AAARRRGHH - you try and save a bit of cash.....

£30 a month is a massive increase. Damn cold winters and rising energy costs.

We've just gone from £68 per month to £97. I'm actually close to tears - I can see the Virgin Box going and reverting to Council telly at this rate.

Lol at council tele, not heard that before! It's free listing weekend on eBay if that's of any interest? I've been rumaging in draws and cupboards for anything I can sell.

Is it? Ooh, I've just been thinking about trying to convince H to try and sell lots of his junk treasured possessions. (I have virtually nothing to sell as I hate "stuff" that I have to find somewhere to keep!). Might try and bring that forward to this weekend then. Busy busy busy.

Do they do free listings very often or is this a rarity?

That's handy to know!! Wardrobe clearout tonight then!!

Energy companies are little buggers... its not like they don't make enough profit!! Grrrrr!

Have you looked at the Money Saving Expert website to see if there's anything else you could do to offset the increase? I do the downshifting exercise with my shopping so I buy the value or own brand products.

? It's always rubbish when they put their payments up. Ours doubled once and then were reduced again a month later.

There's not much I can do - I already buy just about the lowest brand of everything (except beans and tea - if it's not Heinz and Tetley H throws the most colossal strop and refuses to eat them ?) and since we realised H's SSP is about to run out I've been eating plain pasta and an apple for lunch at work. I'm not taking him shopping this week (which he will also strop about) because then I only get moaned at once the stuff's home, not all round the shop!

I've always been pretty money savvy so I don't think there's much more we can do. I'm eyeing up all the cupboards for stuff to sell and I'll check if we can downgrade the telly package rather than get rid of it altogether.

Can you switch energy supplier? I just did that, bringing electric bills down from £89 a month to £67 which has helped us.

We switched last year - our current ones came out top for us on Uswitch at the time and I'm not sure how long it is before I can change over again. We've got all the dual fuel discounts and stuff but might phone them to ask if we'd be better off on the capped rate or something - it's too confusing on the website.

I know when I changed I noticed our get out fee was around £25 so it still might be worthwhile to look at changing.

Switch current accounts to one that pays a £100 bonus (after 3 months of paying in your wages)..?

Not an immediate help but will be handy in a few months time.

Thanks guys, will look into switching supplier again and at changing the bank accounts. Going to spend the weekend photographing stuff to sell!

Oi Mrs C!!!!! Its bad enough the media demonizing us without my internet wierdies doing it too!!

OP- what company are you with?? If its us I can take a look and double check it!

I know it seems gutting that the DD has gone up but it is better in the long run as you would end up with a massive "catch up" bill where you would get billed for everything you had used and not paid for prev.

Do you fill your trolly in Tescos, get to the till and say to the cashier "I only want to pay for £20 of this"? No you have to pay for what you have taken. Same as a Gas and Electricity DD. You have to pay for what you use!

Energy companies have to subscribe to almost the same rules as banks etc along the "ethical lending" route. It would be wrong to allow someone to fall into debt by allowing them to only pay for half of what they use.

True but energy suplliers cant earn interest on customers money [in the conditions of the supllier licsence] plus a DD is worked out on average. Of course you use less in the summer, but you pay the same to offset the much higher useage in the winter. If you paid for what you used then you would pay [for example] £10 in the summer and £80 in the winter. On a DD scheme this averages out at £50 per month [again for an example]

You have the right to refuse a DD, but in turn your supllier has the right to terminate your DD and if it comes to it either cut you off/install a pre payment meter if you continue to not pay for what you use.

Wow- love feeling like I am at work on a Sat evening!

VM - I'm with Scottish Power but found out over the weekend that my new DD is roughly what my parents are paying for a similar size house so I'm not quite as pee'd off as I was! You're right, I don't want to end up with a walloping great bill at the end of the year, it's just so frustrating that what I thought might save me a bit of money in the short term has ended up costing me more.