Martin's Blog...

Property Porn Experts: where are you?

Where are all the TV property pundits these days? House prices are plummeting. Whether it’s a heavy correction or a crash depends on perspective, yet either way the bubble is over. While most newspapers report this as a nightmare with shock “HOUSE PRICE CRASH 10% IN A YEAR” type headlines, I don’t believe it’s a [...]

Breaking my ribs by not braking properly.

On holiday about ten days ago, I met up one day with my Uncle (Tax Tony) and his family who were staying nearby in Spain. Then Tony, my 18 year old cousin and I went Go-Karting. The problem being, young Boff (as he bizarrely likes to be known) is a bit of a petrol head; he [...]

Mocked on Mock The Week

MoneySaving’s getting mainstream … Fresh from being a weakest link question, thanks to the eagle eyed forumites (see mention in Mock The Week ) who spotted comedian Michael McIntyre taking the mick on the BBC2 show. To use forum speak, I ROTFL with it. It’s a brilliant clip, you can watch it here: BBC Iplayer [...]

Tool to find how big websites really are…

Many wee websites claim 100,000s hits, even though a hit means nothing. If you really want to see how big a website is, the rather clever Google Trends will now allow you to map the popularity of sites against each other. What Google Trends usually does Google Trends is a free tool for people [...]

Trains: What’s a fair fare system?

This week there are more ineffective attempts to tinker with the train fare system. The entire price network is a mass of anomalies and bad logic; what a mess. Of course, if you’re prepared to do the work you can beat it (see the Cheap Train Tickets guide), yet sadly the lack of [...]

All boobs and toes… a modern holiday postcard

I’ve got to share a moment from my summer hols in Southern Spain last week. The MSF and I, along with a couple of friends were walking back along the beach. In front was a bleached blond, seriously tanned girl with large boobs, a tiny bikini, red leggings on her left leg and green [...]

Why say “I’m on annual leave”?

For me, I go on holiday or take a break. Yet more and more people’s email auto-replies over the summer state “I’m on annual leave, will be returning on…”. I’ve never understood the use of what to me is a rather stodgy old-fashioned phrase. If you “go on annual leave”, why? Comment and Discuss

Little Sister’s MoneySaving Tips.

Rarely are you listened to in your own home. My dad continues to ignore many MoneySaving opportunities and my big sister constantly amazes me by doing almost the opposite of what I suggest. Yet there is a Lewis household hope… Talya, my thirteen year old little sister is perhaps the MoneySaving junior, and was [...]

A 1p good Weeze: flying to Germany for a bit of fun.

There’s much debate about whether budget airline flights can really be cheap. We all know of the ridiculous number of possible additional charges, for checking in, extra baggage or even paying by DEBIT card. Yet even so, if you find a super-low cost or even one-penny flight you can have a holiday break for very [...]

Marking on the curve; is it the solution to A-levels?

Today the A-level results are out, and there are familiar scenes: Lots of delighted and a few despondent teenagers; reports from the government of another record results year; calls that standards are dropping and it’s just due to easier marking; battles about coursework and exam-based assessment. Whether exams have got easier I don’t know, but [...]

Car Insurance: Comparing the Comparisons…

As regulars will know, one of the key steps in the Cheap Car Insurance guide, is to use comparison sites in the right order. To decide that order we undertake a comparison of the comparison sites. The sheer scale of MSE and the fact the papers often cover the order, means it’s hotly contested. [...]

Appearing on The Weakest Link. Well, as a question!

On Friday’s daytime edition of The Weakest Link, apparently the following question was asked: “Which name is shared by a BBC news presenter and a Money Saving Expert?” It seems they got it right! Comment and Discuss

One reason to never let work experience people act unsupervised…

We received the following e-mail today: “Hello, My name is David and I am contacting you on behalf of Name Removed Building Society. I read your homepage and found your site contains some quality content relating to finance. We would like to request a link from this page, as your users may benefit from access to mortgage [...]

Does anyone have a hobby?

I’ve just had one of those mind blank moments. I was doing a recorded interview for James Watt’s late night TalkSport comedy programme this Saturday am. He’s set up the Bum Reading Expert website as a homage to this one, and in the home he can “read bums on TV”. As my dad’s a [...]

Ofgem the regulator is listening; good stuff

About ten days ago, by coincidence just before the mass of energy price hike news (which is why it’s taken me so long to blog this), I was delighted that three representatives from Ofgem came to MSE Towers to gather info on the energy market and our perspective on it. As it’s rare for [...]

I nearly told the nation to F*** off!

Following on from yesterday’s TV is frustrating blog, this morning on GMTV I was much happier with my performance. Yet I can’t believe what just happened. The One O’Clock news I rarely do BBC TV, as I tend to be seen as a face of ITV and Five. So it was a surprise to be invited [...]

Frustrated with myself. I was awful on GMTV today

I’m feeling annoyed with myself after my GMTV slot this morning. Having done energy capping yesterday in a way I was really proud of, there was so much interest they wanted me on again. I had three minutes, as many people were confused, and sadly I think I probably hindered rather than helped. [...]

When did the phone bill become irrelevant?

I was interviewed by a newspaper today about combating inflation and keeping your big bills cheap. She asked about home phone bills and I decided it wasn’t a priority - certainly not a top five issue. Yet when I first started as Money Saving Expert in 2000, home phone bills were one of the big ‘uns. [...]

‘Is your company offering money for a pension? TAKE IT TAKE IT TAKE IT!’

My friend Rufus (not a real name to protect anonymity) who’s a broadcaster, was talking about his pension scheme the other day. It promises that for every pound contributed it will match it up to a maximum 5% of his salary. Yet for three years Rufus hasn’t been putting money in. I was shocked; this [...]

How the other 1% live…

I know I’ve a privileged lifestyle; I have a good career, go on the telly and earn well, yet today I travelled to privilege’s far side…. in truth not even the other 1% but probably the other 0.01%. I’ve just come back from a day at the Cartier Polo on a scorching 80 degree plus [...]