... a quarter of us couldn't afford to pay him, according to a survey by the Alliance & Leicester. Apparently people are selling household goods or borrowing money in order to have a faulty appliance fixed, so low are household savings. Interestingly:

The research found that women are the least prepared for a basic household emergency, with more than a third (35%) saying that they have struggled to pay for emergencies in the past, compared to a quarter (26%) of men. Furthermore, just under half of all women (46%) admitted to having less than £200 spare to cover the cost of a household breakdown, compared to 28% of men.

If you'd taken a stab at those figures, wouldn't you have assumed they'd be the other way around? Anyway, read more, here.

Direct Line recommends... insurance! [August 4]