Team Blog

While mere mortals sleep, the MSE Forum goes on spawning debate, guidance, support and humour around the clock. Here are a few of this week's highlights.

Like a city that never sleeps, the MSE Forum goes on generating debate, guidance, support and humour at all hours. Here are a few of this week's highlights.

More versatile than the Easter bunny and more consistent than Santa, the coupon fairy is the everyday hero you've probably never heard of. If you've ever received a voucher from a stranger in the checkout queue, or found one tucked on a supermarket shelf beside the corresponding item, you've encountered a coupon fairy. Or maybe you're one yourself? If that's the case, we're about to lift the lid on your secret.

With the cost of living crisis eating into household budgets, and the latest figures show inflation's at its highest rate for 30 years, driven in part by the cost of furniture. With the price of raw materials such as wood rising, there's never been a better time to get thrifty, so I'll teach you how to find free and cheap furniture, plus show how I saved £x revamping my hallway as an example.

Today is my final day as deputy editor of MoneySavingExpert.com, the biggest website dedicated to helping everyone save money and fight for financial justice in the UK.

It's that time when we pick through the remnants of the chocolate selection box and gaze back wistfully on another year in the MSE Forum. Reminisce with us over the funniest, wisest and most popular discussions of 2021.

Online reviews have changed the face of shopping and travel. Whether you're after headphones, an inflatable flamingo, or a honeymoon hotel, it's possible to instantly mine the online opinions of swathes of people. But can you trust everything you read?

Many schools are off from the end of this week for half-term, and if things seem a little strange, it's not just because Halloween falls next week too. Even if you're not comfortable going out and about during half-term, there's still plenty of fun to be had at home for Halloween.

Switching bank – Martin's been telling you to do it since the heady days of 2003 when Spirit in the Sky by Gareth Gates and The Kumars reached number one and national newspapers regularly reported when David Beckham changed his hair. Yet our most-recent poll of MoneySavers found one in three have NEVER switched their main bank account. Outrageous.

There's been a bumper crop of donations to charity shops this summer, thanks to people's lockdown clear-outs. Charities want you to take advantage, so we've rounded up our top tricks and tips to help you find the best items – including where to head for designer clobber, spotting sales and buying online.