Last of the big spenders

Me, I think people should spend their money as they wish: if they're lucky enough to have any. I might think £300 on a Marc Jacobs bag is a bit extreme, or £60k is a bit rich for four wheels and an engine, but it's your money do with it as you wish.

Actually, you may be buying that extremely expensive Mont Blanc pen with my money. I'm a compulsive saver so the friggin' financial institution that has my money and paying me a pittance is probably financing the expensive credit card purchase with my cash. Fine, I have no trouble with that - it's the Ying and Yang of economic life. I'm Ying and you're Yang.

Splash out on overpriced latte and freshly, hand-cut sandwiches at Pret a Manger, buy an M&S meal for 2 along with a bottle of wine and pud for a tenner, and 'cause you're worth it drown yourself in skin creams and preparations. I'm competely non judgemental when it comes to your spending habits, except.....

....I wanted to reach for a gun when I read the tale of woe in The Guardian. Apparently Pret a Manger had increased the price of its pot of porridge from £1.99 to "an eye-watering" £2.25. The reporter was in melt down over the 13% increase in price.

What on earth can people be thinking of spending that sort of money on pot of porridge. Convenience, of course, but you have to be really desperate not to be able to timetable your morning so you can have a bowl of the stuff at home before setting off for the office . For "convenience" read rip off.

We're conned into to believing that our lives are so hectic, important, exciting that we can't afford to prepare even the simplest of eats. I reckon it would take 10 minutes to make a bowl of porridge, at a cost of  30 pence max . On that basis you're paying £12 an hour for the convenience.

How  financially convenient for the purveyors of convenience.