Just got my power bill - was up 65% for the month

Has anyone got their's yet for the month of November? My jaw just dropped to the floor, I couldn't believe it. By far the biggest power bill ever here and this is one frugal household here and we get a medical discount as well.

How much more of this crap are we the people going to take?

Your recent findings - please share so I won't feel alone while being screwed to the wall.

It is true, no one cares about the American people anymore, especially *Co.
:(

Merry Xmas huh? :grr:

Edited for spelling.

it was recently mentioned on one of the money shows that there would be an apparent good start to the xmas shopping season, but that it would come to a screeching halt as soon as the population began receiving their first energy bills of the season the first of December.

By your response, I gather they are right! My bill will be here today or tomorrow, I decided to wait and shop after it arrives, just in case.

I pay it online and I have to wait for it to show up (couple of weeks?). I'm sure when others around where I live (a rural area with very high unemployment) will have a fit.

I live in a very small house and the bill was $18.00 when I moved in during the summer months. Useage, likely the same.

Last winter the highest it ever got was $55.00.

This new one - $80.00. :(

Just wait - no more Xmas "cheer" around here soon!

:grr:

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

start with the White House, call your power company, your local reps, your Congressman, and your Senator. Then write a letter to the paper.

COMPLAIN.

as soon as I get the god damn actual bill which they have tried everything to keep me from getting (go paperless!). I've opted not to do this - go paperless so I'll have to wait for the breakdown but it tends to be the same always. No big changes around here.

I can't use "less" do the the medical problem. :(

Nice huh? Kill of the sick that need the extra therms and charge them more anyway, what the hell.

I'm in northern California btw.

:kick:

The reply was that the bill was for 33 days, thus a partial reason for the big bill. Still the same, I found out I am not using any more nor much less than last year when the bill was about $50 a month.

They said the reason for the price increase is because of the cost of natural gas going up so much.

As for me and my "medical discount" (HA!!!), etc. - it doesn't fall into the picture because I consume less therms of gas and electricity to go above baseline usage so I am getting no real benefit from the medical "discount".

Pretty pathetic I'd say and I'll still pissed and will continue to be pissed until things in our America change. The sooner, the better too!!!! :grr:

The bill was $47 last month, $74 this month. Nice job they have done there of switching the #'s around huh? *sigh*

:kick: anyway ... :(

Was there an increase in usage?

same as last year give or take a small bit. No change.

Nothing.

on the heat but this weekend the nights will be getting down into the high 20's so that bill will go up next month. But i did get my gas bill, now the only gas things in my house are the fireplace---i haven't used it, the water heater and the stove---barely used at all:D becasue i try and cook things in the toaster oven. So my gas bill went up 50% from last month and the month before that and nothing has changed.

Milder weather than usual here, but it'll turn.

and it has been freezing here, that is right, FREEZING.

:kick:

that's only because I haven't turned on my heat. I've sacrificed heat so I can continue to pay my rent and put food on the table.

And the missus was :grr: !

Any of you DUers on Long Island, how's your LIPA bill these days?

November is our "settlement" month, and I ended up with a credit balance, yet they are raising my monthly pay amount from $45 to $87. This is for gas.. We have gas furnace, water heater, range, dryer, so we are stuck with what they charge. I always pay $75 even though the bills are nowhere near that high, because in November, they usually "settle, and then revise my monthly pay downward and mail me my refund check.. I guess this time around they just want more and more money..:shrug:

Our house has OIL heat, which went up, then slightly down, then up again.

We use bottled GAS strictly for cooking.

We use electricity for the clothes dryer and everything else.

We just switched from well water to municipal water this summer (at least we have water pressure now).

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ !

I was on a well too for 10 years. The water coming out of it was contaminated and people were getting sick. I was really glad when I got out of that place with the SCUMLORD in charge. He was a rich bastid and I'll never forget him coming around on Xmas eve asking for the rent early for January being he had lost money in the stock market. Poor baby. What a prick!

I filter the municipal water I have now with a water filtering system being I don't trust the water now either.

My god what a mess this country is in. Everything, and I mean everything, seems to be contaminated. If it is not contaminated, it costs an arm and a leg it seems to me.

:kick:

Our Gas and Electricity bill (Public Service Company of NM combines them into one bill) went up very little, from $120.00+- to about $150.00, however our govenor Bill Richardson made good on the commitment for utility relief refund checks, my girlfriend at the same address each got our rebate checks about a month ago mine was $270.00 hers was $140.00

Richardson promised relief rebate utility checks for the winter and damned if he didn't pull through with them.

Billing Period 10/18 - 11/07:

1 Yr. Ago $66.28 Cost per Day 2.45

This Mth $125.07 Cost per Day 3.90

Its been a lot colder here in northern Illinois this year compared to last year.

Don

Oct. 2004
18 73 61
19 68 61
20 71 60
21 74 59
22 73 61
23 70 56
24 74 59
25 78 57
26 79 57
27 81 61
28 78 66
29 75 65
30 79 66
31 82 64
Oct. 2005
18 81 51
19 83 61
20 83 64
21 80 62
22 67 49
23 70 45
24 56 42
25 54 40
26 61 37
27 63 41
28 62 39
29 64 39
30 69 42
31 70 43
Nov. 2004
1 80 62
2 77 67
3 74 69
4 73 54
5 63 46
6 68 41
7 74 47
Nov. 2005
1 72 50
2 71 49
3 72 46
4 75 52
5 74 55
6 75 58
7 79 58

I was so pissed when I opened it, I made my hubby pay it, just so I wouldn't have to deal with it. This is the first time my electric bill was higher than my mortgage, it just makes me sick to even think about it.

I got 2 bills last month as they switched from summer to winter rates-first time they've done that. AND this is a 60% jump AFTER I had a new highly efficient boiler put in to replace my circa 1950 one! (I have natural gas, btw)
I made the mistake of thinking that I could turn it up to 68 degrees-now it's back to 60-62 degrees and I've bought some more throws. This is going to be a cold winter and I'm keeping good thoughts for everyone that we get thru it ok.
Good thing I didn't go for the gas fire log, too!

Should help to keep the energy costs down.

Where I live, wood is going for about $300 a cord these days. Where I lived before (about 10 miles north) I would burn a cord a month easily as the place I was renting from a SCUMLORD was poorly insulated and had electric heat.

The bill was over $200 a month and that was 5 years ago.

I'd hate to think what it would be today with the cost of wood going up so much.

Central California is full of orchards, so there's a good supply of seasoned wood available as the orchards are ripped out for development or replacement with newer trees. I just bought a cord of walnut for $125, and my new multi-phase woodstove will take all winter to go through that (the new stoves can burn a single log for 6-8 hours).

and it sounds like you must live in a place that is insulated. As I mentioned, the place I lived in had almost no insulation at all so it was like watching money burn in the stove being you need a cord a month (sometimes more) in the wintertime.

The new stove you have sounds great and I am glad to know this will be easy enough for you to deal with this winter financially.


I'm glad it won't be affecting you too much! That is good news for you anyway. :)

:kick:

into the Shenandoah Valley, I picked up 2 cords for $80.

One suggestion for finding cheap wood in an urban area is to look for free pallets. Many companies are looking to get rid of broken ones.

I live on the 3rd floor of an apartment complex. It's gotten down to the 30s at night, but the apartment stays pretty warm without using the heater (in the low 70s).

If I do turn it on, it's just to warm it up a bit, maybe 5-25 minutes, but it holds the heat.

If it gets too warm, I'll just crack a window for a while to cool it off.

I'm just lucky. :)

tenament in Boston. That was good. The heat from downstairs radiated up, and the upstairs apartment capped our place. Floors 1 and 3 were always complaining about the heat and cost, but we were always snug and at the low-end of the cost scale.

But that was a leaky old sieve of a building -- not what one needs or wants in these times.

Off with the Grid !!!

Thank God I don't use those bastards.:mad:
They turned her electricity off and she has small children and is unmarried.(She was 2 weeks past due on a one month bill and had called to make arrangements but they refused.)
They came to the door at 4:30 in the afternoon on the evening it was supposed to reach 24 degrees that night--temp was falling as he turned it off.
She begged him to leave it on because she had small children. He laughed at her and told her to pay her bill and she wouldn't have to go through this. She called him a heartless asshole. After 2 pm, they won't cut your electricity back on--so when the bastard cut it off, it was done knowing she wouldn't be able to get it back on that night that it was so cold.
A friend called in a phone check for her bill that night.
They told her it would probably be back on the next morning--however, it could take up to 48 hours.
She swears she saw that bastard drive by her house slowly THREE times the next day...but he never turned on her electricity.
Then finally almost 2 days later...they turned it back on late in the afternoon...with that asshole knowing she had small kids.
I was furious for her. I called the Public Utility Commission about it on her behalf.
They told me that in Texas, it is legal to turn off electricity when the bill is past due.
Even one month past due.
I asked about extreme temperatures and children and the elderly...and they told me that "as long as the temperature has NOT been extreme for 36 consecutive hours" they could turn it off at any time.
Even when it is below freezing...just as long as it is done before it has been below freezing for 36 hours.
I couldn't believe it...I lost my temper with the lady and told her that I thought the PUC was there to protect the consumer from the corporation...however, it seemed to me that they protected the corporation from the consumer and just enabled them to screw the consumers.
Welcome to Texas...be careful that your state doesn't do this.