Quote from Savings Beagle on January 7, 2022, 9:15 am

I just received a letter from my natural gas supplier notifying me that my heating costs will increase about 50% in 2022.

Unfortunately, for anyone paying attention to the current inflation numbers, this isn’t a surprise. Still, the amount of the increase is staggering.

And, for some, very well may be a hardship when it comes to paying to heat their homes in the coming months.

For many years now, rather than paying a monthly charge based on usage, I’ve chosen to pay a budgeted amount to even out the increased winter natural gas bills over the full year.

This also helps with monthly budgeting, in general.

Typically, the budget amount is re-evaluated once a year based on prior usage and, likely, trends in the commodities markets.

It’s been common to have a dollar or two increase from one year to the next in the budget bill amount, and even a small decrease every once in a while.

Never has there been such a significant increase in the budget amount…ever!

A 54.8% increase to be exact in my monthly budget bill for the next year.

Personally, I don’t call that inflation trend transitory.

We in the U.S. have actually been pretty lucky when it comes to natural gas prices.

This 5-year chart shows a spike in natural gas prices in October/November, but a slight dropoff and stabilization in December.

Not enough of a decline to keep future budget bills from skyrocketing, though.

The European Union, however, has seen a very significant jump, which even with a December decline remains greatly inflated from historical pricing levels.

If they don’t see a warmer than normal winter, many European families will definitely feel the financial pinch when it comes to heating their homes.

But then, it looks like many in the U.S. will be feeling the same.

How about you? Have you received notice on upcoming natural gas pricing?