morning and about 5 hours in the evening. I've been trying to avoid using the tumble drier and have probably used it less than a dozen times so far this winter. I admit ds1 and I are cold in the day but we use hot water bottles and wear extra layers!
We have to because we simply can't afford a huge bill. Dh's firm are in administration and we're in redundancy limbo. His pay has been a little erratic and we've just had a £700+ bill for car repairs.

Ivykaty44 · 12/02/2009 22:42

I am with EDF and my gas bill for Nov Dec and Jan was £300 - I gave a meter reading in october and had £150 back from them and so I know that it is actually what I ahve used over these three months. I have been paying £65 per month so am now in debt - but this will come off over the next few months and I always switch the heating of in the middle of March.

BEWARE though, EDF sent me an estimated bill - the bill was estimating that I used half the gas that I did for the same three months last year and that I was estimated to be in credit with them and therefore they would be reducing my DD by half!

This is madness - why would they estimate I used half the gas that I used last year and estimate my bill on that?

I rang and asked for the DD to stay the same.

I always ring and give a reading on the meters every quarter anyway - but for those that dont - be careful.

ThePgHedgeWitchIsCrankyBeware · 13/02/2009 00:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Original poster

kristatwin · 13/02/2009 07:53

I have been doing some looking into this the last day,(nealy fainted at the bill) and has anyone heard of utility warehouse, they seem to be by far the cheapest, and they do not advertise as to why they can keep there costs down, also in WHICH magazine they were voted the cheapest, you can also do you land line, broadband and mobile with them, and just just pay one bill for them all each month!!

OP posts:

ssd · 13/02/2009 07:56

my electric seems to have gone up a lot compared to last year and we are on a fixed tarriff paying by DD!

finding life is just getting dearer

kiltycoldbum · 13/02/2009 08:00

my electric is always quite reasonable as we're quite good with the lights and appliances, usually about £110 per quarter, my gas is currently £1100 as ive not been able to afford to pay it and its just going to keep going up! Live in a 4bed semi that is well insulated! it makes me want to cry. i need to win the lottery!

kiltycoldbum · 13/02/2009 08:02

and by the way it got so large because British Gas were estimating our bill so when they actually read the meter we got a new bill that was nearly £400 DEARER, GET YOUR METERS READ is my advice!

kiddiz · 13/02/2009 10:09

Some friends of ours are with utlilty warehouse and their bills are a little less than ours. But their house is always cold and their broadband is always dropping out.

fizzpops · 13/02/2009 10:22

I just queried our new DD amounts which we were informed would be a total of £95 from next month. Our electricity has gone from £27 to £45 without any more notice than a letter telling us this is how much they would be taking. I phoned up and got them to reduce it to £36 but will be monitoring the situation closely.

The woman-on-the-phone's explanation was that they were working with the government in some way to monitor usage or some such. Sounded a little to me.

We live in a 2 bed house and have been really careful with lights and heating although with a baby we can't leave the heating off very often during the day. We have recently renovated our house so our insulation is good although we don't have double glazing. We are terraced as well so not losing too much heat that way.

Amani · 13/02/2009 10:38

Well, further to my post yesterday - I've called SE last night with a meter reading and they told me that after reviewing my previous yearly useage that I should be paying £50 a month and not the £35 I am currently paying!

Also I found out that I am on an Economy 7 electric rate - even though I dont have storage heaters. Which means I pay a higher daily fee and day rate. So I have opted for an alternative meter to be put in, in a couple weeks time, with which I will be paying a lower daily and day rate. Hopefully I will see my bills go down with this...I am obsessed with my dryer and use it everynight and I know it just kills me in electric usage...

frazzledgirl · 13/02/2009 11:39

I opened mine this morning. At least a third more expensive than last year's. Feel sick.

LeQueen · 13/02/2009 11:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

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