Living in Sevenoaks I was interested to see the town came third in a list of the 10 richest small towns in Britain. I am aware that parts of Sevenoaks are extremely affluent so wasn’t surprised to find that it made the list of towns where most millionaires are located. Perhaps less surprising is that Windsor topped the list and Weybridge came second. Ascot which I would have expected to feature somewhat higher was number 10. The full list is as follows:

1 Windsor
2 Weybridge
3 Sevenoaks
4 Beaconsfield
5 Henley on Thames
6 Marlow
7 Hale
8 Alderley Edge
9 Bray
10 Ascot (including Sunningdale)

I obviously live in an affluent area, now to work on that millionaire status. 

If you have a bit of spare cash and want something a little out of the ordinary, then you might be interested in this dodo bone. Being auctioned at Christie’s the bone is a fragment of femur from an extinct dodo. It is thought it will fetch between £10,000 and £15,000 and is the first dodo bone to be auctioned since 1934.

This is interesting it’s a 65,000 acre estate that comes with five islands, 13 log cabins and 70 private lakes. Costing $79 million it has recently been put on the market. The estate is is Quebec an hour outside of Montreal and could be considered something of a bargain. Pictured is one of the 13 Scandinavian style log cabins on the property. It looks very nice for those that have a bit of extra cash to spend.

That's’ the claim of recent research by Auto Trader which claims young drivers are being priced off the roads. Figures show that it now costs around £4,580 a year to keep a car. Taking into account that the average UK worker earns £26,500 and many young people are likely to earn less than this, that’s quite a high percentage of income.

The cost of learning to drive has also gone up with driving lessons now costing around £25 per hour, the theory test costing £31 and the practical test £62. Based on the average person needing 47 lessons in order to pass that equate to £1,268. All of these things mean that young drivers are finding it more difficult to purchase and maintain a car and many believe that there will be fewer young drivers in 10 years time. The number of drivers in their 20s taking a driving test has dropped by more than 10% so there could be some truth in the claim. It certainly isn’t cheap to keep a car but with the high cost of public transport I personally find it works out cheaper than the alternative but then I have been driving for some time and my insurance costs are relatively low.

If you want to get something a little more unusual this Valentines Day then you could be interested in this gift. For £70,000 you could fill your loved ones garden with 1.2 million rose petals. Personally I can think of better things to spend that sort of money on and I do wonder how you would clear it up afterwards, but it certainly is unusual.

This rare misprint of a Queen Victoria stamp has recently gone on sale for £70,000. It is unusual because the Queens head has been printed upside down. It is thought only 25 examples of the stamp exist so I would imagine a lot of collectors will want to get their hands on it.

With property prices in some areas reaching record highs and silly prices being paid for parking spaces and plots of land I found this article interesting. It looks at the most expensive addresses in the UK, most of which are not surprisingly in the popular area of South Kensington.

The most expensive street in the UK is Egerton Crescent where a terraced house with a communal garden will set you back over £8 million. At 32.5 times the typical house price you are certainly paying for location in this instance.

The 10 most expensive streets in the UK are as follows.

1. Egerton Crescent, Kensington and Chelsea, London, SW3, £8.1 million
2. Parkside, Merton, London, SW19, £5.2 million
3. Campden Hill Square, Kensington and Chelsea, London, W8, £4.9 million
4. Blenheim Crescent, Kensington and Chelsea, London, W11, £4.7 million
5. Lansdowne Road, Kensington and Chelsea, London, W11, £4.7 million
6. Home Park Road, Merton, London, SW19, £4.7 million
7. Drayton Gardens, Kensington and Chelsea, London, SW10, £4.4 million
8. Eaton Square, Westminster, London, SW1, £4.4 million
9. Lancaster Gate, Westminster, London, W2, £4.4 million
10. Duchess of Bedford's Walk, Kensington and Chelsea, London, W8, £4.2 million

If you have some spare cash then you might be interested in this Faberge inspired vodka set. Costing £4,500 the gold plated egg includes a bottle of premium vodka which has been filtered twelve times and was once enjoyed by 19th Century St Petersburg aristocracy. It’s a little out of my price range but it is shiny.

This large diamond recently fetched £13m at auction. The stone which was mined in India's Golconda mine is the size of a strawberry and weighs 76 carats.

With property prices at a premium in many parts of the country it may come as no surprise that £50,000 is the asking price for a parking space in Cornwall. Based in St Ives the space has lovely sea views and not much else really. The five parking spaces that are on sale are nicely placed, however, with a 30 second walk to the town centre so I’m sure someone will snap them up.

If you have ever wondered what is the most unluckiest day, then the answer it seems is July the 13th. According to the data from specialist solicitors Edwards Hoyle it is the day that they have seen the highest volume of personal injuries over the last two years. The safest day on the other hand appears to be the 31st of January.

That’s according to this article which says the average cost of car insurance is now more than £1,000 a year. Many car insurance providers are raising their prices as they try to tackle the excessive number of whiplash claims. The average cheapest premium for comprehensive cover was £1,034 according to the AA British insurance premium index. Young drivers and drivers Greater Manchester and Liverpool saw the biggest increases. It is estimated that whiplash injury claims cost insurance companies more than £2 billion last year, adding about £90 to the cost of a typical car insurance policy. i must admit that i haven't noticed an increase to my car insurance policy, but then as a driver with more than 12 years driving experience and no claims discount my policy does seem to come out quite cheap.

If you have some spare cash and are unsure what to spend it on, you might be interested in this $1million bra. Created at Birmingham Estate and Jewelry Buyers it took 40 workers a year to make. In includes 500 carats of diamonds and is moulded out of 18 caret gold. The bra is reportedly unlike any other because it contains no fabric, it is simply solid gold. Personally I’m unsure why you would want one and also have my reservations about how comfortable it would be to wear.

A copy of the Agatha Christie novel Poirot Investigates has recently sold at auction for £40,000. The novel is unusual because it still has the original dust jacket showing an illustration of the Belgian detective. The novel would have cost 37p when it was first published in 1924. Apparently first editions in their original dust jackets are a rare find as people would generally discard the duct jacket when they read the book. This copy was snapped up a collector.

I’m not really sure that the words pizza and luxury usually go together. Here, however, is a luxury pizza. Costing $1,000 (approx. £795) the pizza includes a caviar topping with thinly sliced lobster and creme fraiche. It has been created by New York restaurant owner Nino Selimai who wanted to create something a little different. He believes the pizza is worth every penny.

If you are looking to save some money then you might want to buy your fruit and vegetables at a street market. If this article is correct you could save as much as 32% off of supermarket prices. When I had a little more time on hands before having Penny I did used to go the market every week to source my fruit and vegetables. I found that not only was the produce better quality than the supermarket equivalent but also that it was cheaper and you could buy more of it. Unfortunately, I rarely have time now to go to the market so tend to buy a fruit and veg box every week until my home grown veg comes into season. Perhaps I should try and make time to get the market instead to do a price comparison.

I recently renewed my car insurance and as usual looked around for a cheaper deal. My existing insurer quoted me £430 for the year to insure my Ford Focus. Not bad I thought particularly when the premium was lower than last year. Looking at a price comparison website, however, I managed to find insurance for £222 a considerable saving. Not only that I also got a free meerkat toy, bonus.

If you are looking for something special for the Jubilee these shoes might be just the thing. Made by designer Aruna Seth the limited edition shoes contain 3,000 Swarovski crystals. At £3,000 they aren’t cheap but they are certainly shiny.

I recently did my first online order with Waitrose because they worked out cheapest based on the products I had in my basket on www.mysupermarket.co.uk I have avoided Waitrose in the past because they have a reputation for being more expensive, however, if this article is correct it seems they are matching more of their brand prices to the other supermarkets. Unlike other supermarkets which offer you a brand match voucher you can use on your next shop Waitrose claim to be matching the prices on the shelf so you benefit immediately. They certainly now seem to work out one of the cheaper alternatives particularly due to the fact they offer free delivery when you spend over £50. The quality of their own brand products is also very good when compared to the Sainsbury’s alternative. Perhaps I will be shopping with them more often.

If you are looking for property in Knightsbridge then you probably already know the answer is not much. This garage measuring just six metres has recently gone on sale at £525,000. At considerably more than we paid for our 3 bedroom house in Kent it seems an exorbitant price for a garage. Even at that price the estate agents selling it expect to receive a lot of interest from those living within walking distance of the garage particularly as many of the large houses nearby have no off street parking.

The consumer magazine Which? has confirmed what many of us might already have suspected. it seems pack sizes are shrinking. Over a dozen kitchen staples have been highlighted as having shrunk in size. Amongst the offenders are Kellogg’s Coco Pops and Branston Pickle. Although the pack sizes have shrunk the prices appear to have remained unchanged. Personally the thing I have noticed most is the Cadbury’s cream egg. I have no proof but they certainly seem much smaller than they used to be. Other items highlighted in the article include Ambrosia Creamed Semolina, Birds Eye Crispy Chicken and Fairy All-in-one Dishwasher Tablets.

If this article is correct new parents spend around £1,400 on their baby before it is even born. Those costs seem to really add up, from the nursery furniture and the baby travel system to the clothes, towels and bedding. New parents tend to spend around £115 on baby clothes, £100 on toys, around £100 on maternity wear and £70 on pampering treatments. Personally I think we spent around £2,000 on initial expenses such as the Moses basket, clothes, sterilising equipment, breast pump, bedding and baby travel system. Since the initial spend we are spending roughly an extra £100 a month on new clothes when the baby out grows the old ones, nappies, wipes and top up formula to supplement the breast feeding. Babies are certainly expensive.

This pink diamond is the largest ever to be found in Australia. It is 12.76 carats in size. Found at the Rio Tinto's Argyle diamond mine in Western Australia's East Kimberly region it it thought to be worth millions. It will now be polished and cut before being graded by a team of international experts.

If you have a bit of spare cash to spend then you might be interested in these sunglasses. Costing £26,000 they are made by Bentley to compliment the £225,000 Bentley Mulsanne. I guess if you can afford to spend that much on a car them you might have enough left over for the glasses. The sunglasses have been hand crafted from platinum with engraved surfaces to reflect the style of a Bentley’s interior quilted leather. Each pair is made to order to the exact specifications of the buyer. The frames can then be engraved with the owner’s initials or decorated with precious stones at an extra cost.

According to this article around a million Britons used a payday loan last year to pay their mortgage or rent. The information comes from a report from the homeless charity Shelter and is a worrying sign that people are taking on expensive debt to pay essential bills. Payday loans are supposed to be used in the short term to get you through to payday as the name suggests. They do, however, carry horrendous interest rates often as much as 700% interest so are not really an option for paying basic bills as the debt can quickly spiral out of control. If the article is true it is very worrying that people are becoming so desperate to take these sorts of loans out for their recurring monthly bills.

If you have trouble understanding the offside rule then help might be at hand. The back of the new 50p coin to celebrate the Olympics includes a handy diagram which should leave you in no doubt. I think a few referees could do with keeping one of these in their pockets.

It seems the Euro is under threat in more ways than the current economic crisis affecting the eurozone. According to this article Sainsbury’s and Lidl have stopped selling chocolate Euros and have gone back to offering Sterling coins instead. It seems the Sterling coins were brought back due to high demand after numerous requests from customers for British chocolate coins. The move back to British coins appears to have significantly increased sales of the line although it is not clear whether people were reluctant to buy the Euro coins because of the current financial crisis or simply because the Sterling alternative is more familiar to British customers.

A cat in Italy has become the world’s richest cat after inheriting his owners fortune. When Tommaso’s 94 year old owner died she left him a total of 10 million euros in a hand written will. Although by law the cat can not inherit directly the money is held by a trust that looks after him.

If you are living on a tight budget then you might want to eat more toast sandwiches. According to this article they are Britain’s cheapest lunchtime meal. The dish which was apparently popular in Victorian times costs just 7.5p to make. The recipe comes from the brilliant Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management which contains many recipe gems. Whether the toast sandwich is one of the better of them is up to you to decide. If you want to make one it consists of a piece of dry toast sandwiched between two slices of bread and butter and seasoned with salt and pepper to taste. It doesn’t sound that appetising but is certainly cheap and cheerful.

I get a bit sick of seeing the adverts for payday loans offering a quick fix solution particularly when you notice the small print at the bottom of the advert citing an interest rate of 300% APR or similar. Reading this article, it seems there is now a new type of loan targeting consumers that offers a 0% rate but only for 8 days. For the first 8 days of the loan period you can borrow a sum of money interest free, the catch of course is the interest rate after this period which is charged at 50p a day for every £100 borrowed. This equates to 448.3 % APR. There are no other hidden fees to take into account but I do wonder who takes on this type of loan.

This rare yellow pear shaped diamond is due to be auctioned by Sotheby’s in Geneva this week. The diamond which is being referred to as the Sun-Drop Diamond is a vivid yellow, the highest colour grading by gemstone experts. It is the largest known diamond of its kind at 110.3 carats. It is expected to fetch between $11 million and $15 million and the buyer will also have the chance to name it.

A rare bottle of 55 year old Glenfiddich whisky is to be auctioned in Edinburgh next month. The bottle is one of only 11 that were produced to commemorate the 110th birthday of Janet Sheed Roberts the granddaughter of the distillery’s founder William Grant. It is thought it will fetch in excess of £30,000 when it goes to auction and is expected to break the current UK auction house record of £29,400. The Glenfiddich Janet Sheed Roberts Reserve was casked on Hogmanay 1955. It is described as pale gold in colour with aromas of orange blossom, delicate violets and toasted almonds.

If you have a bit of spare cash and want something unusual then you might have been interested in this auction. Among the items up for sale were a large pair of Queen Victoria’s bloomers. They were expected to sell for around £3,000 but actually fetched £9,375. The collection which comes from the contents of Old Battersea House includes other royal artefacts such as furniture and paintings with the bloomers being one of the more unusual items.

That’s according to a recent ruling which ruled you are only entitled to a share of your spouses jackpot if he invests it in a shared asset such as the family home. If they choose to simply bank the winnings, however, then the other partner can leave the relationship without having to give away half of the money. The ruling was made in the case of a hotel porter who sued his former wife for a share of her £500,000 National Lottery winnings. The couple had been living in a council house when the woman brought the lottery ticket without her husbands knowledge. She used some of the money to buy a house in London costing £275,000 where they lived with their children for two years. When the couple separated the husband believed he was entitled to his share of the house, now worth £500,000. A judge ruled, however, that the husband was not entitled to anything like an equal share of the house as he had only lived there a short amount of time and awarded him £85,000. He also said that had the couple operated a syndicate in which both were aware the tickets had been brought then the money would have been shared equally. It’s an interesting ruling and I guess something you should consider if you believe you will become separated from your partner. Personally I would be more than happy to share any lottery win with my husband.

These knickers have recently been launched by lingerie design house Nichole de Carle to go on sale at Selfridges. They feature a real diamond in a solid silver charm and ivory silk and cost £232. The lingerie is part of of Selfridges annual white themed Christmas gift room. I wonder how popular they will prove to be.

Owning a cat or dog can cost you as much as £17k over it’s lifetime, if this article is to be believed. The cost estimate comes from figures from research by Sainsbury's pet insurance and are based on costs such as food, vet bills and kennels over your pets lifetime. They are based on the fact that most dogs live 13 years and most cats 15 years. I’m not sure I spend that much on my four cats but I will say they are worth it for the pleasure and companionship they bring me.

If you wonder why your insurance premiums keep going up then one of the reasons could be the high number of uninsured drivers on the roads. Whilst many of us dutifully pay our car insurance premiums every months it seems in some areas as many as 30% of drivers have no insurance. It is estimated the huge number of uninsured drivers costs claims firms up to £500 million every year and puts an estimated £30 on the average insurance premium making it more expensive for those of us who do abide by the law. Insurance black spots include Bordesley in Birmingham where one in three drivers does not have insurance, with Essex, Manchester and West Yorkshire also having high numbers without insurance. With 23,000 people injured and 160 killed every year by uninsured drivers, I wonder what could be done to crack down on those who break the law.

With Police saying there is a high correlation between uninsured drivers and other crimes what is the best way to track those without insurance down? I guess, making sure people have insurance before they purchase a car is one way, but then it would only work with new cars and not second hand sales. I would hazard a guess that many of those without insurance are also guilty of driving without a valid licence so presumably if the vehicle and owner are not registered on the system, the only way to locate these people is when they are actually pulled over for a traffic offence.

If you do then you might be part of a dying group of people. According to this article many of us prefer to simply carry cards and never have any cash on us. It seems one in eight people do not feel the need to carry cash with them and rely on cards. If this is the case it could mean more companies move towards contactless cards for small purchases. I must admit to never having much cash on me but I do always have a little just in case.

A 200 year old bottle of wine has recently been sold for £75,000. The wine which is a 1811 Chateau d'Yquem has beaten the record for the most expensive bottle of wine not sold at auction. It was purchased by French collector Christian Vanneque. He intends to put the wine on display in his new restaurant. Despite the price it is still not the most expensive wine ever sold, this honour goes to a bottle of 1947 French Cheval-Blanc which sold at auction for £192,000 last November.

Seems to be a common question for those ordering fashion online. So much so, that it has now become the norm to order an item in several sizes and send back those that don’t fit. That’s according to this article which suggests a lack of standardised sizing amongst retailers means shoppers are ordering a purchase in multiple sizes and sending back goods worth more than half a billion pounds. In fact a survey by online shopping comparison website Kelkoo found that almost two-thirds of the 1,500 adults it surveyed ordered multiple sizes of the same item when shopping online. I must admit to doing the same, if I am unable to find exact measurements on the website but it must be quite a headache for retailers having to process so many returns. Perhaps as the article suggests it is time to use standardised sizing.

This is cool, it’s a transparent car built by General Motors in 1939. Dubbed the Ghost Car, the Plexiglas Pontiac is the only one of its kind, although two were originally made it is not known what happened to the other. It is expected to fetch around $500,000 when it comes up for auction.

If you have a bit of spare cash to spend and fancy something a little unusual, then this new Bugatti might appeal. Costing £1.4 million the one off car is called the L’Or Blanc. it has recently been unveiled in Berlin to mark the the start of a partnership between the Konigliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin and Bugatti. The car is unusual because it features porcelain on both the interior and exterior. It’s a nice looking car but personally I think I would prefer it without the porcelain detail, it makes it look a little strange.

That’s according to this article which suggests a million more people now employ a cleaner compared with a decade ago. It seems the main reason is that in households where both partners work there is simply not enough time left to do your own cleaning. I don’t have a cleaner but I must admit finding time to clean the house can be difficult and when I am busy with work, then it simply doesn’t get done. Perhaps I should look into employing a cleaner for a couple of hours a week to make things a little easier.

According to this article. this is the world’s most expensive razor. Costing $100,000, that’s about £62,460 it is called the Zafirro Iridium. Researchers have spent three years developing the razor which has a handle made of 99.9 per cent iridium, the most corrosion resistant platinum metal. The razor also has two blades made out of white sapphire. They are just 80 atoms thick on the cutting edge and are much sharper than any other blades currently on the market. The question is, who would buy a razor that costs this much money?

A handbag used by Margaret Thatcher has recently sold at auction for £25,000. Margaret Thatcher was pictured with the bag as she stood with President Ronald Reagan in 1985. It was brought by an unnamed Cypriot buyer and was expected to attract bids of up to £100,000 so it seems they have picked up a bargain.

That’s according to this article which suggests treating yourself to a shopping spree has a lasting impact on your mood and leaves few negative side effects. Researchers conducted interviews at shopping centres and asked shoppers to keep diaries of their shopping behaviour. A total of 62% said they had brought something to cheer themselves up and 28% indulged in a shopping trip as a form of celebration. The study concluded that retail purchases were overwhelmingly beneficial.

The dress worn by Marilyn Monroe in the film The Seven Year Itch has recently sold for $4.6 million. The dress was part of a private collection owned by actor Debbie Reynolds. She acquired it in 1971 when she brought all of Monroe’s wardrobe from the studio 20th Century Fox. However, the upkeep of the item has proved expensive and with Reynolds struggling with debts she recently decided to sell them. The dress exceeded expectations to sell for far more that predicted.

A set of drinking glasses that are thought to have come from Hitler’s bunker are about to go for sale. The glasses feature a spread winged eagle, swastika symbol and the initials A.H. They will be auctioned in the US where there are expected to fetch around £8,000.

If you are a fan of Thunderbirds then you might be interested in the chance to purchase Lady Penelope. The 50cm puppet goes up for sale at auction shortly and is expected to fetch up to £10,000. The puppet has been in the care of her maker since the mid 60’s when it was  used in the series. It is an original and as there are not many left should be highly sought after by collectors.

If you have a bit of spare cash and fancy spending it on something a little unusual, then you might be interested in this article. It highlights two mountain peaks that have recently been put up for sale in the Austrian Alps. The peaks are being sold by the Austrian federal real estate company Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft. Potential buyers will not be be allowed to fence off the mountains or deny a right of way of them so it is unclear what they could be used for. If you are interested in buying them they are on sale at 121,000 euros, approx. £107,000.

If you like wine (lets face it who doesn’t) and you shop with Abel and Cole, then now is a good time to place a meat order. They currently have a special offer running which means you get a free bottle of wine when you spend over £30 on meat. All you need to do is place your meat order as normal and enter the code from the website to get your free bottle. It is worth at least £10 and you can choose from red, white or rose depending on your preference. I am yet to try the wine but received one with my order today as well as a free bottle of organic tomato ketchup.

According to this article a bottle of the world’s oldest champagne has recently been sold for a record price of 30,000 euros, that’s about £26,700. The champagne was one of a number of bottles that were found in a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea. The bottle of Veuve Clicquot is nearly 200 years old and was recovered from a shipwreck which dates from between 1825 and 1830. A bottle of champagne from the house of Juglar was also salvaged from the same wreck was also sold for 24,000 euros. Despite the price it fetched, the champagne is not the most expensive ever sold, only the most expensive ever auctioned.

I’m not really sure why someone would want a £100,000 BBQ but if you do, then there is one available. Made by BeefEater Barbecues it is plated in 24 caret gold with a Signature Series 6 Burner, wok burner, roasting hood and warming rack. Everything except the cooking plates is covered in gold. Apparently it was “purely made to see what we could do in terms of opulence, price and features”.

According to this article home buyers do not expect to be able to afford their first house until they are aged 38 or aged 43 in London. It seems that for many the fact that house prices are so high and that they need a large deposit mean they simply cannot not afford to buy a property before this, and many have given up trying to buy a property altogether. Although the number of mortgages available for first time buyers has increased during the past year, it seems there are still a limited number of deals available for those looking to but their first home. First time buyers also now need a large deposit with most needing around 23% of the homes value.

According to this article insurance costs have shot up by 40% in the past 12 months. Perhaps, then I shouldn’t have been surprised when receiving my car insurance renewal, the quote was double what I am currently paying. It seems the average annual premium for a comprehensive car policy is now in the region of £892, not far off the £809 my insurer has quoted me for my 1.6 Ford Focus. Still, it seems a little steep and shopping around rather than just renewing with the same company I finally fixed on a annual premium of around half that amount, coming it at just £417. It will probably mean I will to switch again in a years time as it seems these cheaper deals are only available for new customers, but I think I would rather do than pay double the amount for the service.

That’s according to this article which looks at Tesco’s new offering tescocars.com The company hopes to offer its users an improved car buying experience. Tesco claim that they have analysed the common problems that people currently have with the industry in order to offer a better service. They will focus on cars which have been well looked after by their previous owners such as ex-fleet or lease cars. The cars are likely to have an higher than average mileage but will still be nearly new and need no work doing to them. Every vehicle will have to meet a 167 point independent RAC Plus inspection and a road tests. Buyers will be able to have their car delivered to their home address or collect it from a national handover centre. It’s certainly interesting to see Tesco moving to corner yet another market, it will be interesting to see how popular their service becomes.

If you have found Easter eggs to be a little more expensive this year then it seems  you are not alone. According to this article Easter eggs now cost up to 140% more. The rise is mainly down to the rising cost of chocolate largely caused by political unrest in the Ivory Coast, the world’s biggest supplier of cocoa. Higher production costs and the VAT increase are also factors that have made them more expensive. The rises mean that a Dairy Milk egg for example which cost £3.35 will now cost £5.50, a rise of 64%. Based on this I might be buying smaller Easter eggs this year.

That’s according to this article which suggests the rising cost of cotton may mean the end to cheap fashion. High street chains such as Debenhams, Next and Primark have all been affected by the rising cost of raw materials such as cotton and as such are likely to increase their prices by around 8%. This would mean an increase of about £2.40 on a pair of jeans or about £4.00 on the cost of a £50 dress.

According to this article champagne sales in Britain jumped last year after a two year slump. Figures show that around five million more bottles of champagne were drunk in Britain last year than in 2009. With shipments of champagne increasing 16.3 % to 35.5 million bottles, Britain is now the second biggest drinker of champagne after France. Much of the growth is though to have been driven by the supermarkets offering champagne discounts as a way to drive customers to their stores. Whatever the reason it appears that we have developed quite a taste for the sparkling stuff.

That’s according to one expert who predicts a surge in tourists and brands being owned by Chinese businessmen. Dr Karl Gerth from the Oxford University predicts that the influence of Chinese tourists and consumers will become so great that it will be necessary to stock the Yuan (known as the renminbi) alongside the Pound, euro and Dollar. He also predicts that a number of UK and US owned brands are likely to come under Chinese ownership. If the article is to be believed some stores on Bond Street already accept renminbi from Chinese tourists and it seems this could soon become the norm, particularly in the Capital.

According to this article The Royal Mint are planning to make a £1,000 Olympic gold coin to celebrate the London 2012 Olympics. The solid gold coin will weigh 1kg and will be able to be used as legal tender. Although the coin has a face value of £1,000 it is expected to cost between £40,00 and £45,000 and is likely to only be brought by collectors. A total of 60 will be made alongside 14,000 silver £500 coins.

According to this article it will soon cost £70 to fill up the average family car. Prices are expected to reach a record high when they go up another 8p a litre on the 1st of April. This will push the cost of unleaded petrol up to £1.36 a litre and diesel to £1.40 a litre. The increases mean that it will cost £70 to fill a car with a 50 litre tank. The cost 12 months ago would have been £56, meaning an increase of as much as 25% over this period. It certainly is becoming very expensive to run a car but with public transport being hugely expensive and unreliable, in many cases a car journey is the only option.

According to this article retailers are increasingly using scent in their stores. A Canadian company called Mood Media has been working with 20,000 different stores in Britain to help boost their sales. They use a combination of techniques including sound and visual media, with the latest trend being the use of scent. Popular scents include Lotus Flower and Enchanted Apple. The company has already created scents for Habitat, Timberland and Guest. The perfumes are pumped out through the air conditioning units and are aimed at making the customer stay in the store longer. The smells have to be subtle so that the customers don’t notice it except on a subconscious level.

Cadbury’s Somerdale plant has recently produced its last bar of chocolate. The plant near Keynsham in Bristol has been open since 1919. The company was recently taken over by the American firm Kraft. They had initially promised to keep the Somerdale plant open but then decided to close it and instead move production to Poland. A skeleton staff of 50 people will remain on the site to handle maintenance until March 2011.

The BMW 3 Series topped the list as the most popular second hand car of 2010. The figures which come from Auto Trader found that the BMW 3 Series was the most searched for car on its website last year. It was followed by the Volkswagen Golf, Ford Focus, Vauxhall Astra and Audi A4. I’m surprised by the figures as I see many more Ford Focus cars around than any other make.

If this article is correct the average woman spends £71 in the sales on clothes that they will never wear. One of the main problems appears to be buying clothing in a size that is too small hoping that they can slim down to fit into it. All of these sales bargain amount to £3.5 billion worth of clothes that will just sit at the back of the wardrobe. I have been fairly restrained this year when it comes to the sales but I know I have a lot of sale “bargains” sitting in my wardrobe from previous years that I am yet to wear.

According to this article 2.6 million Britons used their credit card to pay their mortgage or rent last year. The figures come from a report by the housing charity Shelter and suggest that many families face a daily struggle to keep a roof over their heads. I find the figures surprising and would be interested to know whether these people have other outgoings that are taking a greater portion of their income or if they simply don’t earn enough to cover the mortgage payment.

I have often wondered why we don’t see this headline more often. The story is about an alleged psychic who predicting she would win the lottery went on to do just that a couple of months later. I’m not entirely convinced myself, I wonder whether there was more than a little luck involved.

I was interested to read this article about a bank robbery in Argentina where thieves spent seven months tunnelling into a vault before making off with the valuables. The article likens the robbery to the film The Bank Job in which a similar robbery was portrayed. In the real robbery the thieves dug a 100ft long tunnel complete with ventilation and lighting over the course of seven months. The thieves had rented a building next to bank from which they dug their tunnel. They waited until New Year Eve to raid the vaults as they knew the bank would be closed for several days. It is thought they managed to empty 140 safety deposit boxes but it is not yet known how much they managed to get away with in monetary value.

According to this article the Open University which was once dominated by mature students is now attracting more younger age groups. It seems that at a time when people are increasingly struggling to make ends meets the appeal of the Open University where you can study part time is really coming into its own. It is now attracting more under 25s because of its lower tuition fees and the fact that they can work whilst they study. In many ways it is a more viable option. I chose to do my Master degree with the Open University some years ago because they was no way I could afford to study further without working. During my course I worked full time and was still able to keep up with the study commitments although it did take up all my spare time and lunch breaks. It seems to me a good way to further your education whilst working and without running up large debts.

As someone who used to wear contact lenses I find it interesting that this article claims customers are wasting money buying their lenses on the high street. According to the article if you know your prescription you can buy contact lenses from anywhere and buying on the high street could mean you are paying three times as much. Personally I don’t find this surprising I used to purchase all my contact lenses online and the difference in price was amazing. I guess people get used to buying from their optician and don’t think to shop around.

According to this article the National Lottery created a record number of millionaires in 2010. In total 158 lucky people became millionaires as a result of a lottery win during 2010 with £775 million in jackpots being paid out. I guess I will have to keep trying, so far my biggest win has been £10.

If you like a cup of hot chocolate then you could soon find you are paying a little bit more for it. That’s according to this article which claims the wholesale cost of cocoa powder has jumped by 32% over the past year. The price rise is largely down to failing crops earlier in the year and disruption from suppliers in the Ivory Coast. As a result cocoa powder has risen to as much as £3,000 a ton.

I have always avoided store cards because of their extremely high rates of interest but was interested to read this article which suggests some may now charge you for not using them. Santander have written to customers to tell them that their terms and conditions have changed. The company which issues store cards for House of Fraser, Debenhams, Laura Ashley and several other high street chains will now be able to charge a £10 fee to customers who do not use their cards for six months. The article suggests that many shoppers take out store cards to take advantage of introductory rates over Christmas without intending to use them on a regular basis. Bearing in mind that many store cards charge almost 30 per cent interest this seems to me another good reason not to use them.

This is interesting, it’s a video looking inside what is thought to be the world’s most expensive book. The book is John James Audubon's Birds of America. Apparently it caused something of a sensation when it was published in the 19th Century. It has been valued at between £4m and £6m and is being sold as part of the collection from the estate of the 2nd Baron Hesketh. Whilst quite impressive what is interesting is that the illustrations would have been completed by people who had never actually seen a live example of the birds in question, hence why they lack background detail and in some case they were dismissed an inaccurate.

This rare pink diamond has recently been sold for a world record price of £29 million. The diamond was recently sold at auction and has broken the record for the most ever paid for a jewel. It was purchased by the British billionaire jeweller Laurence Graff who seems very pleased with his purchase. The diamond weighs 24.78 carets and is unusual because of its perfect pink colour. It certainly is pretty.

At the risk of sounding old I remember when mobile phones were expensive. I am aware of deals for phones that cost in the region of £20 but this one surprised me. It’s a phone available from the Carphone Warehouse that costs only 99p. The pay as you go phone is the cheapest currently available within the UK and customers who buy it will be tied to no contract. The phone is aimed at first time users and contains none of the bells and whistles you would expect to find on more expensive models. It would, however, be fairly useful as a backup phone.

If you have a bit of spare cash then you might be interested in this diamond encrusted saucepan. It has gone on sale at Moscow’s Millionaire Fair for £130,000. The saucepan is encrusted with 270 diamonds and covered in 750 carat gold. Despite the hefty price tag the salesman has admitted that is not an item that you would want to put onto the hob so it seems it is not fit for purpose.

According to this article Sainsbury and Asda have been accused of misleading customers over the prices of some goods. The supermarkets advertise some larger pack with slogans such as “bigger pack, better value” but this is not necessarily the case. In fact the bigger packs often cost more than buying the same quantity of smaller packs. In one example a bag of 2kg spaghetti cost 27p more at Sainsbury's than buying two 1kg bags. Based on this I will be looking a little more carefully at prices in the future.

This rather large diamond has recently been found in Lesotho. The diamond which was found at the Letseng mine in Lesotho measures 1.18 inches across and is a 196 caret stone. A examination of the stone has shown that it should produce a top clarity when polished. It will be interesting to see how much it sells for.

I was interested to read that four of the major energy companies are to be investigated for mis-selling contracts to customers. I have experienced the tactic many times in the past with door to door sales people. Often they pretend to be from your current energy provider and will ask to see a recent energy bill to see if they can save you money. They may also admit to being from a rival company but once again the emphasis is put upon changing your current provider to get a better deal.

I have long been wise to the various tactics they employ and tend to rather effective at getting rid of the sales people rather quickly. It does, however, surprise me how long this has been going on. I have certainly had a constant stream of these sales people arriving at my door over the past ten years. It seems that Ofgem is now prepared to take “strong action” if the companies in questions are found to be in the wrong. I do wonder, however, whether banning door to door selling altogether might be the best way to resolve the problem. When it emerges that 40% of people who are persuaded to switch in this way actually end up paying more than they did previously I hope stricter rules and regulations are the result of this investigation. I also feel fairly justified in my rather abrupt attitude when confronted by one of these sales people at my front door.

This article suggests that increases in food prices are leading to people buying less food. According to the article food prices rose by 1% between June and July this year, the biggest increase in recent months. With other household bills also rising and salary increases failing to keep up, it seems many people are simply having to buy less food. I have certainly noticed my shopping bill going up despite the fact that I only buy basic items. I have been purchasing cheaper cuts of meat to try and cut costs. I am also more concerned about food waste and try to make sure that everything is used even if it means making it into cat food. I have also been splitting food, particularly meat down into smaller portions and growing more fruit and vegetables to supplement our diet. All of these things mean that the food budget does stretch but it doesn’t get away from the fact that I am paying a lot more each month for our basic household shop.

According to this article many pet owners are cancelling their pet insurance policies because the renewal fees are simply too expensive. At a time when most other household bills are also going up it seems people no longer have the money to pay the increasingly high pet insurance policy fees. The article highlights the case of one woman who faced a rise of £100 when it came to renewing the policy for her dog. Whilst pet insurance can seem expensive it can come in really useful when faced with a large unexpected vet bill. Unfortunately I had to cancel the policy for my four cats because it simply became too expensive. Instead I try to put aside what I would have paid in monthly fees to the insurance company every month so that if we should have a large bill there is money to pay for it.

This is interesting its a drive through supermarket that has recently been opened by Tesco. Called Click and Collect customers can order their shopping online and then drive to the collection point to pick it up. It is designed for customers who do not have time to wait in for an internet delivery. The store at Baldock in Hertfordshire is a pilot which if successful will be rolled out across the country.

According to this article two thirds of people would. The findings are part of a social experiment which involved leaving a wallet in various locations to see if it was returned. The wallets each contained £10 cash, a photograph, receipts, stamps and contact details for the owner. The research which was carried out across five cities found that half of wallets dropped in cultural centres are returned. Half of those found in shopping centres are also returned. In contrast no wallets that were dropped in cafes or on public transport were handed in. In all 100 wallets were dropped across various locations in London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Cardiff and Leeds. One in five were handed back with people in London being most most honest and people in Birmingham the least honest. One in four wallets in the West Midlands was returned minus the money but all of those returned in London still contained the cash. Personally I would always hand in a lost wallet complete with cash, would you?

£25 might seems a lot for a pot of tea but this is not just any tea. Its Mariage Freres Sacred White tea. The tea is grown in Sri Lanka on a secret estate and is special because it is only picked by women with golden scissors. The tea is supposed to contain more antioxidants than any other black or green tea. If you want to try it you can get it in Manchester at Kitchen at The Circle restaurant. If you don’t want to spend quite much on your tea they do have a full menu of other teas starting at £2.25.

According to this article British people will start eating less meat and more fish as prices continue to rise. Research suggests that fish will become a larger part of the British diet because it is one of the few foods that has fallen in price in recent years. The price of meat on the other hand continues to go up. Personally we eat very little red meat at home now, as it has become very expensive to buy. If I do buy it I tend to have to source cheaper cuts which require longer cooking times in order to make them tender. I can’t say, however, that I have noticed the price of fish coming down. We tend to eat a diet of mainly chicken and cheaper meat dishes to make such as shepherds pie or lasagne. I do buy lamb or beef for special occasions but we have certainly cut back on the amount we purchase.

If this article is to be believed pubs are now making more money from food than from drink. It seems customers are increasingly turning away from traditional local pubs in favour of gastropubs. Rising beer prices and more sophisticated pub menus appear to be behind the change. The average landlord now relies on food for 52% of their turnover. The figures come from the trade newspaper The Publican and make sobering reading for the traditional local pub which is increasingly under threat.

According to this article more and more people are taking out payday loans in order to help pay the bills. The loans are so called because they offer a short term loan designed to help get you through until you get paid. Whilst taking the loans out is often and easy process and the money is usually available very quickly it seems paying them back is not always so simple. The article highlights the fact that payday loans often have massive rates of interest attached to them with some charging rates out to 2,000%. According to Customer Focus employees borrowed £1.2 billion in 2009 alone. Rates of interest on the loans tend to range from 13 to 18% but some are as high 30% generating an SPR of as much as 1,000 to 2000%. This can mean the initial loan can quickly get out of control and be hard to pay back particularly on a modest income. Customer Focus has called for greater safeguards to protect customers.

If you are a bit short of cash it might be worth looking down the back of your sofa. According to this article there could be as much as £42.9 million of coins hiding in our sofas. That’s according to research carried our by Halifax. They found that two thirds of people regularly find money which has dropped down the sofa. Based on the fact that the average person finds £1.61 there could a collective wealth of £42.9 million hidden away. I’m not convinced, having just checked my sofa I didn’t find anything.

If you have a few million to spend and fancy a flat in town then you might be interested in this one. On the market for £140 million this is One Hyde Park. The flat has a prime location in Knightsbridge,Central London with views over the city. It has a private wine tasting facility and an underground passage to what will be Heston Blumenthal’s new restaurant. The flat itself is a two floor apartment with floor to ceiling windows. It has its own car park and panic room. Security features include bullet proof windows, SAS trained security guards and an air purifier to counteract poison gas attacks. It also has access to spas and squash courts. Whoever buys it will need to pay a massive £5.6 million just in stamp duty.

According to this article social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter cost the British economy as much as £14 billion a year. That’s the surprising results of a survey which was carried out by MyJobGroup. It found that a third of people spend half an hour a day using social networking sites whilst at work. Two million people admitted to wasting more than an hour a day at work on the websites. That amounts to a drop in workers productivity of £14 billion a year according to analysts. Only 14% of people polled admitted to being less productive due to social media websites and two thirds of those polled opposed a ban of social networking sites in the workplace. To me there is no doubt that the tendency to check Facebook and Twitter can make me less productive but being self employed I have an incentive to work and try to limit my time spent on them during working hours.

According to this article as many as one in every 36 £1 coins could be fake. The figures come as the Royal Mint reveals nearly two million counterfeit £1 coins were returned to them in the last financial year. The Royal Mint is now launching a campaign telling people how to spot fakes. Some signs that you might have a fake coin include a poorly defined ribbed edge and an indistinct design of the Queen. The coin may also be out of alignment. The Queen’s head should be alignment with the pattern on the reverse of the coin when you spin it around. There are various measures used by the banks and the Post Office to take fake coins out of the system before they reach the consumer and it is estimated financial institutions handle more than three billion £1 coins a year. I wonder how many people look that carefully at the £1 coins in their change, I know I probably don’t.

If you have a bit of spare cash to spend then you might be interested in this bath tub. Made out of white crystal it is certainly not any ordinary bath tub and neither is the price tag of £530,000. It has been carved out of a single block of pure white rock crystal which was mined in Brazil. Places have been left rough to maintain the natural beauty of the rock. The tub is 7ft long by 3ft deep. It certainly would make an unusual bathroom centrepiece. The bath tub will be on show at Harrods until the end of July.

If you have been tempted to push up the prices of your own items on eBay this article should serve as a warning to you. A UK seller who did just that has recently been fined a total of £5,000 and ordered to do 250 hours of community service. The Judge Peter Benson said he would have given Paul Barrett a tougher sentence and perhaps jailed him if he had any previous convictions. Barrett pleaded guilty to using two account to drive up the price of items including vehicles, mobile phones and a camera. He was investigated by Trading Standards after a buyer complained he had been sold a clocked minibus. It was later found that he was using two different accounts to inflate prices, both of which had the same contact details and were created using the same IP address.

If you feel you have been getting less strawberries than usual for the same money then you may be right. According to this article many of the supermarkets have shrunk the size of strawberry punnets whilst keeping the price the same. Last year Asda sold a 454g box of strawberries for £1.98. This year they are charging the same price for a 400g box. Sainsbury’s did sell a 400g box for £3.99 last year. This is no longer available and has now been replaced by a 300g box for the same price. Tesco have also introduced a smaller box but the article does not mention whether their prices have also changed. The retailers excuse is that the larger punnets were too big and led to strawberries getting crushed.

A rare feather has recently sold for a record amount at auction in New Zealand. The brown and white father is from a huia bird which has been extinct since 1907. It sold for NZ$8,000 that's around £3,800 making it the most expensive feather ever. The feathers were traditionally used as decorations by Maori chiefs. This one has belonged to a family who owned a number of Maori artefacts and has been verified as authentic by experts.

If you have a lot of money to spend and fancy a little bit of luxury then this hotel room might be for you. Based in New York the nine room suite of the Four Seasons hotel is the most expensive accommodation in New York city. The walls are covered in handmade French lacquer and inlaid with mother of pearl. The suite has a 360 degree panoramic view of Manhattan. It has its own library, zen relaxation room and spa room. There is a personal trainer and a butler on hand and the use of a Rolls Royce Phantom should you feel like leaving the room but at £23,000 a night I think I would want to stay inside and enjoy it.

If you have a spare £17 million burning a hole in your pocket then you might be interested in this yacht. The 122ft state of the art super yacht comes with a free super car. The yacht has a plush Art Deco interior with four large double rooms, a reception area and salon. It has 52 inch LED TVs and state of the art sounds systems in every room. The ship has a top speed of 43 knots and the supercar can reach speeds of 233mph. The yacht has its own garage located at the stern of the ship so you can park the car on board. If you want one you will have to be quick as only six models will be made.

In what has been called Britain’s most expensive loaf of bread, a baker has created a loaf that costs £21. Called The Shepherd Loaf it is made following a 55 year old sourdough recipe using organic Somerset flour, Cotswolds spring water and Cornish sea salt. The baker Tom Herbert currently sells around 100 of the loaves a week via mail order and from his bakery in the Cotswolds so it seems some people are prepared to pay the price. My main concern would be whether I could eat it all before it went off.

If this article is to be believed then Waitrose are currently offering more price cuts than the other major supermarkets. This is surprisingly particularly as they tend to have a reputation for being rather expensive. The results come from a survey which was carried out by the online consumer website Supermarket Own Brand Guide. It seems Waitrose have cut more prices in the past year than any of its mainstream rivals particularly when it comes to discounts on their own brand products. Although Waitrose matches Tesco and Asda on most basket items it seems the cheapest place to shop is still Aldi. The survey showed that Waitrose reduced prices on 16 of the 27 items in a typical basket on own brand goods and increased the prices on 8. Tesco cut the price of 14 products from the same basket and increased the prices on 11 and Sainsbury's reduced the prices of 8. I’m guessing, however, that when you take into account the prices of other items not seen as typical basket items the prices are still higher, it would be interesting to see a broader comparison.

This stamp is a 1904 6d Pale Dull Purple (I.R. Official) and might not look that special to the untrained eye. It is, however, one of Britain’s rarest stamps and has recently sold for £400,000. Only 19 sheets of the stamps were ever printed in 1904 and most of them were withdrawn and destroyed almost immediately making this example a bit special. 

According to this article the world’s most expensive stamp has recently sold for a record sum of £1.7 million. The stamp was printed in 1855 and was meant to be green. This one is unusual because it is the only yellow example known to exist, hence it’s name the Treskilling Yellow. It last sold for £1.6 million in 1996 making it the world’s most expensive stamp but has now broken that record.

According to this article foods that were traditionally used during the war are starting to make a comeback. A survey carried out by mysupermarket.co.uk has found that foods such as powered custard, sandwich spread and powdered milk are starting to become more popular. Sales of powdered custard have doubled in the last two years, sandwich spreads have seen an increase of 77%, powdered milk has increased by 36% and corned beef sales are up by 16%. The change in shopping behaviour has been put down to the fact that people on reduced budgets are relying more on cheaper food alternatives. Personally I find I am buying more powdered milk because I use it for making bread in the bread maker. I have also started buying custard powder rather than custard in packets simply because it lasts longer and there is less waste.

According to this article a rise in potholes left by the cold winter have led to a windscreen shortage. It seems that the amount of loose gravel around has meant a huge rise in the amount of motorists needing replacement windows. The extra demand has led to repair companies struggling to cope with the need for replacement windows. Autoglass have recently taken on an extra 200 staff to help cope with the situation and there have been reports of delays of up to a month from manufacturers who cannot produce windscreens fast enough. The article highlights one company Auto Windscreens of Chesterfield which has increased production by 40% to supply 600 windscreens a day. It has seen an increase from 8,500 repairs a month to 12,000 in January. It seems there are some winners from the cold winter then.

I have recently purchased a newer car as my 20 year old Ford Fiesta has finally got to the point where it won’t get through the MOT. Prior to purchasing my new car I checked insurance rates on a couple of comparison websites and once I had finished comparing meerkats at  www.comparethemeerkat.com I checked the rate with my then current insurer Budget through their website. Having looked at the car insurance premiums and found that there was not much different between them, I decided I would stick with Budget to save myself the hassle of moving my insurance to another company. All of the insurance companies had quoted in the region of £300 for the year with a similar excess and a second named driver, a cost which seemed fairly reasonable.

At this point I called Budget to let them know I had just purchased a newer car and wished to cancel the insurance on the old one and transfer it to my new vehicle. Budget now quoted me a much higher total premium of nearly £800 for the year. The reason being that as an existing loyal customer of nearly 11 years I was not able to enjoy the rate quoted on their website. This website quote of £300 was only available to new customers only and not existing ones. A good case of brand new customers only. My initial reaction was that I would cancel the existing policy and then return as a new customer to take up the “new customer” rate. Apparently I am not able to do this, as I already have a policy number so would be prevented from taking out a new policy.

At this point I was left with two options, stay with Budget and pay a highly inflated £800 a year premium simply because I am an existing customer or pay a cancellation fee for my old policy and move to another insurer. Even taking into account the cancellation fee for the old insurance I would still be £400 a year better off by moving to another insurer so it seemed the best option was to tell Budget what they could do with their insurance. I can see my custom over the last decade has obviously been highly valued and I certainly won’t be using them again.

A bottle of Dom Perignon has broken the record for the most expensive wine ever to be sold at a British bar. The bottle of methuselah 1996 Rosé Gold was sold by a top London hotel for £35,000. In addition to the wine the buyer who is thought be a Russian billionaire left a £10,625 tip and paid the £4,375 service charge making the total bill £50,000. That’s the equivalent of £1,562.50 per glass. I hope it was worth it.

According to this article tall women earn more money than their shorter colleagues. The article suggests that women over 5ft 8 inches tall are more successful in the workplace both within the UK and globally. They are twice as likely to earn over £30,000 or more and on average take home more £5,000 a year more than their shorter counterparts. In addition to this the chances of being in a managerial role increase by 80% for those over 6ft tall. Women over 5ft 8 inches tall will earn an average of £530 extra per inch per year.

If you have a bit of cash to spare then you might be interested in this rare blue diamond which is to be offered for auction in Hong Kong. The diamond which is from the De Beers Millennium Collection is expected to fetch between $4.6m and $5.8m that’s approx £3 to £3.8 million when it sells at Sotheby’s.

A first edition of Emma by Jane Austen has recently sold for £325,000. The novel which was signed by the author was a copy which Jane Austen presented to her friend Anne Sharp who inspired the character of Mrs Weston in the novel. The book was last sold in 2008 for £180,000. It has now been sold to a British collector.

According to this article prices of fruit and vegetables are soaring due to record rainfall in Spain. It seems that we import a large amount of our produce from Spain and so are likely to be paying higher prices in the supermarket. According to the article oranges are 25% more expensive than they were a year ago, avocados are 17% more expensive and cherry tomatoes are up 10%. The problem is down to the recent heavy rainfall in the Spanish growing region of Andalucia which has wiped out large areas of crops and hit exports. Prices are likely to remain high until British crops come into season later in the year.

Personally I can’t remember the last time I had a £5 note. It seems I might not be the only one who has noticed a shortage of fivers. According to this article they have become something of a rarity. It seems the Bank of England is looking at ways to try and get more £5 notes into circulation. They have been talking to financial institutions to try and get them to return more £5 notes from their sorting offices so that they can be replaced with new ones and encouraging banks to add them to their ATMs. It seems part of the problem is that bank machines without £5 notes can be smaller and also be refilled less often meaning most operators prefer to offer larger notes. The bank is also trying to encourage retailers to use more £5 notes when giving change. It will be interesting to see if the measures work and whether I start seeing a few more fivers in my change.

According to this article the Ministry of Defence has decided to destroy future reports of UFOs rather than make them public. The British UFO investigation unit was closed at the start of December because an increase in incidents has diverted staff from more important defence matters. The closure will mean that any reports of UFOs will now only be kept for 30 days making them exempt from freedom of information laws and meaning that they can be destroyed. It seems a shame that these reports will lost, they usually make very interesting reading whatever your view on UFOs may be.

According to this article just one in six people will take advantage of the ISA allowance. From April people will be able to put more into their ISA’s. The allowance has also changed this year going up from £7,200 to £10,200 from the 5th of April. However, only 15% are likely to take advantage of this and 25% do not know that the limits have changed. It seems many people are put off using ISA’s because of the current poor rates on savings, however, it makes sense to put your savings somewhere you are not paying tax on them. I will certainly be taking full advantage of the £5,100 tax free cash allowance I can put in my ISA.

The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) has called on the government to scrap its plans to raise beer taxes. The tax is due to increase 2% above inflation in the next Budget in March and has risen 20% since 2008. The BBPA says taxing beer at a lower rate could save as many as 7,500 jobs at a time when many in the pub industry are struggling. Figures from Camra (Campaign for Real Ale) show that 40 pubs a week are currently closing and at the height of the recession this was as many as 52 a week. Personally I can’t see the government bowing to pressure when it has such a huge hole in public spending but I feel they should recognise the importance of the local pub in the community and do more to help the struggling publican.

This article is interesting it suggests that microbreweries are becoming increasingly popular and in some cases more so than the big brands. The article highlights Ascot Ales which are brewed by Chris Gill and his wife. They currently produce around 12 barrels of ale a week when working at full capacity and supply 70 local pubs. Unlike larger breweries they do not add rice and maize to keep costs down, preferring to stick to premium ingredients. Neither do they pasteurise the beer. This obviously means that it doesn’t last quite as long but taking out this process means that none of the flavour is destroyed. it seems these microbreweries which have small output levels and minimal staff are enjoying rapid growth in a time when people are looking something more tasty and perhaps more local. In contrast many of the larger multi-national breweries are seeing their sales fall. It certainly seems to work for Ascot Ales, they are currently seeking a larger premises so that they can increase production.

A horse sanctuary in Essex has seen a rise in the number of starving animals during the recession. Remus Memorial Horse Sanctuary in Buttsbury has been inundated with thin and starving animals because people can no longer afford to keep them. They have also seen an increase in the number of horses being dumped in fields and left to die. The problem appears to UK wide and unfortunately is expected to get worse before it gets better. The sanctuary has urged people to look out for tethered animals as they may be unable to reach food and water and to report any animals which they have concerns about.

An Austrian millionaire is giving away his fortune after realising it doesn’t make him happy. Karl Rabeder who is worth around £3 million is gradually disposing of his fortune. He has put his £1.4 million villa up for sale and is also in the process of selling his farmhouse, six gliders and an luxury Audi. The proceeds of the sale will all be going to charities which he has set up in Central and Latin America. Once everything is sold he will move into a small wooden hut in the mountains or a bedsit.

According to this article people are increasingly choosing inexpensive pursuits such as painting and drawing during the recession. It seems people are moving away from more expensive hobbies as paint brush sales tripled and sales of A4 sketch books doubled at Tesco last year. They have put the increase down to their customers looking for cheaper ways to spend their free time and expect a further increase this year.

According to this article the recent cold weather has been responsible for a rise in the sales of bird seed. It seems people have been spending a lot of money on our feathered friends this winter. The demand for bird seed has helped the Garden Centre Group post a jump in profits as sales rose 8% in the five weeks up to 27 December. The combination of this and an increased demand for Christmas trees have meant the chain have posted a 17% rise in gross profits to £14m.

If this article is correct then online food shopping is set to double within the next five years. That’s according to new estimates from the Institute of Grocery Distribution. Their research shows that customers will spend nearly £7.2bn on grocery shopping online by 2014, that’s nearly double the figure spent last year. Personally I do most of food shopping online. It allows me to shop for the whole month without worrying about getting it in my small car and I find I budget better and am less likely to overspend.

According to this article the number of people advertising for a lodger has risen by 27% in the first two weeks of the year. According to Spareroom.co.uk the rise is down to people looking to raise extra income because they have over stretched financially after the Christmas period. The group have said that they saw a record number of people advertising for lodgers during 2009 and that it expects the trend to continue this year. With the average weekly rent costing £87 it seems like a good way to bring in some extra cash if you have a big enough house to be able to do it.

It appears that divorce is now big business with companies offering divorce cakes and divorce parties. Now it seems Debenhams are cashing in on the market. They have launched a divorce guest list. Much the same as a wedding gift list it works in exactly the same way and not surprisingly contains many of the same items such as kitchen appliances, crockery and glasses. It takes into account that when a marriage breaks down one person leaves the marital home and has to start again with those essentials we tend to take for granted. With January being the peak time of year for divorce it will be interesting to see how much interest this idea generates.

According to this article you could soon be paying a bit more for your pint. Many of the country’s biggest brewers are likely to increase their prices in a move that will mean an increase of around 10p on popular beers. Guinness are putting up the recommend retail price to £3.03 per pint from February 1st. InBev who make Stella Artois, Becks and Budweiser are increasing the wholesale price of all its drinks by 4p a pint from the same date. Heineken UK have also announced a price rise and Carlsberg and Moulson Coors are yet to make an announcement.

If you want to pop the question but don’t have a very big budget, then Asda might have the answer. They are selling engagement rings for just £397. The average amount spent on an engagement ring is £1,800 according to the wedding site Confetti.co.uk but it is traditional to spend at least one month’s salary on the ring. The Asda ring, then seems something of a bargain. The ring is the best selling one on offer at the store and is an 18ct gold ring with 1 caret 7 stone diamonds and looks quite good for the price.

If this article is correct we could soon expect to pay a little more for a carton of orange juice. According to the article cold weather and disease have hit the citrus groves in Florida which produce much of the world’s orange juice. This has already led to the price of concentrated juice doubling in the past year. As yet this has not affected the prices we pay in the supermarket because stores usually fix their prices a long time in advance, however, we should expect prices to rise by between 10 and 30 per cent when contracts are renegotiated.

If this article is correct then it might be harder than usual to get your Christmas tree this year. According to the article the poor exchange rate is making is less profitable for foreign producers to export to Britain. This could mean that many popular varieties of trees are likely to unavailable this year and could also mean that the price of other trees will be considerably higher. Denmark would usually export around a million non-drop Nordmann fir trees to the UK but this year are only expected to supply 300,000. It appears it is simply more profitable to sell the trees to other European countries and to the former Soviet Union. Many British farmers will also be exporting their trees to the continent where they can earn 30 per cent than usual. Personally I was going to cut a branch from one of my conifers this year to use as a tree. After a house move we need to save some money and it seems the cheapest option.

This article suggests that some supermarkets are misleading customers with bargains that are not all they seem. The main focus of the article is a half price deal being offered by Tesco on Bernard Matthews turkeys. The turkeys are being offered at £20 which Tesco claims is half price, however, the turkeys have only been on sale for the full price of £40 for a short period of time. Tesco began selling the turkeys on the 3rd of September and made the price cut on the 1st of October allowing the birds to be at half price in the run up to Christmas. The chains rivals, however, say that the product should retail at just £20, the price they are all charging. It seems then, this particular deal is not such a great one. I wonder how many other offers are real reductions.

According to this article a bottle of champagne from Sainsbury’s that costs just £16 has performed better than some brands which cost twice as much. The champagne beat Moet and Chandon and 11 other champagnes to come second in a blind tasting. A total of 14 champagnes were tested, nine from major supermarket chains and three from big champagne houses. The Sainsbury’s Blanc de Noirs champagne was only beaten by Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label which received 90 points whilst the Sainsbury’s champagne received 89. At half the price though you can’t help thinking you might be better off going to Sainsbury's. The cheapest champagne tested was Aldi’s Veuve Monsiny which costs £9.99. It managed 10th place with a score of 84 points.

According to this article hundreds of horses are likely to be shot this winter as owners find they can no longer afford to keep them. Animal charities and sanctuaries have already reported a rise in the number of animals needing new homes but as they are already flooded with demand many have been turning away unwanted animals for months. As a result euthanasia is often the only option especially for older animals. Currently around 10,000 horses a year are killed in British abattoirs with much of the meat being sold on the Continent.

Marks and Spencer have announced that they will hold a Penny Bazaar on Friday. The sale which will last one day only will see 15 different items going on sale at just 1p each. Items include socks, card games, puzzles, handkerchiefs, money boxes, tea towels, mugs, notebooks, ties, knickers, keyrings and chocolates. Marks and Spencer have previously hosted a similar event which saw people queued outside stores trying to pick up a bargain. If you want to get your hands on some of the cheap items customers are limited to five purchases each and you can check which stores are offering the promotion on the website.

According to this article it is possible to cook Christmas dinner for eight people for just £2.78 a head. The Good Housekeeping Institute priced 11 ingredients mainly from Lidl and Morrisons and some from Tesco and Sainsbury’s. It found that it is possible to buy a turkey from Lidl and Morrisons for just £9.99. Lidl also came out best for some of the trimmings such as sprouts, carrots and parsnips whereas Tesco had the best value Christmas pudding at just £1. If the article is correct it appears that you can find a bargain if you shop around.

It seems the recession is good news for the restaurant chain Taybarns which runs all you can eat restaurants. The chain offers a choice of food including fish and chips, carvery, pizza, pasta and Mexican all for a fixed price. Customers pay £5.99 during the day or £7.99 in the evening and can take a plate and help themselves to whatever they fancy as many times as want. The business model appears to working, whilst other restaurants are closing at a rate of a 100 a month Tayburns has seen a 3% increase in sales in the last six months and serves around 10,000 people a a week in their most popular branches. They are planning to open 30 new branches to take advantage in the growing popularity. I can see how the restaurant might appeal to cash strapped families who are struggling with the bills. It is certainly interesting to see that even during a recession it is possible to capitalise on certain markets.

According to this article Twitter and other social networking sites are costing UK businesses £1.38bn every year. A survey carried out on 1,460 office workers by IT services group Morse found that half of those surveyed used social networking for personal use whilst at work. On average people spent around 40 minutes a week using the sites. Although many companies have banned the use of Facebook at work many have not issued the same guidelines for Twitter and with both sites being available as mobile applications I wonder how many firms would be able to enforce a complete ban. How much of your working day is spent on social networking sites?

This is interesting its a new zombie movie called Colin which cost just £45 to make. The film was created by Marc Price who works for a courier company. He used an old camcorder to shoot it and used family, friends and people off the street as cast members. The crew used golden syrup and red food dye to create blood effects, instant coffee granules for burns and mincemeat and stockings as intestines. I will be interested to see the movie when it comes out to see what its like.

It seems that business is booming at McDonald’s despite the recession. According to this article many McDonald’s drive through outlets are struggling to cope with increasing demand as the recession fuels a boom in fast food sales and a move towards more expensive meals. In order to deal with the increase in business the company will be installing an extra lane to many of its drive through restaurants. This will enable two drivers to order their food at the same time thus increasing capacity. The two lane system will be trialled at outlets in Telford, Shropshire, Kent and Edinburgh, and if successful will later be rolled out across the country.

If this article is correct then consumers will soon have less choice when they choose a credit card. Natwest and HSBC have recently decided to offer credit cards to existing customers only. To qualify for a credit card with them you will now need to also have a current account with the bank. The move obviously cuts down on the risk to the bank but if other banks start to follow suit then it looks as though people are going to be quite restricted when choosing a credit card in the future.

Tesco are now offering double the amount of loyalty card points in a bid to tempt more customers. According to the article sales growth at Tesco has been outpaced by its main rivals in the past year prompting the supermarket to look at new ways of retaining customers. All Clubcard holders will now receive double the amount of rewards every time they shop meaning you will now get two point for every pound you spend in store or online. I do have a Tesco Clubcard but personally I find I currently receive very little rewards and that I frequently forget to use the vouchers I receive. I wonder why Tesco don’t go the same way as Sainsbury’s and simply allow you to take the money off your shopping bill at the checkout. I find this works a lot better and means that I can save my points up for an expensive event such as Christmas to buy a few luxury items that we wouldn’t usually be able to afford.

Back in November 2007 my bank account was compromised causing me all sorts of problems and meaning I had to cancel all my cards and have new ones issued. On that occasion I was alerted when I noticed some Paypal transactions which didn’t appear on my Paypal account but which had been debited from bank account. These were eventually refunded and once my news cards were issued everything was back to normal, until now.

I now find myself in the same situation, although the circumstances are slightly different. This time I was alerted to suspect transactions by a message left on my mobile phone by my bank and the fact that my card had been declined when I tried to use it. Being wary of the phone message I contacted my bank directly to find that they were investigating a case of fraudulent transactions made on my card and as part of this they had suspended my debit card. It appears someone used my card to make several small transactions, followed by a larger transaction to top up a mobile phone. Once again it appears the only solution is for the bank to issue new cards which will take up to seven days to arrive. In the meantime I am left wondering how this happened again. I was over cautious before when using my card online but since the last case of fraud have become somewhat paranoid. I can only assume that a website I use regularly has been compromised and is unaware that they have a security issue. I am now contemplating getting a pre-paid card for ordering online rather than risk compromising my bank account.

According to this article Asda has actually increased the price of one one in five of its products despite its pledge to roll back prices. Trade magazine The Grocer has found that in many cases the supermarket has been rounding price up rather than down. It checked 969 products and found that 173 actually cost more in July than they did in March. A third of the products were the same price that they had been in March and 477 products were cheaper in July than in March. The Grocer found that one in five of the round pound lines which are heavily publicised has been sold for less than pound in recent months. Often customers often see the items priced at a £1.00 and fail to realise that they were actually previously on sale at a cheaper price.

A man in Liverpool had a welcome surprise when he was undertaking work to insulate his loft. He came across some forgotten paintings which turned out to be worth £100,000. The collection of 100 painting by artist Erich Wolfsfeld has been in the loft for about 20 years. They were left to him by his late mother and were family heirlooms created by his stepfather. The painting are now due to be auctioned on the 7th of July. Unfortunately a recent clear out of my loft revealed only junk and no priceless antiques.

Further to yesterdays post about the batch of 20p coins that were produced without a date it appears you might be able to get a good price for them online. One has recently gone on sale on eBay for £20,000. Experts had originally predicted that the coins could be worth as much as £50 but it appears some people are willing to pay a lot more to get their hands on one. Sadly, having gone through all my change I don’t have one, but will certainly be keeping an eye out. I could certainly use an extra £20,000.

According to this article a batch of coins have been minted that contain no date. The error is thought to have affected between 50,000 and 200,000 of 20p coins and is the first time in 300 years that coins have been minted without a date. The date on the 20p coin was moved last year from the tails side of the coin to the heads side. The coins with no date were created accidentally by pairing up the new tails side with the old heads side meaning they had no date on them at all. If you are lucky enough to find any they could be worth as much as £50, quite a bit more that the face value.

According to this article Waitrose shoppers are increasingly choosing the supermarkets budget range as they try to save money. Their essential range of products are packaged in simple white boxes and packets are similar to the basics range of products produced by Sainsbury’s. Sales of the range are up 11 per cent compared to a year ago and the supermarket expects to sell £600 million of essential products over the next 12 months. Sainsbury’s have also recently published figures that suggest shoppers are choosing the budget range of products. What do you think? Are you cutting back?

Shoppers in Germany will soon be able to buy something a little more high end from vending machines as machines selling precious metals are introduced across the country. The machines are being introduced by TG Gold Super Mart at 500 locations across Germany including train stations and airports. The aim is to tap into increasing interest in the buying of gold and the prices will be updated every few minutes, although they will be around 30 per cent higher than the current market prices. The prototype machine offered the choice of purchasing a 1g wafer of gold for 30 Euros, a 10g bar for 245 Euros and gold coins. It appears the aim is to take advantage of people that want an investment they can put in their pocket rather than something that is invested in markets you can’t see. It will be interesting to see if the machines prove to be popular.

According to this article wine sales in Britain have fallen for the first time in ten years. Figures show that the average British household does still drink more than a bottle of wine a week, however, it appears that people are cutting back. 1.16 billion litres of wine were sold in Britain in 2008, a two per cent fall on the previous year and the first time there has been an annual fall since 1995. One factor that might be behind the fall is the increase in wine duty last year which means a duty of £1.61 on a standard bottle. It might also be that people are spending their money more wisely in the current economic climate. What do you think? Are you buying less wine?

An Israeli woman has been frantically trying to recover an old mattress she has thrown out after finding it contains $1 million in savings. She has brought a new mattress for her mother as a surprise and taken the old one to the local dump. It was only when her mother returned home and told her the mattress contained her life savings that she learnt about the money. She has searched three landfill sites since for the mattress which had been taken away along with another 3,000 tonnes of rubbish. So far she has been unable to find it.

Like most people our mortgage is by far our biggest outgoing with most of our income going towards it before we have paid any other bills. Bearing this is mind we are always looking of ways to reduce the loan and try to overpay when we have any spare money. We do find, however, that we are able to do this very rarely as most months expenses come up that we are not expecting. I found this article interesting because it suggests that if you save just £2.50 a day then you could save £13,500 from the cost of your mortgage over the life of the loan. It seems like such small amount that you wouldn't expect it to make much of a difference. Most people can probably afford to save what amounts to slightly less than £80 a month but like me don’t consider it will make a great deal of difference, I guess it does all add up, perhaps I should start putting this small amount aside every month.

According to this article the recession has seen the number of millionaires in Britain halve. The decline has been put down to a number of factors but mainly the collapse in the property market, the fall in the value of shares and cuts in city bonuses. The number of millionaires in 2007 was estimated at 489,000 but this has now fallen to around 242,000. The rise in the number of millionaires from 2003 to 2007 was mainly attributed to a rise in house prices during that period. With property prices starting to level out I’m sure there will be people waiting to cash in and make their millions once the market improves.

If there is one thing that Monopoly has taught us its that a bank error in your favour is a good thing. Unfortunately in real life if you find several thousands of pounds in your account then you should tell the bank and give it back or you could be arrested. An Australian couple did just the opposite. On finding that they had received a payment of £4 million from the bank they simply disappeared. The bank has recovered some of the money but the couple still have around £3 million of it. An international search has now been launched for them.

If you want to get married but simply don’t have the money then this idea might be for you. Its a scheme being offered by St Hild and St Helen’s church in Dawdon, County Durham. Under the scheme couples are being offered a virtually free wedding including and organist and outfits for the bride, bridesmaid, bridegroom and mother of the bride. The only condition is that couple take four pre-marital lessons prior to the wedding at a cost of £50.

According to this article Sales of beer in the UK have fallen at their fastest rate since the recession of the early 1990s. The British Beer and Pub Association have said that off trade beer sales fell by 11 per cent in the first quarter of 2009 contributing to a total decline of 8.2 per cent in total beer sales. On trade beer sales (those in bars and restaurants) also fell by 6.3 per cent that’s around 753,000 fewer pints every day over the first three months of 2009. The message here is clear, your local pub needs you to drink more beer.

According to this article a £16 hi-fi from Tesco has been voted the best on the market. In the online survey carried our by Reevoo the Tesco hi-fi (pictured left) beat more expensive products made by Roberts and Sony to take the gold award in the hi-fi category. The winners were chosen by half a million consumers who submitted reviews to the website about products they owned. The £16 Tesco stereo came first with the Roberts Sound MP43 which costs £186 coming second and the Sony MHC-EC78PI costing £100 taking the bronze award. For your £16 the Tesco hi-fi has a CD player and two speakers. It was praised for it good sound quality and easy to use controls. At £16 I might just get one.

According to this article wine sales have plummeted as people begin to feel the effect of the recession. The article says that the amount of win brought in pubs and clubs has shrunk by 1%, that's the equivalent of around 12 million bottles. The figures from The Grocer also show that supermarkets, convenience stores and garage forecourts are also selling less wine, whilst off licenses have recorded a drop of 6% in sales value. Personally I haven't been buying less wine to drink at home but I do tend to drink less if I go out to a pub or restaurant as prices are usually overinflated.

This is interesting its a suit made from recycled plastic bottles. It has been made by the Designers at Debenhams and costs £55. It is made entirely out of plastic bottles which were destined for landfill sites. The bottles are cleaned, their labels are removed and then they are ground down into chips which are melted down. The mixture is then refined and woven into a type of polyester. Around 50 bottles are used in each suit. The jacket costs £35 and the trousers £20. In contrast to the peacock feather wedding dress it is hoped that it might appeal to people who are seeking a bargain in the current difficult economic conditions. It is available in sizes 10-22 and can be purchased in Debenhams stores countrywide.

It appears that despite the credit crunch some people are still prepared to pay for luxury items. This wedding dress costs $1.5million and is made from peacock feathers. It took eight workers 40 days to sew together. Its certainly interesting but I think it might be a bit too much as a wedding dress.

I read an article some time ago that suggested one in every 50 pound coins is a fake. This seems a lot but new figures from the Royal Mint suggest the problem is actually much worse and that the figure is more like one in every 20. It appears the current process of finding fake coins is not very accurate and only manages to find between 30 and 40% of the fakes because it errs on the side of caution rather than risk taking real coins out of circulation. Willings a company that tests coins collected from vending machines and car parks found that when they carried out a test on 2000 pounds coins between 3 and 4% were fake. Fake coins can be identified because the lettering on the side if often indistinct or in the wrong typeface.

This article suggests that more families have returned to batch cooking in order to try and save money. By batch cooking it means cooking meals such as casseroles, soups or pies that can feed the family throughout the week. The results are based on a survey that found more people are now buying ingredients in bulk and using them to create meals that will go just a little bit further. Supermarkets have also reported that sales of bulk items like large bag of potatoes and mince have gone up. In addition to this sales of freezer bags have also increased. I certainly find that cooking large batches of food makes the shopping budget stretch a little further. I tend to make three or four quiches out of minimal ingredients and freeze the extra ones for another day. Things like shepherds pie and lasagne also work quite well and can easily stretch to three meals. I also tend to add a little more pasta to an evening meal which then creates a lunch for the next day. All of this means we have a smaller grocery bill and also less waste. Have the current economic conditions changed how shop or do you have any money saving tips?

With people suffering during the credit crunch some firms are coming up with cut price products. This article highlights a bikini that that costs just 99p. It is made by the budget chain the 99p Store who say it can help you to create the Cheryl Cole look. To complete the look you can also get a cowboy hat, aviator sunglasses and flipflops, all for under a fiver.

According to this article credit card rates are the highest they have been for two years despite the fact that interest rates are at a historic low. According to the article a borrower now pays £26.40 more in interest on a £3,000 balance than they would have done two years ago. Although the Government has promised to clamp down on credit card companies which have failed to pass on the interest rate cuts it appears that banks are still able to charge their customers high rates and that charges continue to rise. In some ways you can see why in the current economic situation banks are reluctant to lend and with lending becoming more risky might charge a higher rate. However, that isn’t going to work in the long run if their customers simply can’t afford to pay the charges and the bank does not get their money back.

Like many people I had a punt on the Grand National last weekend without success. My tried and tested method of picking horses with funny names evidently failed again and none of them came anywhere. It appears that some people are more lucky then me, however. James Darmody from Swindon selected three horses to finish in the top four of the race and put down a £30 bet. At odds at 11,848 to one it seems to have little or no chance of coming in but he ended up winning £65,000. Perhaps I need to work on my technique or give up gambling. 

This article suggests that British people are concentrating on paying off the outstanding debt on their mortgages. In fact mortgage debt is being reduced at the highest rate since records began in 1970. During the final quarter of the year Britons reduced their mortgage debt by £8 billion, a contrast to the previous year when people were instead unlocking equity from their properties to fund large purchases. It appears that despite the low interest rates people are still opting to pay as much off of their mortgages as possible. Whilst this is good news for those who want to pay off their mortgages sooner, it signals that government measures to try and stimulate the economy are not working all that well. It seems people would rather play safe and reduce their debts rather than spend any extra money they might have, all of which is bad news for retailers and makes me think that this economic downturn could continue for quite a while longer.

If you have a few million to spend then you might be interested in this house which has recently gone on sale. At $150 million it is America’s most expensive house. It is so big that no one is really sure how many rooms it has but it is thought to be more than 100. It covers 56,500 square feet with grounds of more than 4.6 acres and has a library, gym, media room, wine cellar, wine tasting room, barbers shop and beauty salon. If you are interested then the closest neighbours include the Playboy Mansion and the Los Angeles Country Club.

Some stories that I come across take the biscuit, this one takes the whole tin. It’s about a family of four who say they are unable to work because they are too fat. What’s more they believe that the £22,000 they currently receive in benefits is not enough to live on. The family say "What we get barely covers the bills and puts food on the table. It's not our fault we can't work. We deserve more.” They were also quoted as saying "We have cereal for breakfast, bacon butties for lunch and microwave pies with mashed potato or chips for dinner" and "All that healthy food, like fruit and veg, is too expensive. We're fat because it's in our genes. Our whole family is overweight." Am I the only one who thinks perhaps the money barely covers the bills because they simply eat too much? Does it take a genius to figure out they might be overweight simply because they live on microwave pies and bacon butties? Equally the argument regarding fresh food is flawed, food is currently expensive but I have certainly learnt to economise whilst still eating a healthy diet.

This story is wrong on so many levels, the family obviously lack a basic understanding of why they are fat, that said I have nothing against people who are overweight. What I do have a problem with is people like this family that blame the problem on factors they believe are out of their control such as their genes, rather than going on a diet and following an exercise regime. In addition to this I find it difficult to believe that you would be unable to sit at a desk and work no matter how fat you happen to be. The fact that this family are responsible for their situation, expect the taxpayer to fund their lifestyle whilst giving nothing back in return and still have the gall to moan about it, really annoys me. There is no reason why they cannot get a job, why should the hardworking taxpayer fund this type of person?

If you are thinking of having an affair then you might want to check out this article, it suggests that the average affair costs an adulterer £8,000. This figure is based upon a poll which looked at 2,000 adulterers. On average unfaithful partners will spend £2,000 on secret holidays, £1,000 on dining, £916 on food and drink in country pubs and £1,000 on flowers. In additional to this most mistresses receive 10 boxes of chocolates, 11 bouquets of flowers, and 10 sets of clothes, underwear or jewellery in a 12 month period. The poll also found that adulterers also spent more money on their cheated partners, with eleven per cent of adults being more likely to take them away for a weekend if they are having an affair and one in ten buying flowers on the way home from a liaison.

A barman in Norfolk found himself in trouble with his boss after he cooked the pub takings. Luke Woolston, the barman at the Jolly Farmers in Ormesby, Norfolk stored the money inside an oven for safe keeping after he cashed up. Unfortunately he had failed to realise that the oven was switched on and it was only when he smelt burning that he realised he had cooked £1,000 on the pub takings. He later confessed to his boss by text message who took the unusual tactic of simply telling the customers what had happened saying I thought I could handle it in one of two ways - either give him a strong talking to or tell two or three customers, thinking it would be round the village in no time and his life would be hell for two or three weeks. It seems to have worked."

Marks and Spencer have recently started selling a wedding ring and engagement ring set for those on a budget. At just £18 it certainly won't break the bank. The rings are platinum plated and diamante encrusted with the underneath being made of a tin alloy. The engagement ring also includes a fake diamond. The M&S logo features on the inside of the ring in place of a hallmark and the set comes in a purple jewellery box. I wonder how popular these will turn out to be.

If you have a bit of spare cash then you might want to bid for what is officially the last bag of Woolworths pic 'n' mix. It is being sold by an ex store manager Ed Adams who is auctioning it to raise funds for Retail Trust, a charity for retail industry workers. He bagged the sweets shortly before closing his store for the last time and the bag has been certified by the administrators to show it is officially the last one. The current bid stands at £14,500.10 and if you want to bid you can do so on ebay.

It appears that one company at least is yet to feel the effects of the recession. Whilst many other businesses are struggling business is booming at Domino's Pizza. Profits for the last 12 months were up 25% to £23 million with like for like sales rising by 10%. There were also 52 new store openings last year. The company appears to benefiting not only from the fact that people are choosing to eat in rather than go out but also from the recent bad weather which has kept many people at home.

According to Camelot £7.2 million of Lottery wins remain unclaimed. The prizes includes three jackpot prizes of more than a £1 million. If you have a lottery ticket lying around gathering dust it might be worth checking it to see if you have won. Unfortunately for me although I do a line of number every week mine are not winning ones, I must just pick rubbish numbers.

In a bizarre money saving exercise Poole council in Dorset are spending a total of £65,000 to find out how they can save money. The money will go towards paying top financial experts from a business consultancy firms that will advise the council on how to cuts costs on buying goods, advertising and other projects. I wonder whether the advice will include how to cuts costs by not hiring expensive £65K consultants, I think they might leave that part out, don't you?

According to this article a teenager in the US managed to send 14,528 in just one month. That's an average of one message for every two minutes that she is awake. The girls father Mr Hardesty immediately questioned the phone bill but it was correct and it seems his daughter just sends a lot of text messages. The average number of text messages sent by a 13 to 17 year old is just 1,742 in comparison which still seems like a lot to me. Mr Hardesty has since said that his daughter is not allowed to text her friends after dinner, I think I would go one step further and take the phone away altogether.

For those who have a bit of extra cash to spare you might want to purchase a diamond encrusted iPhone. A jeweller has designed what is the world's most expensive phone. It is made of solid 18 caret gold mixed with white gold and rose gold. It is also encrusted with 138 cut diamonds of the best quality and the home button has a rare 6.6 caret diamond. If you want one it will cost you £1.6 million.

Like me, many people will be facing a hefty payment to the tax man at the end of the month when the Self Assessment tax returns deadline approaches. One thing to look out for the moment, however, is fake emails claiming to be from the Inland Revenue telling you that you are due a rebate. Whilst it is all to tempting to believe that you are due to get some of your hard earned cash back these emails are simply a scam. They ask you to enter your bank or credit card details and the fraudsters then simply empty the bank account of funds. Other emails ask people to ring a phone number to leave their details. In this case the phone appears to keep ringing but callers are charged up to £6 a minute whilst they wait to get through. The emails is question contain the HMRC logo and come from addresses such as refundtax@hmrc.gov.uk and taxrefund@hmrc.gov.uk. All such emails should simply be ignored. It is also worth remembering that if you are owed a refund by the Inland Revenue they will only ever contact you in writing.

Most of us have probably spent a little more than we anticipated over the Christmas period, but one student from Ayrshire had a shock when his bank account showed he was £100bn in the red. He has checked his balance the day before and found that it showed a healthy balance. However, two large withdrawals each of £50bn showed on his statement the next morning. The bank later blamed the problem on a "technical error" and offered him £10 compensation for the phone calls he had made to try and sort the problem out.

This article suggests that the average cost of a wedding has doubled over the past decade and now costs around £21,000. I wonder whether its just a case of people not shopping around when they are planning their wedding. When I got married two years ago I spend a total of £9880.81 on our wedding which I considered to be quite a lot of money. For that, however, I got a lovely ceremony in my local church in Egham followed by a stunning reception for 120 people at Royal Holloway University as well as an evening buffet for an extra 50 people.

My dress cost just under £600 including the veil and tiara and the bridesmaids dress was around half that. I definitely didn't cut corners but was aware that our total budget of £10,000 could not be exceeded. We had a little help with my parents paying for the photographer and we made all of our table decorations and favours to save a bit of cash. The only thing we couldn't afford was a honeymoon so we came up with the idea of asking our guests to contribute towards this and as a result had a nice relaxing break in the sun without having to worry about the cost. I found that the £10,000 budget went further than expected and our wedding day was certainly not lacking in any way in fact it was pretty much perfect, a little careful budgeting and research can go a long way in planning a wedding, and I don't think it needs to cost £21,000.

A street cleaner in Lincoln could find that he is considerably richer if he can solve an unusual puzzle. The cleaner came across a bag full of cut up bank notes when he was going about his daily cleaning. He handed it into police but after six months the notes have remained unclaimed and as there is no evidence that they have been stolen the cleaner is allowed to keep them. The only catch is that for the notes to be worth anything he first has to stick them all back together. It is estimated that there are £10,000 worth of notes in the bag so this is one puzzle that is really worth solving.

Well I won the lottery last night but unfortunately it was only £10 so I guess it won't change me. It is my first win for some time though and I guess it will pay for 10 more lottery tickets. Hopefully one of those will be a bit more lucky.

According to the Royal Mint there are now around 30 million fake £1 coins in circulation meaning that one in 50 is now counterfeit. The question is, how do spot a fake one? This article should help. It contains this diagram which compares a fake and a real coin. Signs that you have a fake are a poorly defined ribbed edge, the wrong typeface and an indistinct or blurred design.

If you have a lot of spare cash lying around burning a hole in your pocket then you might want to splash out of some co-coordinated dog accessories. A Cheshire based company has launched a range of dog collars and matching belts. They cost around £10,000 for a collar and lead which is studded with real jewels and garnished with gold but you can also get a matching belt for yourself. The products are made by the Gladstone Collar company and are being billed as the present for the dog owner who has everything.

If you want to earn a bit of extra cash you might want to look into starting a snail farm in your spare room. That's what one enterprising lady from Littlebourne has done. She spotted a gap in the market for locally produced food and is now supplying local restaurants. She keep 2,000 breeding snails and is finding that demand from restaurants is outstripping supply. Apparently the snails are good served with a garlic sauce.

It comes as no surprise to read this article which suggests email phishing scams are up by 180%. The payments body APACS has reported that there have been 20,600 phishing incidents involving UK bank customers in the first six months of 2008 compared with only 7,200 in the same period in 2007. The most common scams seem to be emails that pretend to be from a bank requesting that you follow a link and enter your account number and password. It still amazes me that people get caught out by these scams, whilst the emails do sometimes look genuine, it is widely publicised by banks that they will never send an email asking for your account details or password. The message here is clear, if there is any doubt, don't click on it, just delete it. If your bank does really need to contact you, they have your address and phone number.

This luxury yacht has been designed by a company called Wally. It is big enough to include a garden and a full sized swimming pool. It can sleep up to 40 crew and 24 guests and would have a gaming room, library, cinema, gym, spa and sauna. The yacht would measure 325 foot long and is fully customisable. It is still to be built and the price tag has not been set but I'm guessing it will be very very expensive, I wonder what sort of person would be able to afford one?

I often wonder why it takes so long to transfer money between bank accounts and why I can transfer it between two accounts with the same bank instantly but to transfer to an account with a different bank it takes a minimum of four days. Now it appears that there is a new system that will allow same day bank transfers. Customers will be able to make one off payments up to a maximum of of £10,000 that will leave their account and arrive at the destination on the same day. Among the banks that will be included in the scheme are Abbey, Alliance and Leicester, Barclays, Citi, Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks (National Australia Group), Co-operative Bank, HBOS, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Nationwide Building Society, Northern Bank (Danske Bank), Northern Rock, and Royal Bank of Scotland Group (including NatWest and Ulster Bank).

Nationwide has reduced its maximum loan size for new customers to £500,000, half the previous limit. It has also raised its minimum deposit from 5% to 10% on all but two of its mortgage deals. These measures will not affect existing customers but are being introduced as what Nationwide describe as managing its business "in a prudent and sustainable way". In contrast the Royal Bank of Scotland has recently announced a reduction of 0.3% on its fixed rate mortgage deals at a time when most other banks are putting their rates up. It's hard to know what's happening with the property market at the moment but one thing is for sure, if you are looking to buy having a big wad of cash for a deposit will certainly help, otherwise you might struggle to find mortgage.

A luxury watch with a price tag of £150,000 has sold out within 48 hours of going on sale. That might not seem surprising but the watch is unusual because it doesn't tell the time. It has a crocodile skin strap and is made from steel salvaged from the wreck of the titanic encrusted with sapphires. The face is divided into two sections which signify day and night. It is described by the manufacturer as “world unique - a watch that does not tell the time” and the chief executive of the company says “Anyone can buy a watch that shows time, but only a discerning customer can buy one that doesn’t.” Call me old fashioned I think I will stick with a cheaper watch that tell the time.

Nationwide have increased the minimum deposit required to secure its best interest rate. Previously anyone putting down a 10% deposit could secure its best rate but this has now been increased to 25% of the value of the property. The move will mean that anyone with less than a 25% deposit will pay 0.2% more interest.

A man in Cornwall managed to win the lottery twice after buying two tickets with the same numbers. He had purchased a ticket but then later brought a second one, forgetting about the first. After cashing in his first ticket for $479,142 he later realised he has another ticket with the same numbers and so had won twice the amount.

Newcastle City Council released the credit card details of around 54,000 people on the internet. The blunder happened when thousands of credit and debit card details were placed on an insecure server and were accessed by overseas computers. The details accessed include payment details for council tax, business rates, parking fines and rent. The Council has said that residents should monitor their bank statements to check for any unusual activity. That’s not very reassuring to the people whose accounts have been compromised.

A businessman and 18 friends spent a record £105,805 on drink at a London nightclub. Among the drinks they consumed were £80,000 worth of champagne, 4 bottles of Cristal Rose, 6 magnums of Dom Perignon, 36 bottles of Cristal and 12 bottles of Dom Perignon Rose. I feel better now about splashing out on a bottle of wine with my meal last night.

A man in West Sussex is celebrating after placing a £2 bet on a series of horse races and winning and amazing £427.000. He placed what is called a Scoop 6 bet with William Hill. He is now planning to move to Spain.

I have been caught out in the past when my account has gone overdrawn by a few pounds and the bank has charged a lot of fees on the top increasing the debt dramatically. This article, however, highlights what I hope is an extreme case of unfair charges. The article talks about an HSBC account that went £5.60 overdrawn. In the first month £184 of charges were added to the account. In subsequent months amounts of £152 and £176 were also added, making the total debt more than £500. The bank said it wrote to the customer informing them of the problem but no letters were received until nearly four months later when the debt had mounted up. In this instance the bank did apologize although the article does not state whether the customer still had to pay the charges. It makes me wonder how many other people have been caught out by this tactic.

Have you ever wondered what you would do if you have the luck to get a bank error in your favour. It’s usually the kind of event that we only see on a chance card when playing Monopoly. Obviously in the game you are allowed to spend it but in real life you know you should really give it back. One lady finding £135,000 in her bank account decided to take a chance (literally) and spend the cash. She managed to work her way through £33,000 of the money before being arrested for theft. She will also have to pay back the money.

Sainsbury’s are one of the latest large retailers to stop taking cheques. From the 1st of August you will now longer be able to pay by cheque in 800 Sainsbury’s stores. Sainsbury’s say too few people are now using cheques and that they take too long to process. I always find it's useful to have a cheque book handy as a backup, I guess I will have to carry more cash in future.

I have noticed recently a dramatic increase in the number of spam emails I get pretending to be from banks. With most of them it’s very easy to spot they are spam as I have never heard from the bank mentioned (usually an American bank), let alone have an account with them. Recently though the spammers seemed to have moved into targeting UK banks. I have received emails recently from Lloyds TSB and Alliance and Leicester and its interesting to see the spammers have been doing their homework. The emails fit exactly with the look and feel of the current websites and even include a disclaimer on the bottom about not divulging your banking details. I know that no UK banks would ever send you an email asking you to click on a link and re-enter your details. In addition, I am not fooled when directed to a website that looks like my banks website but has a completely different URL, however, I'm sure there must be people who do get caught out by the spam emails and end up divulging all of their account details. I have got to the stage where I automatically delete any emails claiming to be from a bank. If my bank did try to contact me by email, they wouldn’t have much luck, but then they do have my address and phone number if it’s important.

Fees can really mount up when using your debit card abroad. It doesn't help when you think your card is free to use and then find out that you have been charged a fee after all. HSBC advertise the fact that their debit cards are free from transaction fees when used abroad. They do however, charge 2.75% on top of the exchange rate for overseas withdrawals which they say is not a fee, its simply how they calculate their exchange rate. It sounds like a fee to me.

On a day when Barclays have announced a jump of 15% in their profits for this quarter it has also been reported that they plan to impose a £20 fee on customers who don’t their credit card often enough. This move is likely to hit a lot of customers as one in every five cards used in the UK is a Barclaycard. Just another unfair charge the consumer has to bear.

Still on a holiday theme I came across this article on thisismoney about the cheapest destinations for UK travellers taking into account the current exchange rates. Apparently you can currently get the most for your pounds by heading to countries such as South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. This is because the pound has strengthened greatly against those local currencies within the past year. For example a pound will now get you 12.8 rand, 10% more than this time last year. It’s a different story though if you are thinking of heading off to Eastern Europe you are 13.6% worse off than last year.

The same article has an interesting section about using credit and debit cards abroad. Last time I went abroad I was aware that there would be a charge for overseas transactions but didn’t really pay much attention to what the charges were. It was a bit of a surprise to see how the charges had mounted up just in one week. The article contains a handy table comparing what providers charge for overseas transactions. Interestingly enough if you have a credit card from the Nationwide or the Post Office they do not charge you at all. Most other credit card providers have a 2.75% charge when used overseas. Likewise with debit cards most companies charge not only for making card purchases but also to withdraw cash. This is where I got out with my Bank who charges 1.5% on every foreign withdrawal. Once again Nationwide does not charge its customers for overseas transactions. It might be time to open another account to use when going on vacation. I’m sure in the long run it will help save a lot in unnecessary fees.

Have you experienced a drop in your US based sales? It could be down to a recent policy change made by ebay. Whereas before when you listed an item it automatically appeared on ebay.com as well, now it only appears if the US user performs an advanced search. A basic search will now only bring up US based items. You can still list on ebay.com but to do so will now incur two lots of listing fees.

A useful article here including some money saving tips. Some of which I already do, like buying my groceries online but it has made me think about whether I should switch to a savings account with a better interest rate.

On receiving a renewal notice for my car insurance today, I thought I would look around to see if I could get a better quote elsewhere. After looking around at several different websites that compare quotes from different insurance companies I noticed that the company I currently have my insurance with was offering a cheaper quote that the one in my renewal letter. Is this a case of a “brand new customer’s only policy”.

Thinking this a little strange I went direct to my current insurer’s website and input my details for a quote. Sure enough it came up considerably cheaper than the quote in my renewal letter; in fact the total difference was a sum of £146.44.  I decided to call my insurer directly causing much confusion with the call centre staff as I explained I wanted to pay the price I was quoted on the internet and not the more expensive one in my renewal letter.

After checking through the information and calling me several times to double check the details I was finally offered the considerably cheaper quote I had obtained on the internet. It makes me wonder how many customers just renew their car insurance with their current company and end up paying hundreds of pounds extra for cover just because they don’t have the time to double check the figures. Even if you just obtain an online quote from your current insurer it could still save you money.