whoa.

junebug

junebug

New member
i just got my electric ebill in my email. my bill due next month is freaking $227.95!!!!!! it has NEVER been that much! i thought last months $195 was bad! what the hell? i guess it could be cause its been so cold and the heat has been running alot. we have an electric space heater to heat our bedroom. it runs all the time. maybe thats whats doing it. but we've had it for several months already. my gas bill is higher too, but not that high. even in the summer with the central air on it has never been that much. it usually runs around $150 or so, give or take $10-$20. winter can be over now, please!
 
electric bills suck. ours is much higher than that during the winter unfortunately :( But, you gotta stay warm I suppose!
 
i know its normal for winter maybe, but we've lived here for 2 years and it has never been that high!! i went to the website (Duke Energy) and it has that little pie chart that shows your usage, according to it we use the most with the water heater and laundry. my kids are always taking baths, i run the dishwasher sometimes twice a day and i'm always doing laundry. i'm glad the kids like taking baths, but they think its a swimming pool, lol. my goal for next month is to see if i can cut that bill down a bit!
 
blah! I'm so glad my electric bill is included in my rent-- my last apartment.. I swear it was insane. My gas bill was well over 400 a month- and electric was around 200 (in the winter that is). Nooooooo thank you.
 
my Electric bill was $67 lol....our heater is gas so that bill was like 225

I had a $400 elec bill this past summer...when we had to run the air all day every day..that one hurt
 
Ours was crazy last month too, but I noticed that the # of days they billed for was longer than usual as well (like 5 extra days).....maybe that was why it is a little highter? I can't wait till it warms up!!
 
space heaters can cost a couple bucks a day to run. They had an example on a news show. It had an average cost of 1.80 per day on the one they tested. I cant remember the specifics on it though. Ours was really high as well. Winter months are normally like 130 a month and summer is really high. This month though with the longer cold spell it was like 175
 
We always get slammed in December. We tried leaving the christmas decoratioons on for shorter time each night this year, but it barely budged. It was FRIGID this December, so I'm not surprised. It costs us more to heat the house than to cool it.

We're also ALL electric. So that's lights/hot water/heat/etc all rolled into one.
 
I don't know if your electric company offers this, but ours has reduced rates from 9 pm to 9 am. So, I always do our laundry and run the dishwasher late at night or first thing in the morning.
 
also another thing I know alot of power companies do is average the yearly bills and you pay the same amount every month. I think its called budget billing
 
I'm dreading our bill - this winter has been soooo cold we've had the heating on almost constantly. Take a look at this amazing pic of the UK a week ago, and see if you can spot any green!?:

_47061196_greatbritainjpg.jpg
 
Our bill went up $13 last month. We do the budget billing that Jessica mentioned and it's a true budget AND sanity saver!! We do it for gas too--that bill actually went down enough that we had no payment for this month at all and only a partial payment next month. If you can do it, it's sooooooooooooo worth it!!

Oh! Another thing to consider is covering the windows. It sounds like your heat is working overtime and it could be from drafts. My Grammy always put up those plastic sheets on her windows to keep out drafts. Her bill went up, but not nearly as much as it would without those sheets.
 
We usually only get slammed for 1 month, so we just deal with it. Jordan doesn't like the budget billing.

In the winter, the blinds are pulled up and the curtains are open so that the sun helps heat the house. The reverse is true all summer, to keep the heat out. I don't think it makes much of a difference, but Jordan insists. I HATE having the blinds pulled up. It weirds me out.
 
our house is drafty, our foundation has cracks. we have a crawl space. the furnace is on a lot, and i know that space heater is probably the culprit. and our billing cycle was a bit longer this month too. we'll manage, it was just a shock lol.
 
Ours was almost double what it was the month before. I just assumed it was because it has been FREEZING here, much colder than normal--but when Col mentioned Christmas, that was a big part of it too. We had a light timer this year so the lights went on for sure every night--and usually before, we just turned them on when we remembered. So, both of those together definitely affected ours. But, it should be better after that.
 
we should really sign up for it. problem with ours is they have alot of stipulations with how it works and they do a credit check. Not that we have bad credit but we have no credit. I believe in paying cash whenever possible and with the exception of our mortgage my husband and I never really used credit. So when our credit is checked we always hear the same thing that its like we dont even exist because our credit is basically empty
 
Gas bills really scare me ... mom had auto withdrawal on her gas bills but not the "even pay" plan ... one month they pulled out over $600 for her gas bill! Jeeesh that would have overdrawn me for sure not planning on that big of a bill!
 
jessica31876 said:
we should really sign up for it. problem with ours is they have alot of stipulations with how it works and they do a credit check. Not that we have bad credit but we have no credit. I believe in paying cash whenever possible and with the exception of our mortgage my husband and I never really used credit. So when our credit is checked we always hear the same thing that its like we dont even exist because our credit is basically empty
Click to expand...

I'm surprised that has anything to do with it ... I just have my bank account set to auto pay that amount every month on a specific day. To my knowledge there wasn't any credit check ... after all you pay the higher rates right now!
 
wow 600 for a gas bill?? :blink: thats alot of money. I dont have a gas bill as we have only a stove running on our propane so we take it to be filled. Lasts about a month for a 20 pound tank. Costs 14.29 to fill at B.J's
 
I didnt think it should either but our power company is weird. The reason I originally looked into it is because we got a 28% rate increase last year and they were asking for another one. Not sure they got it or not but the rate increase they did get was for a power station that is not even scheduled to be built for several years!!

Here is what it says on their site:

Eligibility requirements:

*Residential account
*No past due balances
*Good credit history

*Note: Past due balances may be cause for removal from the program for a 12 month period.
 
jessica31876 said:
also another thing I know alot of power companies do is average the yearly bills and you pay the same amount every month. I think its called budget billing
Click to expand...

We do this and ours is also based on our income and our family size. We are in PA and have Penn Elect and we pay $83 bucks a month.
 
Ours was $490.98. We've never had one that high either. I asked about budget billing a while ago but was told we had to wait a year after our move before we could get on it.
 
Our budget billing does a credit check too. I haven't signed up for it though because they want you to auto debit as well. My previous experience with their auto debt system did not fill me with joy. The had a tendancy to debt the day before DH got paid or maybe 4 days earlier, or 2 days later or some time in between and that drove me nuts! I prefer paying them in person on the 5th of the month.

Our bill hasn't come yet but I fully expect it to be $350. Normally winter & summer around $200, give or take $15. Spring & fall average $140.
 
:thumbdown: boo to high bills!

ya, that is crazy! i think my highest of the season was like $130. nearly gave me a heart attack.
 
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