How the fuck am I meant to afford this? Electric bill this month

[LadyFlumpalot]

My electric bill is £643 this month. SIX HUNDRED FUCKING QUID.

It's correct, I've checked and double checked. It was £400 last month. In the summer it was approx £180 a month.

I'm in a three story attached town house thing, fully electric. Two adults, two children. One fish tank. Usual tumble dryer, appliances etc.

I've got a balance built up of £450 so with my usual monthly payment I will just about break even this month. Next month will be a challenge though 🥶

And it's only going to get worse.

Not really looking for advise - just sympathy and solidarity. We are about to go full fucking Victorian. There will be no tumble dryer, no dishwasher, no charging appliances at home during the day.

I just pay a set amount each month, anf i get billed every 6 months, so then that comes off the payments i've made. Even before this i end up in a debit by the end of winter and credit by end of summer. I would never want to pay my actual usage each month, especially during winter

Our fixed DD is £376 a month, that's for gas and electricity, I use a tumble dryer daily and we heat our home....4 bedroom house.

We have been militant about use, and to be honest most of the time the house has been that bone chilling sick feeling cold. And still January has been about £350.

£360 this month between gas & electric. It's absolute criminal.

The cost of gas has gone down -- why the heck hasn't it been passed onto the customers yet? Instead it's going up from £2,500 to £3,000 come April!

'Usual tumble dryer....'. Tumble dryers, cost a bomb, and are not, in these times, any longer 'usual'.

Gas is bought and stored, we're still using up the expensive stuff. They bought ALOT of expensive gas! The war caused panic buying.

At the end of the annual DD period, they take whatever you owe and roll it into a new DD amount that will pay off what you owe and get enough credit to see you through the next winter. The same if you have a credit at the end of the DD period. You never have to pay all you owe to renew the DD. You can request some or all of a credit though, if you have one at the end of the DD period.

Her bill is the same every month, she’s just worried about a credit becoming a debit which is 100% normal and happens every winter on a DD plan. I honestly don’t understand why she is shocked, upset, scared and so on.

Ours is massive too. I’m on Mat leave which doesn’t cover shit. We are just going to go into debt.

They are definitely a luxury item now for most. The only people I know who still use one regularly are in a one bedroom flat with minimal heating costs.

My tumble dryer doesn’t because it’s a heat pump one. It’s very cheap to run. Cheaper than fighting condensation and mould.

@Onnabugeisha but she said her bill was £400 last month....so her bill is not the same each month...

Yes she did, and that’s why I said it’s what she signed up for by not having a DD. And she came on and said she has a DD.

Glad to know I’m not the only one who was a bit confused by the first post.

A dishwasher uses less energy than washing dishes by hand. A tumble dryer uses a lot of energy.

@Onnabugeisha - I've only just gotten out of debt after ten years of choosing between heating, eating and paying rent. That ten years was some of the hardest times of my life and I was genuinely suicidal at times. I've worked my fucking arse off to get out of it. I cannot blithely go back into debt. I'm sorry that I'm different to you, but I can't sit there and go "it's ok, I'll maybe possibly build up a credit in the summer again, maybe".

@Onnabugeisha you do realise the DD and actual bill are not the same amount ?

@Onnabugeisha still completely confused by whether she's on a DD or not tbh!!

Not if it’s a heat pump.

Mine doesn't work like that. I've a fixed DD. If the bills stay to exceed that, the company automatically adjusts the DD to reflect that.

There's no period of accumulating a higher cost. What it has meant till now is that my savings in the summer months offset the higher winter payments, and for maybe 2 months there's a higher DD before it reduces coming into Spring.

Yep, dishwashers if full are more energy efficient & cheaper than washing by hand.

Tumble dryer, depends on what sort you have. My tumble dryer costs 60p a load. Well 59.5p to be exact.

I went through days of being able to be good about it, put the heating on less, use the oven once every few days and microwave only in between, drink hot drinks and use hot water bottles and layer up, and then there are days (like today) when I'm just sick of being cold, wack the heating up, put the tumble dryer on, have a hot bath instead of a 3 minute shower, just got fed up of being cold, of the laundry taking half a week to dry, of quick showers in a cold bathroom, of just being constantly frugal and then ending up with stupid bills anyway. This week something in me has broken, just so pissed off with being cold. I tried to set my hair in curls, and had to take them out and blow dry it because after 36 hours my hair was still damp. I've never known cold like this past few weeks, because this is the first time I haven't been able to afford the heating. And I prioritise gas and electricity over everything else, it's still not enough. My clothes and shoes are going to holes, my kids are in hand me downs, we've made all those choices, just to be cold and miserable anyway. I'm so angry with this government and the cost of living crisis, I know I'm becoming depressed, short with the kids, difficult to be around, and it's just because I'm cold all the time. It's making my joint pain flare up a lot, I had to get a prescription to painkillers as OTC ones couldn't cope with my stiff sore body anymore, my house is grubby and messy because I can't get the energy up to clean it on dark cold evenings where I go to bed early because that's the only place I can get warm. It's no way to live. I spend the whole time telling the kids off for all the little energy wasting things they do. I never thought I would be an energy miser, but here I am like the Scrooge of electric usage ruining everyone's fun. But today I got cold, and then I got angry, and then I ran my house like a normal 21st century home for a few hours and it felt like a little holiday from the misery, miserly-ness, and cold sore bones.

Seriously? £486 last month and I expect £600+ next month.

You still get bills with a direct debit, you just don't have to pay on receipt of the bill. It's still normal to worry about a large bill that could use up your credit and result in your direct debit being reviewed.

I still use my tumble-dryer. I know it's

I do now, but technically the monthly statement balance isn’t a bill because you aren’t being asked to pay it. You pay your fixed DD amount.

Confused about the comments about fixed DD......we are on one....so our bills are the same every month. If you are on one why aren't yours?

Your bills won't all be the same. The amount you pay will be but the bill will vary with usage. Leaving a varying balance on your account, depending on the bill be fixed payment.