Gas and electric bill

[Guest]

My advice, for what it is worth is to make yourself a cuppa (or save that electric on boiling the kettle and pour yourself a G&T instead) and sit down for 20mins to work out your own situation when it comes to Gas & Electric.

It is not particularly exciting and so we can often put off jobs like this, but the price rises are coming in October (and again in Jan), so try not to bury your head in the sand, but take control instead and work out what is going to happen.

The latest estimates are that the prices will be as follows:

October cap:
Gas
Daily standing charge: 27p
Unit charge per kwh: 14p

Electric
Daily standing charge: 40p
Unit charge per kwh: 44p

The above prices are not exact, since things vary across the country but it gives you a solid idea of how much you are likely to have to pay.

Dig out your bills and work out your typical annual usage (ideally based on meter readings and not estimates) and then work out how much it is going to cost you per year.

As a head start the yearly standing charges from Oct on the capped rates will be:
Gas: £98.55
Elec: £146

Once you have an idea of your yearly cost, take off the £400 government grant and divide what is left by 12, then you have your monthly cost. It is likely to be scary, but at least you know it.

We also have a couple of months before Oct, so if you can start to put some extra cash aside now, go for it. And if you can start reducing energy usage now to get in the habit before the rises come then great.

In terms of reducing usage, if you need to set your hot water on a timer, reduce it by 5 mins every day until you get the point that you don't have enough and stop. That way you can work out exactly how long to have the hot water on each day and you don't waste any money heating water unnecessarily.

[skalexander]

Originally Posted by jenna288

Ah okay maybe that's it. I'm probably battling the rising prices as well as underestimated usage 😔

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I did the same thing in March - got a meter reading card, forgot to send the reading in, got an estimated bill without realising and my June bill was a whopper. Its easily done.

[SgtElias]

It just seems to have been a few years of crapness (best word I could think of to describe it) we had the Brexit vote then all the shenanigans to try and change / delay it, no sooner got that sorted then Covid appeared with all its joys, then straight into this cost of living crisis, which looks like it’s going to go on and on.

[amberspy]

Does anyone know
How £400 help for government gets applied
As my elderly mother in law
Doesn’t pay by Direct debit she pays just pays online every 28 days after meter reading so how will this effect her

[Gelatoni]

Originally Posted by amberspy

Does anyone know
How £400 help for government gets applied
As my elderly mother in law
Doesn’t pay by Direct debit she pays just pays online every 28 days after meter reading so how will this effect her

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It's spread over 6 months.

It's a pittance really compared to the actual increase.

[JudyC]

I'm pleased our smart metre reading is £118 for July , that's for combined gas and electric. Our direct debit is presently set at £180 per months so hopefully a credit should build up for the winter month's.
Having said that I've just paid £150 for a load of hard and soft wood logs for our wood burner . It was £120 last year , so that's gone a a fair bit. Still need kindling and firelighters we probably spend about £50 on for the autumn and winter

[Guest]

Originally Posted by amberspy

Does anyone know
How £400 help for government gets applied
As my elderly mother in law
Doesn’t pay by Direct debit she pays just pays online every 28 days after meter reading so how will this effect her

See more...

A credit of £67 a month will be applied to her account for 6 months from October.

In terms of her being able to save some more money, have you considered setting up a variable direct debit? This means that you still pay what you owe each month but you benefit from the roughly 7% reduction in cost that comes from paying by direct debit versus any other payment method.

Basically the meter readings go in each month, the energy company generates the bill and then takes the full payment by direct debit around 14 days later. So there is still full visibility of the amount and plenty of time to cancel it should there be any issues (which is unlikely, but I know some people don't care for DD because they feel they don't have control).

[MK_club1987]

The whole cost of living in general is just crippling, to the point where there is not much point to life anymore, I am basically working to live the most basic life, I can never afford to do anything nice, holiday? ha, probably never going to happen again, I live from month to month basically just about being able to afford to live and eat, god knows what it's going to be like in the winter when I need to actually put heating.

It's depressing to be honest, what a way to live your life eh.

[hvasey]

As far as I know, the £400 will be applied to your electricity account ( as everyone has electricity), over 6 months so £66.66 a month. I imagine it’s going to be chaos, like everything else the Government brings in. It would be far easier and less costly to simply force the power companies to reduce their prices like they’ve done in France.

[hvasey]

Originally Posted by JudyC

I'm pleased our smart metre reading is £118 for July , that's for combined gas and electric. Our direct debit is presently set at £180 per months so hopefully a credit should build up for the winter month's.
Having said that I've just paid £150 for a load of hard and soft wood logs for our wood burner . It was £120 last year , so that's gone a a fair bit. Still need kindling and firelighters we probably spend about £50 on for the autumn and winter

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I would add on an extra £100
a month for the winter, it’s likely that the price cap will rise by 80% come October.
Work out your bills at 50p per kwh for electric and 15p for Gas and you will see how massively they rise!