Money Save Tips Quicker Than GMTV, GMTV Audience > Money Save Tips

On Wednesday I prompted you to sign up with Scottish Power.

On Thursday morning, Martin Lewis on GMTV did the same thing.

Given that the GMTV audience is in the millions, and the audience for this website is probably in the dozens, my advice had negligible impact.

GMTV, on the other hand, managed to overwhelm the Scottish Power phone systems and website to the extent that the deal is now gone.

If you want to beat the rush with the best money saving tips, you know where to come.

Last Chance To Save Money On Your Gas and Electricity

Well, that didn't last long!!

Just 24 hours after I recommended it, the fixed price dual fuel tariff ScottishPower are offering is being pulled from the market imminently. To be replaced no doubt, by a higher cost offer.

This is your last chance to sign up.

The offer is so popular, their website is struggling to cope, so you may have to hit F5/refresh seven or eight times to get through to the front page.

When you get there, the deal you are looking for is ScottishPower Online Fixed Price Energy 2009. Good luck!

Act Like A Big Business With Fixed Rate Gas and Electricity Tariffs

I am a big fan of using fixed price financial products to control and forecast my financial commitments. Fixed rate mortgages, fixed rate loans, and now fixed rate energy products.

Fixed rate energy products give individuals the chance to think and act like big businesses.

In the current financial climate, the perfect example is airlines. They are hurting badly from soaring fuel costs, but can manage this problem by a process known as 'hedging'. This simply means they agree to buy fuel in advance at a pre-arranged price, rather than risking that prices will have gone even higher by the time they come to need the fuel.

The downside of this of course is that prices may have fallen by the time they take delivery of the fuel, but when the alternative is risking going bust if prices have gotten to unmanageable levels, this is a price worth paying.

Hedging then is really a type of insurance policy against prices getting into crazy territory.

This insurance is now available to consumers in the form of fixed price gas and electricity tariffs.

Be warned, this does not mean your bill is guaranteed to be fixed. This is still dependent on your energy consumption.

What is guaranteed is you can regain control of your expenditure on heating your home, if you can apply some self discipline and a small amount of effort.

To use a simple example, if your monthly usage of electricity is 100 units at a fixed price of £1 per unit, your electricity bill will be £100 per month.

If you decide to make efforts to cut consumption - switch off lights in empty rooms, don't leave the TV on stand-by when you go to bed, only boil a cupful of water when making tea for yourself - and reduce your consumption to 80 units per month, then your bill will fall to £80 per month. Plus you are saving the environment. Feels good, eh?

Contrast this with your neighbour who makes the same efforts to cut consumption, only to find their bill has gone up, because the electricity company is now charging them £1.30 per unit. Well, at least they are still saving the planet, even if they are going broke at the same time.

Fixed price contracts generally charge more per unit at this moment in time than a regular contract. But with price rises seeming to be an almost monthly occurrence, they are a simple way of buying protection against the risk of your home energy bills becoming unaffordable.

The best deal on the market right now is from ScottishPower, and you can sign up here.

Welcome To Money Save Tips

There is never a bad time to find ways to save a few pennies; but with recession looming, a credit crunch that just keeps grinding, the mortgage market collapsing, petrol prices soaring, and inflation threatening to spiral out of control, this is a particularly good time to look at ways of saving or making money.

I intend to offer practical advice, constructive comment, and a few more off-the-wall ideas for either saving on money spent, or earning extra cash.

Be warned, there will be no quick fixes; no earn £10,000 per month working from home schemes; no scams. Hard work and some deep thinking WILL be required.

It won't all be hair shirt and self-flagellation.

Managing money needn't be boring, and if the end result is a better summer holiday for your family, a nicer car, or maybe even an earlier retirement, I hope you will find the effort not only rewarding, but enjoyable.

With that in mind, I'll be highlighting some of the best deals on the web.

An economic slowdown is no fun for the working man or woman, but it's no fun for the manufacturers and retailers out there either.

That means there are bargains to be had, but remember, a bargain is only a bargain if you genuinely need or want the item you are buying, and can afford the reduced price.

If not, it's not a bargain. It's an evil temptation seducing you down a path of instant gratification, but with a hidden destination of an extended working life and impoverished retirement.

My intention is to give you the courage to resist evil temptation, and the insight to set achievable goals that will lead you down an ultimately more enjoyable path.

Please join me for what should be a fun trip.