Very confused

With the cost of gas and electricity in the news at the moment, due to the imminent price rises, I thought I would have to at least make an effort and check if I can get a better deal. I am such a low user I can't see how I can get it any lower other than by not switching on any appliances and not putting the heating on. Ah well let's have a look at it, I haven't got time to be trawling through the comparison web sites, but you never know I might learn something.

I have to admit I struggle to understand all the different tariffs, don't know what a kwh is, don't understand how they convert metric units into kwh's, what is a metric unit anyway? First I need to know how much fuel I have used in the last year, that's easy, add up the total money paid on the last four quarterly bills. I get both gas and electricity from British Gas. Armed with these figures I can then go to the comparison sites and look for a better deal. Right, I spent £169 on gas and £179 on electricity. Total £348 for the year.

First stop was to check on the British Gas web site. They have sent me a letter saying I can freeze my tariff at the new rate, for one year from the date of the price rise in November. It's called Fix and Fall. They have 28 flippin tariffs listed, how flippin confusing. It turns out that I could save £12 per year if I went on to their new fangled Fix and Fall. Don't think I will bother.

Next, Uswitch said I could go onto the NPower Juice tariff and save £31 a year. Confused came up with Telecom plus for £259, saving £88 per year, and Tesco Compare said I could sign up with NPower on their Gosave dual fuel for £211 per year, saving a massive £136. How the heck can they get it down to that? Now my head is spinning, I just don't understand a lot of figures.

What confuses me is that not all companies have anounced their price rises, so who knows what they are going to be. The figures I have calculated for the last year are going to be lower anyway (at the old price), so the savings quoted now are going to look good. They won't look so good when they have all followed suit and put their prices up.

I always think of the saying, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. Call me sceptical if you like, but I simply don't believe anything the utility companies tell me. I can see the point of families shopping around who may use a lot of fuel, but I don't think my current bills are too bad at all. Looking at my annual statement it suggests a Clear and Simple tariff might be better for me. The web site says one thing and the statement says another, what a flippin nightmare. I think I will give British Gas a ring. If they can save me a few bob I will go for it. I'm going to have to stop writing about this because I have spent enough time pondering about it today. The more I ponder the more confused I get. Help, let me out of here!