Electricity bill sends me to charity

Got the winter electricity bill. It's been fuckin cold here in Sydney so far this winter, and we've had to have the heater on in the loungeroom. This old place, with high ceilings and a two story block of units blocking the winter sun, get's bloody cold. We've also had to have the electric blankets on on our bed, and a little heater in the room just to keep the chill off it. We live near the water and La Perouse where all the weather starts in Sydney's eastern suburbs, and here where we are we often cop the brunt of that. In the end it's cheaper to be warm than end up in hospital, and a lot less stressful :)

So our quarterly power bill came in this month, even with my pensioner discount, at this impossible $570 or so. Um, no doubt the repeal of the carbon tax will send me a windfall of $10 a week to pay for this shit? ..........

But I digress.........  

So whatever the politics are we simply need help with this. So I rang BGF and they offer help with electricity bills. All I have to do is print out my income statement from Centrelink along with a bank statement to prove I'm still poor. I haven't accessed BGF since they helped me with the big debt I had after getting sick, and a free course on depression. 

So here I am. It's embarrassing. After working full time for 30 years this is what it's come to. I get sick and have to go to charity. This has a huge impact on my concept of self worth. I've avoided it until now but I just have no choice. I'm embarrassed even that David has to be involved in it. But like I said we've been backed into a corner.