Back in the day, when I were a lad in a grimy northern town, &c. &c. we used to give stuff up for Lent. Or, any road, we talked about it. I don’t recall actually giving much up personally, apart from Ferraris. In the postmodern now, it seems the virtuous among us are to adjust their cassocks, to sacrifice balls and organic okra to the great god Capitalism, on occasion of something called a Credit Crunch.

In that spirit, might I suggest you get yourself down to your local library (even in neo-liberal Britain, they still exist). Not only can you borrow books and DVDs for free, you might even find a trolley with overstocks going for a song. Just yesterday I picked up a copy of the hack’s bible for 10p.

(Okay, so it was the 2006 edition. But, hey, last time I checked I was writing unpaid for a wonk-site almost no one (?) reads, so it’s all up from here. And Zoo hadn’t gone ex-directory; or bust, alas; in the last 2 years.)

If you have any similar tales of Credit Crunch privation, or budget home-making tips you haven’t yet sold to the Express, do share. It’s a long old weekend.