This week it feels like every letter that has come through the door. Every email that has dropped into my inbox has been bills. It always happens at this time of the year but I think everyone is more aware of the increases this year. This is because the energy prices will be at their highest ever price.
The council tax bill is the one we have been waiting for. Thankfully it wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be. Our bill has increased by £7 a month. Obviously, any increase comes off of the money we have to live off. But it could have been worse. Apparently, the government are meant to be giving us a rebate of £150 to help with the council tax bill this year. I did think they would apply this to the bill to reduce the monthly payments. Instead, it is meant to be given to us as a one-off payment. I think having the bill reduced would have helped more.
I got an email to say our Sky payment is going up. We have to have Sky to get TV here, I don’t know if cable is an option. It wasn’t available when we moved in but that was over ten years ago! I could log into my account to commit to another contract with them. I did that which apparently gave me a lower payment. There was also an email from BT which had some great ‘deals’ for us. All I could see was an increase in payment if committed to a new plan. So I left it as it was.
The big bills we will be keeping an eye on are our electricity and gas. We came out of the fixed-rate last month. We have been seeing what Martin Lewis has been saying. The advice was not to fix it. Since then the trouble started in Ukraine. All we can do is watch as the price goes up and up. Darren has been sending me updates on all the petrol prices he has seen. I think this year will be a tough one for everyone where bills are concerned. It feels like another year of watching and waiting.