Zolonius

The best news of the day is that my tenant has paid up for March too, and I haven't even finished spending January's rent yet - I was making it last in case I needed to. So I insisted - positively insisted, darlings - on paying the Sage's car insurance when the credit card bill came in.

I should add that whenever my bank account looks a bit lean I tell him and he bungs money my way. Such is the life of a kept woman.

With the bill was a brochure (couldn't think of the word for a minute, nearly wrote brochet - I'm the woman who thinks of little but food) with new terms and conditions. You know that the interest rate has been brought down by the Bank of England to 0.5%? Of course, it's entirely logical for Nashunwide to raise their interest rate on credit cards by 2% to 19.9%. Don't we love that .9? Not quite 20, you see. So it's hardly anything at all.

It doesn't affect me. I live within my means, whatever they are. Even when I was still at school, my father had died and my mother had very little to live on and all I had for spending money was a Saturday job, I never ran out of money. When I received my monthly pay cheque (I worked at the local library and got 3 weeks paid holiday a year, how lucky was I?) I first bought a contribution to the housekeeping, a small treat, usually steak or grapes, and then only spent money according to my self-imposed rules. 1 - only buy what you need, not what you want. 2 - only buy it if it takes no more than half your money. If it takes over half, wait until next month.

Usually, by the next month, I didn't really need it any more, as if I'd managed without for a month the moment of neediness had passed. Of course, there were real necessities, so I never actually saved money, but that didn't matter at that stage of my life. Not that I went to university because I got married pretty well straight out of school, but if I had I'd have had a grant which was enough to live on. That's what made the difference to my generation - no access to credit. If you couldn't borrow money you lived on what you had.

I'm not exactly G0rd0n B's dream girl. I don't borrow money. I'd live on bread and potatoes in an unheated house first. Mind you, I can't see him as a borrower either.