Electric Shock

With 2010 coming to an end and 2011 close in sight I was in a pretty good mood. This year has been good to us and next year was sure to be just as rewarding then something slips through the letter box. I knew without even opening it what it was, so why did I open it? Perhaps I'm crazy or perhaps I'm desperate to open something since it's been so long since I've received any mail at all! Who knows? The thing is I opened it and there it was. the annual statement for the electric bill! 'Your new monthly payment is £71.00 with effect from 5/01/11' A Happy New Year indeed.. when we first moved here our first monthly installments were £47, later they crept up to £65 and now they want £71?! not just that but my account is £100 in debit?! how the heck did that happen?! Yeah I'm sure the tumble dryer uses quite a bit of electricity but geez! The person on the phone told me if I switch to direct debit I could save £80 a year but no thank you I get into way too much trouble with direct debits, I can never keep track of how much is coming off when and sooner or later the bank is charging me unneccesary £40 fees. Then I noticed the tumble dryer was at the 80 minute mark I opened it up and had a feel, everything was dry! 'WILLIAM!' I've enforced a new rule, the tumble dryer gets set at 40 minutes on high and if theres anything not dry after that time it can get hung up on a radiator or drying rack. What a way to end a perfectly good year, heres hoping 2011 isn't full of annoying little surprises like that!