In light of my last post, the warning about the doom and gloom to come…I should say, that it’s not just doom and gloom.

But FRUSTRATION too!

As a result of Tim’s MS we get a 17% discount on our power bill. It’s called a Medical Cooling Concession and basically it’s because for people with MS, heat tolerance is drastically reduced. The 17% discount is presumably to help cover the extra cost of cooling over summer.

So the other day we’re sitting at home and get a knock on the door. Not two days after that 17% discount has been added to our bill and we feel a little better about being able to pay it.

The man at the door is about to install a smart meter. Having a smart meter installed means nothing at all to us. But it sends our electricity usage to the company’s every half an hour, instead of having the power meter read every three months.

At the time, we have a friend over. And she tell’s us that they had a smart meter installed a few months back and all it meant to them was a 30% increase in the power bill.

WELL! That pisses me off. Because we’ve only just got the 17% discount and if what she says is true, then it’s been made completely redundant by this stupid smart meter. No matter how you look at it we’re getting a 13% increase.

So she also tells us some ways of saving money on your power bill. And these seem fairly easy and well, regardless of what our bill is or the discount we’re going to get…I get to thinking that it couldn’t hurt to save some money right??

Right!

All she does is turn everything off at the power point when they’re not in use. The microwave, so you don’t pay for the clock. The DVD and TV so you don’t pay for the little red light they have to say they’re on standby. Everything but her fridge and freezer get turned off at the power point over night and if they’re out. She said it has saved them heaps on their electricity bills.

So I woke up the next day determined to make a difference to our power bill. When we left the house for a considerable amount of time, I switched the DVD player and the TV and set top box off at the power.

We came home three hours later, and when we tried to turn the DVD player back on…it wouldn’t. It was BROKEN!

I cried for half an hour. And on and off all night I would break in to spontaneous tears. Because I was simply trying to make a difference. Trying to save some money. And all it got me was another bill. A DVD player replacement bill.

It just seems to me that some times, when you really try to make a difference, something works against you.

I held my arms up high in front of me and I yelled….why do I bother!?

(side note: that didn’t make a pinch of shit of difference. It didn’t even make me FEEL better about having to fork out money we don’t have for a new DVD player. But I did it anyway!)