The MSG and I have just returned from our Summer hols in the Costa del Sol. Whilst there we took a trip to Gibraltar and fell prey to some thieving monkeys. Luckily in this case they were literally of the furry variety. At the top of the rock, preparing to see the cage, we bought an ice-lolly...

I cycle to work; and since my old clapped out bike is on its last legs (or wheels) it’s time to go and get a new one. As I work in Shepherds Bush where bike security isn’t the best, I tend to buy the cheapest I can. My journey is short and simple, so a cheap functional...

That’s it. How many times will I get to blog saying that? Nuff said. Martin Discuss this blog

It never ceases to amaze me the weight of human kindness that’s possible in the forum. Having blogged on it in the past, (see Kindness of Strangers ) I’ve just heard of another example, though I need to keep it deliberately vague on request. A soon to be mum, who’s been having a financially difficult time, was...

The web has lots of powerful tools you can put to use in ways you mightn’t think. One of those we use here is Google Trends which allows you to map the volume of searches done on specific terms against each other. For example when naming the PPI reclaiming article – I wasn’t sure if people would...

Apart from ‘Money Saving Expert’, when asked, it’s becoming quite tough to define what I do. While the core route and skill is journalism, more specifically it’s specialised investigation into consumer finance product and campaigning journalism. As this site has grown over the last four years, I think I need to look at its definition; less of...

Last weekend the MSG and I went to visit two pairs of our good friends who’ve both just had their first babies, and I wanted to note down a quick hello and congratulations. First Geoff and Leonie, who are rightly cooing over lovely little Ruby born about four weeks ago; and Ceri and Mark who had gorgeous...

I just got a shock. My old University, the LSE, have sent me a couple of old articles I wrote for the University magazine when I was Gen Sec (President) of the Students Union there. One I’d already seen, recording my big claim to fame, when I got to present Mick Jagger with his Honorary SU Presidency...

Last night I took the MoneySaving Towers team out for our 1,000,000 dinner; to celebrate the fact that we’d hit that many people on the e-mail list. Actually this happened back in February and there are well over 1,370,000 receiving the weekly e-mail now. Yet we’ve been so busy, this is the first time everyone could get...

The winner of the Debt Dieter contest has just been in the office to have photos taken with me, as the story is going to go in a national newspaper. As such I don’t want to give too much away. Yet I just wanted to say the real joy is not just that she’s reduced her debts...