Unfair Gas&Elect bills with housemate

vince_n2

I recently moved to a new area to study and living with 1 housemate (the 2nd one left due to personal reasons).

The thing is, i think my housemate is inconsiderate. He will sometimes turn the heating on constantly because a) he is cold and b) because he has to dry his clothes on the radiator. I have told him to go to the launderettes to dry his clothes but he complains its too expensive - which is quite sneaky because he only has to pay half for his 'radiator drying'.

He also leaves the light on sometimes for the whole night around the house, which forced me to install energy saving bulbs. But even this won't reduce the electricity bill by much. When cooking, he will turn the cooker on full blast and not care whether the water is overflowing the pan. And sometimes, he will make desserts, which require him to boil things for 2 hours on full heat.

All these issues have made me very stressed and unhappy recently:mad:, as I am a student and want to save money as much as possible.

I have talked to him about all these issues, but he doesnt care and carries on as usual. My dad has told me that it is out of my control, and that i should equal his amount of usage to make things fairer and reduce my stress. I intend to make soup for myself now every week, which also reqiuires 2hours of boiling:rotfl:

Can anyone give me some suggestions if my dad is right? Will my increased usage have an effect on my housemate? Thanks

dannymccann

Increasing you usage will hit you both in the pocket more, but will affect you more by the sounds of it. If you are that unhappy and have tried reasoning with him to curb his usage, just get away from it all as soon as you can (bearing in mine contract ending dates etc)

robatwork

Ask yourself what you can do about it:

Change his behaviour?
Change your behaviour?
Accept what he does and pay halves?
Try to measure what you each use and split the bills accordingly?

this last method may be what you're hinting at but will only cause you extreme stress. Just accept that he lives his way and pay half, and leave when you can. You probably can't change his behaviour so try to change yours (to a less stressed mode)..