Reducing gas so we don't get in debt

Kerryc82

My OH and I bought a 1901 terrace house in May 05. Our gas bill is quite high. We pay £70pm for gas (cooker, fireplace, combi boiler that heats the water). We use British Gas Duel Fuel. We are in debt at the moment on our gas by £300, it was £450 at Christmas and has only gone down somewhat because our direct debit has gone up £20 recently and also we have hardly used the radiators this summer. Bit worried as winter is almost here (feels like it is here now!) and with the gas prices going up. We have ran out of savings for doing the house up and we think the following jobs could help us use less gas: -
Fit a shower (heats up less water than a bath?)
Double glaze windows to the back of the house
Loft insulation
Put thermostats on radiators
Replace front and back doors (currently wooden)
Block up the cellar as there is a draft coming from down there.
As we dont have any money to get all these jobs done, we wondered whether we should remortgage and get £10,000 to get these jobs done. We are only 1 year 3 months into our mortgage though and we took a 3 year fixed rate mortgage so scared of the penalties. To be honest I want to change my supplier but that means paying off what we currently owe which is £300 and with christmas coming up we cannot save it. We dont know what to do for the best really before getting into a right mess with the gas. Any ideas/suggestions/comments from people who have been in similar situations would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks

kenshaz

Kerryc82 wrote:

My OH and I bought a 1901 terrace house in May 05. Our gas bill is quite high. We pay £70pm for gas (cooker, fireplace, combi boiler that heats the water). We use British Gas Duel Fuel. We are in debt at the moment on our gas by £300, it was £450 at Christmas and has only gone down somewhat because our direct debit has gone up £20 recently and also we have hardly used the radiators this summer. Bit worried as winter is almost here (feels like it is here now!) and with the gas prices going up. We have ran out of savings for doing the house up and we think the following jobs could help us use less gas: -
Fit a shower (heats up less water than a bath?)
Double glaze windows to the back of the house
Loft insulation
Put thermostats on radiators
Replace front and back doors (currently wooden)
Block up the cellar as there is a draft coming from down there.
As we dont have any money to get all these jobs done, we wondered whether we should remortgage and get £10,000 to get these jobs done. We are only 1 year 3 months into our mortgage though and we took a 3 year fixed rate mortgage so scared of the penalties. To be honest I want to change my supplier but that means paying off what we currently owe which is £300 and with christmas coming up we cannot save it. We dont know what to do for the best really before getting into a right mess with the gas. Any ideas/suggestions/comments from people who have been in similar situations would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks

Relax you want to spend £10000 ,because of high gas bills,and oweing £300,get this into perspective,if you take a further advance you will be paying more,one job at a time ,do not increase your debt ,gradually one job every few months ,to recoup the £10000 would take years and you are paying interest on the loan,,Begin to be conscious of your usage switch off ,that costs nothing,become boring

SaveMoreMoney

Loft insulation is fairly cheap..........I did mine, and if I can, it's not too tricky !!!

Turn down your heating (when it goes on)

And also, wear a jumper/fleece when it's cold...............when you have guests and it's cold, then put the heating on !

You can also get these strips of plastic with brushes on, use these for the bottom of the doors if there is a draft coming through.........Homebase, B+Q etc etc - not that expensive.

Small tips, sorry I'm not sure of the other points you mention........others will.

SaveMoreMoney

I'm not sure how a combi-boiler actually works, but on my boiler, I run it to an absolute minimum so at the moment...............45 mins in the morning and 30 mins in the evening.

I moved it right down from probably double that - water is hot and I have a great shower in the morning !

calleyw

We have a year old condensing combi boiler. The heating has been off since about April/may time.

We use gas for heating, hotwater and cooking. And we have been using approx 5Kwh per month just on the cooker and heating water.

It is no way near enough cold to even think about about putting the heating on. Not sure where you are but we are on the southwest.

I even sleep with the bedroom window wide open. So it will still be another another month before I start to think about putting the heating on.

Our house does have some loft insulation and does have double glazing but no cavity insulation.

Get some of that plastic stuff to put on the windows rather than Double glazing. Do all the easy jobs like get thick heavy curtains to go on the inside of the back and front door. I even masked taped a backdoor up once and even the key hole and that helped to keep the draft out. But it meant if we needed to get out in an emergency we could. Key holes let lots of cold air in.


Savemoremoney a combi heats the water on demand so not hot water tank so no heating water you are not using.

You want to add £10k to the mortgage and pay it off over 24 years. Umm not a very clever idea.

Yours


Calley

Smashing

There's a huge saving money on gas and electricity thread in old style currently that might be of some help.

Honeybee_2

I'm sure that you can get cavity wall insulation free of charge if you're a homeowner.

My ex lives with his girlfriend, have a joint income of around 30K and they're getting theirs done free.

CLAPTON

loft insulation is fairly cheap and can easily be done as a DIY job... visit B&Q

putting heating on in summer is unnecaessary .. extra pullover instead

in winter reduce the time the heating .. say a hour in the morning and a few hours in the evening

dont heat all the rooms in your house ..only the ones in use.

get a quote for fitting a shower .. it may not be too expensive especially if you do your own tiling.

i'm sure you can solve the problem of the cellar yourself without spending much money

fitting cheap insulation around the doors helps a lot visit B&Q and dont forget the letter box and keyhole

thick curtains will reduce the heat loss.. it may be possible to put thick curtains by the doors too.

also start reading your meter weekly so you can track how much you are using.

double glazing is expensive.... wait until your debt free.

and victorian houses dont have cavities to put insulation in

fatbelly

Hi

Don't know if you're going to qualify but I thought Warm Front grants deserved a mention here.

There's a thread on another board at

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=185956

justruth

There was a thread on here earlier today, happy to open a bill, it was about someone else who tackled their gas bill debt which you might find interesting

Reya

I have gas central heating too, and my decision for this winter (after two enormous bills last year and early this year) was to limit the heating and water heater to one hour before I get up for work (at 4am, I need the chill taken off the house!) and one hour before I get home. I can then get all my housework done and keep warm doing that, then settle down in one room with the small portable halogen heater that I bought.

If you don't have children (who always seem to want to run all over the house!) and don't mind staying in one room for most of the time you're not working, then perhaps you could look into buying a small plug-in heater? I got mine from one of those factory clearance shops, for a grand total of £8. It's a halogen 400/800W two-bar heater with a safety button, so if it's knocked over or tilted it'll switch off. It costs 3p/hr to run on one bar and 6p/hr to run on two bars, and believe me, just fifteen minutes on two bars heats a decent sized room up for quite a while.

Also, if your kitchen leads into the living room, keep the kitchen door open when you're cooking dinner. Yes, your living room might acquire a faint food-pong, but the heat will filter through as well as the cooking smells!

Finally, if you live anywhere near a discount sports shop (such as the Donnay shop in Freeport, or Sports Soccer anywhere) then buy some fleecy tracksuit bottoms (warmer than jeans for lounging around in at home) and fleecy hoodies. These places sell tracksuit bottoms for both men and women from about £3 a pair and hoodies and fleecy cardigan/jackets from about £5. They also tend to be great for cheap thermal socks; something I wear a lot in the winter. I might shuffle about looking like the Fleece Monster with Furry Feet, but at least I'm snug