Helen Nugent

Mortgage Freedom Day. It has a nice ring to it, don't you think? Just imagine: no mortgage. I wonder what that feels like. According to Halifax, yesterday was UK Mortgage Freedom Day, the point in the calendar when new borrowers will have earned enough to pay off the annual cost of their mortgage. So not quite the mortgage-free day of joy, but good news nonetheless. Halifax based its calculation on the average annual mortgage repayment cost of £7,968 and the average net annual income of £26,810. However, there is a wide variation in Mortgage Freedom Days across the country. Homeowners in Scotland celebrate March 14, followed by Northern Ireland on March 15 and then the North and Yorkshire and Humber on March 25.

Are you counting the hours until home time and a glorious four days without work? Join the club. Just think of it - the beautiful British bank holiday, a Spring mini-break, and the chocolate. Oh my lord, the chocolate. New research suggests that the average UK household spends more than £6,000 on chocolate in a lifetime – the equivalent of 1,500 large Cadbury Easter Eggs or more than 10,200 Crème Eggs. That's according to financial planner Tilney’s Cost of Tomorrow report. People aged between 30 and 49, many of whom will be parents to young children, are the biggest spenders when it comes to chocolate (I can attest to this), blowing an average of £114 a year, while people aged 75 and over are the most frugal, spending £62 on chocolate annually.

I'm really tired of being ripped off. Whether it's council tax hikes, parking charges or bus tickets (a ten minute journey to the nearest town costs more than £4 where I live), I've had enough. And don't get me started on the size of chocolate bars. So it's with a weary sigh that I read of another rise in energy bills for EDF customers. It's proof, if proof were needed, that big companies feel they can do exactly what they want, and sod their customers. Under the changes, people on EDF's dual-fuel tariff will pay £1,160 a year, substantially more than the cheapest deal on the market. This is a whopping difference, and it's the second round of increases imposed by EDF on its base this year.

Are you a social media complainer? Do you use the likes of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to vent your spleen at companies that have let you down?  If so, you're one of millions of people who eschew the traditional letter of complaint or irate phone call, choosing instead to air grievances on a public forum. A cursory Google of the term 'social complainer' yields multiple results, from 'The 5 Types of Social Media Complainers' to 'How to Deal With the Worst Social Media Complainers'. There's even a guide to the 'Five Complainer-Customer Personas'. Today's Twitter fury over the United Airlines customer who was booted off a plane to make way for crew demonstrates the damage that social media can do to a business's brand.

My name is Helen Nugent and I am a pavement parker. This is not a hobby or something I set out to do on a daily basis but, in many instances, it's that or block the road to traffic and put cyclists' lives at risk. Britain's roads weren't built for this many vehicles. There are more than 25 million cars on UK roads, and that's the licensed ones. Cities, towns and villages struggle to cope with available parking spaces. I can think of multiple places in my immediate vicinity where traffic is limited to single file because of vehicles parked on either side. And that's often where people park on the pavement to ease congestion.

This week’s Best Buys, provided by Moneyfacts, are 0 per cent Introductory Purchase Credit Cards.

Poor LISA. She's all dolled up, ready to make her entrance onto the national stage and nobody wants her. She's the girl at the dance who sits on her own, unloved and ignored. Today marks the launch of the Lifetime ISA, the government's flagship savings programme. The LISA is a version of the Individual Savings Account, intended to help first-time buyers and those saving for retirement. It works like this: for every £1,000 saved, the government provides a £250 top-up. People can make annual contributions up to £4,000. Anyone aged between 18 and 39 is eligible, with a cut-off age for contributions of 50. The maximum government bonus is £32,000 and the money has to be used towards a deposit for a first home, or can be accessed from age 60.

Chippy tea. Just writing those words makes me yearn for fish and chips, lathered in vinegar and dosed with salt. Perhaps some mushy peas on the side and a bottle of ketchup to hand. While a world without fish suppers would be a cold, cold place (for me, at least), new research shows that people are turning their backs on this most traditional of British meals. According to The NPD Group, younger customers are shunning the local chippy, putting the future of fish and chip shops at risk. Can this really be true? Who doesn't like a chip butty? And what's wrong with pea wet and scraps? But the study shows that millennials - those aged between 18 and 34 - only account for 15 per cent of total visits to chip shops. NPD says QSRs (quick-service restaurants) serving fast-food recorded 5.

Like many households, my electricity meter is not in a terribly accessible spot. Reaching said meter requires a short stepladder or standing on the kitchen counter. That said, there's no need for crampons. And so every time someone comes to read the meter, I'm met with the same response. 'Oh no lass, health and safety. I can't get up there.' Needless to say, the meter goes unread. As a result, and also because I pay by direct debit, I'm one of many whose bills are, for the most part, based on estimations (yes, I know I could send in a reading myself but at some point the lekky company really should do it). Once the meter is finally read, this can result in 'back-bills'. Also known as 'catch-up' bills, they enable the energy company to recover the difference.

There's no panacea for the nation's credit card debt - but the Financial Conduct Authority is having a go at helping people languishing in continual debt. So-called 'persistent' debt is a serious problem. Under the FCA’s definition, credit card customers are in persistent debt if they have paid more in interest and charges than they have repaid of their borrowing, over an 18-month period. While it's no fun for the individual, credit card firms love these people and, surprise surprise, 'do not routinely intervene to help them' according to the city watchdog. The FCA estimates that around 3.3 million people are in persistent debt, with more than half (1.8 million) for two consecutive periods of 18 months.

Another day, another slew of house price data. But with Article 50 now triggered, recent Bank of England data showing record levels of household debt, and the prospect of an interest rate rise later this year thanks to rising inflation, property statistics are throwing up a few surprises. Lowest growth in two years There's further evidence of a slowdown in the UK housing market this morning. According to Nationwide, house prices are increasing at their lowest pace in nearly two years. Britain's biggest building society says that the average price of a home fell 0.3 per cent to £207,308 following a 0.6 per cent rise in prices in February. It was the first fall on the Nationwide index since June 2015 and came as a surprise to City analysts who had expected a 0.

The Bank of England is concerned that banks and building societies may have made it too easy to borrow money - and with good reason. Figures released by the Bank today show that household debt is at record levels, with credit card debt increasing at its fastest rate in more than a decade. It's not difficult to see how this happened. Lenders deluge households with offers of new credit cards, and regularly raise the borrowing levels on existing plastic. There's a plethora of deals on cards to entice people to switch their debt to new providers and the minimum monthly repayments are often so minuscule that many customers only ever pay off the interest. So it's no surprise to learn that borrowing on credit cards increased by 9.

As I edge up my 40s, I'm fast becoming aware that getting older isn't much fun. Whether it's squinting at the small print in books or complaining about my gammy knee, I'm all about the pity party these days. Which is why I do not relish the prospect of my 50s and 60s. What's in store, artificial hips and bifocals? What I do know is this: financial companies are likely to give me the cold shoulder. New research out today reveals that one in five over 50s are refused finance and insurance because of their age. As part of its Welcome to Life After 50 campaign, SunLife has conducted The Big 50. According to the insurer, this is the largest ever survey of people in their 50s, 60s and 70s. The results make for grim reading.

Once, after a few too many sherbets, I tipped the pizza delivery man with my supermarket trolley token instead of a pound coin. It was a genuine mistake but I still feel guilty. Tomorrow sees the introduction of the new 12-sided pound coin, forcing a root-and-branch overhaul of supermarket trolleys, vending machines, parking meters and anything else that requires a perfectly round pound coin to operate. The launch will also presumably result in bins full of defunct charity tokens, mine included. While businesses have had three years to prepare for the switch, many are still lagging behind. Tesco has admitted that 200 of its supermarkets haven’t adapted their trolleys to the new coin.