I thought it wasn’t going to get much worse, but then…
Electric bills will be $114 higher each month compared to last year. That’s a 64% increase for the same amount of energy use, driven by higher electric supply price. (Direct quote)
The bill they are calculating is based on a much smaller usage than ours. For us it will likely be an extra $200, maybe more. It’s pretty scary.
There isn’t much we can do about it. Every lamp has a long life LED bulb. The stove, fridge, boiler, windows, insulation are all up to snuff. Everything is new or almost new. We bring in too much money to be eligible for any kind of assistance but not nearly enough money to pay the bills. We were managing more or less until this wave of inflation nailed us. We have a pretty hefty mortgage, although the amount we owe has dropped a lot. We would make a good profit by selling — but then what would we be able to buy? The price of everything is sky high, so we’d still be in the same situation unless we moved somewhere we don’t want to be.
I really don’t actually know how we will get through the winter but I suppose we’ll have to find a way since we don’t actually have any other options. We aren’t eligible for subsidized house and free market housing is even MORE expensive than what we are paying now.
Do I really believe National Grid is paying 64% more for energy than last year? Do I believe in faeries and goblins too?
Short of selling this house and trying to find somewhere else we could afford — unlikely — I would say our goose is well and truly cooked.
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Categories: Anecdote, Home, House and home, Money, Utilities
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
California provides us with a “Climate Credit.” It is “part of California’s efforts to fight climate change. The credit is from a state program that requires power plants, natural gas providers, and other large industries that emit greenhouse gases to buy carbon pollution permits. The credit on [your] bill is your share of the payments from the State’s program.” (quoted from an insert in this month’s electric bill) This year, my electric company had permission to split the credit between August and September (rather than April and September). For my little home, my August bill was a credit of $6, and for September, $80. Without this credit, the bills would have been $70 and $140 for the 2 months of heat wave. There is also a gas credit in July of $43 to offset winter heating bills. Having never heard of National Grid, I am hoping that is just your electric company or something more local than national! I have not heard ofcoming increases like you have, but each year the costs go up considerably! With our transportation (gasoline) costs in California, the summer is very expensive to manage!
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No one has heard of increases this bad. And it’s nonsense AND we don’t get any kind of credits for anything. My last bill was $301 for July/August heatwave — and we only run two very small A/C units. Either the cost for energy is hugely higher in MA than in other states or someone is in someone else’s pocket. Because there is NO way there was an actual increase in the cost of energy equal to 64% of EVERYONE’s bill. We are, to put it simply, getting scammed.
Again.
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With the summer we had (so many 100°+ days), I don’t even want to tell you what our electricity bill was.
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We’re getting scammed.
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I hope you can find a solution Marilyn. Too many people are falling through the cracks because they don’t qualify for welfare but don’t actually earn enough to live on.
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Yes, I know. It has become a very common problem. They set the “poverty level” at such a low point that NO ONE could actually live on it without state support — and everyone else gets lost. The amount you can earn to be entitled to assistance is absurd and I get tired of explaining this to people over and over again. No one seems to believe me. The real answer is sell the house and move somewhere cheaper. But there IS nowhere cheaper for us to go.
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That’s the problem, with rising home prices there would be little you could afford after factoring in the cost of moving.
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I know. Just the cost of boxing pu and trucking all our stuff SOMEWHERE is pretty monumental, especially with the currently high cost of gasoline. I’m pretty sure moving trucks are not run on batteries.
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That’s if you could find somewhere to live that was not on fire, in drought, subject to hurricanes or tornadoes or in a state run by crazy people.
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That pretty much leaves out anyplace but where we are, at least in THIS country. And we are too old and not nearly wealthy enough to go live in another country.
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It’s the same over too.
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This is what has happened to what was once the middle class. You are either poor and get help or wealthy and don’t need it. In between? You can be homeless and living in your car, but you aren’t entitled to anything because they don’t count outgo, just income.
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Since we don’t get govt help no matter how poor we are, we have to work to earn otherwise…….
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And when you are too old or sick? Then?
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Family is always there too chip in. Workers are given pensions after 60 years. And things aren’t that expensive here as they are there.
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This country is not kind to older people. And EVERYTHING is expensive.
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I know, I love there for 5 years, off and on. The plight of the homeless was heartbreaking. Over here people will shelter even extended family as it’s not the done thing to let them live on roads and shopfronts. But we have our own problems.
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All nations have their own problems, but on the whole, the U.S. is unkind to people who have nowhere to go and no money to get there. We are not a nation founded on kindness or charity.
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Unlike what is the common perception! Yes, unfortunately it’s mostly true.
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We want to be better. It’s just — we aren’t.
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I think America in grip of money hungry corporations is not the utopia it aspired to be.
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We’ve made it too easy for the rich to get richer and given no attention to how poor others are getting. Will that turn around? I don’t know. Has it EVER turned around in all of history?
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I’ve no idea how it will turn around, but I’m sure it can. look at some of the European countries, like Norway; they are a truly welfare state.
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Yes, but unlike your country and mine, that’s a small, homogenous country. We live in huge sprawling countries with a lot of diversity and a lot of poverty. Sheer SIZE makes our countries very hard to change. The attitudes of people in one part of the U.S. — let’s say a real western state like Montana or Wyoming — compared to people living in this state — Massachusetts? Well, you might as well be talking about people living in different solar systems.
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Yes, size is a problem indeed.
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Here, it is the gas bill that went up 94 per month. The electric bill is about the same…so far.
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I have a feeling this is going to move like a tsunami across the country and suddenly, everyone’s utilities are going to look like another mortgage. I just can’t worry about it. We will deal with it as it happened because I can’t keep fighting all the time, especially since we can’t possibly win.
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I guess we will just deal with these things as they happen.
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If worry could fix anything, I’d get serious about it but since all it does is make me angry, obsessive, and sleepless, thinking about EVERYTHING else is better.
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Absolutely
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HI Marilyn, I am very sorry to read this. We are currently have load shedding in South AFrica and the power is off 10 hours a day. We have a generator as we need to work, but the cost of the diesel is also exorbitant. We are the fortunate ones though, because lots of people are just without power half the day.
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It must be awful to be without power for that many hours a day. On the other hand, I’m not sure how anyone thinks it’s possible for us to pay these huge bills on the same income we’ve had for the past 20 years.
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Two different paths to a similar outcome, really. A reduction in power usage by people.
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And with climate change raising temperatures around the world…
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Roberta, your plight gives perspective to our situation.
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It doesn’t make your situation any easier though. It makes me sad to read about the difficulties people are facing around the world 💕
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I really don’t know how people are going to get through this. If we are facing a recession and it kind of looks as if we are, this will be -hard for non-wealthy people everywhere. Given all the things that have happened during the past five years — and which continue to happen, it should not be a huge surprise. But we’ve been on an economic upsurge for decades. It was inevitably going to come end. Every cycle does. This one took a long time to stop.
This isn’t a great time for us, personally, but it wouldn’t have been a great time at any point.
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I agree, Marilyn, and it is concerning …
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My peak bill this summer was $390.., don’t need a bunch of those…
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At least you don’t have a deep winter to worry about. We have the mortgage AND fuel for the boiler AND electricity.
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Sorry I wasn’t thorough in my comment as I we were only considering the electricity charge so here is the complete picture: We also have a brutal summer, mortgage, Gas for hot water, and Electricity. ie none of us escape the revolving monthly costs of living. So deep winter, brutal summer? I fail to see the difference.
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We had a summer not quite as bad as you, but bad enough. If the temperatures keep climbing, I suppose our winters will be milder and our summer’s we will all be hotter and one way or another, we will all discover our fixed incomes are completely inadequate.
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My electric bill last month was $6.50, which includes my pool pump and studio which is on regular electricity. My house is on solar , but I’m not penalized for it. You’d better move to Mexico!!!
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Mexico sounds great. I’m just not sure I’m physically capable of moving anywhere. I’m not doing well. I’m not dying, but I’m also not functioning. This is when I wish someone would come and take care of things. I’m the taker-carer around here. I’m exhausted. The irony is we probably would be okay down there, but short of being transported, I don’t see how we’d make it. I’ve always done all of that stuff and here I am, still doing it.
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