English: a supply and demand graph showing the effect of a tariff on imports (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I received a letter from my energy company today informing me that my Online Price Freeze tariff is coming to an end.

I couldn’t be less interested by this news, but apparently said tariff is ending in June and I need to act NOW in order to secure another tariff – possibly the Clear and Simple tariff (where the single rate unit rate pence per kWh is @ 12.496, inc VAT @ 5%) OR (the two rate day pence per kWh is @ 17.243, with a night pence per kWH 6.145) .

But that’s only if I pay by Direct Debit – it gets complicated if I want to pay by cash or cheque.

Sadly, M and I never reached that crucial ‘how many kWh per night / day plus VAT @ 5% do we want to pay for our electricity’ point in our relationship: He dealt with it and I agreed. Consequently I find myself adrift in a sea of utility company shit that I simply don’t have the capacity to deal with. Perhaps ‘capacity’ isn’t the word actually. ‘Being remotely interested’ is more like it.

I guess this is the one area that M and I slipped into stereotypical gender roles. As the main bread-winner and also having an interest in value-for-money / number crunching, He sorted all this kind of stuff – utility suppliers, car servicing schedules, house insurance. I now find myself having to deal with it, and being an educated, worldly individual ( who failed GCSE Maths 3 times), I think I should be able to cope. But I can’t. The car is due a service and I have been quoted a range of prices – and they all sound convincing in their own right (one of them includes a POLLEN filter change for fuck’s sake!) but I simply don’t know who is genuine and who is fleecing the arse off me. And do I NEED a pollen filter change? (According to the lady on the service desk, yes, I do.)

Same goes for the energy prices. I feel harangued in my widowhood and my single-parenthood. If someone could just be honest and tell me which is the best option for me and my daughter, I’d buy it, straight off the bat. Why does it all have to be so complicated and so fucking covert?

Don’t the bastards realise that my brain has frozen along with their Online Price Tariff?