The headline ‘Bling Culture Forces Young People into Debt‘ caught my attention recently, partly because I hadn’t really given any serious thought to the issue of bling and debt.
The specific term “Bling” was first popularised in the hip hop community, and has since spread beyond hip hop, into mass culture. “Bling-bling” means expensive, ostentatious jewellery [...]

Last Thursday, campaigners got a huge leap closer to a permanent reduction in bank charges for UK citizens. In The High Court, judgement was passed which says that the Consumer Contract Regulations do apply to bank charges and that fairness does, indeed, count. Banks have made millions every year by imposing punitive charges on people [...]

In part one, we looked at making money by doing what makes your heart sing - combining the activity, environment and people you most enjoy, to find a project or idea to make a little extra money. That got the creative juices going for some, others needed more encouragement, so we took another step on [...]

Shopping, whether we love it or hate it, has become a major part of our lives. The reasons for going shopping vary from simply satisfying basic needs to fulfilling our wildest dreams. We can’t go anywhere without images of things and stuff we ‘must have’ entering our space. However, shopping is serious [...]

Sometimes negotiating fees can feel a bit like David vs. Goliath. This week, I realised we were paying too much for some professional services and more than we could reasonably afford for our accountants. They are great and give us valuable advice, but this hasn’t been our best year. I had to question my dentist’s [...]