Money Saving Expert’s MegaShopBot.com is the first price check website you should visit – and it’s probably the only price check website you need. What MegaShopBot.com does is searches what it considers the best shopping comparison sites to find you the cheapest price.

For those of us who aren’t millionaires Martin Lewis’ Money Saving Expert website should be at the top of our bookmarks, and his Teenage Cash Class should be compulsory reading.

What’s in it?

Lesson 1: A company’s job is to make money

A company’s job is to make money; it is NOT there to help you, it is NOT your friend. They spend billions on advertising, marketing, and teaching their staff to sell; all to make you part with your cash, even when you shouldn’t!

Lesson 2: Debt isn’t bad, bad debt is bad

There’s very little chance you’ll be able to live your life without borrowing money at any point, whether it’s for university, a house or something else you need. Get it wrong and it’ll cost you a fortune. Unlike most other things we spend cash on, you can’t cancel debts, so you need to get it right the first time.

Lesson 3: Loyalty doesn’t pay

Loyalty is for losers, and doesn’t pay. The normal rules don’t apply here, stick with the same people longer and you’ll get less. Martin Lewis, Money Saving Expert.

A Dutch company 94 Wines sells well; 94 wines – no labels and no names, just 94 bottles numbered and coloured each listing the grape variety, region of origin and alcohol strength with brief tasting notes. You can answer six simple questions and 94 Wines will select three wines for you to purchase – I rather like the idea and design of the bottles. Now comes the clever/daft bit depending on your view.

Each bottle has a QR Code also know as a two dimensional bar code and what do theses do?

Users with a camera phone equipped with the correct reader software can scan the image of the QR Code causing the phone’s browser to launch and redirect to the programmed URL. This act of linking from physical world objects is known as a hard link or physical world hyperlinks. Wikipedia.

94 Wines allows you to load text, photo or even a video to their website so each bottle can have it’s own custom QR Code – all included in the price – trouble is I don’t know of many people who know what to do with a QR Code – maybe it’d different in Holland – I don’t know – personally I go with daft idea.

So what’s the wine taste like? I’ve no idea – I’ll have to buy some although I’m not sure they deliver to the UK – Oh Well.

According to research published by Consensus Action on Salt and Health (Cash), which examined the salt content of 190 jars, pots and packets of pasta, the highest salt product was in Jamie Oliver’s olive and garlic sauce, with 3g per 100g, or 5.3g of salt per recommended 175g portion of sauce. That is equivalent to 88% of an adult’s recommended limit of 6g of salt a day in just one serving and roughly the same as eating more than 10 packets of ready salted crisps.

His other tomato sauces also contained high amounts of salt, at 3g per portion of fiery tomato and chilli, 2.8g per portion of red onion and rosemary, and 2.6g per portion of tomato and basil. Jill Insley, The Guardian.

I never could stand the pseudo cockney fake Jamie Oliver and now it turns out he’s been flogging us not just unhealthy pasta sauces for years but the most unhealthy sauces on the market – and here’s a man who has campaigned endlessly on improving the health of children’s school dinners – but when it comes to his own profit Oliver seems to take a different line – profit first, health – who cares?

Cotton Traders Advert

How on earth can you be the first to buy our best selling raglan fleece? Surely if you’re the first it hasn’t sold anything yet – unless the truth is Cotton Traders don’t actually sell anything – daft advertising I suggest Cotton Traders employ a copywriter.

The Money Saving Expert website reckons we should use Zeezaw:

Amazon varies the price of goods, yet often when the price is low, the goods sell out at speed. There’s a new free tool that tells you when Amazon reduces the price of your goods, so you buy at the perfect moment.

Simply tell Zeezaw the max price you want to pay for any Amazon item, and e-mails you when the price drops to that amount. The site does not collect any of your details or passwords, it just works through your Amazon Wishlist. MSE Jenny, Money Saving Expert.

Well I’ve given it a whirl – too early to say how good it is – but it’s easy to set up.

I wouldn’t claim to be a wine buff – but I do like my wine and one of the best places to buy wine is Majestic – until now you’ve always had to purchase 12 bottles – which can be a little expensive but now when you visit a store you can purchase just 6 – good news – the 12 limit still applies to online and deliveries.

Not all eco-lightbulbs are the same here’s Alok Jha recommended lightbulbs.

LED spotlight – Philips Econic, 3W

Unlike CFLs, this switches to full brightness immediately and runs cooler. Identical size to halogen spotlights and very similar colour light, though less sparkly. Quite a tightly focused light, however, so you will need a few around your room. Also relatively expensive, but then it will last for 15 years.

CFL stick – Philips Genie, 8W

Has near-instantaneous start-up, getting up to full brightness with a warm, yellowy-white colour in less than 10 seconds. Good for general use in lounges, hallways and bedrooms.

LED candle – Philips Novallure, 10W

Same advantages as the Econic in terms of cool running and instant switch-on, but this is meant for chandeliers. The LED light is made to sparkle slightly, thanks to a glass light-guide inside the bulb.

CFL dimmable – Sylvania Mini-Lynx Step, 20W

For anyone with dimmer switches, this will allow you to adjust your lighting levels to your heart’s content. Still a relatively new technology for CFLs, so expect to pay marginally more – but the costs will come down.

CFL small globe – Megaman GA607, 7W

For lamps or light fittings with several small bulbs. Robust (like all Megaman bulbs) and available in four shades of white, from warm to daylight. Each one is rated to last 10,000 hours. Source: The Guardian.

A European Union ban on the manufacture and import of 100-watt and frosted incandescent light bulbs, in use since the 19th century, has come into force.

Any remaining supplies can still be sold in shops.

The ban will be extended to all incandescent bulbs by 2012. BBC.

Every year our gas and electricity supplier writes to us and significantly increases our direct debit based on our previous years usage – which by the way, we’ve been reducing, installing low wattage light bulbs and not leaving things on standby. This is nothing but a scam aimed at increasing their cash reserves.

Now Ofgem has finally acted

The new condition in suppliers’ licences would mean they must ensure payment levels are clearly and accurately explained and based on the best available information. Suppliers will also need to be able to justify why they are holding onto credit surpluses built up by a customer.

Alistair Buchanan, Ofgem Chief Executive, said: “Direct debit is one of the cheapest ways to pay for energy and we are concerned that if customers cannot clearly understand how their payment plan works they will lose confidence. The proposed licence condition will help give customers peace of mind that the amount they are being asked to pay is based on their likely energy use. It will help ensure suppliers are more transparent about how they calculate payments.” Ofgem.

Good news – hopefully.