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?
Wife After Death 
Being on my own I also have to figure this stuff out, I have found moneysavingexpert.com to be a wealth of information. They have tools on there to help you calculate the best deals etc for you and there is something you can sign up to, to make you aware of the best deal for you, for free. As for garages, try and go for word of mouth, if you ever get back my way I could recommend 3 for you that I am confident with. It takes time to figure these things out. I’m in yr 7 now. Different circumstances yes, on my own all the same, and I find myself nodding and agreeing to a lot of your blogs silently screaming AMEN SISTER! And yesterday I got up a ladder and fixed the girls blind that last week I had resigned to the bin. We can do man jobs, just believe in yourself, you will be surprised x x ❤
Hey man, (or woahhhh-man!), thanks for commenting and for the advice. Invaluable. I find myself feeling like a flailing haddock – totally incapable. I realise this goes for anyone left on their own, no matter what the circumstances. I was in tears today trying to deal with this shit. Your post has reassured me that I can do it, in the end. THANK YOU. And much love xxxx
Hi, I’m “lucky” i have lived on my own lots of times down the years and when i met S i found that i had acquired another child, four years later we had another one, when people asked me how many children i had my answer was always three! Unfortunately i am now down to two children and I’ve lost the biggest, funniest and most loving one….
So childcare, school stuff, household bills, household chores, car repairs all that i carried on doing with my big child laughing by my side, hence none of the boring mundane stuff causes me problems i just don’t have my big fun man/child by my side anymore.
Tackle one thing at a time and ask your friends what they are doing, depending on what your friends are like “telling you/giving advice” word it carefully….. As i constantly like to tell my 16 year old “it’s not rocket science”…
You can simply leave the tariffs as is, the companies are not that much different from each other and you can do something about it, when in the grand scheme of things it does matter…..
Only do the things that you have to/want to…
p.s I’ve been widowed 9 months and my first wedding anniversary is looming 8th June – S died in our garden 24th August 2012 from a brain aneurysm aged 38, leaving me with our son 16 and our daughter 5.
If I can help you have my email address an I’m more than happy to even if you just want to sound off…
Hi KW, thanks so much for this. Advice on tariffs is a relief. I like to think I’m an independent woman, and in lots of ways I am, but for some reason bureaucratic shit of the type described really gets me down. I feel like I just can’t cope with it. But you’re right, one thing at a time. That’s so tragic about S. ‘Astonishing’ is a word I heard in relation to sudden death – that’s truly how I felt and still feel. Re: wedding anniversary, you don’t say how you’re feeling about it but for me it was just another day without him. No better no worse. But each person deals with it in their own way…whatever way you choose, I’ll be thinking of you. Email address noted, thanks. I’ll message you and find out where you are in the country!! XX