I haven't been able to put my heating on yet

[Anono2022]

I know I'm one of MANY, but I cant help be feel like a bloody failure right now!

I work full time in a school support role for SEN. I have a SEN child myself. I am a single parent with no help from father. Literally everything falls on me.
I'm miserable. i cant heat our home! My monthly electricity is coming in at 170 alone and I'm only paying 100 which is the maximum I can afford! After outgoings have all gone out I have very limited money to feed us on. How the hell am i meant to afford to put the the heating on? Any help available to me is limited due to me having a mortgage.
I feel ashamed and very lonely as everyone around me has a partner/decent two income household. No one understands how tight my finances are.
I come home from work and I often cry because I cant afford even a simple lifestyle. I'm utterly miserable and frozen!

This is just a vent really as I know I am one of very very many. But God I feel shit that i feel like im doing my very best and its not good enough.

We are so close to Xmas now and I've not even brought a single thing. How can I be excited for Christmas when I cant even keep us warm.

Sounds okay to a bit high maybe. If the fridge-freezer wasn't opened then I wouldn't think it would use that much in less than half the day. We average 3kwh a day of electric, that includes two washing loads a week, occasional oven use, small appliances, charging devices, and some tv and pc use. No electric shower.

Gas I'm not sure on, we were using about 0.3 metric units on hot water but I've since upped the heating time from 20 to 30 minutes, so likely at least half a unit now.

Sorry, forgot the electric blanket, electric looks reasonable with that added. They are still very good value for the heat!

I know posting on here has opened me up to criticism but when the odd comment makes someone feel like a scammer

What you need to remember is that any questions to you are not personal, no one knows you, all you are is words on a screen - you could be a genuine 19 year old woman single parent in London, but also quite easily you could be 45 year old man from Manchester who is trying just get money

There is LITERALLY NO WAY OF KNOWING and its not personal

Can I ask how are people calculating kwh? I'm just going by the number of units difference on my meters. I wish my meters were indoors. Would by easier to keep an eye on then lol.

Probably going to become obsessive with checking them to find the culprit. I understand my usage is high but knowing how awful we live it doesn't make sense. I'm going to get on to British gas today but I've heard they will want you to keep a log of readings over a week or two and also if no fault is found on the meter you are charged for the visit?

I'm wondering if my fridge is a problem? The seal isn't great. It hums all day and night. Even on the lowest setting i have thick ice at the back? I have a brita water box in there and it's freezing solid. But I've heard a fridge that hums is actually normal?
It also doesn't help that the floors downstairs are all stone, and tiles. So it's bloody cold under foot. Again today my toes hurt but will just have to add layers until later when the heating can go on.

I hate living like this. And it makes me sad that so many people are having to now. I remember when my annual bills were so much lower and I didn't think twice about heating and told myself there is no way I'm living cold and letting my child live in a cold home. But now I'm doing exactly that. Because the debt will be huge for me. The annual forecast for my energy is as much as my mortgage for a year. That's horrendous! (Fortunately I'm locked into 1% on that).

I do wonder how they will be able to recover so much debt because surely most of us will be in it due to spiralling energy costs? I think that doesn't help either. Since being left in a ton of debt by my son's dad who ran it all up in my name, I've felt saddled with debt that hasn't really been mine or ran up by me or through my own choices. Now this, I feel like I've been swamped in debt my whole child's life and have felt proud that I've maintained a decent credit rating despite it. Every bloody thing has gone up and I've cut back massively to just essentials. My energy has tripled (unit prices - I was fixed in a 2 year in 2020), food shop has more than doubled, fuel for car has doubled with is a combination of rising costs and emergency moving my son to a school that required a further commute. Funny thing is on a school support salary you really don't have much movement for costs to increase.

@Athenen0ctua

Yes, just one room, the living room, at the moment.
I have one in my daughter's room for when she is upstairs. Just used some evenings while she does homework.
House is around 12C in the evening, it has been below zero outside these past two days. But sunny, so the house can warm up during the day.

I rather prefer keeping the whole place warm, but cannot this year. At least yet. We are not at risk of freezing pipes. And we have lots of ittle water traps. No mold.
We are trying to hold on for colder days, otherwise we will not have the money. It is that sad.

OP we have smart meters. They track and plot the usage for you.
We did not get charged to install ours. Maybe check with your supplier? You will be in full knowledge from your house or phone.

Your electric is already recorded in kwh so just multiply the amount you've used by the cost per kwh of electric (about 34p). The gas is recorded in cubic meters so you need to convert the units. Search calculating gas usage cost and the government page has the conversion maths.
Mine equals about £1.30 per cubic metre used.

Sorry, £1.15 per cubic metre.

Thank you for that information.

I agree it is sad having to plan when to heat your home. I have elderly parents who have worked their whole damn lives but haven't got decent pension due to low paid jobs. Seeing them huddled in front of their fire yesterday made me feel so angry. Worked their whole lives and are living like this

It WOULD get crazy cold wouldn't it, with the energy bills going up so much. When it was quite mild during October and November, I thought 'phew what a relief!' as the energy bills will/should be more manageable. But NOW. FFS. It's minus 7 degrees C windchill in my little rural village, We are high up too, so it's extra cold. 😩

We are lucky that we live in a small home that is well insulated, and our energy bills are manageable - so far, but we don't have anyone with disabilities, or very young children, or very anyone elderly, so we're not vulnerable. Must be so hard for some people.

Can't add anything to what people have already been said @Anono2022 but I do empathise. We are OK financially - not loaded but OK - and have been on the bones of our arse some years ago, and I genuinely do feel for you. Hope you get the help you need, and things get better soon. Make sure you get all the help you're entitled to.

Do they have a door to shut off the room with the fire? It should heat up the room well if so. It is difficult for many but I think having a fire is better than not. My elderly relative has a wood burner and her back sitting room/kitchen is toasty warm. She needs to keep it warm as her partner has dementia, he's very thin and won't sit down under a blanket, constantly walks about.

I tried this out yesterday - I turned off my central heating at 5pm and shut myself in the front room with a plug in radiator til midnight. So only heated one room instead of the whole flat.

The cost difference between using my central heating v the heater for five hours was £1 more than my usual daily overall use.

I'm not doing that again unless I want an extra £100 or thereabouts a month added to my bill over winter. It also couldn't actually maintain the temperature I'm meant to have (wouldn't stay at 21 even on max settings), and left the rest of the flat absolutely freezing.

We have a smart meter too and use the Hugo app to interpret. We used 104 kWh (just under a tenner!) gas yesterday (had heating on lots but the living room never went above 15 deg) and 8.57 kWh electricity (just under 3 quid). That's really unusual gas use and I do feel for everyone, especially people worried about their elderly parents. It is so wrong.

The fridge could be using a fair bit, if it's freezing stuff and the seals are broken.

My old fridge freezer was using 1.6kwh a day which was more than it was meant to; I replaced it and the new one uses less than half that.
It doesn't sound a lot, but it's at least £100 a year difference.

My fridge has a winter setting if it's below 16 inside, I don't really understand how it works though. I haven't switched it as there's the sitting room radiator on the other side of the wall right behind it, so when that's on I imagine it heats up behind the fridge.

Well I ended up breaking yesterday. Found a leak in my bedroom ceiling. Loft is full of terrible condensation. So now I've gone from being scared to put my heating on to having to pay out to get the roof problem fixed. I had a nasty panic attack. I feel like a massive failure. I feel so sick today. Not ill. Just shit

Really sorry to hear that Anon - I know how you feel. I went out for an early morning walk yesterday and when I came home had a panic attack because the heating had kicked in as I’d forgotten that the thermostat was set to 16.5, I frantically switched it off and then worried how much it had cost me. I can’t believe that life has come to this!

@Anono2022 , I'm so sorry to hear you have more worries. I wish you and everyone else struggling on this thread well

I'm with Scottish Gas. I've been asking for a Smart meter for over a year.
My combined bill is huge. My house is F rated for energy efficiency. I am cold AND my bills are through the roof. Last month my (elderly) boiler broke.
It took 10 days for me to get a plumber to come & fix it - I have 2 disabled children (exH scarpered last year as it was 'too stressful) and I felt so ashamed.

OP, I know exactly what you mean. I am sorry life is to tough right now. You have every right to vent here if you need to so ignore anyone who makes remarks about 'the full house'. Yes. Sometimes life does give a person 'the full house'. If it isn't you (right now) be thankful & remember life is long (if you are lucky) & yours could change at any time so be glad of what you have now.

I wear a jumper or two. Could this help?

Rtft...

Sidg

I keep telling myself better luck is ahead. Here's hoping anyway though I'm late 30s and still waiting lol.
I know I'm not the only one and that makes me sad how people are having to live.

I've felt ill all day. Probably worry. I couldn't sleep as my heating was on. I had to turn it off at 2am because all I could think was how much will this be costing me.

I've never had lots of money. We've always lived a basic life but comfortable within the home with nice meals and a warm house. I've never had much money left though so now I have nothing left And our quality of life is so much less.

I work bloody hard and I feel like its a struggle for us all.

I'm grateful for the tips but believe me when I say I've tried most of them. Extra jumpers, hooded blankets. Heated blankets.

So sorry to hear about your leak OP. That is rotten. I hope it can be fixed without scaffolding, because it will be much cheaper for you.
I hope you feel better. It is a tough time and it has hit you when you were at a low point. i have been a single mum, trying to make ends meet somehow and I really feel for you.
But all passes OP. You will get it fixed. Keep your children and yourself warm, the best you can, with the heating you can afford or other means. And hold tight to the small things, like having a cuddle with the children, cup of hot choc (take the chance of the cold to sit all together under a blanket to watch something you like on the TV)... that is what gets us through, one step at a time.

I wear a jumper or two, two when the heating is off, one when it's on set to 13 (sitting room will get warmer). My heating is timed on for at least two hours a day though, a completely unheated house will get colder than mine. I find if you are sitting still in single digits, two jumpers stops working.