I’ve just been sorting some expenses receipts out , some for trips for TV progs, others on MSE business. A mid the lot is a range of blanks from various taxi journeys. It’s often when I get out of the cab that I ask for a receipt and they just give me a blank. Now obviously this...

There’s an interesting piece in marketing magazine this week (it came up in my press cuttings) about the degeneration of the power of sales. Here’s an extract: According to Julian Reiter, managing director of marketing group Positive Thinking, the middle class – the backbone of the British economy – now expects a discount. “Sales don’t have the...

So someone’s sent you an email, and it looks genuine, but you’re not sure and are tempted to click a link… The first rule of course is don’t! Google the website and then click on it (though sometimes Google can produce misdirecting results). I’ve just been glancing at some of the ENORMOUS amounts of spam to some...

Last night was the Citizens Advice 70th Birthday Awards and I was touched, surprised and thankful to pick up a special, unscheduled, award for Citizens Advice Champion of the Year. What’s most moving for me is Citizens Advice is the original consumer champion. The fact it manages to attract 21,000 volunteers shows its appeal, and in today’s...

Let’s stand up and applaud the sheer genius of some marketing campaigns and their Machiavellian knack to make us feel like we’re getting more for less (while often we get less for more). Over the next few weeks I plan to write a few blogs on my favourites. I’ll start with mobile phone companies giving us ‘free...

It was a seriously political day for me yesterday: before going to meet Ed Balls (see Meeting Ed Balls on Financial Education blog) I was at number 10 for a second time (see my a trip to Number 10 blog) to have a quick meet with the PM’s special adviser on consumer issues. In many ways this...

I was invited to the Department for Children, Schools & Families today for a chat with the Secretary of State, Ed Balls MP. I must admit I smiled on the way in. For nearly ten years I’ve been whinging and ranting about the fact we desperately need financial education in schools. And now rather than it being...

I ended up watching 20 min of Tim vine on the comedy channel last night… I’ve always been a fan of his machine gun one liners, there’s something amazing about the gradual build of silliness that works. My favourite (best if said out loud): “I saw a man in a restaurant snogging a shrimp – apparently he’d...

If you watch GMTV tomorrow morning, you may note I’m not wearing my wedding ring, and have slightly red-rimmed eyes. Yesterday was a mega filming morning at GMTV to do the Money Makeover special. Yet in the midst of that kerfuffle and a huge range of slots, at 11.45 I looked down and felt my heart sink,...

We’re re-launching the site masthead this week, with a new clearer look. As part of it we wanted a different pic of me which fits better with the new style. During the discovery process I’ve discovered something bizarre about myself. If you flip me I go all wrong! First we found this pic which we thought when...