Who just about passed out when they got their utility bill this month?

I just got mine last night and I have to say despite walking around freezing in my own home last month because I refused to turn the heat up past 62 EVEN in below zero weather my bill is $260!

I have been ill and off work since July. Currently, I am NOT eligible for disability because I MAY recover. Husband is only making $15 dollars an hour but due to my added income from when I was working we DO NOT qualify for energy assistance. WE are ALREADY at our limits as far as money is concerned and from what I can tell my freaking utility bill will have us attempting to sell our house within a couple of months...and yes I realize I am still paying for internet service and I should consider cutting it off but that bill isn't even going to touch my utility bill!

Big money is gouging us right out of our home. We've been here for 12 years! Is this the BCF plan?!?!

I'm not supposed to stress myself out but I don't know how that is possible under these circumstances. Medical bills are piling up as it is and I still don't have any answers as to why my body is collapsing in itself!

Sorry about the :rant:

heeaaatttt offfff a a and ittttt issss jusssttt a llitttle cooolld in the houuuuse this winter.
Kind of harrrdddd typpping with theesses mitttens on tooooo..


BBBRRRRRRRRRRr!

This is rough on people...real rough.

...to help. In some cases, you may have to wait until they send the debt to a collection agency, who will work with you. In fact, collection agencies will often do things like stop interest, late fees and possibly reduce the total amount you owe if you contact them and explain your situation. It's not an ideal situation, but if you're already screwed and unsure of what to do next, this will help you feel as though you've accomplished something rather than just sitting around for the axe to fall.

Other than college bills (too long a story to explain here.)and a mortgage, we currently owe no one. WE have been using up our savings to pay off those medical bills and make up for my lost income. WE have just about exhausted that route. WE have always tried to live off the cash we had.

As far as I know there is no way to defer college payments other than to go back to college and I know you can't work out a payment plan lower than what you've got with regard to a mortgage.

Too bad they don't have family debtor's prison because at least around here you can't even rent for less than our mortgage payment. At least in debtor's prison we would have food and a roof!

I know it isn't really this bad. I DO have parents I could move in with, but I NEVER thought I would be saying that.:cry:

Is your house big enough to rent out a room or two? With the housing market as bad as it is, a bunch of people are going to be looking for cheaper alternatives. I know it's a hassle, but if you get the right renter, it could be just what you need.

a room from people with 2 kids, two elderly dogs, no $ for heat, and a smoker in the house. People around here aren't quite that desperate yet. I don't think anyway.

I could only rent out one room, if I moved my son and daughter into the same room. A renter would have to share a bathroom with 2 messy teenagers. I'm not sure we have a big enough hot water heater to provide bathing to anyone else. I guess that sounds like a deal to some people but I'm clueless where to find them.

I have noticed a lot of people trying to do this in the paper, but most of them offer use of jacuzzi's and lots of other niceties that we would never have been able to afford.

They may not be able to contribute financially but they can reduce your stress by cleaning up after themselves.

Get some young dogs. The old ones just don't heat the bed the way younger ones would.;)


On a serious note, I hope you find some way to squeeze through the winter OK.

Call your loan guarantor, they will work it out for you. I'm not sure about the exact length of time, it had to be at least 6 months if not a year. Luckily, I haven't had to use it for awhile, but I know they will defer for you if you have financial hardship.

They only defer for six months at a time but we deferred four times.
Of course this was in 1992. I'm not sure what the rules are now,but it can't hurt to ask.

other reasons also. You should call your lender asap. Good luck.

and get another doctor to evaluate your disability.

I have 5 doctors looking into my medical problems and am likely to need at least one more. It's a very long story needless to say.

Of course it doesn't help that the doctors are sending me back and forth to each other for tests and opinions because "it isn't their specialty." It has been frustrating as hell for both me and my family.

Just ask. They do it all the time.

And we have not had a lot of cold weather yet.

I feel your pain.

and we had it on a timer so it was only on during a couple of hours in the morning and the hours from suppertime to bedtime. We live in an 8-year-old house that is energy efficient so it is not an insulation problem. I survived the afternoons with a hot water bottle and a space heater and it is still that high. People are literally going to freeze to death this winter.

when it was built. A lot of builders leave it off to put more money in their pocket.

But who knows.

Sounds like gouging. :(

I know you are not far away. You must not heat with gas, huh?

We surrendered our house in a Chapter 13. Medical bills sent us over the edge. I knew from reading DU that gas bills were going to go thru the roof. So...now we rent. We managed to find an all electric 70's ranch with a basement that has a place for a wood stove. Nothing like going from 2500 sq feet of living space, plus a garage, to 1000 sq feet plus an unfinished basement.
Life's been interesting.:)

I remember you had surgery and I am sorry I have not been better about keeping up with you. I hope everything is okay now??

Our electric bill was $77 so it's still reasonable, like last year.

I'm fine now. :hi: I'm hoping our electric doesn't get out of hand this year.
We're saving up for a wood stove for next winter.

:toast:

:hi:

I was surprised because I set the thermostat on 64. Now it's down to 60.

88 dollars.

It went DOWN? Seriously?
HOW? WHY? WHERE?

Details, man, we need DETAILS!!!!!!!

My power company is LCEC (Lee County Electric co-op) (how) :shrug: (why) :shrug:

Unlike the 350 it is during the summer months. It's still 200 because the whole house is electric and we have to run the pool pump 8 hrs a day even when we aren't using it. At least it's cool enough to open the windows and turn off the a/c for the next month or two.

We just sold our house and we are now renting a condo. We had a first and second loan on our home ,we where into heavy credit card debt, then to top the cake I had to close down my small bis, due to lack of work . By selling our home we are able to pay off all of our debts ,however I dont know if we will ever be able to buy again ,at almost 50 years old ,its scary to be renting ! We really had no choice ,it was sell or lose everything. Now at fifty years old I have to go look for a job. I have no special trade , on just a H.S. education ! I did the sales for my small bis. This whole situation has stressed my marriage ,we have a 11 year old girl and 9 year old boy ,my wife works at same job for twenty years now ,makes secent $ however its still notenough to pay our rent ,utilities ,health care ,auto insurance ,besides the fact she should not have to work so hard , being a man, this is a vey depressing situation as I feel Iam not holding up my part of the deal ,taking care of my families needs. We made alot of bad financial mistakes and over spent ,if it was not for the increase in the value of our home we would not have been able to payoff our debts and would have had to go bankrupt, I dont know details of new laws bush made on that ,however Iam sure it would have had us still having to pay our debts off and who knows what else . If someone knows please explain. I wish you and your family the best , I know its not easy ,a I feel for you !
Sincerely NicRic

It sounds as if you made some very smart decisions. I'm sure that isn't much comfort, though. If you're feeling bad about not bringing in enough $$, you can help your wife by making her feel like a queen when she's home. I've been in her situation -- providing for a man who lost his job. I did it for many years. It would have helped me tremendously if he'd picked up the slack in household jobs, but he often tried to act like the lord of the manor. I still resent that, even though I loved him and continued to take care of him until he died last year.

My landlord pays the heat, hot water and gas (although we did have an increase in rent to, perhaps, cover fuel expenses) but my electric is now almost 20 cents per kilowatt hour. So a bill in winter that was about $60 a month for the past few years is now over $80 for the same period. I already was shutting down my computer every night. Now I turn off my monitor as well. And my health insurance is going up 20% in February.

the things you realize you used to take for granted because you had a steady income coming in. I've bitched about my very small condo, but at least it won't be difficult to pay the bills, even on unemployment. My situation is not as bad as some, I wish everyone well.

L.I.P.A. = Long Island Power Authority.

700 Square foot fairly insulated cottage with electric baseboard heat = $640.00 for November

:mad:

ours was only $150 last month. I thought we would be okay if it stayed like that, at least until I could get back on my feet, but not now.

How long till we are all living in cardboard boxes begging for the non existent bread and rock soup?

My house is 1800 sq. feet and very poorly insulated. It is 30 years old and we haven't been able to afford to replace windows and add insulation. I have friends that live in houses around the size of yours and they had $600 heating bills too.

It seems rather odd that those smaller houses could have bills that high when mine is over twice the size. Almost makes me wonder if the goal isn't to start removing people from their homes starting with house size.

see my post below...
we could live like lords almost anywhere else in the Country....

I learned that the hard way.
I'm looking into FIR space heaters this year (esp. one for my cat).

On edit: nini posted this link for less expensive heating: http://www.eheat.com
Looks good.

investment last fall is helping keep my oil bill down. Helping.

Olafr

wood. People who heat with wood are insufferable. The go ON and ON and ON about how the love everything about it. "It heats you three times," they say. "Once when you move it, once when you split it and once when you burn it." (Actually it heats you many more times than that because you have to move it several times.) And then they go on about the qualities of radiant heat and the smell of oak when it's split and the smell of wood smoke and yadda, yadda, yadda. They brag and brag about their low gas bills. God they are annoying.
By the way, I heat with wood.
None of this is at all helpful if your health is poor and you're struggling to pay your bills. I apologize for that. But boy howdy, I love to heat with wood.

to go stoke the fire and bring in some wood.

Olafr

anyone with a little more time, energy and perseverance. This could take me off onto another whole tangent about getting back in touch with basics being able to supply for yourself, back to nature, sustainability, and reducing reliance on dwindling oil supplies...but that is another topic too. People need to learn to actually DO for themselves again. Less consumerism and you get practical skills, byt hey what works for me surely won't work for everyone. Yada yada yada. :)


Olafr

Good lord, where do you live, and how much space are you heating? I buy a cord-- that's ONE CORD-- every other year. I have a small house, and live in a relatively mild climate (northern California, at about 45 degrees north latitude, but near the coast where the maritime influence moderates both winter and summer temps). A cord of hard wood lasts me just about two years as my primary heat source! Even some friends of mine in upstate New York were only burning four cords or so a year, though, the last time I checked.

in the winter are very often sub-zero, and almost always sub-freezing or lower all winter long. In my opinion, barring a few choice places in the country, I would say we have some of the harshest winters around. My house is 2100 square feet, two floors, which makes it difficult to heat as efficiently with wood because the layout is not as open as it could be for optimal heating.

Also keep in mind that these are FACE cords not full ones, significant difference in th amount of wood in the two.

"A "cord" of wood is 4 feet high, 4 feet wide, and 8 feet long, or 128 cubic feet. stack of 18 inch wood 4 feet high and 8 feet long is 1/3rd of a cord, and is also called a "face cord."  It takes three "face cords" to equal a legal cord of wood.  Therefore, a stack of 18" pieces of wood stacked 4 feet high and 24 feet along a fence is a whole cord". 

http://www.endtimesreport.com/storing_firewood.html


However, I still love heating with wood, even though this is just my second year of doing so. It is more work, moving, stacking, chopping, cleaning up, etc, so not for everyone. I probably burn a little extra due to my own inexperience with finding the proper efficiency balance in dampering the fire while maintaining a good heat supply. Furthermore, my stove is an insert (sits in the wall) and I now do not believe these are as effective as the stand alone units which can supply heat in all directions. Three sides of my insert are heating the wall, which then radiates the heat back out, but I have to think this causes a fair amount of heat waste.

My goal would be to get a smaller place, with a more open floor plan, but that is another tale.

Olafr

...upstate burn each winter. I'd never heard of a face cord-- we just buy it by the cord, here.

I can't complain, compared to your bill. But I've been pretty freaking cold -- turning the thermostat up to 65 twice a day for an hour or so and down to 55 at night. The rate increase was about 29%, which accounted for the entire increase over last year.

That bill, and every other possible bill came in all at once after Christmas... about having a nervous breakdown! Mine was $260 this time, keeping the heat down, and that bill will get worse for sure, as it has every other winter. Tomorrow's paycheck already gone, that is without any money for food, gas, etc., for two weeks,and had to pay the car insurance with master card again.... I'm in debt more than I can pay the monthly payments on too!!! Yep, feel like I'm a sinking ship!!!

bush is wacko, I hope you feel better soon! I haven't been feeling well myself, and I know for sure the stress doesn't help... I hear what you're saying!! Try to keep the faith... we will get through this... somehow!!

I live in Michigan and thankfully, we're going through somewhat of a warm spell right now, although early December was very cold. I have threatened my kids with limb extraction if they so much as touch the thermostat and I've been keeping it at 66 during the day and lower at night.

My bill for November (not that cold) was $360.00. And weirdly enough, Consumers Power is sending me bills in two week increments (for $180 a pop). Is this supposed to lessen the pain of getting one big bill per month?

I get one a month and just paid mine (for $428, as noted downthread). I, like you, am glad it has warmed up a bit. I'm hoping the coldest weather came early this year, but time will tell.

one for 11/21/05 - 12/07/05 and one for 12/07/05 - 12/22/05. Weird. Both of them were for $180 bucks.

2 week increments-total for the last month is over 300.00-keeping the house at 60 to 62 degrees.
Today I reprogrammed my thermostat for 60 for a couple of hours in the morning and 55 the rest of the time.....
Thanks alot, chimpy and co!
:scared: (notice that this smilie signifying "scared" is blue-scared and COLD!)

I think mine was from 11/17 - 12/20 or something like that.

This happened to my water bill a couple of years ago IIRC. The utility outsourced their billing and payments to another company. When they changed companies the accounting cycle changed, so I got two bills in one month for that month only.

nt

I've been on the budget plan for years. Yesterday the utility company then mails a letter saying it will be adjusted the following month to $255. It still went up quite a bit....I was thinking I'd have to burn my furniture to keep warm. I've been turning my thermostat down during the day to 64,(because I'm in and out) but I do turn it up around 5pm to around 69 or so and back down when I go to bed 2-4 am. My house will stay around 68 all day (8hrs) as I've insulated it pretty good. On Christmas I never turned it on all day and woke up chilly. I turned my downstairs completely off. (Jan & Feb are the worst months for me) perhaps we will catch a break this year.

predicted last June. Last December it was $135 & change, and this December it was $180. We don't use it much in summer so the gas bill goes way down to about $20/mo, but I realized it will be around $65 this summer during the slow months. I'm worried too. I may be out of a job next month and we need my income to make ends meet. We live pretty frugally too. Fortunately we are now debt free, except for the mortgage.

Our gas supplier offers an annually reviewed budget plan..works great for us. We pay the same amount each month instead of getting those huge winter bills.

I pay about 180/mo., which seems kind of silly in the months where I only use 50 bucks worth. And at the end of the year, there is some sort of silliness where they figure out whether I owe them money or I get a refund (BWAHAHAHAHA!).

I do like that there are no surprises, so there's that.

how cold/warm it's been. I've had it revert back as early as April..as late as June.

It's nice not having surprises hit right after the holidays.

have his posters all over the house.

He really is the best in Hindi films, so :thumbsup: to your kids for appreciating his talent.

I looovvvvvveeee him. He is the dreamiest.

At times I am like a kid, and I almost can't believe myself that I do not have a poster of him hanging in my house. :scared:

This should be major, major news. It isn't. People cannot afford this much of a raise.

They have agreed to blow in 16 inches of insulation in my attic and replace a bad window (which measures 3'x4')! Yay! We'll see how much difference it makes. My roof literally had 4-5 inches of ice build up on the eaves because all the heat was going out through the roof!

I'm just a poor college student and my bill doubled to $40, which for me is money I really need right now (new term coming up and tuition just rose). The kicker is I got low-income assistance (for a stunning 23 cents).

And we put in a programmable thermostat this fall and have been turning the heat down much lower than we used to at night and when we're not at home. Granted, we had three very, very cold weeks, but still. I'm hoping the next one won't be as high, since the temperatures have moderated quite a bit the past week and the forecast isn't too bad for the coming week.

I'm not saying mine didn't go up. It did, but NOT THAT MUCH!

I just received my new bill and it was $115. I checked and the price per therm was $1.79.

Last year, the price was .96 per therm!!!!

Our gas co. charges per CCF. We paid $1.56 per CCF. My last bill was $255.

For gas heat it was $492.34.

I looked up what I paid last year for the same time period, and it was $269.28.

The odd thing is that my electric bill last year for this period was $82.65.

The most current bill for electric is $88.50.

vote the bastards out!!! And anyone who is connected to the corporate oil cartel that has made record PROFITS while hard, working Americans, with NO UNEARENED income are suffering.

My paycheck, however, did not.

November 2004 = $71.04
November 2005 = $209.54

and before you get all crazy about my November 2004 bill only being $71, I live in VA and the winters are usually not too bad. One Thanksgiving weekend we actually went to the beach.

Now if we could just get rid of "smirking George Allen" this state would be OK.

(for a two bedroom bungalow on Long Island)

So.. Where's a blue, affordable, warm place to move to?

I got mine last week and it was $556!! Granted it has been extra cold here in Ohio the first couple weeks of December. Luckily I'm on the budget and am paying $217 but I'll be paying that $217 also in July. What a pain in the ass! But I refuse to freeze. My thermostat is set on 70 degrees - no higher or lower. My house is insulated with new windows so I'm not sure what else can be done.

And sadly, I'd say there are SO many other folks in the same situation, barely scraping by, making what is thought to be a decent wage-$15 an hour-when the reality is that wages aren't rising to keep up with the price increases! :grr:

I can relate to what you're going through as we're stuggling on one income with DH getting less than 40 hours a week the past few months. Then, on top of a lean Christmas, our heater went out right before Christmas. Luckily, we have a wood stove as back up which we will now use the rest of the winter. And I gotta say that I got sticker shock when I found out that a new heater will run from around 3K up to 7K to fix it and the air-con, which is also out. Obviously we can't afford to replace it with DHs uncertain income right now. However, the most frustrating part of the entire thing is that all the other power companies around here-EXCEPT FOR OUR POWER COMPANY-have plans in place to help FINANCE (with extemely low interest rates) new energy efficient heating/cooling systems and new double paned windows-which they take out of your bill to pay for. Talk about frustrating! :argh:

...by using eBay as a way to raise some fast $. Most people could raise a thousand bucks in ten days by selling stuff you no longer need or want. It's easy and it works. If anyone needs coaching, there are DU-ers who are willing to assist.

(Why isn't there an e-Bay forum?)

Dec-Jan-Feb generally are 50-60% more than my Nov bill. I turned the heat off - thankfully it hasn't been too cold the last couple weeks.

I'm dreading getting that $600 gas bill.

and we live in northern california where it doens't snow!!!

I pity those folks living in seriously cold climates!

One reason why the real estate is so expensive in Southern California I guess.

I can't imagine getting a bill like that - it's more than my car payment.


Sorry for all of you that are dealing with this.

http://www.eheat.com/


looks like a good alternative.

:)

and I use elctric heaters to heat my place. Washington State.

I think, energy bill is "Highway Robbery!"

For about what I pay in rent, I rented an apt. with HEAT INCLUDED in Maine. And Winter was a much more serious business there!

Mine was an "estimated" reading -- so I ran down to the basement to check the actual reading. It looks like I'll have to pay more in Jan, because their estimate is probably LOW. The good news is we've been having a really warm spell the last week. Global warming to the rescue?

It was very cold the first 3 weeks this month. Maybe the break in the weather last week will help a little? I got my fingers crossed. They don't read my meter for a few more days and its still mild. I keep it warm here.

Don

...got a nice toasty fire going at the moment, too-- and my PG&E bill was pretty much in line with past December's. About $125, a bit more than half of which was for natural gas. The price of gas is WAY up, but I've reduced my use, even more than in previous years, so my bill hasn't risen much. I do not heat at night, period-- that's what blankets and cats are for. I wear sweaters most of the time, and when my hands get cold, I light a fire in the wood stove if I'm going to be here for a while. I use the furnace for about 15-20 minutes in the morning to take the chill off before I get into the shower, and maybe once or twice during the day if necessary and I can't light a fire. I've about given up on the model of environmental control that I grew up with years ago when energy was cheap. Frankly, I believe that within my lifetime parts of the U.S. will become only marginally habitable for most people during some seasons. I'm blessed to live in a place where people can survive without either heat or air conditioning if need be, albeit sometimes uncomfortably.

to another thread about prices. I've a small house, 852 sq. ft., new furnace, newer windows, keep my heat at 67 when I'm here and turn it down to 65 at night. My gas bill was $239. I'm on the budget plan, but that's going to eat up my savings in a heartbeat.

After the bill I tried lowering the heat to 64 during the day and I just couldn't get warm. I've a problem with low body temperature anyway, but being in a thermal shirt, a wool shirt, a sweater, long johns, wool socks, and thermal pants, with a afghan on top and my dog beside me, I still couldn't get warm at 64.

I'm going to really look into that electric heating thing for $.03 per hour.

It's not below freezing here at all....
Last month's electric bill was $195. Had the heat on for two weeks, at 62 degrees except for 3 hours in the mornings at 70. This was during a "cold spell" (30's/40's to mid 50s/60s). Nothing else on except for basics - frig & such.
Our weather lately has been lovely, but, good grief.

Electric bill for August was at $299 for keeping the AC at 82 to 88. Can't turn it off, don't want to bake the cats, ya know.

My 50+ year old furnace cracked and I had to purchase a new one. Lucky Me!

Although I had to use my credit card to pay, I soon realized that instead of going through a tank full of oil each month, I was now only using half a tank a month.

Of course, since everything is way too expensive now, we are selling our house and using the proceeds to buy a house in the Mid West.

but the economy is fine! growing stronger and stronger everyday... isn't that right mister bush?

Dap

but that was two months, the last was 265 and the one before was 130 and you put em all together and dance all around and you forget about partying for the New Year and work the over time instead.


Edited to say I actually paid it from working through Christmas Day! Yay for Christmas!

Right around $400.00

gas heat at all. Though I know this isn't an option for a lot of people for various reasons, I think everyone should consider it. My bill went from $200+ to about $50 since I've been using it.

I can relate!

and this is WITH a wood stove.

new england - gonna be a long cold and lean($$) winter