Mortgage rate increases - has this changed your financial behaviour?

[Idreamofdaleks]

How is everyone coping with the hike in interest rates and increased energy bills?

I have changed mortgage and energy suppliers but still feel like I have become a wage slave to pay for it all!

How is everyone else managing?

Fixed rate - so breathing sigh of relief

Mortgage fixed so not affected atm.

Our gas and electricity bills have been massive for ages even though we are with one of the cheapest suppliers. Just got used to it.

fixed rate here, for the 3rd year running..would not have a non fixed mortgage now

however, our gas and electric are horrific

No.

Don't have a mortgage, we're lifelong renters.

Tried to swith energy suppliers and just got screwed over by Scottish Power.

Am moving to another rented house, but it's LPG.

I thought Scottish Power were really cheap expat? We are with Atlantic but still pay £135 gas a month and £93 electricity

Haahahaaa.
£109/month for a two-bed, second floor flat.

Granted, EVERYTHING is electric in here, including the storage heaters, but no choice in that because it's a rental property.

OMG are you kidding?! That's HUUUUUGE!!

Is the electricity leaking out of your sockets?

Yep.

The monthly LPG charge for the large, 3bed bungalow we'll be renting is £9/month cheaper.

Needless to say, we won't be Scottish Power customers again.

On the mortgage front, luckily we fixed at 4.99 in Feb for two years, by which time we're hoping to have paid it all off.

Energy is pretty expensive. Oil is £179 per month, elec.£80 and bottled gas about £10.

If we haven't managed to clear all the mortgage by spring 2009 we'll be a bit pissed off.

We re-mortgaged and are on a fixed rate for two years.

You can gamble on those 10-year fixed rate mortgages if you want to.

i think interest rates really only effect those who are very close to the edge anyway.

we are on repayment £440 a month, and £100 for gas and electric (we're with scottish power!).

We are f*cked. Will basically have to stop buying food. Our own faults for taking out such a huuuge mortgage though...

We have a fixed 10 year mortagage by which time we'll have about 8 months left on ours - we got it at just over 5% - I asked for advice on here a couple of months ago. I am ultra conseravtive when it comes to money so I do like the idea of knowing where I'm up too.

The energy thing - well I think the really mild winter has helped - plus I don't use my tumble drier any more...which reminds me I must enter my readings online to see how much credit I'm in !!

gdg - those are huge bills!!

do you do it online? Surely you are in credit?

Hmm, yes, I think we were paying far too little when we first moved in and it does take a lot to heat this house so the heating is on a lot.

I work from home so in the winter it's on all day. I suppose I should relaly turn it off and just have a heater in the office. Will prob do that next winter!

Hmm, yes, I think we were paying far too little when we first moved in and it does take a lot to heat this house so the heating is on a lot.

I work from home so in the winter it's on all day. I suppose I should relaly turn it off and just have a heater in the office. Will prob do that next winter!

yes. have been regretting rather large mortgage for ages! we are about to remortgage, hope there are still some ok deals out there!!
dh turned our gas CH and hot water off a few weeks back as the bills were too high. so now, we always have showers, and boil the kettle to wash up! Or use the dishwasher - not sure if this is still expensive tho? (we use it a few times a week). Got rid of the tumble dryer!

the worst energy users are central heating, tumble dryers and electric bar heaters.

we try to put out on washing-line, but when you've got five-person household and one in washable nappies, it's difficult to avoid a tumble dryer!

So Annie, what do you do ? Is it ok to put wet washing straight into the airing cupboard? I always use the tumble drier simply because I don't want to mess the garden up with a washing line & would never remember to bring it in.