Octopus Tracker

masonic

matt_drummer said:

FreeBear said:

matt_drummer said: 2,000 kWh at 23p instead of 18p is only £100 extra a year, £8.33 a month.

Or the price of a decent bottle of wine (or a case of cheap plonk). I know what I'd prefer.

If I was that bothered I would devote the time I spent worrying about something I cannot change on something more productive, such as earning some extra money to pay for the moderately increased electricity cost plus the bottle of wine and a slap up meal to go with it!

How productive or profitable do you consider it to devote time arguing against people discussing saving money on the moneysavingexpert forum?

matt_drummer

masonic said:

matt_drummer said:

FreeBear said:

matt_drummer said: 2,000 kWh at 23p instead of 18p is only £100 extra a year, £8.33 a month.

Or the price of a decent bottle of wine (or a case of cheap plonk). I know what I'd prefer.

If I was that bothered I would devote the time I spent worrying about something I cannot change on something more productive, such as earning some extra money to pay for the moderately increased electricity cost plus the bottle of wine and a slap up meal to go with it!

How productive or profitable do you consider it to argue against people saving money on the moneysavingexpert forum?

I am not arguing against anything.

The question was - what will happen when a current tariff is not available?

The answer is - not much, as it is not much different from the one that is available now unless a person uses massive amounts of electricity, and even then, in percentage terms, still not much.

There is no option, that Tracker tariff will vanish and be replaced by the new one.

Money saving can come in various forms, rather than using time deliberating over something that is a dead end, a person could use that time focussing on something that increases income to cover an unavoidable increase in costs.

So, maybe not money saving in the strictest sense, but money increasing, it has the same result.

Eventually there is only so much money you can save, there's no such limit on what you can earn.

On top of that, the savings available to some people are tiny whatever they do, if you use very little of something there is very little to save.

Coincidentally, if you use very little of something, and the price increases by a small amount, it will only end up in a small increase in costs.

How much consideration time is that worth when the rewards are extremely limited and the risks are tiny in absolute financial terms?

masonic

matt_drummer said:

masonic said:

matt_drummer said:

FreeBear said:

matt_drummer said: 2,000 kWh at 23p instead of 18p is only £100 extra a year, £8.33 a month.

Or the price of a decent bottle of wine (or a case of cheap plonk). I know what I'd prefer.

If I was that bothered I would devote the time I spent worrying about something I cannot change on something more productive, such as earning some extra money to pay for the moderately increased electricity cost plus the bottle of wine and a slap up meal to go with it!

How productive or profitable do you consider it to argue against people saving money on the moneysavingexpert forum?

I am not arguing against anything.

The question was - what will happen when a current tariff is not available?

The answer is - not much, as it is not much different from the one that is available now unless a person uses massive amounts of electricity, and even then, in percentage terms, still not much.

There is no option, that Tracker tariff will vanish and be replaced by the new one.

Money saving can come in various forms, rather than using time deliberating over something that is a dead end, a person could use that time focussing on something that increases income to cover an unavoidable increase in costs.

So, maybe not money saving in the strictest sense, but money increasing, it has the same result.

Eventually there is only so much money you can save, there's no such limit on what you can earn.

A choice will need to be made, come what may. Doing nothing will default the customer to SVT, which could cost them more than a trivial amount, whereas cheaper options have severe tail-risks. So it is not surprising to see a fair bit of debate around what to do for the best. When one sees pages and pages of discussion around timing the opening of a financial account perfectly to earn an additional 10p elsewhere, this is nothing by comparison.

matt_drummer

masonic said:

matt_drummer said:

masonic said:

matt_drummer said:

FreeBear said:

matt_drummer said: 2,000 kWh at 23p instead of 18p is only £100 extra a year, £8.33 a month.

Or the price of a decent bottle of wine (or a case of cheap plonk). I know what I'd prefer.

If I was that bothered I would devote the time I spent worrying about something I cannot change on something more productive, such as earning some extra money to pay for the moderately increased electricity cost plus the bottle of wine and a slap up meal to go with it!

How productive or profitable do you consider it to argue against people saving money on the moneysavingexpert forum?

I am not arguing against anything.

The question was - what will happen when a current tariff is not available?

The answer is - not much, as it is not much different from the one that is available now unless a person uses massive amounts of electricity, and even then, in percentage terms, still not much.

There is no option, that Tracker tariff will vanish and be replaced by the new one.

Money saving can come in various forms, rather than using time deliberating over something that is a dead end, a person could use that time focussing on something that increases income to cover an unavoidable increase in costs.

So, maybe not money saving in the strictest sense, but money increasing, it has the same result.

Eventually there is only so much money you can save, there's no such limit on what you can earn.

A choice will need to be made, come what may. Doing nothing will default the customer to SVT, which could cost them more than a trivial amount, whereas cheaper options have severe tail-risks. So it is not surprising to see a fair bit of debate around what to do for the best.

My point was that if you only use a small amount of electricity and you go from the current tariff, the new Tracker, or even the SVT and the price went up 5p per kWh at worst, even using 2,000 kWh a year, the impact won't be a disaster for most people.

Best to avoid it if you can?

Sure.

But there are limited options, it is only SVT, the new Tracker or Agile for somebody that doesn't need E7, has no EV, has no battery storage and doesn't like other options such as TE.

It can't take that much deliberation I would have thought when the difference between any of them is pretty small. 

masonic

matt_drummer said:

It can't take that much deliberation I would have thought when the difference between any of them is pretty small. 

I don't disagree with your sentiments, but in my experience, telling people to forget about things that are worrying them is rarely productive. Especially in a venue devoted to that subject. Those deliberations can unearth useful information we can all use to guide our decisions.

matt_drummer

masonic said:

matt_drummer said:

It can't take that much deliberation I would have thought when the difference between any of them is pretty small. 

I don't disagree with your sentiments, but in my experience, telling people to forget about things that are worrying them is rarely productive. Especially in a venue devoted to that subject.

I think you have misunderstood.

It's not easy to convey what you really mean sometimes on the internet.

In person, I would have reassured a person that there was little need to worry too much, and hopefully that would have come across.

The same here.

What I was trying to do was reassure, there's no need to worry.

The impact is minimal.

We all like to save money but surely the efforts need to be proportional to the rewards?

There are such a wide range of subjects discussed on here and I have never been entirely sure that the forum was solely dedicated to saving money, but maybe that's what it should be?

Then surely, the ultimate money saving is that we all just get disconnected from the grid, 100% saved for everybody!

masonic

Fair enough. Sometimes comments come across far more hostile than was intended.

matt_drummer

masonic said:

Fair enough. Sometimes comments come across far more hostile than was intended.

I am direct and to the point (accountant!), no hostility intended ever

I like to get things in perspective, money isn't everything, and sometimes focussing on earning is more productive than fretting over saving £50 a year on a utility bill.

Certainly for me, quality of life comes before money.

Sound advice in my mind.

There aren't may options for anybody unless they want to go extreme in cutting use, changing their lifestyle, or investing heavily in `stuff'

QrizB

masonic said:

A choice will need to be made, come what may.

"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."

Rush - Freewill.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=urBpdyFCZmo

Doc_N

masonic said:

matt_drummer said:

masonic said:

matt_drummer said:

FreeBear said:

matt_drummer said: 2,000 kWh at 23p instead of 18p is only £100 extra a year, £8.33 a month.

Or the price of a decent bottle of wine (or a case of cheap plonk). I know what I'd prefer.

If I was that bothered I would devote the time I spent worrying about something I cannot change on something more productive, such as earning some extra money to pay for the moderately increased electricity cost plus the bottle of wine and a slap up meal to go with it!

How productive or profitable do you consider it to argue against people saving money on the moneysavingexpert forum?

I am not arguing against anything.

The question was - what will happen when a current tariff is not available?

The answer is - not much, as it is not much different from the one that is available now unless a person uses massive amounts of electricity, and even then, in percentage terms, still not much.

There is no option, that Tracker tariff will vanish and be replaced by the new one.

Money saving can come in various forms, rather than using time deliberating over something that is a dead end, a person could use that time focussing on something that increases income to cover an unavoidable increase in costs.

So, maybe not money saving in the strictest sense, but money increasing, it has the same result.

Eventually there is only so much money you can save, there's no such limit on what you can earn.

A choice will need to be made, come what may. Doing nothing will default the customer to SVT, which could cost them more than a trivial amount, whereas cheaper options have severe tail-risks. So it is not surprising to see a fair bit of debate around what to do for the best. When one sees pages and pages of discussion around timing the opening of a financial account perfectly to earn an additional 10p elsewhere, this is nothing by comparison.

You’ll be aware, I’m sure, of Hot UK Deals. One of the hottest threads lately has related to a free chocolate orange worth around a pound. Several people on that thread have spent literally hours trying to get one, and the final outcome is almost certainly that the whole thing was just a data gathering exercise, with no free chocolate at all!