Help please as I’m panicking

Rosa_Damascena

Floss said:

Also, sit down with a cuppa, a pen & paper & your phone and go through your monthly usage for the last year on the Octopus app. Write down gas & electricity KWh used for each month and add them up so you can then work out your costs using the variable rates + 365 days of standing charges for both gas & electricity. 

My view is that even after this exercise the OPs fuel bills will be unaffordable.

OP - contact your MP and show him this thread. This is the reality for millions of people in this country but they need to see first hand just how much human misery it is causing.

The_Fat_Controller

I would start by rehoming the fish.

You have the cat to keep you company.

[Deleted User]

Energy companies are over estimating future bills therefore pushing the cost of direct debits up to unreasonable amounts to their customers. My fixed tarrif ended 31/3/22, I was paying £57 a month, edf bumped that price to £129 a month!!  ( the price difference is a weeks food bill for me and my cat!) I contacted edf and said the cost is unreasonable and they dropped the d/d down to £101. During the last week of March I cut down on my electricity usage by a good third, storage heaters down a notch and immersion heater off and only put on for 1-2 hours when I get up in the mornings to give me enough hot water to use during the day. I contacted edf again and told them Im using less electricity and they lowered my d/d to £81 from May . Hopefully by the end of this month my storage heaters can go off through the summer.
 Im hoping that this will cover my bill until it goes up again in October.

Flugelhorn

it is incredibly difficult when you suddenly get a rise like that  the one thing I would be questioning is the cost of fish maintenance - aren't these things on 24/7?  how much do they cost to run?

Mstty

@Toomuchdebt

Good morning, I hope you got some sleep and some good news the warmer weather seems to start tomorrow🤞

Without your actual kWh usage on Elec and Gas usage for the past year on your previous fixed deal the below is a rough estimate.

If you just let you current fixed rate end it will fall to the standard variable rate protected by the capped rates

Based on the average capped rates you should realistically budget for £240 a month but if you can supply exact kWh usage figures that will help put together the exact yearly cost.

Please remember there is also a £150 council tax rebate for people living in band A-D including renters. If you don't pay by direct debit you may have to claim this manually. 

Additionally you do sound like someone that could claim from the 500million sent to councils from the government for a hardship fund. Details of this are not available as yet but please bear this in mind and check with your local council what the criteria is when they are ready for applications.

In October there is also a further £200 that will be knocked off your October bill  however this coincides with another potential price rise of 30% and will just soften the blow for the upcoming winter months and it's a loan that we all start paying back in April 2023 at approx £4 a month.

When you can call Octopus and see what initiatives they have for helping people and a hardship fund as well.

EssexHebridean

The unhelpful comment from earlier in the thread has been reported. The OP goes out of their way to explain the reason for the multiple postings so the spiteful post is completely uncalled for. 

OP - I hope you had a better night’s sleep and now feel at least a little reassured.  The most important thing right now is for you to work out where you stand with the debts - and the Debt free wannabe board is the best place for that. I’d suggest you put together your SOA (Statement of Affairs) and post that over on DFW then we can take a look and see what we can suggest. As you’ve discovered, burying your head in the sand just leads to more stress, so I’d really suggest that as you have made a start on facing up to the situation you try to take that momentum to continue sorting things out. Remember - everything can be fixed one way or another. 

Tranboy

I can't help but notice the two separate threads have now been merged into one.

The current humidity level in my house is 55%, if I run a bath or shower it may creep up to near 60%. I can't help but suggest that many hundreds of litres of expensively heated water in multiple fish tanks will be the direct cause of the black mould where the water condenses onto a colder surface. I have seen tenancy agreements in the past that stipulate there to be no drying of clothes indoors or furniture placed against outside walls as this can encourage black mould. A person I worked with a few years back asked me why her electricity bill was so high, eventually we found it to be a 400 watt pond pump in the back garden running 24/7. Aside from heating air or water, a low efficiency fridge / freezer can be an expensive consumer of electricity on a daily basis so an A++++ device can pay for itself over time as can heating or cooking food with a microwave and not the oven.

markin

Toomuchdebt said:

otb666 said:

agree you can get free insulation even in rented 
https://www.eoninstall.com/affordable-warmth/affordable-warmth-landing.html

I tried but it only gave me these 2 options and I don’t need either of those 

Did you scroll down? The back button could make me think its the bottom but the is a scroll bar.

If the really is 0 insulation it could be a quick payback time if you can get someone you know or the kids are old enough to do it.

Around £300 for better than nothing. Only 100mm deep rather than 270mm

https://www.diy.com/departments/diall-insulation-roll-l-6m-w-0-37m-t-100mm/3663602481812_BQ.prd

https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/advice/roof-and-loft-insulation/

Mstty

Deleted_User said:

Energy companies are over estimating future bills therefore pushing the cost of direct debits up to unreasonable amounts to their customers. My fixed tarrif ended 31/3/22, I was paying £57 a month, edf bumped that price to £129 a month!!  ( the price difference is a weeks food bill for me and my cat!) I contacted edf and said the cost is unreasonable and they dropped the d/d down to £101. During the last week of March I cut down on my electricity usage by a good third, storage heaters down a notch and immersion heater off and only put on for 1-2 hours when I get up in the mornings to give me enough hot water to use during the day. I contacted edf again and told them Im using less electricity and they lowered my d/d to £81 from May . Hopefully by the end of this month my storage heaters can go off through the summer.
 Im hoping that this will cover my bill until it goes up again in October.

In this instance I think EDF are preparing you by creating a credit buffer for when energy prices go up by between 25-35% in October 2022. Badly coinciding when we all use more energy.

It's good that you have control and know what you are doing to cut energy usage now but also consider the ramp up in costs in October and what you will need to find then to pay the DD.

Also not forgetting you hopefully qualify for the £150 council tax rebate for energy (put that somewhere safe for October) and the £200 taken off your energy bill in Oct 2022 which is unfortunately a loan that everyone will have to start laying back in Apr 2023 at approx £4 a month.

ZolaBuddy

Dropping to the price capped SVR is probably the best solution as a short term measure. Let your fixed expire and do nothing. and you'll them drop to their SVR

It will still cost more, even in the summer months relative to previous years' usage, but it will be cheaper than either of those fixed. Plus it gives you a few months to budget in time for October's expected price cap rise.

But between the time your fixed expires and October you can look at other providers and see what fixed deals they offer. They will be expensive of course, but not as much as what you're currently been offered.

Good luck to you.