in response to renting or buying @ the simple dollar

Trent at the simple dollar posted on comparing renting to buying a house. He suggested that when looking at similar standard properties,

if rent exceeds the mortgage payment then a mortgage is (financially) better
if rent exceeds the interest portion of a mortgage then its a grey area
if rent is less than the interest portion of [...]

i can’t believe people gave banks this much money

The other week I watched the ITV 1 show Tonight with Trevor McDonald. This edition was about the popularity of claiming back bank charges and featured Martin Lewis of www.moneysavingexpert.com (which is a great website, by the way).
As a little background information, it is standard practice in the UK for banks to charge about £30 [...]

how to budget if your name is plonkee

I could write a post telling you all how to budget. But that would be against my first principle, which is that different methods suit different people. So I will tell you how to budget if your name is plonkee – i.e. how I budget.
Before I started my first proper job, I had to guesstimate [...]