HELP -Just got £451 joint gas and elec bill!!!

backtomum

Oh god just received this today. I didn't realise but in November I got an estimated bill - that one was £254 - bad enough.

Anyway need to raise £100 this week. Need to cut back on everything really. If anyone has any good money saving ideas please let me know. I suppose I can use my tokens from points raised towards shopping. Has anyone got any ideas for very cheap teas? Five of us to feed.

angelavdavis

OK, sit down and have a cuppa. Feeling calmer?

Right, now you need to check the bill. Was this one after a reading? Is it definitely correct?

Sit down and list out your outgoings using an SOA format (or post a link if you already have one posted on the forum somewhere). The good folk on here will offer advice on where you could cut back.

Is it possible to phone the energy company and offer to pay the bill over a longer period?

Take a look at the Old Style forum for cheap recipe ideas (meals for 50p, etc), storecupboard challenge (where you use up your cupboard contents instead of shopping). List out all the contents of your cupboards, fridge, freezer and post onto the forum and people will suggest meals you can make out of the ingredients. Meal planning will help you lower your outgoings

Do you have a slow cooker? If not, sign up to freecycle and ask for one - You could use this to cook a meal for the cost of running a lightbulb. This will get costs down.

Ensure all your appliances are switched right off - not left on standby.

Get the kids on board switching off lights and appliances in rooms when they leave. Make it a bit of a game, get them to keep a tally on a piece of paper on the fridge of the meter readings and see if they can get the reading down to the lowest possible point.

Now, onto possible income streams. Do you have anything you could eBay?

earwig

yes that is a big bill but the gas companys and electric companys should be able you to spread the cost over a period of time usaly over three moneys as said go over to the old style board they will help you get your food bill down so you can free up money from there to add to your bill

AndyR_3

backtomum wrote:

Anyway need to raise £100 this week. Need to cut back on everything really. If anyone has any good money saving ideas please let me know. I suppose I can use my tokens from points raised towards shopping. Has anyone got any ideas for very cheap teas? Five of us to feed.

Go shopping just before the store closes and look at what's reduced to clear. See if they have any fresh items you can freeze. My local ASDA occasionally sell bread rolls 5p for 12. With a cheap packet of ham or cheese or whatever's on offer, that's my lunch sorted for the week. Only buy what you can use though, otherwise it's not a saving.

If you don't already, use your local Netto/Aldi/Lidl for bargins, their stuff is much cheaper.

warburtonrichard

Hi
I used to work for an energy company, so I know some of the rules....
If you've received bills that are higher than expected and this is due to previously estimated readings, the energy company should not push you to make payment of the bill in any faster time than it took to run up the bill.

If you were estimated last time @ £250.00 and this time your actual bill has come in £200 higher, they should offer for you to split the extra over 6 months (£35 a month or so).

Play nicely, ask to pay the bill off over 6 months and offer an amount you can afford over and above your normal monthly usage and they won't refuse. If you are talking to a stropster of some kind, complain bitterly about being underestimated and threaten to go to energywatch, who on this one, would always side with you.

That normally calms things down and you should get what you want, and if not, Energywatch will make them have it. (https://www.energywatch.org.uk)

warburtonrichard

Oh, forgot to say, PM me if you get stuck. Utility companies can be royal pains in the proverbial about estimated bills.

Storm

Definitely recommend the store cupboard challenge on the OS board - and remember that a tin of baked beans does wonders for filling people up (add worcestor sauce, chilli sauce etc to give a diff flavour if you're eating a lot of them!)

I don't know what your expenditure on food etc is normally like, but cut out anything that isn't absolutely essential, so no bought-in drinks (water is healthier anyway), try making flapjacks instead of buying cakes & biscuits (and use the rest of the oats for porridge), if there's anything you don't buy the absolute cheapest version of normally, make sure you switch etc.

How about having a change hunt around the house (involve the kids in it too) add up all the coppers, 5ps, 10ps etc, bag them up and take them to the bank - I came out with nearly £15 when I did this a while ago!

maralum

Don't forget either, as soon as you've cleared this, go through quidco to uswitch and see if you can get a cheaper quote for your gas and electric. You never know. Npower were charging me £44 a month for my gas, but atlantic now charge me £35 for the same usage. Go figure.

ktb

sorry to hear about your shocking bill backtomum....obviously this doesnt help you right now but we suddenly got a £300 bill last October and since then I have phone in with a meter reading on the 1st of every month! I refuse to be caught out like that again!!

backtomum

Thank you to everyone for all of your help and advice. I've calmed down a bit now. I will get in touch with the utility company and try to spread it out a bit and I'll have a look at uswitch to see if I can get a cheaper provider - with n-power at the moment. I will definitely try to cut my shopping bill this week and maybe put a few bits on e-bay. It just shows how you can get caught out. Of course with Christmas and 3 daughters' birthdays in January and February I haven't been putting as much away as I normally would for the bills. I'll definitely learn from this though. It is so hard trying to keep your head above water these days - everyone at work is the same! Once again thank you all.