In June 2012 I pledged £10m for charity when MSE joined the MSM group and that for transparency I'd periodically bash out a blog explaining what was happening with it. Over the break I realised 2015 was the last time I'd done that, so an update is overdue…

Regular blog readers will know I'm obsessed with fitness tracking statistics. So it's time for my annual report. According to my tracker, I did 8,582,412 steps in 2018 – a silly amount, but not quite as ridiculous as 2017, when it was 9,278,393.

A couple of months ago I became a patron of the PSU charity, which helps those facing civil or family courts. I went along to the Royal Courts of Justice to explain why and to meet a superb collection of volunteers – who provide a mix of hand-holding of scared people, to providing excellent guidance to help them navigate the court system. 

If there was a big red CANCEL CHRISTMAS button, would you press it? While the festive season is usually portrayed as unerringly joyous, not everyone feels that way. It can put stress on you and on your pockets. So, forgive me, but to relieve that pressure, and possibly increase happiness, it is worth considering going cold turkey.

The new energy price cap (following on from the prepay price cap) for millions of customers on a standard tariff will begin on 1 January 2019. It's already been wrongly reported, but there's a bigger worry that it will make the savings on comparison sites wrong.

I always suggest, when you’re doing an energy comparison, to enter the kilowatt hours (kWh) figure from your bill, if possible, as it gives a more accurate result than entering the cost. (Though the sin of inaction is far greater than the sin of inaccuracy – so if you’re unsure, don’t be put off.)

Harry Potter's got nowt on the pharmaceutical industry. It's full of real wizards - both those who make drugs that help, and the marketers who have a raft of tricks to persuade us there's hidden magic in their brands. Drug companies spend millions promoting 'only-use-the-name-you-know' messages... but it's often marketing baloney, balderdash and any other 'b' words you can think of.

Like everyone else, over the years I’ve had a good number of spam texts and calls telling me I was owed “£3,728” or whatever their baloney lie is (these neither mean you aren’t or are owed PPI, they’re just random spam). And occasionally I’ve had the odd call, usually those auto-dial auto-message horrors.