There are numerous places on the internet where historical Base Rate information can be found but I recently discovered a page on a site that shows the Bank of England base rate trends since 1997 in a nice and simple rate graph.
Did you know in 1998 rates were as high as 7.5%?
…and in 2002 rates […]

I’ve just read an article on popular UK personal finance site www.thisismoney.co.uk with the headline ‘The House That Lost 40% in Four Months‘.
Sounds ominous doesn’t it.
The headline suggests that a house has decreased by 40% in value in just four months.
But it hasn’t!
Firstly, house prices you see in estate agents are not usually the prices buyers […]

I’m what is known as a ‘pescatarian’. I don’t eat meat apart from fish. I’m not a vegetarian or a vegan but I do try to only eat fish from sustainable resources or farms (if you shop at Waitrose, that’s all they sell…).
I don’t make a fuss when I go to friends BBQ’s and I don’t […]

Would you attempt to drive 1500 miles across Europe in 4 days in a car worth under £500?
If it was for charity, of course you would! Wouldn’t you?
Well that’s exactly what a couple of my friends are doing from April 3rd to 7th in a Nissan 100NX dressed up to look (a bit like) the car […]

Ever heard of or looked into Bhutan?
It’s a Kingdom and you can’t visit as a free roaming tourist.
It’s nestled in the eastern Himalayas bordering Tibet, it’s Buddhist and Gross National Happiness is more important than gross national profit.
Think about it, if you’re happy, would you be concerned about money?
http://www.kingdomofbhutan.com/
Guided holidays aren’t cheap though but I’d […]

I received an email from a friend yesterday with details of a laptop giveaway by The Carphone Warehouse. 50 laptops worth £500 each were to be secreted about the centre of Southampton and a select number of other UK cities.
Unfortunately, due to a potential security risk, police called a halt to the plans.
50 lucky passers […]

Have you applied for anything online only to find that you are continually bombarded thereafter with either promotional emails or phone calls or even junk through your letter box?
If you have applied for a loan recently you may find yourself subjected to phone call after phone call from companies all claiming to have received your application […]

In the last week two things have happened in the last week that suggest to me my neighbourhood is in decline.
Earlier this week I walked out of my front door only to notice across the road in the childrens park/play area were a small number of caravans, a few dogs and some makeshift washing lines. […]

The Royal Mail recently attempted to post an item to me that was too large to fit through the letter box. I don’t actually recall hearing the doorbell, I just found one of those little red notes on my doormat telling me someone had tried to deliver a package.
I happened to notice the opening times had changed at […]

I live in Southampton, UK. It’s not a small city and collectively we must produce tons of waste every hour and yet when I asked my local council for a glass bin (a plastic box some councils provide for people to put their glass in which gets taken away on a specific day and recycled. […]