Household energy price increase

How to budget for the increase in energy prices

You may have heard about the fact that gas and electricity prices will be going up.

The reason for this is that it is costing energy suppliers more money to buy the materials they need to make our energy. This situation is made worse by things that are currently going on in the world, such as the war in the Ukraine.

Bills are going up because the energy price cap – the maximum price energy suppliers in England, Wales and Scotland can charge households – is being raised on Friday April 1^st. From that day, your energy will be charged at a higher rate.

Energy suppliers should only charge this higher rate from April 1^st. Any energy you have used before this date should be charged at your lower rate.

To make sure that this happens you should take a meter reading on March 31^st – even if you have a smart meter.

You should take a photo of both your gas and electricity meters along with the meter serial number.

You should also take evidence of the day that the readings were taken.

Try to send both meter readings to your energy supplier straight away. But understand that there will be lots of people trying to do the same thing so it may not be possible for you to get through. That is why it is important for you to take evidence of the day you took the reading.

As the cost of our energy is going up for all of us, this may be a good time for everyone to take a look at their budgets – to make sure that we always have enough money to pay for our energy.

Our mirus Budgeting Tool can help you keep track of your money. 

To use the mirus Budgeting Tool follow these steps:

1. Open the mirus Budgeting Tool by clicking this link.
2. Click the button in the top right to download the Budgeting Tool to your computer or tablet.
3. Open the file you have downloaded in Microsoft Excel. The Budgeting Tool file is a spreadsheet called ‘mirus Budgeting Tool.xlsm’.
4. If the Budgeting Tool asks you to enable macros, click ‘Yes’ or ‘Accept’.

To use the Budgeting Tool you just have to put in what money you have coming in and what you must spend money on and what you would like to spend money on. The Budgeting Tool will help you to work out what you can afford.

Watch this video for help with how to use the tool: