In 2002 I bought a new MINI, and was over the moon - if a little skint because of it.  The best thing about MINIs financially speaking, was that you could order a TLC pack when you bought it which basically meant you spent £100.00 at the outset and that entitled you to a booklet of vouchers which covered your first 3 years servicing.

£100 for 3 years servicing = a very good deal indeed.

Hmm, last post was on 18th June 2008 - almost a month ago, and I feel a bit ashamed at the lack of action!

Don’t really have any excuses either other than the fact I’ve just been lazy of late.  Well, we did eventually move house, but I can’t blame that for almost four weeks inactivity.

So what’s happened in the intervening period?  Well, for a start the spacebar on my laptop appears to be about to give up the ghost so apologies for any words running into each other - I think I’ve caught any so far, but some may slip through.  Pennies are tight so this thing has to last me a few years yet!

I’ve been looking forward to the release of Rock Band since I heard about it last year sometime, but now the time has come for it to reach our shores I’m pretty disappointed.

Not by the game itself, but by the cost.

For those who don’t know the game, it involves playing instruments connected to your Wii, Xbox 360 or PS3.  The relevant notes appear onscreen and the object is to play along in time.

Other games have been produced in the past, most of which allowed you to play along with an electric guitar - or some allow you to sing along karaoke style with a microphone.

Most people like to think they are getting a bargain when they buy something and I’m no different.

Whether you are in the market for a new car, mobile phone contract, car insurance or whatever if you feel you have managed to either find the shop with the lowest price or even managed to haggle some discount then you will walk away happy with your purchase.

The commonest place to find deals these days seems to be in the supermarket where we are bombarded with signs informing us of discounts on certain goods or other products which are available on a Buy One Get One Free (BOGOF) deal or something similar.

So Egg have decided to cancel their credit card agreements with over 160,000 customers which is an intriguing development.

They aren’t asking these people for the money they owe (if they do owe anything at the moment), they are simply cancelling their cards so that they can’t spend any more but can continue to repay any debts at a rate they choose.

Is it just me who finds this a bit worrying?