Of course, we all have to be taxed, but once you start to earn more than £150,000, and start paying 45 per cent tax, you are penalised. It is like a witch hunt.

When I was 16 I got a school holiday job at Minton's pottery factory in Staffordshire, packing plates. For a month's work, I was paid £44. Everything I now know about the birds and the bees, I learnt there.

Whether it's cushions you only use outside in the summer, or blankets that only come out in the winter, you've always got to think of where to store them.

Rearranging furniture, adding some candles, or making even small tweaks can really make the difference.

I had started working in television but it did not pay that much. I was 27, renting this little one-bed flat in Shepherd's Bush, West London, with a bathroom so small only someone of my size could actually get in it.

I grew up in a world before people had credit cards. There were no magic cards - it was all about budgeting.

If your fridge is full this Christmas, use nature's refrigerator - your car!