The credit crunch hits home

Household bills are now soaring out of proportion. Diana Appleyard describes the effect it has had on her own family



State of shock: Diana Appleyard's heating bill is now £13,200 a year

Two days ago, I sat in my kitchen,staring at a bill lying on the table, hardly able to believe my eyes. The cost of two tanks of oil, simply to heat our water and provide fuel for a truly ancient Aga, was £2,200.



It was so absurd I burst out laughing - and then sank my head in my hands.



And this wasn't even the annual bill. These tanks would last for about two months. So now, thanks to the astronomical cost of oil, heating our house will cost us precisely £13,200 a year. It is beyond belief; so ridiculous you would laugh if you didn't weep.



You expect small rises in electricity, gas and oil each year. In the past, when bills arrived, my husband Ross and I would tut, then make small adjustments to the money we spent on luxuries such as holidays and eating out.



It was painful, but merely an irritant. We'd get used to the new level of bills - and carry on as normal.



But the past few months have brought us both up short. We sat down last night and did the sums. If costs carry on rising at this level, we can't afford to run this house.



We are definitely not having a holiday this summer, nor the next. The small pleasures of life - eating out, new clothes, a weekend away - will all be axed. There is no way we can afford to change our cars, both of which have done more than 160,000 miles.



The laughable thing is that most people would say we're well off. We work full-time (I am a writer and Ross has his own media company), earn good wages, send our youngest daughter to private school and usually have a couple of holidays a year - one ski-ing, one sun.





If this is making a family like mine fear for its future, how are people on much lower incomes faring?





So far, so comfortable. But not any more. Our heating and electricity bills have almost doubled over the past 12 months.



Filling my car with petrol used to cost £56. The last time I filled it, I watched in horror as the numbers kept clicking up: £80 ... £85 ... the final total was £93. Thanks, Mr Brown.



Friends have stopped travelling long distances at all. One friend was due to come and stay with us next week, and she rang me, nearly in tears, to say: 'I can't justify the petrol bill.' It would have cost her more than £300 to drive from Oxfordshire to our home in Argyll on the west coast of Scotland.



All journeys for our family are monitored - and vetoed if they are deemed 'unnecessary'. Shopping at the supermarket is also banned. Two weeks ago, I did a big Tesco shop and reeled when the bill came to £169. I had not bought anything luxurious, not even bath oil or shampoo: just necessities such as vegetables, pasta and washing powder.



If this is making a family like mine fear for its future, how are people on much lower incomes faring? A friend said she saw a pensioner in tears in our local supermarket recently. In her basket she had a loaf of bread and two dozen eggs. The bill came to nearly £5. 'How can that be right?' she asked.





Reality cheque: An Aga is now an unnecessary luxury

The cost of living in Britain is absurd. The hikes in cost seem to have come all at once: petrol has shot up, electricity bills have gone through the roof and the price of oil is unthinkable. I honestly don't know how we are going to keep our heads above water, and a long summer of unremitting work stretches ahead.



Both our daughters, who are 14 and 20, will have to get summer jobs if they want any treats or new clothes. Our most basic of household bills will cost us more than £35,000 a year out of taxed income. Our petrol bills - for only the most necessary of journeys - are more than £1,000 a month for two cars. Ross is investigating the possibility of installing a wood-burning stove to heat our water and radiators. We are also planning to install a wind turbine to create our own electricity. Expensive in the short term, but who knows where prices may end up?



How many people opened their electricity bills in the past two weeks and stared at them in uncomprehending horror? Ordinary people will simply not be able to heat and light their own homes, and yet we read daily about the massive hikes in the profits of utility companies. Where is the social justice?



We aren't on the breadline. We aren't facing poverty or starvation, but the bills of the past month have made us seriously question our lifestyle. We work flat out all the time, but it isn't enough to meet these horrendous bills. I firmly believe people can't stand for this ridiculous increase in the cost of living. Some are saying it will do us all good; that we have lived high on the cushion of credit for too long and that the bubble had to burst.



But it makes families like ours feel bitter. We pay 40pc tax, exorbitant council tax bills and every little incentive we had - such as the married person's allowance - has been axed.



The middle classes are being backed into a corner. It is enough to make you think about leaving these shores for good.



By Diana Appleyard