Put away your purse & become debt-averse

janb5

Hi Foxgloves..my bill was estimated to go up to £235 but gave a facility to modify it myself so I chose £175 pcm which is still a massive hike   I'm with Octopus.

Sun_Addict

I’m with 🐙 my deal has recently ended and I’ve had an estimated yearly amount sent which works out at £120 a month more than I’m paying now 😢 I’m still in credit by around £200 but still not had confirmation of the increased direct debit. I have one last payment at the cheaper rate to go out 1 April then from May not 100% sure what it will be.

foxgloves

Thanks @janb5 & @Sun_Addict, My next payment to the Tentacled Ones will go out on April 7th, so my thinking is that if this payment is to be a new increased dd amount, they probably need to give me at least some notice. We are currently £357 in credit on our account so I did think that as we are entering the less expensive summer months, they might hold off on our dd rise until nearer the Autumn. I've no idea though, as the letter was sent out on 10th March & said we'd be receiving revised dd amounts "in a few weeks time". I knew we were paying too much, hence the large credit balance. I'm sure it's because our old heating system is still affecting the usage algorithm despite our new central heating having been installed since Sept 2020. Anyway, I am going to hang fire on it & see what happens. I've worked through their projected figures but as they are for the year ahead, I think they must include the October rises too, as otherwise, I don't agree with the implied monthly amount we'd need to be paying. I've number crunched it & think more than about £183 (based on the information they've supplied) would be unacceptable. If I divide their projected annual figures by 12, it actually comes out at £211 pm, but as we are currently overpaying in comparison to our actual use, I would be minded to contest this atm (although come October, I think all bets are off!)
Anyway (honestly, everyone I talk to atm is talking about energy bills, it's going to be the way of things for a good while), I did sit down & set April's budget after all, this afternoon. I used our usual monthly dd amount for energy as I can only input the figures I have, but I have made sure to leave an additional £100 in my buffer zone just in case that nasty new dd amount does arrive in my inbox sooner rather than later. At least if it does, I'll be ready.
Mr F absolutely on board with my proposals to cut all energy wastage & agrees that all micro-measures add up over a year. However, I still think we are going to have a few conversations like this morning:
Me: Where are you?
Him: Upstairs.
Me: Well why are there 6 lights on in the kitchen then?
Him: Because I was just in there.
Me: But you're not now & you walked past the off switch on your way to the stairs.
Him: Anyway, I didn't leave on 6 lights in the kitchen because we only have 2. 
Me: Yes, & they both have 3 bulbs.
Him: Oh ok, you could count them like that.
So I said it would be worth his while to remember to switch off so he doesn't have to keep listening to me ear-holing him about it! I think I just feel very strongly that reducing usage is the only part of all this which is at least partly within our control. Clocks change this weekend, so the lighter evenings should reduce the need for a bit of electricity at least.
Off to put my plant babies to bed now,
F xx

Baileys_Babe

Our energy bill trials, feel free to ignore

Our timeline:
2018 - autumn 2021 existing supplier goes belly up
autumn 2021 - transferred to a new supplier (NS)
Oct, Nov, Dec 2021 - meter readings submitted, direct debit taken
Jan 2022 - meter reading submitted, NS fails to take dd
Feb 2022 - meter reading submitted, the first bill from NS - covered by payments already made, NS suggests reducing dd by 10% - we don't reduce dd 
March 2022 - meter reading submitted, 2nd bill finally arrives 18 days after date told to submit meter readings, NS decided not to accept one of our meter readings despite it being submitted when requested and instead have estimated the usage - in the region of 3 months use, email from NS regarding the rise in charges and suggest increasing dd by 22% this time, would have been 33% if we had followed their previous suggestion

I have looked at our usage March 2021 - March 2022 and used the latest figures to see what the cost for the year would be with similar usage, interestingly it would be 12 times the amount suggested Feb 2022, 10% less than now - obviously, this can not take into account changes to the price cap autumn 2022 but I am reluctant to increase the dd for what appears to be no better reason than lining their pockets and for the NS to be able to make some interest on our money.

My energy allowing, I am going to contact our new provider regarding not accepting 1 of our readings and then massively overestimating our usage, think I will use email.

Think I am going to put the difference between our current dd and the suggested new dd in a savings account and this way we can earn some interest and it is available when we need it, I need to discuss this with OH.

Baileys_Babe

What is it with failing to use a light switch when you leave a room?

Baileys_Babe

savingmore said:

baileys-babe.  i grew up with clay soil.   my dad worked tirelessly adding compost and i think lime to it.  eventually gave up. it was a good 1/3 acre plot.  backbreaking work.  however he chanced on growing strawberries and raspberries.  bingo.  they grew fabulously in clay.  have you tried them?  

Thanks for sharing @savingmore one of the few things we currently grow are raspberries, they seem to like it here, many years ago we also grew strawberries but I don't have a clue what I did but they have all died, I have not bothered replacing them as we enjoy raspberries more and the aim is to increase the varieties and quantity we grow to have a long fruiting season.

foxgloves

What a faff with your energy providers, @Baileys_Babe. I agree that they often overestimate household usage. It seems to take any changes ages to feed their way through their customer usage algorithm. As we have come through the winter with a credit balance of £358, how can that mean anything other than our supplier having over-estimated how much we use in a year. It's clear that our new central heating system (operational from Sept 2020) has reduced costs compared to the ancient storage heaters it replaced, but this hasn't been picked up in our supplier's estimations of our usage. I'm intending to monitor the situation closely.

Re your dead strawberries, this may not have been your fault. Strawberry plants tend to fruit well for about 3 years, after which the advice is to replace both the compost & the plants. This is usually done by potting up free runners so as to be ready with new plants. If your strawberry plants were growing in containers, another possibility for their demise would be the dreaded vine weevil..The larvae evade detection because they live in the soil but they are very destructive, gobbling up the roots until the plants are just leaves sitting on the surface, so they die. In my garden, vine weevil are most likely to attack container-grown heucherellas primulas & strawberries.
F

QueenJess

I never really understood why energy companies try to automatically put you on the silly fixed amount DD system. I am perfectly capable of doing my own budgeting and I hate that they always keep my cash by purposely over estimating my usage. I always pay by variable DD so I only pay for what I use every month. It is always available, but they make you ring up and ask.

I also have clay soil which is a bit variable in the garden with some places heavier than others. It’s generally ok though at the top and only a problem if you try to dig a big hole as it’s impossible. I got the garden done ages ago where they levelled the main bit of the garden and then we put compost on all the top bit of the borders. I still cannot garden in the summer as the spade rebounds as if you are trying to dig into concrete! Apparently the soil is quite rich in nutrients and I find most things grow there. The heaviest clay bit houses the redcurrant bush (I had a terrible time planting that one and digging a hole big enough!) and it has gone completely mental - it is about 6” high by 5” wide (apparently its not even supposed to get that tall). Strawberries were fine too, but I pulled them out into pots because I got sick of them sprouting babies in silly places like the lawn and I can control them better this way.

Sounds like your soil might be a lot worse though @Baileys_Babe ? I asked at the local garden centre for tips and they even had a map of soil in the area so they knew what my soil was! They could then advise what types of plants could work for me. I leave all the stones in the soil for drainage (my mum used to always take them out, but she had sandy soil).

You can also browse the RHS plant shop online and filter for heavy clay soil to see what they say should grow there too.

Baileys_Babe

Morning @foxgloves thanks for the information about vine weevil. Our strawberries were in pots and I had increased our number of plants by potting up the runners, so at least I did something right.

Crazycatlady2

Been very interesting to hear thoughts on the gas and electricity situation. From reading on some social media groups it’s apparent that a lot of people don’t keep such a close eye on it. I’ve seen people think a fixed monthly DD means they can use as much as they like same as when you get unlimited minutes on a mobile phone tarriff for example. I’ve seen some people who admit they have never read meter or even know what tarriff they are on. 

I’m dreading the rise as we are high users of electric with 5 of us and home a lot and teens/hubby using pcs/Xbox’s. I’m doing what I can though including stopped using dishwasher, got a one cup kettle and luckily wether been dry so can peg out rather than run tumble dryer