Your energy bills

Greciangirl Have a look at Octopus.

3 bedroom modernish , insulated house here, and our bills are paid by DD of £120 per month ….I know it’s too much and am in credit but rather have excess to play with than be cold. My husband is housebound and immobile and always cold…. I’m active and in and out all day and the house always feels hot to me… our thermostat says 20-21 so I’ve no complaints really. We have separate bedrooms and always keep my radiator turned off as can’t bear the heat at night. I would rather cut down in food rather than heat my house …. thankfully for us it’s not necessary. But I realise some people are going to have to choose.

We live in a 2 bedroom semi detached housing association bungalow. We rely on electricity for heating, water etc. We have a storage heater on in the lounge, and otherwise no heating. We don't use the hot water system but boil kettles. We pay a direct debit of £89 per month, but our weekly spend is closer to £40 per week. We can't cut it any more.

We have been fortunate to receive a Warm Home Grant (£140 ), we were awarded £49 by our council but unfortunately we don't have mobiles so can't actually access it. There are some other grants available, but we can't apply until we find ourselves in debt, and we are trying to reduce that risk.

I really wish my heating was on! Now nearly 6 weeks since my boiler died and still waiting on a new one. Only sources of heat are the woodburner in a very large open plan upstairs room (over 10 metres long with a further 4 metres of double height glass - brrrr!) and a plug in oil filled heater which warms the shower room up before I perform my daily wash involving standing in an old baby bath inside the shower cubicle and pouring jugs of warm water over me! It is No fun. My arthritis is playing up and my sense of humour is rapidly deserting me. I long for the day I can have a proper hot shower or bath and the temperature indoors rises to double figures. Roll on summer when this house is lovely and warm.

I live in a 1990s 3 bed detached - on a fixed rate with Octopus until March - pay £78 per month & still £116 in credit. We have a dishwasher on Eco (use once a day) gas hob, electric oven, use our airfryer a lot it roasts as well and good for the 2 of us. Use a dryer (if raining) gas central heating (new boiler/radiators /& thermo valves fitted this September. Don't use the conservatory at this time of year, too cold in winter and takes a lot of heating.
Unsure what we will be paying from March but I guess it will be
alot more

Scottish Power were a nightmare - especially errors and poor customer service! Octopus were fairly good, but we found EON would be cheaper when our fixed rate came to an end. We're in a three-bed semi. We were paying about £160 per month, then £197 for a short while. Now going up to £268. To fix was going to be much more expensive. Trying a comparison site, many companies wanted over £500 per month if we wanted a fixed rate with them.
Three of us in the house. My husband really feels the cold due to illness/medication, so the heating is on all the time. We also charge the electric car at home most of the time (fairly low mileage though at the moment). We mostly cook from scratch and have a TV and/or computer on most of the day. Dishwasher on ever day and washing machine at least every other day. Tumble dryer occasionally. Could cut down a bit but couldn't easily cut down a lot. I don't think there are any "good deals" around just now, I'm afraid.
Other governments in Europe are helping their citizens either directly or by capping the rises. In the UK, we're all getting a compulsory £200 loan later this year which won't begin to address the issue - whoopy do!

I pay £79 electric & £73 gas so £152 dd per month with E-on. No tumble dyer, insulated walls etc. I've just moved to a smaller place from my 4bed, so hoping the bills will go down. When my term finished a month ago, I wanted to renew but it was double so stayed with the unsecured.

I phoned a week before my move and they told me I was £600 in credit, I phoned a week after I moved and was told I owed £700! I asked for the calculations in an email, the elec came through as £108 in credit , they said they would credit this to my bank acc. nothing on the gas as yet. So good job I refused to pay the £700 they wanted!!

So who do I switch to, to get a better deal locked in?

We have a 70s 3 bed semi and were on a £70 a month fixed deal. This is coming to an end and we will go on the standard variable tariff. Our payments will rise to about £110 a month. The house is not particularly well insulated and we don't think about what energy we use, just put it on if we need it. I think the fact that we bought new appliances last year when we moved in helps as they are energy efficient. We also live in the mild, dry East of England.

Good news is that our Water direct debit is going down by £7 a month!

I am amazed by the variation on this thread. There is no one answer for everyone.

Yoginimeisje the advice is not to get a new fix (they are high and there isn't a good deal anywhere) but to stay on the standard variable until prices begin to fall.

I don’t pay a random direct debit a month, once you have a smart meter you can pay what you owe as you go. So mine varies every month based on my consumption. I can’t see the point in worrying about what I might owe as I would rather pay as I go along. I’m with Utility Warehouse, they are accepting new customers but the best deals are only for those that shift their broadband,phone, mobile etc to them as I did. As a widow I couldn’t cope with the potential of debt and being unable to pay. This works well for me. My monthly bill last month was £227 including all of the above plus house and boiler insurance. I have a largish 4 bed detached. I don’t know how much next month will be but I have been very cold whilst trying to keep costs down. I won’t get the “loan” from the government as I live in a band E property. I don’t yet get a state pension (roll on September) don’t work as feel wrecked after nursing my husband for so long and with arthritis would not be able to cope with a full time job. I have his widow’s pension to live on so times are tough. As I said roll on September to be able to be warmer next year.

We have mid sized 23yr old insulated 3 large beds detached. With octopus we paid £130/month combined fuel then they said they were increasing annual cost from £1049-£1749 what?!?! In one feel swoop , in September , before prices went up? Not happening mate! Warm house and moderate temp maintained jumpers applied as necessary. Switched to Sainsbury's fuel in October , pay now £ 1050/annum fixed rate always have a small credit(£75-100) which is taken up by winter use over months we use heating/fire. Strangely even though our houses are 100% kingspan insulated ,even the integrated garage! All neighbours had the cavity beads insulat, and only as it was free! Just me and my both side neighbours have refused this treatment x3 times ow, why? Well one neighbour is a structural engineer other is a builder and I used to work in construction too! We all know that this type of insulation is surplus to requirements in the case our our particular structures and stops the structure from 'breathing' results? Damp condensation and in extreme cases mould forming. And suprise suprise no less than 4 have told me that they have a mould problem! The only people gaining are......THE INSTALLERS! they get paid by the size of properties and are told to target big houses that basically don't need it!! Get paid less if the do small and old properties, how shocking!?!?! NOT!

Nations I read it as EVERYONE gets the £200 like it or lump it , then even if you don't have bills now, if you say rent first home after it's been dished out , your bills will still have the deduction of £40 pa for FIVE YEARS wherever you live!! Unfair? Yes I'll thought out? Definitely. thought up by someone who has zero knowledge of finance and how it works? Yep! Hedge fund manager are professional gamblers , NOT. Accountants!! See Sunak for definition.......

I use the wool balls in my tumble dryer. I get them from Little Beau Sheep. They are very good.

Mummer you're right, everyone, including Nanatoone, will get the £200 off their energy bill which will be paid back.
It's the £150 off the Council tax that only applies to band A-D properties.

LucyW
Many years ago we knew that we were going to be without a shower and bath.
We found this idea very useful.

www.zoro.co.uk/shop/hand-tools/sprayers/5lpaps-5ltr-pump-action-pressure-sprayer/p/ZT1253432X?utm_source=google&utm_campaign=pla%2B%7C%2BHand%20Tools&utm_term=ZT1253432X&utm_medium=pla_css_2&targetid=pla-889992802717&loc_physical_ms=9045030&dev=c&gclid=Cj0KCQiAr5iQBhCsARIsAPcwROOqisSZT9Ts3AJ1OIL1Y-s9ar-43OfoBU108fME_i7RSKTu3fb7LQIaAh5iEALw_wcB
Mix your hot and cold water in the container and away you go.

Hello Tina49. We're with Shell energy and ours was £69 a month but we were new to this 2 bed large Flat last February and they recently told us we need to pay £173 for the last 3 months as our usage was more than they estimated. So going by that I think we will be paying about £99 a month now. ( thankfully we locked ourselves in to a deal for 2 years)

just to remind people who might not be too savvy wrt how a fixed rate works. The price per unit or kwh is capped at a maximum. Not the amount you actually pay per month.
If eg I pay £70 a month then that is just what was estimated at the start, of what might cover the total cost of units used in a year.

You could end up the year owing a lot or being owed a lot. I input my readings once a month and keep an active eye on my usage. At the moment my usage is more than £70 in a month and I owed octopus, so I upped the amount taken out every month

My aim is to go into next autumn with a decent amount of credit or spare cash capacity

My opinion is that it is very important to see a bill every month, which is easily done with octopus

I did wonder the other day how much gas we’d saved since September, after dh bought a truly mini saucepan - just big enough for one egg - which he uses virtually every day.
It goes on the smallest burner, unlike the normal small pan which went on a medium one.

My opinion is that it is very important to see a bill every month, which is easily done with octopus

I like to see mine a lot more often than that. I seem to be looking at my usage daily these days on the Shell site. We’re using less now than we did at this time last year, so the small economies we’re making seem to be working.

I too keep an eye on ours Maggiemaybe same supplier and a smart meter (it lives in a cupboard switched off). Still on a fixed deal, usage very similar to a year ago, deal ends April, I’ll see what they propose.

You all seem to pay so little !! I pay £240/month combined for electricity (£170) and gas (£70). I'm in the middle of a 2yr fix so paying a competitive rate. I live in a 3 bed detached bungalow with my retired husband. Does anyone else pay as much as me? Or am I being rinsed?

rugbymumcumbria that seems to be a lot to pay- which company are you with? I live in an end terrace 3 bedroom 1988 house and I used to pay £58 and the cost for both is now around £110. I am with Octopus. I have the heating on all day most days at 18C.

Maggiemaybe

^My opinion is that it is very important to see a bill every month, which is easily done with octopus^

I like to see mine a lot more often than that. I seem to be looking at my usage daily these days on the Shell site. We’re using less now than we did at this time last year, so the small economies we’re making seem to be working.

I seem to be looking at my usage daily these days on the Shell site

Interested in how you do that? I’m with Shell now and can’t see how to check daily usage?

Hi, Tina. As long as you have a smart meter, sign in to your account, choose My Energy from the menu top right (this is on my phone). Then choose Usage Graphs, and you can see your monthly usage for gas or electricity in £ or kWh. If you double click on any of the monthly plus signs (+) it splits the usage up into daily amounts. You can use the < and << to move back to previous months/years.

Apparently you can dig down further to get hourly usage if your smart meter is set up for it. Ours isn’t, which is probably just as well. A person could get obsessed!

I am with Bulb and can check my usage daily, at the moment we seem to be using around £5 to £6.50 per day, including the standing charge, so a monthly bill of circa £170ish, for both gas and electric. We keep an eye and raise our DD as needed, plus with Bulb they like you to be a month in hand so to speak. We are not on a fixed rate as that expired, so just paying the variable rate or whatever it is called. We are taking more care than we used to with what we do, tumble drier usage drastically cut, better use of oven etc.