FreeMoneyFinance recently asked are you feeling any economic pain, so I thought I’d look at the same subject from a UK perspective, and poll Money Watch readers on whether you are feeling the effects of the credit crunch yet? When I say crunch here, I’m using the term loosely, as I’m referring to more than […]
Category: Featured
Searching For A Good Mortgage Is Now Harder Than Ever
If you’d asked me a few months ago what the best way to get a new mortgage was, I’d have told you to find yourself an independent mortgage broker, and let them do the hard work for you. With the credit crunch hitting the mortgage market hard, lenders had been withdrawing mortgage rates left right […]
The Economic Naturalist: Book Review
I mentioned yesterday about my summer holiday reading, and that I’d picked up this book along with Tim Hardford’s The Undercover Economist. The Economic Naturalist by Robert H Frank aims to show how economics can be used to explain almost everything, and lecturer Frank uses questions submitted by his students as inspiration for the sections […]
Downbranding: Finding Cheaper Alternatives
Here’s an interesting post on downbranding – buying a less expensive version of a product which is available in 2 or more different brands. Possibly the best example of this is supermarket own brand food, e.g. baked beans. You know that it wouldn’t make sense for Tesco to run it’s own factories for producing everything […]
Holiday Reading Book Reviews
You may remember that a few weeks ago I asked for you recommendations for some holiday reading with a personal or general finance theme. I only got one suggestion (“The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need” by Andrew Tobias), so I decided to see what the book stores at the airport could offer (I know, […]
Smoking Ban One Year On
July 1st 2007 saw the ban on smoking in public places come into force, and by several accounts, the results have been pretty impressive, with an estimated 400,000 people giving up smoking since then. And as far as the personal finances of those who have given up go, then should they have now been a […]
FSA Launches Finance Site For Young Adults
The UK financial regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has launched a new website aimed at helping young adults (16-24) with their finances. This site is aimed at 16-24 year olds, to help you better understand money issues. It is part of our National Strategy for Financial Capability, which aims to improve the financial capability […]
Why Saving Money Is Like Losing Weight
In the past couple of years, a sedentary job and a little over-eating has meant I’ve been putting a little bit of weight on, and it’s come to the point now where I feel that I really need to do something about it. Whilst I’ve been developing a plan to combat the extra pounds I’m […]
What’s The Biggest Discount You’ve Negotiated?
John at FindFinancialFreedom suggests that it doesn’t hurt to ask for a discount when you’re making a purchase. Most of us would balk at the suggestion of trying to haggle on the price of something (“it’s just not the British way to do business!”), but he’s right – there’s no harm in asking. Personally, I’d […]
More Worrying About Petrol Price Rises
I’m glad to see that I’m not the only person in the UK stressing about petrol price rises. This data from internet monitor Hitwise shows how the number of searches for petrol prices have increased to an all-time high as prices have hit a high too. It’s interesting that people are appear to be searching […]