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Original poster

Energy bill £339 per month 😭

113 replies

Peony94 · 14/10/2022 16:37

We have just had an email telling us our monthly cost for gas and electric will be £339 per month, that is more than I will be earning a month after I pay for nursery. We cannot afford that amount 😣

Is there anything we can do about this? Is it better to give them monthly meter readings and just pay for usage, is this even an option? We don't have a smart meter.

I'm also confused as I thought the price cap was £2500 a year but they're charging us over 4K, I must have misunderstood this.

OP posts:
Tadpoll · 14/10/2022 20:35

Luckydip1 · 14/10/2022 19:07

My supplier Shell will only let me increase my DD of £271 pm, I can't reduce it but they can't increase it.

I’m with Shell. They emailed me the other day to say they were putting my DD up to £301 (we have a smart meter and there’s no way we’ll be using more than £6 a day over the winter, which would be around £180 a month - we’re fairly low users).

I called them, was on hold for ages, jumped through lots of hoops, explained myself a million times and EVENTUALLY they said ‘oh, we could put you on a variable DD where you just pay for what you use’.

So it is possible but you have to persevere. The bastards.

Tadpoll · 14/10/2022 20:37

MinervaTerrathorn · 14/10/2022 17:54

Its just crap. Energy is so expensive and the 2500 yearly cap is so misleading, average usage must be very frugal usage IMHO.
It's based on 2.3 people in a three bed I think, so more people in a larger house would use more. I don't think it's frugal though as we are 2 people in a three bed using less than half of the average. We are fairly frugal but do use heating in winter.

Four of us in a 4-bed here - we use quite a bit less than £2500 a year and have the heating on plenty.

I don’t understand how people are using more, unless they live in mansions?

Luckydip1 · 14/10/2022 20:46

@Tadpoll Thanks for that, I will do the same. They are total bastards.

Bigslippers · 14/10/2022 20:49

OP Ive always had direct debits for my gas/electricity

My dad passed away last year and I bought his house. He was always so careful with money so I took a tip out of his book

He used to pay every 3 months on demand.
I took over the account when he passed but left it as he did with no direct debit

Its a life changer for me
Im with SSE ( theyve just changed to OVO)

There is a smart meter here and on the app it shows exactly what you use daily then it shows your monthly amount too

The gas meter is outside and every week or so I submit reading online for that (electric is smart meter so readings are auto

My old house was larger but my direct debits if i had stayed would easily be £500 a month now with the increases

paying monthly (NOT prepayment) has really helped my budgeting. You can pay every week/month/day if you like and if u submit your readings (so easy) youll never have unexpected bills. When I submit readings it automatically gives an amount an owe buy tells me its not due until xxx but gives you the option to pay it

its also taught me not to waste electricity as Ive done in the past where Id keep a hall and landing light on constantly

Direct Debit means the energy provider has your money every month. Keep it in the bank!

I have several savings accs linked to bank where I budget and one of them is a pot for energy

MinervaTerrathorn · 14/10/2022 20:51

Tadpoll · 14/10/2022 20:37

Four of us in a 4-bed here - we use quite a bit less than £2500 a year and have the heating on plenty.

I don’t understand how people are using more, unless they live in mansions?

Show quote history

My DGM uses about £2500 on her own in a three bed. She is very elderly so heating at 22 (new electric throw may bring this down), showers aren't quick etc. DS and I use less than £1200.

Original poster
Peony94 · 14/10/2022 20:56

FistFullOfRegrets · 14/10/2022 20:18

@Peony94

makes me want to call you Petal!😊

So Petal, do you understand now how it works?

Once you do, decide if you want to do manual meter readings or not. You could go back on a smart meter, but there's a bit of a wait.

you can get plug in meters, that you then plug your appliance into & it will tell you how much it's using.

sometimes you get a rogue appliance that's costing a fortune & some that are surprisingly not. I have an old undercounter fridge that only gets used for drinks & odd things now since getting a new FF, I thought I should probably get rid of it, but when I checked it was barely using anything, so it's cleaned & restocked! But the light bulbs I thought were economical are 4p an hour (ok not earth shattering, but I thought they were costing about 2p for 10 hours and they're not, 40p. Not a lot but several add up over a month. Old oven I thought would be £££ but isn't at all.

secondly to that & not what you asked, but have a look at your finances with DH. Everyone makes their own choices to how things are paid, but your arrangement sounds unfair & unwise.

I call my DD petal sometimes 😂☺️ Yes, I definitely understand the price cap now and I understand my electricity usage is higher than it should be! I will definitely be asking to just pay for what we use as we definitely can't pay that amount a month, it's a ridiculous price!

Oh that's interesting, I didn't know you could get anything like that! I would be checking every single thing in the house! From now on I'm going to be limiting TV use to just the evenings when both of us are home because we've worked out that costs quite a bit to use. Going to be putting on the heating as little as possible, I wouldn't put it on unless I was absolutely freezing if we didn't have DD.

What do you mean by unwise with the finances? Sorry, I probably didn't explain the plan properly before! I currently don't contribute anything at all because I'm on my unpaid 3 months maternity leave. Then the plan was my husband was going to continue as we are with paying the bills etc then I would pay nursery fees and the remaining money after that was paid we were going to put into our savings account but probably won't have anything left now everything is going up! 😣

OP posts:
Original poster
Peony94 · 14/10/2022 20:59

Bigslippers · 14/10/2022 20:49

OP Ive always had direct debits for my gas/electricity

My dad passed away last year and I bought his house. He was always so careful with money so I took a tip out of his book

He used to pay every 3 months on demand.
I took over the account when he passed but left it as he did with no direct debit

Its a life changer for me
Im with SSE ( theyve just changed to OVO)

There is a smart meter here and on the app it shows exactly what you use daily then it shows your monthly amount too

The gas meter is outside and every week or so I submit reading online for that (electric is smart meter so readings are auto

My old house was larger but my direct debits if i had stayed would easily be £500 a month now with the increases

paying monthly (NOT prepayment) has really helped my budgeting. You can pay every week/month/day if you like and if u submit your readings (so easy) youll never have unexpected bills. When I submit readings it automatically gives an amount an owe buy tells me its not due until xxx but gives you the option to pay it

its also taught me not to waste electricity as Ive done in the past where Id keep a hall and landing light on constantly

Direct Debit means the energy provider has your money every month. Keep it in the bank!

I have several savings accs linked to bank where I budget and one of them is a pot for energy

That's really helpful, thank you so much! Very good idea. Sorry to hear about your Dad x

OP posts:
CoastalWave · 14/10/2022 21:00

Cancel your direct debit. Despite me having over a YEAR of actual meter readings (taken monthly) British Gas were insistent on having £300 a month direct debit off me (Ie. £3600 in total) - I've worked out I'll be spending approx £2000 a year on the new prices.

So sack that. Cancelled it, I still provide monthly readings, and they bill me quarterly. Last quarter was £391. Helps you keep an eye on what you're spending and you know you're only paying for what you've actually used.

3WildOnes · 14/10/2022 21:01

Tadpoll · 14/10/2022 20:37

Four of us in a 4-bed here - we use quite a bit less than £2500 a year and have the heating on plenty.

I don’t understand how people are using more, unless they live in mansions?

Show quote history

Your heating costs depend so much on how well insulated your house is. In my previous house my heating was constantly set to 21 in the day and 17 at night. I never turned my heating off. Even in the depths of winter it would only need to click on for an hour or so a day and it would retain and maintain the heat. I now live in an old terribly insulated house and our energy usage for gas has tripled despite the heating never really getting above 18 and only putting it on for a few hours a day.

dementedpixie · 14/10/2022 21:07

@MotherOfPuffling this is the definition of average usage:

The Ofgem price cap and the new Price Guarantee talk about typical households with average consumption over the course of a year. This means a 2-3 bedroom property using 12,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of gas and 2,900 kWh of electricity per annum

dementedpixie · 14/10/2022 21:14

I'm in a 4 bed detached in Scotland (2 adults and 2 teens) and and my usage is higher than OPs with estimated annual usage of 6018kwh for electricity and 13110kwh for gas.

Currently paying £173 per month with the £66 additional payment from the government added on. (Octopus reduced the direct debit to take account of the payment)

They have never tried to set my payment at a ridiculous amount and I can amend it up and down on the Octopus app.

Looneytune253 · 14/10/2022 21:15

That's nothing my projected one for jan is £1100

Looneytune253 · 14/10/2022 21:24

dementedpixie · 14/10/2022 21:14

I'm in a 4 bed detached in Scotland (2 adults and 2 teens) and and my usage is higher than OPs with estimated annual usage of 6018kwh for electricity and 13110kwh for gas.

Currently paying £173 per month with the £66 additional payment from the government added on. (Octopus reduced the direct debit to take account of the payment)

They have never tried to set my payment at a ridiculous amount and I can amend it up and down on the Octopus app.

Have you looked at their projection? I agree octopus are the best BUT that's who I'm with and they're quoting me £1100 per month by the winter months

silentpool · 14/10/2022 21:26

I'm loving the rage against the energy bastards - I've been reducing my usage so I can avoid giving them more money.

My lights are already energy efficient and I have smart plugs to switch things off automatically. So the real energy saving gains were with heating and cooling.

I barely switch on the heating (heated throw only) and no aircon in summer (in Australia - fan only). Washing machine goes on at 20c and the dishwasher is on the short cycle.

Insulating against draughts was a big win in terms of comfort - you can do some basic projects before your DH leaves to reduce draughts. I would suggest insulating around windows and external doors, checking bathroom fans (you can get one that blocks draughts) and getting double sided door draught stoppers.

I have a smart metre so I can see what moves the needle on my energy use and that has helped with my motivation too.

MinervaTerrathorn · 14/10/2022 21:27

Looneytune253 · 14/10/2022 21:24

Have you looked at their projection? I agree octopus are the best BUT that's who I'm with and they're quoting me £1100 per month by the winter months

Show quote history

They are quoting me £140 for January!

Original poster
Peony94 · 14/10/2022 22:05

dementedpixie · 14/10/2022 21:14

I'm in a 4 bed detached in Scotland (2 adults and 2 teens) and and my usage is higher than OPs with estimated annual usage of 6018kwh for electricity and 13110kwh for gas.

Currently paying £173 per month with the £66 additional payment from the government added on. (Octopus reduced the direct debit to take account of the payment)

They have never tried to set my payment at a ridiculous amount and I can amend it up and down on the Octopus app.

I really wish we were with Octopus! I believe they do a cheaper rate overnight? That would be very helpful!

OP posts:
MotherOfPuffling · 14/10/2022 22:12

Looneytune253 · 14/10/2022 21:15

That's nothing my projected one for jan is £1100

WTAF? Holy Moly!!

dementedpixie · 14/10/2022 22:21

Peony94 · 14/10/2022 22:05

I really wish we were with Octopus! I believe they do a cheaper rate overnight? That would be very helpful!

Show quote history

You can still switch. Think in the case with Octopus you need to ring them.

Milesty1 · 14/10/2022 22:21

Luckydip1 · 14/10/2022 20:46

@Tadpoll Thanks for that, I will do the same. They are total bastards.

Also a Shell customer, I managed to change to the variable direct debit by logging in to My Account rather than having to jump through hoops on the phone. Worth a try!

dementedpixie · 14/10/2022 22:24

If you tell them you are unhappy with the customer service from your current supplier then I imagine you can still switch.
Try and get a referral code is you do switch
P.s. only certain tariffs have cheaper energy at night

Energy bill £339 per month 😭
BarbaraofSeville · 14/10/2022 22:32

If you go on economy 7, you'll pay more in the daytime so it's only really worth it if you have storage heaters or an electric car.

But if you want to switch to Octopus, here's my referral code which gives us both £50 bill credit.

share.octopus.energy/loved-moon-894

Original poster
Peony94 · 15/10/2022 08:30

BarbaraofSeville · 14/10/2022 22:32

If you go on economy 7, you'll pay more in the daytime so it's only really worth it if you have storage heaters or an electric car.

But if you want to switch to Octopus, here's my referral code which gives us both £50 bill credit.

share.octopus.energy/loved-moon-894

Ahh I didn't realise it was more in the day! Makes sense 😂 If I do switch I will make sure to use your code, thank you!

OP posts:
Whiterose23 · 15/10/2022 08:40

Please phone them and give accurate readings. EDF took £780 in a direct debit this month! We phoned them to find out why and we were actually £1800 in credit. They have refunded us £1500 and reduced our direct debit to £190 a month. We had to push for this and they weren’t keen to refund ‘in case we got into debt’

Tadpoll · 15/10/2022 09:44

Whiterose23 · 15/10/2022 08:40

Please phone them and give accurate readings. EDF took £780 in a direct debit this month! We phoned them to find out why and we were actually £1800 in credit. They have refunded us £1500 and reduced our direct debit to £190 a month. We had to push for this and they weren’t keen to refund ‘in case we got into debt’

That’s disgusting. They use people’s fear of getting into debt as a way of frightening them into continuing with high payments.

sheepdogdelight · 15/10/2022 12:04

Tadpoll · 14/10/2022 20:37

Four of us in a 4-bed here - we use quite a bit less than £2500 a year and have the heating on plenty.

I don’t understand how people are using more, unless they live in mansions?

Show quote history

Also 4 people in a 4 bed. And I wouldn't say were were frugal. I find some of the prices people are paying (without even the heating on) really surprising.

Think electricity/gas usage might need to become the new "analyse my food shopping and see where I can save". I wonder if people have things on/use things without realising? And of course there's an element of assuming what you do (huge number of loads of washing a week, for example) is "normal".