Electricity and gas bills make families and businesses struggle: “The little you earn is to pay for the bills”

Electricity and gas bills continue to upset families. The energy crisis has driven prices to levels that are hard to accept. Household habits are changing. The cost of electricity invites you to look for the cheapest times to use appliances. The rise of gas, pending the arrival of winter, forces shorter showers and lower temperature.

Both the price of gas and electricity have reached the highest levels in history. This is one of the main causes of double-digit inflation. A CPI that has boosted the cost of the shopping basket. So the family economy is for so few joys that many people recognize that they have had to reduce their consumption in bars or restaurants or suppress their spending on leisure. A cut that Diego Seda noticed in his bar in Seville. He is also affected by energy costs. Bills have gone up 100%. As a result he has disconnected some refrigerators, replaced the air conditioning with a fan and kept many lights off. Despite everything he has not lost his sense of humour; he jokes that he is thinking of changing the name of the bar and calling it “The Cave” because that is how it begins to be known by the customers of the neighborhood.

On the street the testimonies are repeated. To save as much as possible to make ends meet. Some of the respondents claim that they have reduced the number of washing machines weekly or that they have changed the bulbs of the house for LEDs. Vicenta is a pensioner and recognizes that they are having a hard time, in fact they have sold the car and the bike. They could not keep them. Manuel and Isabel are also retirees. In their house are 670 euros of pension. Manuel complains: “This is criminal. every two months I paid 90 euros of electricity bill, now I pay more than a hundred a month”

The increase in energy costs and prices in general put 28% of Spaniards at risk of poverty. Maite Galdón volunteers at a soup kitchen in Fuenlabrada. She assures us that more and more users come, of which many had never imagined having to. In addition, she predicts that the worst is yet to come. The cold and winter will multiply the energy costs of many families and it will be harder for them to reach the end of the month.