For years, I’ve banged on about the Downshift Challenge – trying one brand level lower of everything you buy to see if you can tell the difference. If you can’t, then you stick with the cheaper version. One of the most powerful areas for this is in non-food items like cleaning products, shampoos, bath products, etc. After...

Writing our new Green Deal Mythbuster guide to explain this potentially powerful scheme, was a frustrating task. Enabling people who can’t afford it, to get double-glazing, underfloor heating, cavity wall insulation and more is great. The problem is explaining it is hellish, as the system is over-complex and couched in the language of debt. My worry is...

Every March and April, it’s cash ISA season. Banks and savings institutions fire out very hot rates – typically 0.5-1 percentage point higher than the best buys from before the cash ISA season started.   The reason is simple. One ISA year ends on 5 April, the next starts on 6 April – so you have two...