Fuming about sales calls to my Grandma

My gran called me just before I went away. She’d been called by a British Gas salesperson telling her she should switch because she’s wasting money. Actually I’ve made sure she’s with Staywarm (see gas & elec article) which is the best for her. What’s so annoying is she always calls to check because she thinks these...

Off on holiday! Hope you all have a great Christmas and New Year

While I’m still on the screens at the moment, I’m taking a break until 2 Jan, way out west to have a rest and a bit of winter sun. It’s been a wonderful but hard six months so I’m really looking forward to it. On my last break in May I took the laptop with and spent...

It’s not fun being a multi-millionaire!

The Guardian this week wrote a profile of me (see here for my comments). In it, it mentioned that this site commercially was worth £30m-£40m and as you know I own 100% of it. Now before you get excited, let me relay the entire conversation to you. “Martin, ITV just bought Friends Reunited for £175 million, Moneysupermarket...

Uh Oh, be careful what you promise for charity

I’m very pleased to say we managed to raise over £200 in the MoneySavers charity auction. However I think I trapped myself in a corner. With the books I promised “I will sign whatever you want to someone”. Now the requests are coming in and I see the error of my ways. One wants “Dear XXXXXX, you...

Well done MSE Jenny, sorry we didn’t appreciate it enough

MoneySaving towers is very male today. There are only four of us here, and poor MSE Jenny is the only woman. Sadly this meant that having just bought her outfit for the Christmas party and being very proud that she’d done it for ten pounds (she isn’t working here for nothing) MSE Dan, MSE Brendan and I...

BBC gets new business editor, but continues to ignore personal finance

The BBC has appointed Robert Peston of the Sunday Times to take Jeff Randell’s old job as Business Editor. The BBC also has a very talented economics editor in the form of Evan Davies. Yet where is the Personal Finance Editor? Or even the (grade lower) personal finance correspondent? It doesn’t have one. BBC news continues to...

Make Me Rich On Air At Last

So yesterday I watched the first Make Me Rich. Funnily enough I was nervous. Not the being on telly, that’s my job. Yet this is obviously a very important step for me. I watched it in the bar/restaurant which serves the office complex MoneySaving towers is in. Champagne was opened and about 30 people were there to...

My debut on Ready, Steady, Cook

Bizarrely after watching Make Me Rich yesterday, I was straight over to South London to film Ready, Steady, Cook. It will be shown in March. Quite an experience, I was up against Jay Hunt, the lifestyle expert from BBC3 Shopaholics. We got to do a budget bag for £3.50. Now let me tell you a secret (sssh)....

Comet: less fiery tail, more tired snail

My sister and niece need a laptop, and I’ve volunteered to do my brotherly duty and get them one. So I go to Comet which has a great front page promotion of a £399 entry level one. When I order it, it says “your order can’t be fulfilled” and then blames me incorrectly entering details. When I...

Bestseller woes

Just had some disappointing news. Rather annoyingly there’s been a problem with the counting of the sales of the Money Diet. Funnily enough exactly the same thing happened the first time and I thought we had a handle on it. None of the sales from Amazon have been counted in the first week due to a technical...