A wee tale via my big sister Debby. She’s a Manchester based aerobics/step/body pump etc instructor, and excitedly went to the massive instructors convention on at Blackpool’s winter gardens on Friday. Deb’s as enthusiastic about her work as I am about mine, so she bounded up there early for maximum time (if you want an idea of how my sis would be in a place like this, if you’ve seen the film Kenny, you’ll understand).

A young man rang my doorbell, maybe aged 20. He said he was from the local learning disability home and was looking for sponsorship for a ten-mile run he was doing; the money would support the home. He handed me an untidy sponsorship list which many people had signed. After a brief conversation, to my instincts (and...

I’m interested to know if there’s a new trend in companies using disguised premium rate 0870 numbers (see the saynoto0870 guide). Twice in the last week I’ve been given 0870 numbers to dial, yet rather than being told the number is 0870-123-123, both times it’s been told to me as 087-012-3123. Thus the call operator is never...

Just a quick update on some earlier blogs (see LSE Governors blog and blagging about fiduciary responsibility). I’m very proud to say it’s been confirmed that I will be officially joining the Governors this year. Comment and Discuss

Back in 1995, at the end of my year as General Secretary (President) of the LSE Students Union, having only recently discovered e-mail, the entertainments sabbatical, Gary Delaney (who’s now a stand-up comic), and I were surfing the web – before it was called that – and came across Stephen Fry’s website. Back then the internet was...

If you read my why does no one text me? blog, you’ll know that these days after I’ve been on TV I don’t get any texts from friends or family. 

I know many MoneySavers are stats nerds like me. So I thought you’d enjoy the fact that yesterday was busiest the site has ever had. The vast majority of this is due to the weekly MoneySaving email, where both the Ryanair 1p flights article and Are your savings safe?} were HUGELY well read/used. Overall the stats for...

I’m quite substantially under the weather at the moment, which is a bit of a struggle since the financial collapse means I’m getting a lot of interview requests. However it has made me mull over what I call, “the different types of well.” Bed Well: When you’re in bed you feel fine but as soon as you...

You have to hand it to ING Direct; first it sold out its customers by continually allowing its rates to drop, now it’s put the rate up, and left its old “no tricks” branding out in the cold.

The latest announcement from Ocado (the online delivery firm for Waitrose) that it will price match Tesco on branded goods, is welcome news. I’m yet to check out the details, but at first glance it seems this will mean online shopping via Waitrose could actually undercut the in-store price (see the Cheap Supermarkets article for more). What...