How much do you spend in the summer compared to the winter? This is a question that’s been on my mind this week as DJ and I go through our summer finances.

DJ raised the issue the other day when we were tucking into lunch outside in the sunshine. He pointed out that we’ve been eating a lot of home grown food recently – cucumbers, salads, peas, broccoli and potatoes from the garden – and that it has probably made a difference to our food bill. Certainly, we haven’t had to buy as much fresh veg from the supermarket over the past few weeks as we might in the winter months. We’ve been doing our best to anticipate what might be ready to eat in the garden, or otherwise, and planning ahead to ensure we use it all up. For example, we’ve been swamped with eggs over the past week as on top of the produce courtesy of our own hens, Molly and Lexi, we’ve also been looking after four hens which belong to our neighbour while she’s on holiday. An average of five eggs a day (somebody next door isn’t laying at the moment but I’m not sure who) isn’t easy to cope with! But on Sunday DJ used up a good few by making a broccoli, bacon and pea quiche, which was delicious.

However, in the summer heat we’ll no doubt be using more water than we do in the winter months, especially as we have lots of tomatoes in grow bags, although we’re making good use of our water butts too. Hopefully we won’t be spending as much on our gas and electricity bills as we would do in the winter because the weather is so warm and it gets darker later. But then again, it’s tempting to reach for the electric fan when it gets too hot indoors.

The garden is such a pleasant place to be that we’re less likely to need to sit indoors with the lights on watching TV or going out in search of entertainment. In fact, the thought of going anywhere or doing much at all in this heat is pretty unappealing. That should also mean that we’re less likely to want to hit the high street and spend up a storm – just think how uncomfortable it will be trying on clothes in a hot, sticky changing room. Just as bad weather can have an adverse effect on sales at the retailers, so can very hot weather, although, that said, I am struggling to find enough lightweight summer clothes to wear.

But, then again, the summer isn’t without its expenses. Many people will still be going on some sort of holiday this year, even if it’s a short break in the UK or a so-called ‘staycation’ which can easily involve spending just as much entertaining yourself at home as you might do on a week abroad somewhere. If you have kids, you’ll be paying for activities to keep them busy during the forthcoming school holidays or paying for childcare while you work.

Then there’s the outlay on sun cream which, if you’re pale-skinned like me, can lead to spending up to £8 or £10 a bottle on the stuff. And while we might not buy as much on food as we do in the winter because the hot weather may take the edge off our appetite, we’ll be tempted to splash out on ice creams and cold drinks to cool us down.

What are your seasonal spending patterns? Do you think you spend less money in the summer than the winter, or with the summer holidays does it work out much the same? Leave a message and let me know.

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Like many people, I was shocked to hear of Michael Jackson’s death last week. Whatever the question marks over his conduct and personal life, I grew up in the 1980s and his music was a big part of my childhood. Thriller and Billie Jean were some of my favourite records from those days and I was furious when my beloved Bad album, which I usually had turned up loud on my Walkman as a teenager, mysteriously disappeared. I’d lent it to my French penpal who was staying with us at the time. When she returned home to France, I wrote her a letter asking if it had ended up in her suitcase ‘accidentally’. I was mortified when she wrote back in perfect English, denying that she had the cassette and correcting my appalling French. But I digress.

Watching some of the old pop videos again on TV over the weekend, it’s amazing to realise just how many hits Michael and the Jackson Five made over the years. Which is why it’s equally horrifying to think of the debts he is thought to have racked up – rumoured to be as much as $500m. It’s difficult to understand how somebody with Jackson’s earning power and back catalogue could manage to squander his fortune so spectacularly - especially as he was once the astute businessman who beat Paul McCartney to secure rights to the Beatles’ back catalogue.

Many of us might feel that if only we had X amount of cash in the bank, we would never have to worry about money again. But it’s never as simple as that. You have to know how to look after it and how to live within your means. It’s always fascinated me that no matter how much individuals or companies might accumulate over the years, they can still work their way through it if they don’t manage their money carefully. Someone like Michael Jackson should have been set up for life, but spending sprees and paying out for money-draining items such as lawsuits, security and huge entourages can quickly leave finances depleted. Britney Spears’ annual budget was recently made public, following a court report on her finances, and revealed that last year she spent $10m of the $12m she earned, including £2m on lawyers, $406,000 on her security detail and $400,000 on childcare and staffing. She will probably have to keep working just to maintain her financial status quo.

Other stars have lost millions not just because of their failure to be frugal, but because they have fallen prey to shady associates with their hands in the till. Courtney Love believes she has been conned out of millions of Kurt Cobain’s cash and property and has launched a number of civil cases to get the money back.

But some stars, at least, have frugal instincts. Spiderman actor Toby Maguire has reportedly told journalists that he is careful with his money because his parents had little cash when he was growing up, Paul McCartney famously sent his children to local state schools rather than private schools and Halle Berry is said to be keen on saving in case the fame train crashes and there are lean times ahead.

What would you do with your cash if you became rich and famous? Would you become a big spender because life is too short, or would you maintain a frugal lifestyle in case you lost it all? Leave a message and let me know.

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Although I do my best to save as much money as possible in the different areas of my life now, especially as cash has been tight this year, I still have some weak spots. One of them is for cut flowers. As soon as I walk into a supermarket and see the beautiful bouquets on display – usually near the front of the store – my resolve to stick to my shopping list weakens and I find myself drooling over the pretty blooms.

I do limit myself to buying cheap bunches and try to purchase things that last a couple of weeks, like cheery chrysanthemums, but it still adds up. And thinking about it now, cut flowers seem like a particularly frivolous purchase really, considering that all they do is die off. But while I’ll cheerfully do without other things, like new clothes, I don’t want to do without flowers around our home. They look so beautiful around the place and they never fail to cheer me up. I’ve tried using dried flowers but somehow it’s not the same as having fresh ones.

So this year to save money, DJ came up with a great solution. He decided to build us a cut flower growing plot in the back garden, specifically for filling up the vases in the house. I like to keep a vase in the lounge, a small one in our bedroom and occasionally a tiny one in the bathroom when we have visitors round, although I try to make one bunch of flowers from the supermarket cater for all three.

I was a bit dubious at first. DJ admits to being a vegetable grower first and foremost and not really seeing ‘the point’ of flowers as, unlike veg, like don’t do anything but look pretty. But he got a book by Gardener’s World presenter Sarah Raven out of the library about how to plan your plot and really did his research. Now the plot is coming into its own and he has made some beautiful displays already using the salvias, calendulas, rubekias and bishop’s flowers. The flowers are chosen for their ‘cut and come again’ qualities, so the more you cut them, the more they keep going. And I’m already impressed.

I’m curious to see how long the flowers will last once they’re cut and in a vase, though. The thing with supermarket chrysanthemums and carnations is that they seem to last for ages. Often I’ll cut flowers or herbs from the garden to make up a homemade arrangement but find they’ll only last a few days. However, apparently there are a number of tricks and techniques to keep cut flowers going for longer:

- Cut your flowers and then leave them in a darkened room in water to recover before using them.

- Burn the ends of the flower stems which exude sap with a lighted match.

- Trim the foliage below the water line to prevent it rotting.

- Change the water in the vase regularly to keep them fresh.

- Put sugar in the water to feed the flowers.

- Use lukewarm water for flowers and cold water only for bulbs.

- Try putting a drop of bleach into the water or a penny to prevent bacterial nasties from growing in it.

- Never put daffodils in a vase with anything else as the other flowers will die off because they produce a toxic compound.

- Keep your flowers away from direct sunlight and don’t leave them in a draught.

Got any tips for keeping cut flowers fresh? Have you come across some good cut flower bargains or a particular variety which is long lasting? Leave a message and let me know.

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Money may be tight for many of us this year, but we’ll still want to toast the holiday season by enjoying a refreshing beer or a glass of wine in the summer sun. Beyond the cut price deals in the supermarkets and off-licences, one solution is to make your own.

A friend of ours used to work for a wine company and very kindly got us some fantastic deals via the staff sales – around £1 a bottle for a while. It was great while it lasted, but now he has moved jobs and our wine cellar is looking pretty thin. So this weekend DJ, a keen homebrew enthusiast, decided to get stuck into bottling some wine he made a couple of years ago, brewing some beer and planning to get some more vino on the go for the coming years.

Brewing your own beer and wine may sound a bit too much like hard work but, believe me, it’s great fun and the thought of all the money you’ll save will soon put a smile on your face. You can make decent beer in the comfort of your own home for 30p a pint or less. And, what’s more, the quality of many homemade beer and wine kits have improved considerably over the past few years and they don’t have to taste like Chateau Neuf du Paint Stripper. Actually, DJ’s apricot wine is just as good, if not better, than some white wines I have tasted from the off-licence.

Beer can generally be made much quicker than wine and will be ready in a few weeks. Wine made from items such as freshly picked or tinned fruit can take much longer to be ready – a year or more. However, rice and raisin wine is a popular beginner’s wine which takes six to eight weeks to make and some modern wine kits can be ready in a couple of weeks, although the longer you leave them to mature, the better they will taste.

To make beer you’ll need a brewing barrel, beer bottles or keg, beer kit, paddle, hydrometer yeast, siphon, sugar, bottle caps and sterilisation powder. A beginner’s kit will set you back about £20, but all of the items you will reuse. For wine you’ll also need some demijohns – large glass containers which hold around five bottles’ worth of wine – and some bottles, airlocks and corks too. Obviously there’s an initial outlay for the equipment, although you will of course be able to use it again and again. To get his demijohns, DJ contacted some local charity shops. They often get demijohns but tend to recycle them because they take up so much room. When they got some in they gave DJ a call and we came and collected them. I think he paid about 50p each. Alternatively, you could put out a request for them on your local freecycle group.

Make sure you take care to sterilise your brewing barrel and bottles etc. carefully. It’s a bit of a drag, but you don’t want your beer or wine to be contaminated. Earlier this year we put some beer on but didn’t take enough care over cleaning the barrel and ended up having to throw the whole lot away.

Have you made your own beer and wine? Got any good tips or recipes to recommend? Leave a message and let me know.

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I was shocked to see an item on The One Show the other night about scam artists deliberately targeting older people. This wasn’t some hi-tech internet scam but very much an old economy one. Somebody would receive a letter through the post (remember that?) telling them that they had won a prize, but to get their hands on the money they would have to pay an upfront fee. Now, savvy users of this blog will know to throw these letters into the shredder, but many elderly recipients take them at face value and have lost tens of thousands as a result.

I was taken aback. These scams were appalling – elderly and vulnerable people were deluged with up to 30 letters a day from con artists all over the world once they’d replied to the first letter, yet were almost addicted to responding and sending off the fees, believing that eventually some day they would win the money. But, if I’m honest with you, it wasn’t simply that fact that shocked me. I have no idea why, but it made me realise I have been labouring under the illusion that older people are more frugal and canny with their money than other generations. In reality I’m sure that this is a completely inaccurate and prejudiced view, but I suppose it’s because of the idea that many of our elderly relatives lived through the war years and learned to make do and mend.

My generation are the spendthrifts, or so I was told. Surely it’s us that have been corrupted by the availability of credit - as many credit cards as you like and endless marketing letters from banks suggesting we take out humungous loans to ‘treat ourselves’? Some of my friends took advantage of these loans and now owe thousands of pounds which they may never be able to pay back. Strangely enough, I haven’t received one of those letters for a while. It’s funny the difference a recession can make to your correspondence.

In contrast, my grandmother never threw anything away and could somehow make a roast chicken generate meals for six people for an entire week. My mother, her daughter, hates owing money to anybody and has inherited the frugal gene, too. It’s her I have to thank for my ingrained habits of filling the shampoo and washing up liquid bottles with water when they’ve finished but there’s still that annoying bit left at the bottom. Nature tells me I can’t be bothered and should just recycle them, but nurture insists I have to get that last bit of detergent out if it kills me.

But does age or experience in fact have anything to do with how frugal we are as individuals? Is it learned behaviour or instinct? While my grandmother was thrifty, my grandfather was not in the least. Even when he was in his eighties, he believed that the whole point of the existence of overdrafts was to have one and use it. Maybe you could try to argue, then, that frugality is a gender issue – that because women ran the home and had to manage the shopping budget they had a keener grasp of the household finances, but I think this would be wildly inaccurate too. I know plenty of women and men who are hopeless at managing their money and others of both sexes who are extremely capable.

Perhaps, then, it’s down to our own life experiences and the subsequent attitudes we form towards money. It’s possible that the experience of making do during the war years could have had the opposite effect on some people in the long term and made them crave luxury. They might have dreamt for years of a letter dropping through the door informing them that they’d won millions and thought that, at last, that moment had arrived, not realising that some evil scammer somewhere was simply trying to steal from them.

Do you think age has any bearing on how we manage our money? Are older people thriftier or do you think younger people are more aware of the best deals available on the internet, for example? Leave a message and let me know.

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I’m feeling a bit melancholy this week because we’ve had to say goodbye to an old friend and a major feature of our garden – our apple tree. It has had canker for a long time – at least since we moved in nearly five years ago now and no doubt some time before that. Every year since we moved here DJ has said that it would probably be the apple tree’s last year, but still the tree kept going, producing delicious apples. I dared to hope that it would go on forever. But last year it developed a large and dangerous looking crack in the trunk. Beetles moved in and spent a lot of time making the crack even bigger. We attached a ratchet strap, hoping that this would keep it going a little longer and prevent any accidents happening.

Sadly, we came home the other afternoon to find the garden looking rather strange. I did a double take – wondering what it was that was so different. Then I realised - the main branch of the apple tree had finally snapped and collapsed in the windy weather onto the ground. It was still tenuously attached to the trunk and I did hope that it might still be possible for the tiny apples which had formed to grow and ripen. Then, once we’d harvested them, I thought that we could sever it from the trunk and say goodbye. However, DJ decided that, on reflection, it was unlikely the apples would receive enough nutrients, so he took his axe to it. We always knew we would lose the tree eventually, but I feel sad that it’s gone and that we will never again taste its delicious apples in pies and chutneys. The garden looks completely different, too, without it as a focal point and I’ll miss watching the birds sitting in it and feeding from the feeders. Funny how you can become so attached to an old tree.

Anyway, enough of being maudlin, and onto more cheery news. Now that we’re well into June and the fear of frost has gone, the rest of our garden is really getting into its stride. Today we harvested our first Ulster Chieftain new potatoes – grown by yours truly. I’m looking forward to tucking into those later in a nice ploughman’s. I hope they’re good – I’m feeling the pressure slightly now! What if they aren’t as nice as DJ’s crop last year?

I’m also very excited because two courgettes are forming on one of my courgette plants and I also have two fruits forming on the Harlequin squash plant and – most excitingly – a pumpkin. Hooray! They are so tiny right now that if you blink you’ll miss them, but I have high hopes for them, of course. I did get a bit worried earlier, though, when I spotted some black fly on one of the courgette plants, so I will have to keep an eye on that. We’ve also harvested all the broad beans which were really tasty and DJ has cleared the area in preparation for our sweet corn which is about to be sown. I’m really looking forward to tucking into it later this summer as there is nothing more delicious than home grown sweet corn. DJ initially had a bit of trouble with his baby beetroot plants during the hot weather the other week, but it seems to have recovered since. His tomatoes are also looking pretty impressive. 

Do you grow your own fruit and veg? What are you growing and have you been able to sample the fruits of your labour yet this year? Leave a message and let me know.

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A friend of mine told me the other day how her daughter demanded she buy her a toy she’d seen advertised on TV. She is barely three and still learning her vocabulary, but she was able to pronounce the rather complicated name of this toy without difficulty. Despite her parents’ frugal outlook on life, the power of TV advertising had persuaded her that she couldn’t live without this wretched item.

I am well aware of the phenomenon of kids’ pester power. However, I still couldn’t help but find this incident a bit sinister. Oddly enough, I’d been wondering lately whether television advertising still works. I am struggling to think of any products I have been persuaded to buy recently simply because I’ve seen them advertised on TV. Mostly when the commercials come on they are so loud and intrusive that I press the mute button until the programme I’m watching returns. Some ads are funny, of course. I enjoy the ones for heavy duty kitchen roll, for example, with the burly men in drag, but when I go to the supermarket to buy kitchen paper I don’t remember them and reach instead for the cheap or recycled own brand version. Watching Mark Addy and Fay Ripley browsing for wine in Tesco’s does not make me want to jump in the car and go there for some Pino Grigio either. The only exception may be the current ad for Galaxy chocolate, but then I suppose everybody has their Achilles heel…

But while some adults may be part-immune to advertising after years of bombardment with TV ads, our children haven’t inherited our immunity. They are still like sponges, waiting to soak it all up and pester Mum and Dad - the miniature puppets of some advertising mogul and his corporate client. How horrifying. No wonder the French have banned advertising mobiles to children under the age of 12. And while I’d question whether advertising still has the power to make adults buy specific brands, I think many of us still labour under the illusion that we have to have certain possessions to make us feel successful. It’s hard to know whether this is a product of advertising and the media or an innate competitive ‘survival of the fitness’ need to better ourselves and outdo our peers from a financial or material standpoint.

I have just started reading a book by the psychologist Oliver James called Affluenza. In it he argues that in the West we are all suffering from the ‘affluenza virus’. The ‘virus’, he claims, makes us obsessed with ‘keeping up with the Joneses´ and chasing material wealth to the detriment of our own mental well being. He believes that our obsession with the material things in life is making us more vulnerable to emotional distress and depression when we fail to measure up to these overblown expectations.

While reading through his ‘do you have affluenza quiz’ at the start of the book, I was shocked to find that I had some of the symptoms, despite my attempts to live frugally over the past 18 months. Sounds like I still have some way to go…

Do you think TV advertising still has a hold over us? Do you worry about keeping up with the Joneses or has the recession changed your outlook on this?  Leave a message and let me know.

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I’m getting a bit concerned about my cat’s burgeoning interest in wild food. Perhaps it was a mistake on my part to let him watch Ray Mears, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Bear Grylls on TV. Whenever he gets tired of waiting for me to feed him in evenings, he seems to sneak off and catch himself a ‘snack’ to keep him going.

He never used to be able to catch so much as a moth years ago. But now the back garden is littered with the corpses of countless mice and telltale missing feathers from birds which have met with an untimely end. DJ and I desperately tried to nurse back to health no less than two baby blue-tits which Dougal ‘appropriated’ last month, but all to no avail. Recently his tastes have become more exotic and, I’m ashamed to say, that he’s added slow worms to his menu. Fortunately I’ve managed to rescue most of them after they’ve confused him by dropping their tails, but I’m sure that trick won’t fool him for ever.

But perhaps Dougal makes a valid point. Maybe we should be making more of what nature’s larder has to offer. Last summer during my challenge to beat rising food prices, I spent a week introducing wild foods into my diet. I found the experiment fascinating and thoroughly enjoyed learning about the edible plants which are growing all around us.

So this week I spoke to wild food expert Kris Miners to find out which foods are in season and how you can cook them. Here are five easily identifiable varieties he came up with to get you started:

1. “Horseradish is out at the moment and tends to be found by the roadsides,” says Kris. “This does mean that it’s often on agricultural land, so you should be careful and make sure you get permission before digging it up.” You can use the leaves and the root. Grate the root and mix it with cream or vinegar if you like it spicy. Kris says that some people prefer to leave eating their horseradish until a bit later in the season, but it can get a bit woody.

2. Elderflower. Elder leaves are poisonous so make sure you don’t eat them, but the flowers can be used. Kris advises harvesting them just as they come into bloom and making a champagne or cordial from them. You can also eat them raw or lightly deep fry them in batter with honey or salt.

3. Dog rose petals. “Use them once they start to fall away naturally from the rose,” says Kris. “You can eat the petals raw in salads or crystallise them for use as cake decorations.”

4. Herb Bennet. Many of these grow wild in gardens. Use the leaves in stew as well as the root which has an aniseed flavour.

5. Stinging nettles. “People think they can’t use them at this time of year but there are still many around,” Kris explains. “Only use the young leaves [the older leaves can be bad for your kidneys] and cook them like spinach. You can also make nettle beer.”

Make sure you’re 100 per cent certain of what you’re eating, though. Many wild foods can be mistaken for poisonous varieties. Attend a wild food course or go on a walk with your local wildlife ranger. If in doubt, eat something else.

Do you eat wild food? What are your favourite recipes?

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Anybody who tells you that gardening is a cheap hobby is telling you a big fib. Of course, growing your own and keeping an allotment is the height of fashion at the moment. Everybody you meet has Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall fever and long may it continue. A friend of mine recently gave up his allotment because the sheer popularity of it in his area meant the council gave him a terrible plot that was full of roots and impossible to work. It turned out that it had never been an actual allotment at all, but used to be one of the hedgerows around it! Councils all over the UK are busy trying to extend the allotments available to cater for the craze.

But the truth is that, despite what you might read in the papers, gardening isn’t a frugal activity unless you make an special effort to ensure it’s the case. And the extraordinary hot weather we’re having at the moment underlines something that DJ and I learned to our cost last year – keeping your garden well watered can be an expensive business unless you make an effort to reuse as much H20 as you can. Last year when DJ first made a real go of the vegetable garden, introducing several new plots, we enjoyed some great produce all year round. But when our half-yearly water bill dropped through the door I was in shock. It was no less than 50 per cent higher than in the previous year. I was horrified.

So this year we have made some changes. We’ve got some water butts in place now in the back garden to harness rain water. Plus we’ll be using more of the household ‘grey’ water to keep our flowers hydrated. Unfortunately you can’t use grey water to water vegetables. We’ll also be much more selective about if and when we use our trigger hose pipe.  

Here are some tips on how to water your garden frugally which we are introducing into our garden:

- Invest in some water butts – whether purchased from a DIY store, borrowed from friends or obtained gratis from Freecycle. Some water companies and councils offer good deals on them too. Install them outside so that they can take rainwater from your roof and guttering. Don’t forget that if you have a greenhouse you can install them around it too to collect even more water.

- Be careful, though. Don’t use the recycled rainwater to water young seedlings as the bacteria in it can be harmful to fledgling plants.

- The most economical times to water plants are first thing in the morning or in the evening when it’s cooler and the water takes longer to evaporate from the surface. Give the plants a good long soak rather a sprinkle and you shouldn’t have to water them as often.

- Add mulch (wood chippings etc.) around plants and shrubs to help maintain moisture levels.

- It’s not always practical if you don’t have much space (we have lots of tomatoes in grow bags at the moment), but plant veg in the ground or raised beds if you can, rather than in containers. This way the plant can use its root system to gather moisture from a wider range. Containers dry out much more quickly.

- Using a watering can uses less water than a hosepipe, but if you have a hosepipe, attach a trigger to it to control the flow.

- Household grey water can be used to water non-edible plants and flowers but don’t use it to water veg.

- Investigate drought-loving plants and introduce them into your garden to save on the water bill.

- Don’t forget to save water around the home too, by showering instead of bathing and not leaving the tap running, to save on your overall bill.

Got any more tips on saving water in the garden or around the home? Leave a comment and let me know.

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Most of us are being more careful with our money these days as the recession bites. But do you sometimes still feel pressure from friends or family to spend money you don’t have, or that would be better spent on something else? Despite my efforts to be frugal, sometimes other people can leave my best laid plans in disarray and it can be difficult to steer a frugal course without offending them or making them feel guilty.

Last month I met up with an old work colleague. It was great to see him as he’s good company and the fact that he’s changed careers and now earns five times my annual income has never really been an issue before. He’s not the kind to brag or make me feel like a lesser human being because I’m not a hot shot earning a fortune. And usually we only meet up for the occasional drink because of his busy schedule juggling work and family.

But this time he’d decided to book a table in a trendy West End bar for us to have dinner. I looked at the place online and decided that while it was a bit pricey, the bar menu wasn’t too bad and I picked out a couple of dishes I could have that weren’t too expensive.

However, on the night I discovered we weren’t in the bar area but in the expensive Thai restaurant section. My heart sank as he waved to me from a swanky looking table by the window. My head told me that I should ask him if we could leave and go somewhere cheaper. But he’d already made himself comfortable with a glass of wine and some crackers. Plus he had such a smile on his face as he leafed through the menu that I couldn’t find the guts to utter the words.

Yes, the company and the food were good, but the thought of the bill that was coming spoilt the evening a little. I managed to dodge dessert, but the bill was still more than twice as much as I’d expected to pay. Not only did I feel a coward for going along with it all, but I felt foolish for not taking the frugal initiative in the first place and suggesting we went somewhere cheap and cheerful.

Somebody asked me recently for my top piece of frugal living advice. I said that, from what I’d learned from writing this blog and from all your comments, above all else it was reviewing your finances regularly and planning meals and activities ahead so you could control the cost. I also now think that sometimes you have to be brave. It takes courage to go out on a limb and tell your friends that, no, sorry I don’t want to spend my money on this activity, or to complain and demand a refund for something you’re unhappy with. Sometimes it can seem easier to grit our teeth and stay silent, but we only come to regret it later on when we’re caught short financially.

Are you sometimes pressurised by friends or work colleagues to spend money you can’t afford? How do you deal with it? Have you ever fallen out over money?

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I’ve been chatting to a man this morning who has restored my faith in human nature – something which was seriously waning after reaching ‘Day 21’ of the Daily Telegraph’s MPs’ expenses investigation.

Jeremy Ravn is network manager of the UK’s foodbank network, which is run by the Trussell Trust, a Christian charity based in Salisbury. The organisation provides emergency food relief to people in crisis and has just released figures showing it helped a record number of people in the year to April 2009. Its network of 40 foodbanks around the UK, based mainly in the South West of England, the Midlands, Wales and Scotland, helped 24,000 people in 2008/9 compared to 14,000 in the 2007/8 – a 71 per cent increase. This was partly due to 14 new projects being launched during the period but also – sadly - because of growing demand during the recession.

“People come into crisis often because there is a short-term money problem,” explains Ravn. “They have to make a choice between paying a bill and eating, so they go without food.” Through its projects, the charity provides clients with non-perishable food parcels, a hot meal and referral to the Citizen’s Advice Bureau, Social Services and debt advice agencies. “Let’s not knock the welfare state,” he says when I ask him why the government can’t provide these services. “But it can’t react quickly enough. If you lose your job and you’re on a low income and don’t have any savings or credit [you may struggle]. The Jobcentre crisis loan helpline should provide you with the ability to drawn down money on future benefits, but it’s overwhelmed. You can be on hold for 2 hours. Many of our clients are between a rock and a hard place.”

The foodbank is seeing many people suffering because of the recession. “In places like Swindon and Gloucester where industries are struggling, people have been laid off and others are often on reduced wages. They’re told - ‘Don’t come back to work but here’s a retainer’. But people’s costs don’t come down immediately and going to Social Services takes time, plus many of them can’t claim if they’re still earning something.”

Ravn is also seeing many clients with debt problems. “A lot of people are struggling to meet their debt repayments. These people are under a lot of pressure. Some areas of the population have seen their mortgage payments fall, but it’s the low income people living in social housing or renting [who are experiencing difficulties].”

Many people who visit a foodbank centre are in despair. “A lot of them are in bits,” Ravn admits. “They breakdown and cry because they don’t know what to do and because finally somebody is giving them a listening ear. It’s a bit more than just food that we provide. It’s ‘food plus’. We give them a hot meal as well as the food relief and try to link them with other agencies that can help get them out of the situation.”

The charity’s vision is to see a foodbank in every UK town. But it receives zero government funding and relies on donations from individuals, which are hard to come by in the credit crunch. “The food is provided by local people and we’ve seldom had a problem collecting it,” he says. “People are more aware that others are suffering in the recession. But we are struggling for money donations. Food is not the issue - it’s staff costs, heating and lighting etc.”

After talking to Jeremy Ravn, I am hugely impressed by this resource and the fact that people are prepared to give up their time to help others in this way. But I can’t help feeling sad and angry that we should need it at all in the 21^st Century and in a supposedly rich country where we already have a welfare state. Most of all, I’m scratching my head to understand why there is taxpayers’ money to pay for MPs’ kitchen worktops, duck homes, dry rot treatments and bed sheets but nothing available for this charity when its services are obviously so badly needed.

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The other day I got talking to some people I met at a seminar. Inevitably, the conversation turned to the credit crunch and one guy revealed he was writing a book about it. When I asked him the billion dollar question – when will the recession be over­ – he told me he thought it would never really end and that the effects would be felt for years to come. Then, a woman we were chatting to admitted that her son, who is 21, is unemployed and that he believes he may never get a good job or ever be in a position to own his own home.

Now, I’m not an economist and I have no idea how long this recession will last for. For what it’s worth, it seems to me that the people in the know don’t have much of a clue, either. But the thought that a young person just starting out in life has such a pessimistic view of their future really shocked me. And apparently he isn’t the only one. According to a survey by the Post Office last week, UK young people have a particularly gloomy take on the recession. 24 per cent of 18 to 24 year olds questioned said they thought it would take a decade for living standards to return to levels enjoyed before the credit crunch. A further 34 per cent think an economic recovery will take five years. Having lived through the last recession and the dotcom boom and bust, I believe that there are inevitably peaks and troughs in the economy but still have faith that things will pick up eventually. Perhaps because many young adults have never experienced life in a downturn they feel that it is somehow the end of the world.

One good thing to come out of the survey, though, was that 48 per cent of people questioned said they would change their borrowing habits because of the recession and be less likely to take on debt. If this is more than just hollow talk then I commend them. A more sensible attitude towards money is exactly what we need. Maybe we could really see the emergence of a new frugal generation which will learn from our mistakes, saving up for items they need instead of slapping it on a credit card and spending their evenings tending their home grown veg instead of glued to computer games and the telly. It’s a nice thought.

But maybe youngsters should spare a thought for the older generation. While 70 per cent of the under 24s dread unemployment, the reality, according to research by Age Concern and Help the Aged, is that it’s older workers who are being sacrificed to the credit crunch. Figures from the Office of National Statistics show that over the past 12 months the number of unemployed people aged 50 and over has jumped by nearly 50 per cent. What’s more, 28 per cent of over 50s questioned fear that their age makes them a target for employers culling staff in the recession.

Of course, losing your job is tough whatever age you might be and whatever your circumstances. Many young people have families to support. But while younger workers may find it easier to bounce back and retrain, older workers often face an uphill struggle to find a new job. What’s more, many of them may also face an impoverished retirement too now that pension funds are performing so poorly. It seems particularly ironic – and tragic – that while government think tanks tell us we’ll need to work until we’re 70 to pay back the UK’s debt mountain, the reality is it’s easier said than done. Employers often simply don’t want older workers, even if they’re experienced and willing to work.

Do you think the recession has hit older or younger workers harder? Will we see a new frugal generation emerge from the ashes of the credit crunch? Leave a message and have your say.

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I swear the sun was shining when I sat down to write this, but now, in typical British fashion, a large black cloud has appeared across the sky. Summer is galloping closer (is it me or is this year flying by?) and recent meteorological reports that we are set for a blisteringly hot summer - for once – have got me thinking about holidays.

There’s been a lot of buzz in 2009 that, because of the recession, many people will be ditching overseas trips in favour of holidaying in Britain. Certainly, earlier this year some domestic travel companies reported a strong increase in the number of Britons deciding to holiday at home. Bookings are said to be up at Butlins and Hoseasons, and Visitbritain.com reports that over 70 per cent of people in the UK are trying to cut their holiday spending this year.

I love our wonderful British Isles, no matter how blustery and unpredictable the weather. I have spent weeks in Scotland, Ireland¸ the Lake District and Norfolk in my warm coat and plastic mac, grateful for the single day of the week when it didn’t rain. In fact we’re thinking about visiting Norfolk again later this year as we enjoyed it so much last year. Although, to be fair, on many other occasions I have also enjoyed fantastic weather and heard tales of friends who have visited Spain, only for it to pour the entire fortnight. But I’m not convinced that holidaying in the UK is frugal in itself. It’s easy to stay in many places in Britain and spend a fortune on hotel rooms, expensive theme parks, trips and eating out, just as you might abroad.

As with anything else, it’s a good idea to plan ahead first and work out where you could save money on your break away. Would it be cheaper to go on a caravan holiday or camping? Would renting a cottage with friends in the off-season and taking your own food along help trim some costs? Maybe you have friends or relatives living in a holiday resort you could stay with. Could you offer to house-sit for them while they’re away themselves? Alternatively, staying in university accommodation or at a Youth Hostel can also be more affordable and many Youth Hostels now accept families.

If money is especially tight, you could consider staying at home and being a tourist in your local area, visiting nearby attractions - as long as you pick the affordable ones. Sometimes a change of scene is what’s needed and a short weekend break to get away from it all is almost as refreshing as a week away somewhere. Occasionally when DJ and I need a change of scene, we stay overnight at a seaside place in Suffolk. We’re only there for a few hours, but it’s amazing how relaxed we feel by the time we get back. The Visitbritain.com website has some good ideas for holidaying on a budget and free days out.

I think nowadays many people see their annual holiday as an essential, not an optional extra. We all need to unwind and de-stress from our busy lives. But planning ahead and putting money away each month to pay for it should ensure it’s more enjoyable and that we come home relaxed and refreshed – not worrying about how we’ll manage to pay for it all.

Will you be holidaying in the UK this year? Do you think it’s cheaper than going abroad? Got any good ideas for saving money on your hols? Leave a message and let me know.

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Having used an inordinate amount of space on this blog lately to rant about the government and its plans for our money - whether to pay back its borrowings by working us to the death or keeping MPs in moats, trouser presses and toilet seats - I thought it was time for a change of pace this week. Actually, DJ told me that for my own sanity – and his - I wasn’t to read anything else about MPs’ expenses over the weekend and that, instead, I had to spend ­­­­­­­quality time in the garden. Very sensible advice, if you ask me. Not only is working in our back garden relaxing and good exercise, but there was an awful lot to do, anyway.

My potatoes were taking a bit of a battering in the wind – not unlike Michael Martin, the Commons’ Speaker, I thought - and had started to dry out, so I gave them a good watering and topped them up with some more compost. I swear they seem to grow a few more inches every day. They are enormous. Meanwhile the pumpkin, courgette, squash and cucumber seeds I planted a few weeks ago have also gone ape. After some of the geranium seeds I sowed didn’t come up, DJ advised me to plant at least two vegetable seeds in case I experienced the same problems. But there was nothing wrong with the seed stock in this instance, so now I have two of everything fighting for space. I’ve been busy repotting the squash, courgette and pumpkin plants in readiness for hardening them off and then planting them out in my vegetable plot. I can’t wait until the fruit starts growing on them. I can’t think of anything cooler than growing your own pumpkin. I thought I might try and feed it some homemade beer and see if that helps. I remember seeing somebody do that once on a programme about monster vegetables. Let me know if you’re tried it.

We’ve already got loads of different cucumber plant varieties as DJ is also growing a number of them, so he advised me to pinch the extra ones out. I’m growing a green house variety and as we don’t have any neighbours with a green house to swap them with, I’m afraid the spares wound up in the compost heap. I felt pretty mean doing it, I must say, but there is only so much room. The green house is teeming with DJ’s 21 tomato plants, which are already flowering, and the sunflowers for his work’s competition to grow the tallest sunflower. But my spare courgette, squash and pumpkin plants looked so vigorous that I just couldn’t bear to do away with them so callously. I will either try to foist them on my neighbour or find homes for them elsewhere in the garden if I can.

While the vegetable plot is going great guns with cabbages, purple sprouting broccoli, broad beans and peas all flourishing, we had a bit of a disaster with the green house itself last week. DJ had had a bad day so he decided to take his frustrations out on the lawn, thinking the fresh air would do him good. Sadly, he’d barely started mowing when he accidentally smashed a large pane of glass in the green house. At first I wondered if it was a symbolic attempt to demonstrate artistically, albeit on a smaller scale, how broken the House of Commons is, but apparently a stone simply ricocheted off the lawnmower. DJ’s rung around for some quotes and it will cost £45 to replace. Oops. Not very frugal. Now, if I were an MP, I’d be putting my claim together right now…

Do you grow your own veg, fruit or flowers? How is your garden coming along this year? Leave a comment and let me know.

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I lay awake the other night unable to sleep, I was so angry after reading pages and pages about our MPs’ egregious expense claims meticulously reported by the Daily Telegraph. This whole episode fills me with such rage that I can barely describe it.

I listened in disbelief to an MP on BBC Breakfast this morning who claimed it was only a “small minority” who had milked the system and that it would be sad if the parties lost out in the European Elections. How exactly is nearly a week of revelations about myriad MPs and pages of minutiae of spending on second, third and fourth homes, luxury furniture, dog food, manure, artex removal, feather dusters, swimming pools, mortgages – genuine and imaginary – and helipads a “minority”? Others ask voters not to blame individual MPs when it was the “rules” that were to blame.

I invite our MPs to logon to our petition to raise the Jobseeker’s Allowance and read the comments people have left about their own difficult financial circumstances and those of their families and friends. Here are a few of them:

“You try living on £64 a week – it’s an insult. It’s time to give something back to the people who need it.”

“MPs’ expenses are obscene compared to the pittance they expect people to live on.”

“I’m out of work because of the recession and knowing the government are squandering taxpayers’ money on something they can pay for out of their own pocket disgusts me.”

“My son is out of work and is 22 years old and gets £50 a week. If it was not for us, his parents, he would have to sleep on the street and starve. Contrast that to an MP paid £64,000 a year plus screwing us the taxpayer for a further £23,000 in spurious expenses.”

“I am a 72 year old grandmother and recently applied for a community care grant to get my mobility scooter and my cooker mended. I was refused help. Yet MPs can get away with all sorts of scams and claims.”

Now do they get it?

Some commentators have argued, why should it matter what MPs have claimed? Stephen Fry was reported as saying – don’t journalists fiddle their expenses too? Lord Foulkes attacked a BBC presenter, demanding to know how much she was paid for “talking nonsense” about MPs’ expenses. She admitted she receives £92,000 a year but never made personal calls at the BBC’s expense, let alone claimed for furniture or mortgage interest. I too wonder how I would have behaved in the same circumstances. If I were an MP, could I have resisted the temptation of claiming thousands on stamp duty or sweet corn for our pet chickens?

But that isn’t the point. What none of these people seem to grasp is that it doesn’t matter how any of us would have behaved in their shoes. The point is our MPs must be above this kind of corruption. They are our lawmakers and our representatives. They must be better than this. What’s more, it is particularly insulting that they have behaved like such pigs in the trough at a time when many people are struggling to make ends meet. Haven’t they noticed that there are 2 million unemployed? It’s all very well for them to promise to pay the money back now or for David Cameron to insist on expelling any Conservative MPs who refuse to. Good on him, but if the Telegraph hadn’t carried out its painstaking investigation we would be none the wiser and the corruption would have carried on for years to come.

How some commentators can suggest axing the allowance system, and giving MPs £30,000 pay rises to make up for it, beats me. We keep being told that MPs work very hard. I’m sure many of them do. So do their constituents working on building sites, in supermarkets, as secretaries, teachers, road sweepers, cleaners, IT workers, cab drivers, business people, you name it, to feed themselves and their families. Isn’t £65,000 a pretty extraordinary wage? It’s an awful lot more than most people in the UK will ever hope to earn. Why should MPs earn £95,000 a year just to stop them from looting taxpayers’ money? Yes, some people running large public corporations earn that and more, but they are at least subject to their shareholders ire.

Shouldn’t representing your people be honour enough? Many of those working for charities or in the religious ministries have a calling to do so. You don’t hear vicars demanding £100,000 a year. Maybe this is why the House of Commons has attracted such money grabbers and we fail to see any inspirational leaders emerging. I’m not saying we shouldn’t pay MPs at all. Not paying them would make them even more vulnerable to corruption, if that’s possible. But what planet are they on, exactly?

When I was an A-level pupil studying Government & Politics we learned a number of quotes to trot out in our exams. One by Lord Acton in 1887 which seemed particularly fitting came back to me this week:

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."  

If you were an MP, would you have been tempted by the House of Commons trough, or would you have stood firm? Is it enough for MPs to pay back the money they owe or should they be prosecuted?  Leave a message and let me know. Thanks for all your messages and comments this week. Keep them coming.

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I am tempted to send a copy of The Frugal Life: How to spend less and live more to the House of Commons. That way, MPs wouldn’t have to waste more taxpayers’ money by buying their own. After all, we can’t expect them to pay for it with their own money, can we?

It’s obvious from the Daily Telegraph’s exposé on MPs’ expenses last week that some of our so-called honourable members could benefit from a frugal makeover. Perhaps Margaret Beckett could save on her hanging baskets by swapping plants with her neighbours. John Prescott could find his next loo seat gratis from Freecycle (second hand – one previous careful owner), while Andy Burnham could source a used (slightly soiled) bathrobe from a charity shop and take some DIY classes. I think it could work!

I wish I could say I was shocked by what some MPs have claimed or tried to claim on expenses. I’m not. Sadly nothing this government or our opposition does surprises me anymore. Although I have to say I was taken aback by the sheer scale of it. Who on earth has the audacity to claim for three different homes at once and keep changing their ‘second home’ to enable them to do so, or for dog food and Kit Kats? It’s baffling that under the current system MPs seem to be able to claim for so many purchases. If you’re self-employed, the HMRC rules on what you can and can’t claim on expenses are far more stringent. You can claim for petrol and part of your council tax, but you certainly couldn’t claim for Tampax or a chocolate Santa Claus. I’m an Essex girl but I wouldn’t dream of claiming for jellied eels – I hate the things anyway.

The worrying thing is how deep this pocket lining mentality seems to go. Don’t get me wrong – I am sure there must still be people somewhere in the Palace of Westminster who are there because they want to make a difference, not because they want to take us all for a ride. At least I pray there are still such people. My grandfather was an MP decades ago at Stormont so I know that they work long hours and, unless their constituency is close to London, they have to live in two places which can be difficult. They obviously need a good system that enables them to do this. But don’t they have any idea what their constituents are going through at the moment? Perhaps some of them spend so much time filling out expense claims that they haven’t lifted their heads long enough out of the trough to notice there is a recession on and people are losing their jobs and homes?

Personally I don’t think that the offenders being told to ‘say sorry’ is good enough. They don’t mean it - they’re just sorry they got found out, that’s all. Considering the dire situation our economy is in, those who got away with making outrageous expense claims should be made to pay the money back and fined, just as anyone making improper self assessment claims would be if they found out by HMRC.

What do you think about the expenses scandal? What should MPs should be able to claim for? Leave a message and let me know. (Click here to sign our petition to raise the Jobseeker’s Allowance)

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Michael Caine caused a bit of a kafuffle after the Budget last month when he joked that, aged 76, he gets up at 6am every morning to go to work on behalf of benefits claimants. Caine is angry about the proposed new tax rate of 50 per cent which will hit people earning more than £150,000 a year. Perhaps he won’t be signing our petition to raise the Jobseeker’s Allowance, then. Shame, as he is one of my favourite actors. In his days as a London taxi driver my father once picked up Caine and his wife Shakira. Caine was very friendly and not at all celeb-like and as for Shakira, my father said – much to the annoyance of my mother - that she was so stunning she would look good in anything - even a bin liner.

But now it seems that Michael Caine won’t be the only UK worker grafting his way to the grave. A think tank called the National Institute of Economic & Social Research claims that in order to pay back the mammoth borrowings Messieurs Darling and Brown have amassed on our behalf, we’ll all have to work until we’re 70. Now, I don’t mind hard work, but I’d be lying if I said that put a big smile on my face. I occasionally have workaholic moments, but the prospect of grafting until I’m in my dotage hardly appeals. In fact I’ve always dreamed of retiring early – not that I’m anywhere close to being on target to do so unless I (a) win the lottery (b) write a JK Rowling/Dan Brown-style bestseller or (c) the chickens dig up a stash of buried loot in the back garden. Lexi is doing her best, but so far all she’s uncovered is a few lettuces in the vegetable patch and a tiny toy gorilla.

Some years ago one of my friends came up with a brilliant retirement plan. Us girls would pool our money together to buy a mansion and – assuming we had sadly outlived our partners - employ attractive young men in skimpy outfits to clean up after us and serve our prescription medication. A far more attractive prospect than working, if you ask me.

But what will life be like if we’re all grafting until we’re 70? Due to his diabetes, one of my retired relatives falls asleep every afternoon and whenever he eats anything. Will corporations be forced to set up power napping stations instead of crèches? Will the good old-fashioned tea lady, once a key part of office life, make a comeback in the shape of a medication trolley dolly, doling out pills instead of PG Tips? And what happens if swine ‘flu or some other pandemic wipes out a significant portion of the working population? Will the survivors have to work even longer – maybe until we’re in our eighties - to compensate for the rest?

Then there’s good old gold watch syndrome. Will we work ourselves to the bone until we retire, only to drop dead a few months later before we can enjoy our retirement? Whichever way you look at it, working until you’re 70 doesn’t sound like much fun to me. I suppose that many of us are living longer and perhaps 70 is the new 65 for some anyway. But with diabetes and obesity at epidemic proportions, will we really be in a fit state to work that long? And, frankly, why should we have to just to pay for the economic mess the government has made?

Do you want to work until you’re 70? What do you think it would be like? Do you have an alternative solution to paying back the government’s borrowings? Let me know by leaving a comment.

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I had this horrible dream last night which I’ll blame on the cheese on toast I had yesterday afternoon. I know it’s supposed to be an old wives’ tale about cheese, but I’ve always been able to trace a direct line of causation from strange dreams to the consumption of cheddar, stilton and even just a sprinkling of parmesan on my Bolognese.

Last night I dreamt I was in jail (perhaps this was also symptomatic of watching Vinny Jones in Mean Machine over the weekend - a film about a prison guards v convicts football match). I was sobbing and sobbing because I didn’t know when I would be let out and because of the shame of it all (not to mention being surrounded by four miserable grey walls). And what was I imprisoned for? Crimes against frugality? Well, yes actually. I’d forgotten to return one of my books to the library and they’d, quite literally, thrown the book at me. Oh dear.

I told DJ about my dream this morning and he laughed at me and nearly choked on his toothpaste. The truth is that I am terrible at remembering to return my library books on time and often have to pay fines. Sometimes I feel as though I am single-handedly keeping our local library going, even though I still feel like a naughty school girl whenever I have to do the ‘walk of shame’, as DJ calls it, and visit the librarian’s desk to repay my debts. Last year I even gave up borrowing books for a while and just bought them in charity shops because it worked out cheaper than paying the fines. But recently I’ve been lured back to the library because I love it. And even though we can renew our books online now, I still don’t always remember to do it. It’s like some kind of frugal blind spot.

But now I know I am not alone. According to research by Intune, consumers in their sixties take care over choosing their savings products but can’t be bothered to shop around for utility and insurance providers. Apparently one in five of them don’t bother to check the interest rate on their savings once a year, while 10 per cent never look at it at all. And 19 per cent never review their utility charges. I can sympathise with some of this. After all, I think if I have to sit through another annoying TV advert for a switching website I might scream. But a quarter of those interviewed also didn’t review their finances either, and relied on friends or family members to review financial products for them.

Now, I know that many of you are far shrewder than this, you watch your pennies like a hawk and review your finances regularly. Yet none of us are perfect frugalists, whatever our intentions. What do you find impossible to cut back on, despite your will power or circumstances?

What is your frugal blind spot? What are you unable to stop wasting money on, despite your best intentions? Leave a message and let me know.

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Thanks for all your comments and support for the petition to raise the Jobseeker’s Allowance and improve the Jobcentre system. I’m pleased to say that so that far we’ve got over 450 signatures. Not bad when we started on Tuesday morning with about four.

I appreciate that the whole subject of benefits, as Rik has pointed out, is a hornet’s nest to say the least. Many of you have strong feelings for and against it and I’d say too, that my own attitude towards it is ambivalent.  We’ve all heard the stories about benefits crooks claiming thousands of pounds to live in fancy homes paid for by the rest of us and many of us know people who have fraudulently worked the system to their advantage. Some of you who are struggling to get financial assistance have expressed your bewilderment at how they manage to do it. It’s deeply unfair and clear that the entire benefits system needs overhauling.

But I think some people have misunderstood the point of this petition. We’re not asking for more cash for benefits thieves or so-called ‘scroungers’, we’re not asking for the taxpayer to indulge people capable of working who don’t want to work. I appreciate that some of you believe that by increasing the Jobseeker’s Allowance it will discourage people from working at all, although I doubt how comfortable life would be on even £120 a week to encourage this.

However, what we’re asking for is more help for the people who really need it in this crisis – most of whom don’t want to be claiming the JSA anyway, they want nothing better than to be working and earning a living for their families. But there isn’t the work out there at the moment. Part of the problem is that because some of them have never claimed benefits before, they have no idea how to go about it and they don’t know how to navigate through the bureaucracy. But they have always expected that when they fell on hard times there would be something in place to help them, but they’ve found there isn’t, or that it simply isn’t enough.

Now, unfortunately, with any system there are always going to be people who abuse it. It’s a sad fact. But that doesn’t get away from the point that there are people who need more help and they simply aren’t getting enough of it. And I also take on board the argument that other measures are needed too, such as incentives for businesses, large and small. Without a decent climate for businesses, jobs can’t be created. Plus the taxpayer is already burdened.

But this is a petition, not a manifesto, and unfortunately a petition has to be focused. And I’m not claiming to set myself up as some kind of expert - far from it. I just think that the benefits and Jobcentre system needs to be overhauled sooner rather than later, people need targeted help to get through the bad times and I don’t think this is too much to ask. Perhaps you feel the same way? And, from what this policy officer at Oxfam argues, raising the JSA would actually cost a fraction of what it cost to cut VAT.

Thanks again for your comments and signatures and do keep them coming. Thanks, Piper

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You may remember that back in March, I underwent a challenge to live on the equivalent of the Jobseeker’s Allowance – or £60 a week (now £64.30 for the over 25s). It was, it has to be said, only for a fortnight and of course, unlike a real jobseeker I wasn’t spending time and money on travelling to job interviews and printing out CVs, but it was shock enough.

I knew things were tough out there, but I learned from all the comments and messages from many of you who have lost your jobs just how little people have to live on, how difficult it is to get what you should be entitled to under the National Insurance system, plus your struggles with the Jobcentre Plus system.

Anyway, at the time I was struck by a comment on the guest book saying we should do something about it instead of just complaining about it on the blog, so I asked what you thought about launching a petition to raise the Jobseeker’s Allowance and demand that the Jobcentre Plus system is overhauled. While some of you were against increasing the allowance, many of you said you would be happy to sign a petition to raise it.

I thought I’d wait to see what the government would come up with in this year’s Budget first before acting. But as – predictably - there was little to get excited about last week, especially for older workers, I have decided to go ahead with a petition.

Here’s what it says and here’s a link to the petition if you’d like to sign it:

UK taxpayers have seen billions of pounds of their hard-earned cash poured into the banking system and watched as government ministers claim thousands more for second homes and other questionable ‘expenses’. Now we call on the government to return the favour and assist taxpayers, workers and families who have fallen on hard times due to no fault of their own.

Unemployment is 2 million and rising. As the economic crisis deepens, many unemployed workers face the loss of their savings and homes as they struggle to survive on the £64.30 a week Jobseeker’s Allowance for the over 25s. Despite paying into the National Insurance system – often for decades – many have been shocked to find they aren’t eligible to receive the full £64.30 a week or additional payments, such as housing benefit, because their partners are in work. Others are forced to commute many miles to ‘sign on’ to receive payments which barely cover their travel costs. The Jobseekers’ Allowance makes no allowances either for the cost of travel to job interviews or other expenses incurred in the job seeking process. In addition, Jobseekers complain that Jobcentre Plus staff are often poorly trained and unsympathetic and that the system is currently incapable of helping white collar workers find skilled positions or providing relevant training schemes.

The system has to change. We, the undersigned, call on the government to increase the Jobseeker's Allowance to £120 a week and provide more help for those struggling to keep up with rent and mortgage payments. We demand that Jobseekers’ financial circumstances are assessed on an individual basis, regardless of their partner’s circumstances, and that the Jobcentre Plus system is given a serious overhaul.

We need a 21st Century Jobcentre Plus system in which genuine jobseekers are treated with respect and which provides useful job search advice for all, targeted training courses and apprenticeships.

Hope you’ll sign it! Feel free to forward it to your friends and colleagues/facebook/twitter it etc. to get other people to sign it too, if you can. It’s easy to be cynical and think it won’t make a difference, but it’s worth a try. Here is the link again and let me know what you think. Cheers, Piper

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