Prosperous soul embraces creativity & mortgage neutrality

Sunshine_girl2

Glad to hear the credit has turned up SH , and fingers crossed BG get you sorted very soon so you can start budgeting correctly for your energy . 

Great hearing how you are doing with different aspects of your life all sounding good . 

savingholmes

Thanks @badmemory @Alchemilla @MovingForwards @lucielle @Tahlullah.H @StripeyTightsSpottySocks @Sunshine_girl2
 I was on £123 pcm then it went to £160 - I'm worried my real figure may now be £200 - if that is the case that would put me at upto £300 pcm post April. Really scary figures. Let's hope they are not as bad as I fear when the final bill comes - and the steps I've taken to reduce heating work. I was expecting my costs to go down as less occupants - but until they catch up on the bills who knows? At this rate - it may also be cheaper to go back into the office more as at home my water is also metered.

I keep having to remind myself - that I have an EF. In a worst case scenario I could take in lodgers or do bnb. I am pushing for a upgrade though and it's looking positive - so that could help keep me level. It's unlikely to do more than that - I want to say until energy prices drop. But will they? The govt have under-invested in power for years - and now we are reaping that... They can't magic up new sources of energy overnight... Perhaps I should look into solar - but I don't think my house is positioned right to get that much benefit... Right best go and do my day job... See you all later. 

Tahlullah.H

You are right Savings.  It might be cheaper to go to the office than stay at home running up the heating bills - assuming your office is close, so you don't lose the savings in the cost of fuel in the car.

It's good that you still have your emergency fund in place.  Again, thinking of others, how many people spent their EF paying for upgrades on their home last year in the midst of the pandemic, with no clue as to what was round the corner. 

Truly frightening that we know that there will be people with no money to fall back on.  There is no easy way out of this chaos.

EssexHebridean

There's a lot of frightening numbers being bandied around with the energy thing - we're seeing it a huge amount on the energy boards but a lot of the time it is just figures in pounds and pence that have no actual bearing on what anyone else will be paying. The 54% increase is at least "fairly" simple for most people to work out - if they are currently paying a £70 a month DD then it's going to go up to "around" £110 most likely - but a lot of folk will be able to mitigate some of that with savings made on use.  Everyone will also get the £200 of course as well later in the year, and many on here will also benefit from £150 off their council tax although it would be strongly advised if that is paid (as I suspect it will be) via a reduction in the monthly amount (rather than by cutting the first payment/as much as needed of the second) to put each month's saving straight away into a savings account ready to use to top up the energy accounts when needed - otherwise it will get frittered... To put into context though - that £350 coming from those means would cover all bar £11 per month of that monthly increase to £110. 

Personally I think the most important thing most folk can do right now is to try not to panic - or BE panicked -  really plan ahead - assume that the 20% increase in October is likely to happen, go through everything at home to see where savings might be able to be made, make sure that the council tax saving is sent to where it needs to go. Allocate savings from any other areas that can be haggled down straight to savings to help with setting aside against future energy bills. Plan assuming that the worst will happen and if it does you're as prepared as you can be - if it doesn't - happy days! 

So far this winter we've used a LOT less power than in previous years - without massively trying. Yes, so far this one has been mild - we can only hope that continues - but still, right now, we're in credit on our bill, which is a surprise bearing in mind we only went to our current supplier in September. 

badmemory

To me I think the secret is to be aware.  If you know what is happening then you don't get taken by surprise & can deal with it before it becomes a problem.  If you don't know what is going on then you can land up with the proverbial hitting the fan.  As I have said before knowledge is power, all knowledge.

Sunshine_girl2

Think I saw the £150 is just being paid into your bank where your direct debit comes out off . It's was on the MSE pages a couple of days ago , unless it's changed . 

Chrystal

Sunshine_girl2 said:

Think I saw the £150 is just being paid into your bank where your direct debit comes out off . It's was on the MSE pages a couple of days ago , unless it's changed . 

I saw that, but maybe it's down to the individual Councils?

savingholmes

Thanks all.

I rang BG again today. Slight bit of good news - the bill that was generated yesterday was split between standing charge and usage. My usage for 21 days was around £50 - the remaining £26+ was standing charges going back to September - rather than what I'd used since 20/1/22 as was originally implied... They also are going back to the date PE went bust - but I hadn't yet joined PE at that date as I was in the process of switching but hadn't yet been switched and I was billed by G up to a later date in September. I have therefore put in yet another complaint... Someone will call me back. The email issue has in theory been referred for resolution too and should be resolved within 3 days... Perhaps my earmarked £400 for the time between bills will be sufficient after all... and the on-going impact will be less.

Saturday I should get my first gas bill since the end of September - from Sh311. Really hoping that is positive.

Alchemilla

Well done for tackling the gas bill xxx

Drawingaline

We got our first bill from sh3ll, higher than I would have liked, but the gas part was ok, it's the electric that is ridiculous. And that is mainly the girl and her THREE electric radiators in her room 😱 she has the garage conversion that has no radiators and has always felt the cold. I am firmly expecting this to drop when she goes to uni in September 😁😂

They wanted to put my DD up to £200, but I would prefer to keep it at what it is now and make one off card payments when I want to. Makes me feel more in control. Will see how it goes.