Martin’s Blog…

Now don’t get excited everyone, I’ve only just started going out with the MSG, as most of you should know it’s this site that’s my baby. Anyway we’re in the process of the first ever proper redesign. The site will still work the same way but it’s going to have a different look and navigation, to make it a bit crisper and easier to use. I saw the MSE Designer’s first drafts today and they’re fantastic. The site colour is going to be mainly light blue, there’s a new little monster to represent consumer revenge and the whole thing looks much more clean.

Rather than the current ‘navigation bar’ on the left and the big logo on the top the new top section will be where you navigate, with tabs of each section (they’re being reorganised too, with credit cards and loans being merged to one section and a new ‘families and health’ section being added). Also each section will now have sub-menus to make it easier to find things.

As the left hand bar is being lost, there’ll be a new ‘browse bar’ on the right, which will have interesting and relevant articles related to whatever is currently being viewed. One of the biggest messages I get from newbies is “how do you even find out what’s on here? There’s so much!” so the browse bar should help that. The site is also going to be fixed at 800 pixels wide, so all browsers can see it and there’ll be a border round it for those looking on bigger resolutions (like MSN or the Guardian does). However the Chat Forum will expand with the browser so more info can come that way.

As it’s all decided now it’s just got to be fully built. These things always take longer than you think, but my hope is sometime late summer it’ll be ready. Fingers crossed!

Discuss this blog

As noted in an earlier blog, I’m currently using speech dication as my RSI is bad. I was dictating a note to the Make Me Rich Exec Producer, Cat who’s gorgeous, but also a ferociously tough cookie sometimes. My intended “it was lovely to talk to you this afternoon” was kindly turned into “it was lovely to torture you this afternoon”!!

‘Nuff said!

Discuss this blog

I’ve seen an advert two or three times this weekend, for Norwich Union and its investment plans. At the end it says if you need help contact our Financial Advisers for more information. Have you spotted the missing word?

Of course the missing word is Independent. Go to Norwich Union looking for an investment, and its Financial Advisers are only allowed to look at Norwich Union’s own plans. They can’t compare other product providers’ policies, they can’t look across the entire market. Now to be 100% fair to Norwich Union, it does offer the option of sending you through to find an IFA, but the ad and thrust is towards a Financial Adviser.

Some of you may be surprised to read me trumpeting on about this, after all historically I’m no great fan of IFAs (Independent Financial Advisers), though to confuse things I will leave my reasons behind that for another time. However let’s make no bones about it, I would desperately prefer anybody to go to an IFA rather than a simple FA. If ever you are getting advice about financial products from a ‘Financial Adviser’ if they’re not INDEPENDENT, don’t do it, walk away.

When it comes to investment planning, if you don’t know what you’re doing, and you really feel you need help (doing it yourself without help, providing you can do the research, is much cheaper as you don’t have to pay commission or fees for advice; see Savings and Investment section) then an IFA is a better way to go. If you want to find an IFA then use www.unbiased.co.uk to locate those based in your local area.

Discuss this blog

Having just returned from holiday, the MSG called up excitedly to report she’d just won a rather interesting weather award (she’s a weather presenter)….. Well done MSG I’m proud of you.

Discuss this blog

PS. And contrary to the ‘I am Spartacus claims in the chat forum’ the MSG still hasn’t been brave enough to post there yet (See past blog )

I’ve started to notice a disturbing trend among some of the inhabitants of MSE Towers! Having just come back from the Jeremy Vine programme, where I was originally scheduled to do a short newsy discussion on Reclaiming Bank Charges, followed by the main phone-in about cutting the cost of running a car – I spotted something worrying.

For reasons of time it was decided to drop the bank charges discussion. However we pre-prepare the special “Radio 2 Listeners Note� which stays on the front of the site for 36 hours after the programme. In it there are links to all the articles being discussed in the programme, to make it easier for people to find the relevant info.

Usually while I’m on the programme MSE Andrea listens to it and adds any relevant articles we hadn’t predicted would be mentioned; and takes away any that aren’t relevant. Yet when I returned to MSE Towers, the reclaiming bank charges article was still there and up on the site during one of its busiest periods.

Now this isn’t down to poor work practices, oh no… in fact it is much more insidious. You see in MSE Towers at the moment, several of the team have become addicted to a Web trading game called Alexadex, where you buy and sell virtual shares based on their popularity each day. And of course for a small site like the bankactiongroup, which is linked to from that article, it’s likely that its presence there would increase its popularity, thus increasing its virtual share price.

Now I need to stress here, that no one is in any way financially linked. These are only virtual shares, no money changes hands, it’s a game. Therefore I can assure you, there’s no question of any of the real articles or recommendations ever being impacted by this. However it is my suspicion that such virtual insider trading incidents as the above are becoming more common….

In fact this is a crime so serious, I am considering suspending MSE Andrea from access to the MSE Towers internal chocolate supply for an entire day!

Discuss this blog

PS. I would also like to point out that out of everybody in MSE Towers, I’m currently the most successful Alexadex player. Na na na na nah!

MSE Andrea’s note: Of course I’d never replace the link above (which gains $1,000 in virtual money per person joining) with mine… but as he’s already reached the $10,000 limit on it and it looks like I’m going to lose all chocolate privileges anyway please feel free to use mine here

As I’m walking through the ticket hall at Bond Street tube station this morning, a man jumps out at me.

“Oy you!�. Instantly my fight or flight reflex is kicked into gear (you’ve always got to be wary on the tube) and I carry on walking away.

Then he says “can you tell me the name of your website?�. Relaxing I say “MoneySavingExpert.com�. He replies “MoneySavingExpo?� “No MoneySavingExpert� “MoneySavingExpat?�

By now I’m descending the escalator, so I shout “MONEY SAVING EXXXPPEEERRRTTT�.

“Ah, MoneySavingExpert, why didn’t you say that first…?â€?

‘nuff said

Discuss this blog

At the end of this week, I’m off for a few days away, tripping abroad for a family celebration. The MSG is going to be coming with me, so I have adequate time to try and persuade her that she should post in the chat forums.

Currently even though she does read a few things in there, and wants to comment, she refuses (for the ‘Great Fake Tan Hunt’ she had some tips on correct application). While she enjoys the concept of MoneySaving, has read the Money Diet, and was already canny with her cash beforehand, the idea of posting in the chat forum scares the knees off her.

I have even offered her the nice, anonymous ‘The MSG’ as her Chat Forum name, yet even this deliciously tempting prospect isn’t working. What’s a boy to do?

Discuss this blog

I ate in an Italian restaurant over the weekend, I ordered anti-pasta to start, and pasta as my main course. Sadly I later discovered they don’t count each other out calorie wise.

Discuss this blog

You’d be surprised at the looks you get in any office if you say those words out loud at volume. Sadly as my RSI is now back with a vengeance, I’m back on the speech dictation. This means that many of the things I have to write, including this blog, are dictated out aloud.

Whilst give me big, chunky and processed any day’ is fine if you read it in the context of the last blog (i.e. the one about pizzas), it’s not quite as good if someone just looks over and hears just that. Worse still the speech dictation software can often make mistakes, for example the phrase ‘buffet pizza’, always seems to come out as ‘fake pizza!’ not the best thing for accurate journalism.

Of course thankfully the blog goes through a sub-editor before it goes up so (hopefully) those mistakes are caught, even if I don’t notice them when doing it. Even so, (and I just had to say ‘even so’ three times before it typed it right) it’s just a little odd to be saying everything you type out aloud in a quiet office full of people!

I should point out here, that whenever I write about my RSI, many people then kindly e-mail with suggestions of ways to help. Actually I’ve had it on and off for seven years. I’ve tried to do pretty much everything under the sun, so have heard all about copper bands, acupuncture, special typing equipment, cranial osteopathy, biomechanical equipment and various wrist rests. Some of which have provided temporary relief, but nothing has cured it. I still find the best thing for it is simply going to my osteopath.

The other question that often follows when I write about RSI is: what speech dictating software do you use? The answer is Dragon Naturally Speaking 8. For the generation it isn’t particularly bad, though it does still make, as you can tell from the above, quite a number of mistakes. Yet it does enable you to talk and it’ll simply type down what you’ve spoken, trying to get the words as right as it can. The problem with this type of software, is it’s fine writing something from scratch, but it really isn’t usable when you’re trying to edit a document, and it’s the mouse and keyboard work required to edit that really does trigger the RSI.

So I suppose my swollen hand and tingling fingers are here to stay.

PS. As a classic example of the dangers of speech dictation, when aiming to write a quick note about buying a new car the phrase “and whilst emotionally it’s very satisfying to feel the ultra newness” became “and whilst emotionally it’s very satisfying to feel the ultra new nurse!”, in some ways I think the speech dictation version is better!

Discuss this blog

I was rather surprised over the weekend to see a Pizza Hut advert proclaiming ‘now every day is an all you can eat pizza day at a bargain price of £3.99’, in other words they’ve now extended their midweek offer to the weekend.

On first glance this does seem an extremely cheap price. Of course it doesn’t include soft drinks which massively add to the overall price, and of course it’s unlikely that if you have pizza you’ll not have a drink especially if you’re there with kids. Of course though, good MoneySavers may well be ordering tap water.

More importantly though, you actually have to question what’s on offer. Now I’m no Pizza snob, while the MSG likes big vegetable laden stone-baked ‘real quality pizza’, give me big, chunky and processed any day. In fact whilst I rarely recommend based on personal preferences, there’s nothing like a Domino’s pizza especially with the onion and garlic dip.

And while Pizza Hut pizza is also quite yummy, is it me or does the buffet pizza never quite seem to be the same quality? It may well be me suffering from retail snobbery, thinking that because it’s cheaper it can’t be as good, but I’m not sure. Even so £3.99 is a bargain price for pizza, though perhaps it’s still expensive for a thick piece of bread with cheese and tomato on top!

Discuss this blog

I’ve just got off the phone having put in a call to Carol Vorderman’s agent. As some will know I’m considering launching a campaign to ask Carol to back out of doing adverts for secured debts. I have to be honest with you - my heart was pounding as I made the call. As it happens her agent wasn’t there.

I’m a bit nervous about doing this. Normally my aim is to take on companies, not to discuss individuals and it does feel like it’s personal. However, it’s important that the normalisation of secured debts, via the use of credible celebrity endorsements is stopped, and I hope to play my wee part in it.

Imagine being in a room full of weather people – very strange!

Last night I went to a special screening of the new Nicholas Cage film ‘The Weather Man’, as the MSG’s main role is as a weather presenter. Having stepped inside, all the weather people were called together for a photo-shoot, at which point I was officially appointed ‘weather folk coat holder’. I waited in the background holding both the MSG’s and some other people’s coats (barring Michael Fish who took his own through) while they posed for the photos.

Then it was screening time. It was in a special room at a swanky Soho hotel. As for the film itself, I’ve got to be honest I wasn’t impressed. Far too depressing for my taste and nowhere near pacey enough - then again you can’t exactly walk out of a special screening when one of the actors is sitting in front of you (it was the ’son’ from the film, he was also in ‘About a boy’).

It wasn’t all bad though, there were a few laugh out loud moments. Perhaps the one with the most resonance for me was the scene with two viewers dissecting the weather man’s performance while watching it at home. I think the phrase was “he’s an asshole” - and this they decided after just a minute watching it. Let’s be honest it’s what everyone does, and as I know from reading chat forum feedback (some here but mostly elsewhere) people can be very cruel when you’re on telly - public property and all that.

Afterwards there were nibbles and drinks and weather people wandering around gossiping. Thankfully the MSG is a weather presenter not a meteorologist so we weren’t involved in the weather talk. Lucky really. I know more about the price of umbrellas than whether to use them!

Discuss this blog