Hello!
A little about me: I'm 29 and was diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder in my late teens. I was raised in a traditional ethnic community where women weren't encouraged to handle money; so I've spent the last two years essentially teaching myself to manage my finances while living independently for the first time. So far, things have been going ... okay. I've never been late on my bills and nothing has ever been shut off; but I could definitely serve to budget a bit better. Money is extremely tight, though.
I only get $750/mo and my rent alone is $425. I currently rent the lower half of a historic home on the outskirts of a major city.There's an apartment above me; but it's only been occupied since November. Since then, my heating bills have been going up steadily.
I had the Gas&Electric company come out to check the meter; but they said it was working fine after being replaced in April. Next, my landlord sent out their HVAC guy to check on the heater; but he said it was working fine. The only thing he found was that upstairs's hot water was going through my meter, so they agreed to pay 1/5th of my gas bill to cover it. He also told me to keep my heat on and set low instead of turning it off and on like I had been.
For the past month, I've done what he said and kept my home heated around 60 degrees. It's been really bad and I'm always cold -- and in pain since the chill hurts my back and joints horribly. But I NEEDED to save money, so I didn't give into the temptation to turn it up higher.
I got my bill last night and it's worse than ever. It's almost $200, just in gas. I'm not sure what to do or where to go from here. I'm including a graph to show exactly how high it's jumped.
Any advice would be deeply, deeply appreciated. I cried myself to sleep about this last night because I'm so deeply worried. This feels like the first big financial crisis I've had since I've been independent and I don't know what to do next. It feels like I've exhausted my options and no one is listening.
Thank you for any help you guys throw my way.
Graph: http://ift.tt/2Et3u6M
PS: I should also note that my upstairs neighbors have ALSO been receiving larger energy bills than average. They're equally confounded.
Submitted January 10, 2018 at 10:51AM by ButtfuckMePlsLoki http://ift.tt/2FmY0vK
