Over the last month the trade publication the Travel Trades Gazette has been running one of its periodic ‘travel agents think Martin Lewis has satan’s horns’ pieces, because of our guide to haggling down package holiday prices. Yet the latest news story really takes the biscuit… The following appeared in our press cuttings: Martin Lewis turns down...

It may be rather swap-shopish, but yes, someone has done a knitted version of me. Like me he’s rather attached to a TV sofa (though in his case his bum’s actually sewn onto it).  As for the resemblance, I’ll let you judge that for yourselves from these pics. Though I’m hoping my face is a little more...

How ill are you? It’s a common enough question, yet quite difficult to answer. As a classic repeated man flu victim, to let Mrs. MSE know how I’m doing I use different levels of well… ‘bed well’, ‘home well’ and more… As my codification was well received on my Facebook page the other day I thought it...

So what lessons are there for civil servants to learn about saving money? Perhaps it’s one of the most important questions in Government at the moment, and I was asked to make a presentation on it to a few hundred civil servants yesterday. The introduction from Martin Wyn Griffith, head of procurement for the department, went something like...

Vandalism and graffiti can’t be condoned, yet it was tough not to smile wryly when I saw what had been done to one of London’s new ‘Boris Bikes’. The massive rent-a-bike scheme is supported by Barclays’ multimillion pound sponsorship. Perhaps you may see it as street art, but the care and artistry in font matching shown in the...

Buying a new wardrobe isn’t the most MoneySaving thing. Yet Daybreak wants its on-air team to ‘smarten up their image’. My jeanwear doesn’t really cut it, so this a work-related purchase. So last weekend was shopping time… I must admit at first I wasn’t best pleased about the policy, but they asked politely so I thought I...

The average overdraft rate’s now 19% (see MSE news) yet many still have a block when it comes to considering it a debt. A classic example is using a bank account to pay off credit cards, usually at a higher rate and with the added potential of bank charges… So the first thing for everyone who’s overdrawn...

A few weeks back on a Radio programme, the sports presenter mentioned his love of pizzas, leaving me praising the merits of a BBQ over a tomato base.  And now I’ve 3 x free Dominos vouchers to give away…   Why the vouchers? Soon after the programme Domino’s got in touch to offer me a series of...

While reminiscing, it just occurred to me I’ve now been the ‘Money Saving Expert’ for ten years.   On 2 Jan 2000 I left the BBC to start at Simply Money TV as a reporter, soon being made ‘Business Correspondent’,  then given the chance of my own programme, which is where it all began… The Deal of the...

Be careful what you teach kids about brands, you may just get thumped for telling them Manchester United are a business… I was doing a talk at the LSE, and afterwards a chap called James came up to me to talk about financial education (see financial education campaign part II  blog). He was a maths teacher in...