It is a national tragedy that getting on for a million pensioners, many of whom have been paying into the system for years, are missing out on a critical boost to their income. It's called pension credit, and this year it also means you get up to £900 extra to help with the cost of living.

Today, I'm pleased to say the new free guidelines 'A warm welcome: Setting up a warm space in your community' has been published by CILIP, the library and information association. It's jam-packed full of useful information for councils, libraries, public buildings and others who want to open a warm space this winter. Below is my introductory foreword, which explains my connection, but better, download the PDF.

Energy firms met the new Liz Truss administration yesterday, and it's strongly rumoured that top of the agenda was freezing the price cap at its current level (£1,971/yr for someone on typical use) and adding small business to the cap too. This is similar to suggestions made by the main opposition parties – though likely to be funded in a different way.

Ignore what you've read in the papers. Ignore the political spittle that flies across Parliament. And in some cases, ignore what parents tell you too. There are more myths and misunderstandings about student finance than any other subject (my polite way of saying there's a lot of bull spoken).

With the announcement of the Government's energy cost of living plans due out at lunchtime, I thought I'd speedily bash out a note down of what (from memory) I'd asked the Chancellor for when we spoke on Monday – and the other general suggestions I've been making.

Press the rewind button and go way back – before Covid, before Brexit – to April 2015, then picture a devastatingly handsome man at home, on the sofa, talking about money with his wife. Well, he has nowt to do with this, but possibly on the telly in the corner, I was on-air at the time urging savers as usual to use their new tax-free cash ISA allowance – because 'money was nicer in an ISA'.

I set up MoneySavingExpert.com nearly 20 years ago – when arguably the modern web was still in its infancy. With an abundance of self-belief (something I had too much of then, as I realise now) I decided not to read any books, or follow prevailing wisdom on how a site should operate – and just do it my way.

Nearly a decade ago, in June 2012, MSE joined the MSM Group and I pledged £10m to go to charity. As that was a public pledge and I feel I've a duty of transparency, every year or two I bash out a blog report to explain where I'm up to, and who's got what money.

This is my sixth annual steps blog. My well-documented obsession with the 'quantified self' is showing no sign of abating. According to my tracker, I did 9,284,614 steps (nearly 400,000 more than last year) – a ridiculous, hopefully healthy obsession.