MITCHELL Stewart was horrified when he discovered his last quarterly electricity bill was $2227.
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“I knew from our last bill that we would be in for quite the shock, but when my fiance Brooke called me at work to tell me we had been charged $2227.38 for our last quarter I honestly thought she was joking,” he said.
“After realising she was serious, I still found it impossible to believe we had consumed that much energy, especially with only three occupants in the household, so we contacted our supplier immediately and requested a meter review.”
Mr Stewart’s electricity supplier has launched an investigation and his account has been placed on hold until the the outcome of the review is known.
He cannot understand why the bill is so high.
“I was expecting a slight rise in usage costs because of the introduction of the carbon tax but I could not justify an inflation of almost 50 per cent,” he said.
“I know an increase in high voltage appliances was partially to blame, but after receiving our last bill we agreed to be wary of the use of those particular products around the home.
“So we’ve been extremely careful, but clearly have nothing to show for our efforts.”
Mr Stewart says he has been forced to make considerable sacrifices in order to cover high cost of electricity.
“We’ve stopped dining out, shopping for leisure items, travelling of a weekend and have even cut our christmas budget,” he said.
“And on top of that we’ll have to source some of the money from our house deposit savings account, something I never thought we’d have to do.”
Mr Stewart knows he is not the only person battling to pay his bills and says the high cost of living dominates many of the conversations he has with his family and friends.
“Everyone is struggling, and we can all relate to each other’s concerns,” he said.
“But their greatest worry, like mine, is where does it go from here and if costs continue in this fashion how do we manage them?”
tracey.prisk@fairfaxmedia.com.au