Put your hat on Irish or French lifting Cup at home of rugby

By Simon Turnbull'
Three previous Twickenham finals provided English winners but the smart money says it won't happen again

 The road to Twickenham and the 2012 Heineken Cup final begins tonight – just a Nick Evans kick across the A316 from the headquarters of the Red Rose game. Evans will be directing operations in the home No 10 shirt at Twickenham Stoop as Harlequins, top of the Aviva Premiership with eight wins from eight, seek to extend their domestic form into Europe with a pool group opener against Connacht in the continent's premier club competition.

At the same time, Racing Metro and Cardiff Blues will be contesting a Pool Two fixture at the Stade Yves du Manoir in Paris. In all there are 12 pool fixtures over the next three days – the first steps for the continent's leading 24 clubs on the long-haul route to the final in south-west London on 19 May next year.
The last time the showpiece decider was held at Twickenham, two English clubs slugged it out for the right to claim the big silver pot. That was in 2007 when Wasps floored Leicester with a couple of sucker-punch throws to the front of the line-out, yielding trophy-winning tries for scrum-half Eoin Reddan and hooker Rafael Ibañez.
It was the third Heineken Cup final staged at English HQ and the previous two occasions also produced winners from the host nation, Northampton in 2000 and Wasps in 2004. So what price another English club being crowned champions of Europe at the home of English rugby?
Ladbrokes will give you odds of 8-1 against Leicester, rating the Tigers the best domestic bet, despite their lingering woes on the Premiership front: just two wins from eight after snatching a draw from the jaws of a 24-7 lead against London Irish at Welford Road last Saturday. Leinster, the holders, and Toulouse, the four-time winners, are joint favourites at 7-2. Justifiably so.
Northampton are only sixth in the betting, at 11-1, even though they had one hand on the trophy halfway through last season's final at the Millennium Stadium in May. Or quite possibly because of it. The Saints marched off with a 22-6 lead at the interval that day. When they marched back on, Jim Mallinder's men were hit by the combined effects of the rugby equivalent of the wall – as a marathon season on the domestic and European front suddenly took its toll – and a blue-shirted tide. They shipped 27 unanswered points as Leinster swept to a stunning turnaround victory, 33-22.
"I think I've only just put it behind me," Dylan Hartley, Northampton's captain and hooker, confessed. "I used to wake up in the morning thinking about the 'what ifs' and the opportunity we had."
According to Mallinder, Saints' director of rugby, the psychological bruising could prove beneficial in the campaign ahead. "I'd like to think we've learnt some lessons," he said. "I think great teams do need to be around each other and go through winning and losing together, so what we went through last season will stand us in good stead."
It will need to if Hartley, Chris Ashton, Ben Foden and Co are to survive this season's group of mortality and make it through to the knockout stages. First up for the Saints tomorrow evening just happens to be a trip to Thomond Park, Limerick. Having last season failed to reach the quarter-finals for the first time in 13 years, Munster will be hungry to prove a point – and not just in their Pool One opener.
The cut-throat alley of a group also includes Castres – currently third in the French Top 14, behind Toulouse and Clermont Auvergne – and the region fancied to surf the Welsh World Cup wave. Scarlets have those bright young things Rhys Priestland, Jonathan Davies, Scott Williams and the giant George North all in tow.
Not since Cardiff lost to Toulouse in the inaugural final in 1996 has a Welsh team reached the last two. Given the pool draws, Cardiff Blues – who have Sam Warburton, Jamie Roberts, Leigh Halfpenny and Gethin Jenkins in their ranks and Edinburgh, London Irish and Racing Metro in their group – would appear to have a fair chance of making the knockout stages. The same could be said of Ospreys, although they have Biarritz and Saracens for company in Pool Five.
Saracens, of course, are the reigning English champions and lie second behind Harlequins in the 2011-12 Premiership table. They could go anywhere in the competition with their difficult-to-beat, dynamic brand of play. Indeed, they are going to Cape Town on 14 January to play their "home" match against Biarritz.
It will be fascinating to see whether the South African-influenced dominant new force in English rugby can make headway on the Continent – or, rather, continents. Last season Sarries managed to win just one of their six pool matches but their group did include Leinster and Clermont Auvergne.
It will also be intriguing to see how the emerging Quins fare. Conor O'Shea's side have played some dynamic, high-tempo stuff of their own this season, carrying on from the tail end of last term, when they rolled over Munster at Thomond Park in the semi-final of the Amlin Challenge Cup and then beat Stade Français to win a dramatic final at the Cardiff City Stadium.
The big test for them will come in December, when they play Toulouse home and away. Toulouse – strengthened by the Springbok Gurthro Steenkamp in the front row and the former All Black Luke McAllister in the centres – will again start as the team to beat in what will be a drive for European title number five.
Leinster will be going for a third in four seasons. They will be without the injured Brian O'Driscoll for the pool stages but have enough in the locker to stay around to welcome back the Irish talisman for the business end of the competition.
The bookmakers don't often get it wrong. If you are going to bet on anything during the 17th season of Heineken Cup rugby, put your money on a Franco-Irish tussle for the trophy at Twickenham in May.
The six sets: Groups of death and a pool of peril
Pool one
Castres, Munster, Northampton, Scarlets.
Opening fixtures Tomorrow: Scarlets v Castres (3pm), Munster v Northampton (6pm).
The pool of peril. For once, Munster start a European campaign unfancied, but they have Paul O'Connell, Ronan O'Gara, Doug Howlett... and Thomond Park. Castres are third in the Top 14 and Scarlets have Rhys Priestland and George North. Northampton, beaten finalists last season, will have proved their mettle if they get through as pool winners. Given such fierce competition, claiming one of the two qualifying spots available for pool runners-up will be difficult.
Pool two
Cardiff Blues, Edinburgh, London Irish, Racing Metro.
Opening fixtures Tonight: Racing Metro v Cardiff Blues (8pm). Tomorrow London Irish v Edinburgh (1.30pm).
In their days as plain Cardiff, the Blues achieved the only final appearance by a Welsh side. That was in the inaugural competition, back in 1995-96, when they lost to Toulouse in extra time at the Arms Park. With the Wales captain, Sam Warburton, back after suspension for their opener in Paris tonight – and the likes of Jamie Roberts, Gethin Jenkins and Leigh Halfpenny in their squad – they look serious contenders for a place in the last eight at least.
Pool three
Bath, Glasgow, Leinster, Montpellier.
Opening fixtures Tomorrow: Montpellier v Leinster (1.30pm). Sunday: Glasgow v Bath (12.45pm).
Even without Brian O'Driscoll in the pool stages, Leinster should have too much in their locker for the rest. Bath will have their World Cup-winning fly-half Stephen Donald directing operations on the field, and Sir Ian McGeechan, a winner with Northampton in 2000 and Wasps in 2007, doing so off it. It might not be enough for the 1998 winners. Glasgow, with Richie Gray in the second row and John Barclay on the openside flank, have a spanner-in-the-works threat about them.
Pool four
Aironi, Clermont Auvergne, Leicester, Ulster.
Opening fixtures Tomorrow: Aironi v Leicester (1.30pm), Ulster v Clermont (3.40pm).
Leicester have yet to get into their stride post-World Cup, their second-half step forward at Sale a fortnight ago having been followed by the backward step of a lost 17-point lead against London Irish last week. Write off the Tigers at your peril. Le crunch for them will come with back-to-back games against Clermont in December, although they cannot afford to be in lead-slipping form when Ulster visit Welford Road next week. They will probably need a bonus-point start away to Aironi too.
Pool five
Treviso, Biarritz, Ospreys, Saracens.
Opening fixtures Tomorrow: Ospreys v Biarritz (3.40pm). Sunday: Saracens v Treviso (3pm).
The test will come on the road for Saracens as the English champions look for European success. They will have an excellent chance of progressing if they can hold their own away to Biarritz and Ospreys – and indeed on home-from-home soil, given that they have chosen to host the Basques in Cape Town and the Welsh region at Wembley. Biarritz, twice beaten finalists, have two major plus points. They are called Imanol Harinordoquy and Dimitri Yachvili.
Pool six
Connacht, Gloucester, Harlequins, Toulouse
Opening fixtures Tonight: Harlequins v Connacht (8pm). Sunday: Toulouse v Gloucester (3pm).
Toulouse are four-time winners and have failed to make it out of the pool stages just once in eight years. They have Guy Noves, the Alex Ferguson of European rugby, directing operations off the field and Thierry Dusautoir, the world player of the year, doing so on it. They will start favourites, although the burgeoning, as-yet-unbeaten Harlequins will relish the prospect of taking them on. And don't forget Gloucester. No one – not even Toulouse – will relish the prospect of going to Kingsholm.
Simon Turnbull

Direct Energy to Acquire Home Warranty of America

Continues Expansion of Home Services Offering 

TORONTO, Ontario, Nov. 11, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Direct Energy, North America's largest competitive energy and energy-related services company, has reached an agreement to acquire Home Warranty of America (HWA), a leading supplier of whole home protection plans across the United States. With this addition to its Services business, Direct Energy will leverage the scale of the HWA platform and its own expertise in operating a successful home protection plan business in Canada, to establish the premier energy and home services offering for residential customers in North America.

Headquartered in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, HWA provides whole home warranty services directly to customers and through a national network of real estate agents, insurance professionals, relocation companies, developers, title companies, bankers, home inspectors and mortgage brokers. With the necessary capabilities and licenses to operate in all 50 states, HWA's comprehensive service delivery network, enterprise software and call center will support Direct Energy's continued growth as North America's largest home energy service provider.

"The further expansion of our Services business is an essential component of our North American growth strategy," said Chris Weston, President and CEO of Direct Energy. "Direct Energy Services is already a leader in the Canadian home protection plan market, and the acquisition of HWA will accelerate Direct Energy's access to the US market and its huge growth potential."

In 2010, Direct Energy Services acquired Florida-based Clockwork Home Services to become the largest provider of heating, cooling, plumbing and electrical services, serving more than three million households annually in North America. The addition of HWA will complement Clockwork's existing business, enhancing its ability to offer protection plans to cover this substantial customer base. The Clockwork network includes the One Hour Heating and Air Conditioning, Benjamin Franklin Plumbing and Mister Sparky brands.

"Adding HWA's capabilities will position Direct Energy to become the first high quality national home services player offering dependable, peace of mind home protection. American homeowners will be able to rest easy knowing their major appliances are covered 24 hours a day," said Eddy Collier, President of Direct Energy Services. "What's more, the acquisition of an established nationwide home warranty provider brings infrastructure for significant cross-sell opportunities with our residential energy customer base."

"Direct Energy's commitment to providing the most comprehensive, flexible, value-priced services plans, delivering superior in-house customer service, and national footprint make them our ideal partner as we continue to grow our business," stated Marc Roth, President of HWA.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. It is expected to close during the first quarter of 2012.

About Direct Energy

Direct Energy is one of North America's largest energy and energy-related services providers with over 6 million residential and commercial customer relationships. Direct Energy provides customers with choice and support in managing their energy costs through a portfolio of innovative products and services. A subsidiary of Centrica plc UK:CNA +2.05% , one of the world's leading integrated energy companies, Direct Energy operates in 46 states plus DC and 10 provinces in Canada. To learn more about Direct Energy, please visit www.directenergy.com .

About HWA

Home Warranty of America, Inc. of Buffalo Grove, IL, was founded in 1996 to provide home warranty coverage for houses, town homes, and condominiums. The Company has experienced remarkable growth to become a leading supplier of residential service contracts (home warranty) across the United States, and provides its services through real estate agents, insurance professionals, relocation companies, developers, title companies, bankers, and mortgage brokers. The Company also provides its comprehensive home warranties directly to the homeowner. It offers full coverage for every buyer without the home age restrictions that are common on competitor's products. Service is a convenient 24/7 toll-free call away and repairs are performed by qualified, approved technicians. The Company offers a 30-day, money back guarantee on every home warranty. More information is available at www.hwaHomeWarranty.com .

SOURCE Direct Energy

McLin funeral home called 'threat to the public’

By Kelli Wynn, Staff Writer 
DAYTON — Numerous instances of unprofessional conduct by Scherrie McLin and her Dayton funeral home, McLin Funeral Home Inc., make them “an immediate and dangerous threat to the public,” an examiner for the state said this week.
The instances include holding a body “for ransom,” burying a body in the wrong spot, employing an unlicensed funeral director, failing to answer a customer’s questions about a relative’s remains, failing to answer questions about the location of certain funds, and waiting several weeks to pick up a body from the county coroner’s office, said Columbus attorney Marc Myers in a 20-page report to the state Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors.
“The wrongful acts were numerous and repeated over time,” Myers told the board. “In short, the wrongdoing was pervasive, reaching into virtually every aspect of the practice of funeral directing.
“Finally, the wrongdoing is inexcusable,” Myers added.
“There is no explanation for it other than a callous attitude of indifference toward the law governing the conduct of the profession and an uncaring attitude to serve the real purpose of the profession — serving people in need.”
Myers recommended the board permanently revoke McLin’s funeral director’s license and the funeral home’s license to operate.
The board will consider his recommendations and any objections to them next month, a board spokeswoman said.
The Dayton Daily News attempted to contact McLin at her last known home address. No one answered the door.
The board ordered McLin to stop operating the funeral home, 2801 N. Gettysburg Ave., in March and accused her of violating nine state laws and administrative codes.
The order followed an inquiry into complaints about the funeral home’s operation.
One violation stemmed from McLin allegedly permitting her son Mark Donelson to advertise and promote himself in the community and online as a licensed funeral director when he is not.
Several other violations stemmed from the funeral home’s handling of $676,266 worth of contracts for prearranged funerals.
Others involved the handling of bodies and carrying out of funerals.
The board held a hearing Sept. 8 on the alleged violations. Myers’ task was to verify the allegations and make recommendations.
In his report, Myers said, “It is abundantly clear from the written evidence and oral testimony presented at hearing that Ms. McLin and McLin Funeral Home have caused a great deal of unwarranted additional stress and emotional hardship to families through their unlawful conduct.”
Malik Hubbard, the state board’s executive director, said the board is still investigating the outstanding prearranged funeral contracts and the money associated with the contracts.
The state board will also seek advice from the state Attorney General’s office about what legal steps to take, if any, against McLin.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2414 or kwynn@DaytonDailyNews.com.

Rebecca Michels' family engages solicitor to help make contact with her

BY Lisa Davies, Mark Buttler

 UPDATE 2.37pm: THE family of a woman believed to be on the run with her husband has engaged a solicitor to act as an intermediary, believing she is too fearful or embarrassed to make contact with them or police. 
Craig Stanley and Rebecca Michaels fled their home in Frankston last month after police raided their property and seized their computer.
Sydney solicitor Ben Archbold today confirmed he had been instructed by family of Ms Michels to act in her best interests.
“Rebecca’s family are extremely worried about her, and after receiving instructions to act, I now urge her to make contact with me,” Mr Archbold said.
“If she is too embarrassed to contact family or if she’s fearful of the police or the legal system for whatever reason, I urge her to make contact so we can resolve this matter.”
He said if one of the reasons for Rebecca not handing herself in was the prospect of jail, she could be reassured he knew of the allegations and that there were alternatives to full-time custody if she was charged and the matter was proven.
The couple are believed to have been in hiding for a couple of weeks, but police cannot rule out they have left Victoria.
However, another avenue being investigated is that they have slipped into regional NSW undetected.
The last person to see them before they vanished was told they were being picked up by someone else.
Haulage contractor Matt Scobie explained that the couple came across him in Ballarat on October 28 and inquired about having a car transported.
The next day they arranged to drop their rented Nissan X-Trail at Mr Scobie's depot in nearby Ross Creek.
Mr Stanley arrived at the depot at lunchtime and paid $220 to have the car taken back to Frankston.
He said he thought it cheaper to have the vehicle transported.
"He said he had to get it back because it was running out of (free) kilometres," Mr Scobie said.
"I said, 'Do you need a lift anywhere?' and he said, 'No, they're picking me up'."
The couple had hired the X-Trail before leaving Frankston on October 27, the day police raided their house at Langwarrin.
Computers were seized and arrest warrants issued after they were checked.
Stanley is said to have spent time hunting down ghosts around Victoria, visiting cemeteries and monuments hoping to crack an X-File, Fairfax media reports.
The mysterious 28-year-old has also worked as a bodyguard, private investigator and a tour guide who had an interest in prospecting for gold.
The couple are believed to have scrambled together $4000 to go on the run.
Sources have told the Herald Sun they took the money from a bank account but family believed they had "slightly more than that" before they vanished.
Rebecca Michels' family has sought legal advice "in the event of her arrest", knowing the 25-year-old will be questioned by police about "serious offences" being investigated.
Her father, Ross McAdie, said he desperately wanted his daughter to call home and that an extended family member was on hand in Victoria should she need help.
"Right at the moment I would give anything in the world to hear her voice," Mr McAdie said.
"It's an emotional roller-coaster."
He added that his daughter would not want to remain a fugitive.
"As big as this country is, I can't see my daughter living in a humpy in the outback," Mr McAdie said.
"I'm a father who is trying to make sense of this behaviour."
 - with Anthony Dowsley
Anyone with information should contact Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000 or www.crimestoppers.com.au

Project Home Again finishes 100 homes in Gentilly -- plus 1 for lagniappe

By Rebecca Mowbray, The Times-Picayune 
When Hurricane Katrina’s floodwaters devoured Denise Matthews’ Pontchartrain Park home, it set her on an odyssey that took her to Texas, then back to New Orleans where she shared her brother’s apartment with 17 other people, to a trailer on her old property.

Without enough money to rebuild after using her insurance check to pay off her mortgage, Matthews finally re-established herself in an apartment in eastern New Orleans. But it wasn’t the same as owning her own home.
Last year, Matthews’ fortunes changed with Project Home Again, an innovative program in Gentilly that is the result of a $20 million gift by Barnes & Noble Chairman Len Riggio and his wife, Louise. The program gave Matthews a new, elevated, energy-efficient bungalow on Wickfield Drive, complete with furniture, in exchange for her original property on Dreux Avenue, rejuvenating her stake in the city and putting her back in the world of homeownership.
“I really had to just pinch myself to believe that this was really happening. When they told me I was going to be moving into a new home I really got emotional,” said Matthews, a bakery manager at Winn-Dixie. “For this to have happened to me, I just say, ‘Thank you so much.’ Where would I have been if Project Home Again had not come through for me?”
The Riggios have completed their 101st and final home; their plans called for building an even 100, but they built an extra one when they learned about the New Orleans concept of lagniappe. They will be in New Orleans on Friday to place a wreath on the door of the final home, and throw a party Friday evening -- with their friend, singer Tony Bennett -- for the families who live in the homes.
Their gift, the largest single housing donation since Katrina, not only played an important role in seeding redevelopment in Gentilly, but it created a voluntary way to concentrate development in specific neighborhoods to avoid the jack o’lantern effect. It also used money more efficiently than many other nonprofit builders, potentially creating a rebuilding model for other cities to use after a mass disaster.
“It was able to bring back density in certain neighborhoods,” said Ellen Lee, senior vice president of programs at the Greater New Orleans Foundation. “You can really see a difference in neighborhoods where they’ve chosen to do their work.”
Unlike the Make It Right project in the Lower 9th Ward, in which famous architects submitted designs that aimed to push the boundaries of environmental friendliness and energy efficiency, or Habitat for Humanity, which built scores of homes for musicians using largely volunteer labor, Project Home Again strived for designs that blend into the neighborhood and targeted people of modest incomes who had been homeowners before Katrina.
Although all the homes have been built, not all of them have been given away. To participate, people must earn less than 120 percent of the local median income, or less than $73,320 for a family of four; have a job; pass credit checks; go through homeownership training; and have no liens on their original property. Once accepted into the program, they give their original lot -- with or without an unrepaired house -- to Project Home Again, and Project Home Again gives them a brand new house in return and lets them pick out furniture to go with it.
All new homes are assigned a value of $150,000, and $30,000 of the mortgage is forgiven each year, so the participants own it free and clear after five years. If the lots that people turned in were well located, Project Home Again would build new homes on them for other people; otherwise, the group swapped the properties with the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority for other lots that were closer to each other or other Project Home Again houses to create density.
Riggio, a regular at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and whose wife’s grandparents emigrated from Italy to New Orleans at the turn of the last century, was moved to do something after Katrina by the images of human suffering at the Superdome.
“I’ll never forget the image, the stripping away of the human dignity that this represented," he said. "I thought, how could we take this great American city and have it become like a third world nation and leave our people to our own devices without making a major effort to help them rebuild their lives? This is the kind of event where citizens need to lend a hand to their neighbors. We felt compelled to jump in and be at the side of these good people.”
Riggio settled on Gentilly because it reminded him of the working-class neighborhood where he grew up in New York, where friends and family members were cab drivers, truck drivers, electricians and sanitation workers, and they all owned their own homes. Giving people homes would restore their sense of dignity, bring them back to the city and help repair their financial losses, he believed.
“The major objective was to protect the working class of New Orleans. Very clearly, they represent the culture of this great city,” Riggio said. “In effect, we’re helping these families to get to a point where they have financial stability for years to come, and generational wealth.”
Although Riggio decided in 2005 to step in, he had trouble getting the local help he needed to get Project Home Again off the ground until 2008. He couldn’t find the land he needed for the first batch of homes until he met the Winingder family, who sold him a plot in the Filmore area. And Riggio, who understood the notion of efficiency from his mass retailing work at Barnes & Noble, had a hard time selling the home-swapping concept. Building on new lots close to one another would avoid title questions, avoid the whims of custom home building, and would allow construction to proceed more cost-effectively, the way it would with a new subdivision, so more homes could be built. And having participants turn in their old properties would allow them to avoid the tax implications of a gift.
“As we tried to roll it out, we had nothing but naysayers,” Riggio said. “My attitude was: just watch me.”
By the time executive director Carey Shea came on board in 2008, Project Home Again was loaded down with consultants, and she fired nearly all of them to preserve resources for home-building. She simplified the home designs to make them more builder-friendly while preserving quality, and resisted the temptation for expensive “green bling” like solar panels, opting instead for insulation and energy efficiency to help homeowners manage their bills.
“Our mandate from the Riggios was to build high-quality homes that were beautiful but simple and cost-effective,” Shea said. “Over time, we realized that our strength was in streamlining.”
But when they finished their first 20 homes and started moving on to the lots that had been turned in, they realized that they were going to miss out on the density of building together in a neighborhood, so they started wheeling and dealing with NORA to get groups of lots. “They were just too scattered. It was harder to build on them than when it was clustered, and it didn’t have the impact,” said Shea, who is now on loan from Project Home Again to the city to help run the new soft-second mortgage program.
The group ended up with houses along St. Bernard Avenue, then in St. Anthony, and in the Milneburg/Seabrook area.
And against Shea’s advice, Riggio insisted on allowing each homeowner to pick out furniture, at his expense, so the homes would instantly feel like their own.
New Orleans City Councilwoman Cynthia Hedge-Morrell said Riggio found a way to create density with voluntary moves, and garner additional investment in Gentilly. “Len’s vision helped us to not have that jack o’lantern effect, because his vision was to fill in those pieces of property,” she said.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu said it’s remarkable that the Riggios made such a “spectacular” gift with such little fanfare. “He did it under the radar. He wasn’t looking for a lot of applause,” Landrieu said. “It sets just a tremendous example of philanthropy for the entire country. People give for a lot of different reasons. It’s rare when you find one of those people who gives for the pure joy of giving.”
Riggio, who comes to town frequently to see the families in the homes he built, hit the Fair Grounds or have lunch at Dooky Chase, said he may be finished with 101 homes, but he’s not done with New Orleans.
“The home-building phase has been completed. But we’re going to have a continuing involvement in New Orleans for a long, long time,” Riggio said. “We’ve begun to work with the mayor, so we are looking at other projects we might get involved in.”
Rebecca Mowbray can be reached at rmowbray@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3417.

The DIY food guide: Which foods are tastier and cheaper made at home and which should we buy?

By Gillian Orr
One cook decided to settle the question for good - with surprising results.

During tough economic times we are often advised to adopt a do-it-yourself attitude. Whether it's our clothes, beauty treatments or entertainment, the golden rule is: don't pay for something that you can make or do yourself. But it is during mealtimes that most of us really look to penny-pinch. Eating out becomes the ultimate no-no and we are even advised to reduce shopping bills by making more of our own food.

This was at the forefront of Jennifer Reese's mind when she lost her job as the book critic for Entertainment Weekly in 2008. But after vowing to start making pantry staples from scratch herself, the San Franciscan mother of two quickly wondered if doing her best Martha Stewart impression in the kitchen was really going to save her cash.
"I thought that I'd have lots of time to do all these things I've always wanted to do, like bake bread, make my own jam and get some chickens and I could save all this money by doing it," explains Reese (pictured right). "Then I began to wonder whether I would actually save money by doing any of those things or whether it was a self-indulgent hobby of someone who was actually very comfortable. So I started pricing everything out and studying the cost benefit analysis of all those different domestic activities."
The result is her new book, Make the Bread, Buy the Butter, a helpful guide to which homemade goods really work and which you should just buy at the shops, as well as what makes the most financial sense. It is also a witty and entertaining account of her various experiments, with both triumphs and disasters recounted.
She began with some of the more simple kitchen staples such as jam, yoghurt and bagels, weighing everything to figure out exactly how much each ingredient cost and meticulously working out the cost of the electricity and water used for each dish. Before long she had graduated onto more exotic produce, such as prosciutto, camembert cheese and vermouth, but her biggest challenge was when she decided to take in some animals, including goats, chickens and bees, with a view to getting milk, eggs and honey.
"The day we brought home an adult goat she yelled non-stopped really loudly like an elephant," recalls Reese. "The only way to keep her quiet was to hold her collar and pet her and talk to her. I ended up spending the night out in the goat shed so she wouldn't disturb the neighbours. It was awful." A baby goat the family bought ended up living in the house for a month because they can't be on their own. "Now she wants to come in the house all the time; she thinks she's a pet."
It hasn't been an entirely cost-effective exercise either, despite getting a decent range of produce from their menagerie. "In my view it's more expensive to do it this way than buy them at the store," warns Reese.
But the animals were not the only trying part of Reese's experiments and she encountered her fair share of culinary calamities as well. "I was trying to make a batch of camembert and I left it uncovered on the counter for a few hours and I guess a fly got in there and laid eggs," sighs Reese. "When I looked at it a few weeks later, in the basement, it was crawling with maggots." However, don't let that put you off making your own cheese: it was one of Reese's biggest surprises. "I was truly shocked at how easy it was to make cheese. I thought that it would just end up being this funny story but it was better than stuff I'd bought."
While Reese's journey wasn't a total victory in favour of making everything yourself, she was surprised at just how simple it was to create a lot of the goods. She was equally impressed with just how much cheaper it was to cook at home. What it will cost you, though, is time. "Anyone can do this, it's very easy," Reese insists. "But it depends on whether or not you want to spend the time doing it. A lot of us have jobs and other demands. I think we feel like we're a lot more helpless than we actually are but you can do any of these things if you want to. There's no mystique to it."
Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese (Free Press £15)
Buy or make? Jennifer's verdict
Vanilla extract - MAKE
This is shockingly cheap to make; you will feel terrible about all those times you've bought one of those tiny bottles. You have to let it sit for four to six months but you save so much money. You can make a gallon if you want to and it will last for ever. It also takes about five minutes.
Butter/Peanut butter - BOTH
Don't make butter because it costs way more to make than to buy. The cost of the cream to make it will cost you more than buying the butter. Home-made peanut butter, however, is absolutely delicious and costs a lot less than commercial peanut butter. It is also really easy, you just need a food processor.
Bagels - MAKE
They are easy to make and taste superior to anything you could buy. They are also much cheaper. Not all breads are massively easy to make yourself but these are an absolute winner. Things like baking will generally make sense financially. You save a lot of money by doing those homely kitchen tasks that your grandmother did.
Yoghurt - MAKE
I've made a ton of yoghurt as it costs less and tastes better than the shop-bought stuff. The only thing is my kids are sometimes funny about eating it out of the jars I put them in; they like the little plastic containers.
Crisps - BUY
Don't bother making your own potato chips because you will never get them as good as the store-bought ones. To make them you thinly slice the potatoes and deep-fry them, but you can never recreate them. Give it a miss.
Sausage - BUY
I really didn't enjoy stuffing sausages into casings. The whole process is really long, tedious and disgusting. In this case, I would be happy to pay someone to do it for me. Hot dogs, similarly, were a complete disaster.
Jam - BOTH
My view on jam is if you have some really good free fruit, whether in your garden or someone else's, then you should absolutely make it. Don't buy fruit from the supermarket, though, as it will end up costing more.

Treasurer: Manor can make money

Written by Matt Zager mzager@thedailyjournal.com 

HOPEWELL — Despite its history of losing money, Cumberland County’s nursing home stands a good chance of being profitable if officials follow recommendations made by the county’s treasurer Gary Simmerman, he told the Board of Chosen Freeholders on Thursday.

“If we can manage the institution properly, I think we can do better than break even, I think we can make some money,” Simmerman said.
With the county considering selling the nursing home, Cumberland Manor, to help plug a multimillion dollar shortfall in 2012, members of the public, including Simmerman, a Hopewell resident, seized on their final opportunity to oppose a sale during a hearing Thursday night.
The hearing at the Hopewell municipal building was the last of two before officials are expected to decide later this month whether to authorize the sale of the Hopewell nursing home.
Estimates put the county’s deficit between spending and revenue at as much as $10 million. Freeholders say they have been waiting for the public comment period to conclude before deciding whether to authorize a sale.
Simmerman laid out a series of steps he believes could raise revenue at the nursing home to the board and a room full of residents Thursday.
They included selling the county landfill to raise revenue, upping the occupancy at the manor to at least 90 percent through better marketing of the nursing home, bringing in more privately funded residents, privatization of some positions at the nursing home and continuing a dialogue with the union representing workers there.
“I don’t think we can afford to not be in the business of running the county Manor,” said Simmerman.
An analysis in September by Moorestown consultant T&M Associates points out benefits of a sale for the cash-strapped county.
“Sale of the property and operations is anticipated to generate approximately $15 million,” the consultant wrote. “This one-time income source could be used by the county to pay debts or increase savings and would relieve the county of the annual contributions of between $1,120,570 and $2,469,840 needed to maintain operations.”

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Council cuts to elderly care fees ruled illegal

By Tim Ross and Nigel Bunya
Councils across England could be forced to spend hundreds of millions of pounds extra on care for the elderly after a landmark High Court case.

 A judge ruled that Sefton council in Merseyside acted illegally when it arbitrarily froze its payments to residential care homes two years ago.

Local authorities across the country had hoped to save money by cutting or freezing the rates paid to privately run care homes to house frail residents.

Senior council representatives said that 120 authorities, representing 80 per cent of councils in England, would be forced to review their budget decisions.

Campaigners for older people welcomed the ruling, which they said exposed the “outrage” of targeting cuts at the most vulnerable in society and threatening lives with poor quality care.

Private care home managers have complained that the dwindling rates from councils fail to cover the cost of good quality services. They have warned that, after Southern Cross, more companies could collapse.

Sefton decided to freeze fees to care homes after cuts in funds from central government. At the High Court in Manchester, Judge Philip Raynor ruled the decision illegal because Sefton had failed to engage in any meaningful negotiation with care providers.
“Inadequacy of central government funding” could not excuse a failure to properly consult care home managers, or “properly assess the risks of its decision to care homes and to residents, contrary to its duties under common law”.
He quashed Sefton’s decision to freeze rates for 2011-12 and ordered the council to rethink by Feb 9 after consulting properly with representatives of care homes.
Sefton Care Association, one of five organisations that pursued the case to judicial review, suggested that the ruling could leave councils facing a bill of an additional £1 billion for care services across the country.
The association said its victory had provided “justice” for pensioners.
Sarah Pickup, the vice-president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said: “A lot of authorities have frozen fees this year, partly, of course, because their actual budgets have gone down.
“The ruling means an additional financial pressure on councils at a time when budgets are already under the cosh.”
A spokesman for Sefton Council said: “The judgment does not say that we have made the wrong decision. It is merely critical of some elements of the process we went through.
“It shows that the speed at which we needed to make cuts last year has meant we did not consult with care home providers early enough about the possible freeze in their fees. We accept that.”
Dr Ros Altmann, the director-general of Saga, called council cutbacks in care funding an “outrage” and said they had now rightly been declared illegal.

Money and mind-set

Posted by: Jules Birch
As the Bank of England monetary policy committee meets to consider its next move, how about some quantitative housing to go with the quantitative easing?
Last month the MPC added another £75bn of QE to the £200bn it committed in 2009 and 2010. Broadly speaking, the idea is to buy UK government bonds to lower the yield, bring down long-term interest rates, make borrowing cheaper and get the economy moving again.
The side effects are an increase in inflation in general and asset prices in particular. Lower long-term interest rates means cheaper mortgages which feed through into house prices higher than they would otherwise have been - amplifying the effect of an artificially low base rate.
The winners from QE are bankers, London and the South East and people with shares and houses. The losers are savers who continue to get miserable returns, people about to retire whose pensions will be worth much less, would-be first-time buyers who cannot afford to get on to the housing ladder and private tenants facing soaring rents. Anyone on benefits will lose out too if the government goes ahead with plans to abandon the automatic uprating of benefits to inflation (CPI last month was 5.2 per cent).
So, with the MPC due to announce its decision on interest rates and QE later today, what’s the alternative?
To state the blindingly obvious, how about something that creates jobs and growth, stimulates the supply of something that is desperately needed and holds down house prices too?
Take last month’s £75bn. One month’s QE would be enough to build 750,000 homes at an average cost of £100,000 per home.
The idea of an alternative QE is not new. The left-leaning think- tank Compass suggested QE for a Green New Deal in its economic Plan B at the end of last month with investment in job-creating energy efficiency measures for existing buildings (in contrast to the FiTs fiasco).
The economic historian Lord Skidelsky has proposed developing the government’s existing idea of a Green Bank into a full-fledged National Investment Bank able to borrow money to invest not just in green projects but housing, transport and small business too.
Brian Green has been quietly pushing the idea of QE for housing on his Brickonomics blog for the last three years. Last month, he refined it with a £50bn plan to build 500,000 homes and net £10bn for the Treasury into the process.
The idea is a new form of QE where the Bank of England buys bonds in a time-limited Public Interest Company with a remit to build homes that it will in future sell on to the private or social sectors.
The £10bn for the Treasury comes from the jobs created. Every unemployed construction worker put back to work nets the Treasury £25-£30,000 in benefits saved and taxes generated. The Home Builders Federation estimates that every home built creates 1.5 jobs directly and twice that number in the supply chain, so £10bn (£20,000 x 500,000 homes) is a fairly conservative estimate.
Even if all of the homes were at market rents, or all of them were eventually sold, the gains would be huge at a time when there seems little prospect of the market delivering enough new homes to meet demand. Rents could pay any interest in the short term and future sale proceeds could go back to the Bank of England.
Compare that to what we have now: housing starts at half the level required to meet demand; a generation of young people priced out of the housing market; soaring rents and a soaring housing benefit bill.
It seems such a no-brainer that you think there must be a catch. Wouldn’t it just increase the deficit? No, because it wouldn’t count as public borrowing - and in any case the package of homes could be designed to deliver a rental income in the short term and more than repay the bonds in the long term.
The Bank of England would object to moving outside of its financial comfort zone. The government would object to anything that smacks of a Plan B and financial sleight of hand but will it come up with any better ideas in its growth strategy later this month?
What stands in the way of this idea this is not money but a mind-set. And it has to be a better bet than the Plan A-Plus advocated by the CBI yesterday to land people with more expensive mortgages just as we go into a double dip recession.

Hanging on to Home, Even After a Fall

By TESS VIGELAND 

BERNIE AND JOYCE MURPHY are still convinced that they did everything right when they bought their home. And by all indications, they did.

Four years ago, the couple, who have been married 41 years, moved from a small town in Ohio to Stallings, N.C., just outside Charlotte. Mr. Murphy, 65, was retiring and they wanted to be near one of their sons and his family. They saved up, put 5 percent down on a $160,000 two-story townhome, got themselves a plain-vanilla 30-year mortgage and settled into a new life at the end of a quiet street. A small creek runs through the tree-lined development, where model homes have names like Riverbirch and Magnolia.
“Little did we know,” said Mr. Murphy, “that within 24 months after we bought this place that this whole artificial bubble would explode.”
A recent appraisal put the home’s market value at 22 percent less than what they paid. So they owe $148,000 on a house that’s worth around $125,000. They are now among the 11 million homeowners in this country who are under water.
And based on what’s happening around their housing development, the worst might be yet to come. On a walking tour of their small neighborhood, they point to multiple homes that are pulling down the value of theirs.
“We had foreclosures, we had abandonments right here in these 99 units,” Mr. Murphy said. “This is the unit here that went for 50 cents on the dollar. I think this one up here is a foreclosure. And you think ‘O.K., that means if I want to sell tomorrow, next year, I can’t do it.’ ”
Not that they want to move anytime soon. In fact, their plan was to stay in these 1,700 square feet for another decade or so. Mrs. Murphy, 64, still works full time as an administrative assistant at a private school. They’re in good health and fully able to care for their property. They know that may change someday, and they figure at that point they will move to a retirement community.
Their planning was so thorough that they even weighed whether to get a home with stairs. “This is a two-story town home, O.K.?” Mr. Murphy said. “Normally people our age wouldn’t buy a two-story, because you never know when your knees are going to go or whatever and, you know, steps can kill you. But our plan was hold onto it for 7 to 10 years, then get rid of it. That is out the window now, because I don’t know whether I’ll be able to get my money back or not.”
But for all their frustration, the Murphys said they would not join the ranks of those who walked away from their mortgages.
“I mean, then what do you have?” Mrs. Murphy asked. “You would be in worse shape than if you just sit there and take it.”
In many cases, the math argues otherwise. Brent White teaches law at the University of Arizona, and two years ago he wrote a paper urging underwater homeowners to stop paying their mortgages and simply walk away from their properties.
It’s simple contract law, he said. You either pay the mortgage, or the bank takes the house. You both sign the same papers and you both know the consequences of breaking the contract. So homeowners should make what seems like a fairly simple financial decision.
“If they don’t default on their mortgage, they’re going to pour their disposable income into a toxic asset,” he said. “On the other hand, if they default, they find that they let go of hundreds of thousands of dollars of bad debt and are able to get back on their feet and recover.”
Yet it is rarely that simple, given all of the emotional and psychological factors that are at play in the decision to walk away, besides the financial ones. On the downside, a default means a serious whack to your credit score. But online services like YouWalkAway.com say they’ve found that on average, people lose just 100 points off their credit score. And they recover more quickly than initially predicted, sometimes within a year or two.
Fair Isaac, which provides the industry-standard FICO credit score, released a study earlier this year showing similar results. But if a person’s original score is on the high end, say a 780, they’ll find they take a bigger hit (150 points on average) in a foreclosure or short sale than someone who has a lower score of 680 or 720 to begin with.
Professor White said it was more a misplaced sense of morality that was keeping people from making the rational financial decision about a business contract. “When we make promises, we intend to keep them,” he said. “But we also understand that sometimes circumstances change and that it’s O.K. to break a promise. Your greater obligation is to yourself, to look after your financial well-being.”
So what is it that is keeping the Murphys from walking away? Partly it is the morality issue: they promised to pay and they are able to pay, though not without some adjustments to their future financial plans. They also noted that they were not in the same dire straits as others in their neighborhood who walked away, including a young family of four that left in the dead of night some months ago. Mr. Murphy receives monthly pension payments after 22 years in state government in Ohio. He also gets Social Security benefits from 17 years of work at a private college, though those are reduced by Internal Revenue Service rules because of his pension.
Mrs. Murphy will also receive Social Security when she retires, as well as retirement savings from her current and previous jobs. Her current salary is in the mid-five figures.
So although they can no longer count on making money if and when they do sell the house, and they have cut back on their spending because of that, the Murphys do not feel squeezed. They hang on to a hope that the market will recover someday.
For Mrs. Murphy, who manages the household finances, it’s also about loving where she lives. “When you’re writing that check, even though you know you’re under water, you know you’re writing it for your home. It’s still your home.”
A poll The New York Times and CBS News conducted in June asked how important owning a home is to achieving the American dream. Very important, 55 percent of the respondents said, with 34 percent saying it was somewhat important.
For the Murphys, owning a home still means something, even if that home has disrupted all the financial planning they did. They predict the local housing market will get worse before it gets better, particularly in light of the 30,000 layoffs announced recently by Bank of America, which is based in Charlotte. Mr. Murphy said he looked back every once in a while and asked, “Oh, what have I done?” But then he reminds himself that there was no way he could have known what was coming. Nobody did.
“We may have to live here for a long, long time,” he said. “But you know what? I got the patio out there, got my gas grill, and I’m just.... If you can’t get your hands around it, why sit and pull your hair out over it?”

Tess Vigeland is the host of American Public Media’s “Marketplace Money” radio program.
Devin Maverick Robins contributed reporting.

Decision by Mike Ashley to rename St James' Park feels like an insult but does make financial sense

By Luke Edwards
If anyone is tempted to suggest the renaming of St James’ Park is no big deal, how would you feel if the Football Association decided it needed to bring in some extra cash and changed Wembley into the Sainsbury’s Stadium.

I should point out there are other supermarket chains and I’m sure all of them would be interested in smothering the home of football with their branding. In fact, don’t laugh, it might just happen.

St James’s Park may not be as grand or as famous as England’s national stadium, but it is the home of Newcastle United and for that reason alone it is special to those who care.

The two have walked hand in hand for almost 120 years. More prominent than any church, St James’ Park is the football cathedral sitting on a hill overlooking the city. It dominates the skyline just as Newcastle United dominant the lives of so many born and raised on Tyneside.

It will still do so, of course, but as the Sports Direct Arena. A hugely successful stack 'em high, sell 'em cheap sport shop belonging to an owner who no longer wants to put any of his own money into the business.

At a club which hasn’t won a domestic trophy since the 1950s, history is important. The very act of supporting Newcastle United is a tradition passed down from generation to generation.

For decades, a trip to St James’ Park has been a coming of age ritual, thousands of children condemned to support English football’s great under-achievers.
It has been the scene for countless heart breaks, protests and disappointment, as well as the odd bit of success along the way, but it has always been home. A constant in the ever shifting drama.
The decision to rename it feels like a kick in the groin, it feels like an insult, yet should anyone be surprised?
Football has been breaking traditions like plates being smashed at a Greek wedding ever since the Premier League era launched.
You only have to look at the television schedule to see that, the amount of money swishing around or the men and women who occupy boardrooms up and down the country,
Football sold its soul a long time ago, so why not the name of a stadium too?
Other clubs have left history behind and moved altogether, the Emirates, the Etihad, the Britannia, the KC Stadium to name a few.
Newcastle are not moving anywhere, they toyed with that idea in the 90s and redeveloped instead. The stadium is big enough for their needs and the capacity can be increased from 52,000 to nearly 60,000 if they want to.
The decision to sell the naming rights is not meant as an insult, Mike Ashley isn’t sticking two fingers up at anyone – although he has introduced it with his usual heavy handedness – he is trying to bring more money in so that Newcastle can compete with the other European hopefuls in the Premier League.
As things stand, Newcastle’s budget is not on the same level as Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal and it is tiny compared to that of Manchester City, United and Chelsea.
To try and close that gap, Newcastle have sold the crown jewels. They have pawned St James’ Park in an attempt to bring in an extra £10-£15m a year.
In deciding there is nothing in a name other than sponsorship rights, Ashley has undoubtedly upset everyone. In announcing something so controversial he has put the team’s wonderful start in the league in jeopardy.
A cynic - and I am one - would suggest he hoped there would be less complaint when the general mood has been so positive. He was mistaken.
For the first time in more than three years, Ashley was, if not popular, more than just tolerated. There has been genuine appreciation of how well the business has been run, particularly a new season ticket initiative and, more significantly, the job Pardew has done as manager.
With Uefa’s Financial Fair play rules on the horizon, Newcastle are self-sufficient and in far better shape than most for their arrival.
But this announcement will mean the ill-feeling towards him re-emerges, the 'we hate Cockney' chants will ring out once more and Ashley has probably already braced himself for it.
The question is how long will it last this time? Impossible to tell, but ultimately the financial thinking behind the decision is sound, which, as long as fans see proof of that further down the line, the anger will subside.
If Newcastle can increase their income by £15m a season that is, in theory, £15m more than can be spent on wages and transfer fees. If the money is invested in the team and does not disappear into the general budget as with the Andy Carroll money, it will make some sort of sense.
At the moment it just hurts. Football lost touch with its roots a long time ago, decisions like this just remind you that has come at a price.

How to Make Money Online in a Home Dropship Business

Posted by Amanda Brooke

 Would you like to learn how to make money online in a legitimate home dropship business that could earn you up to a six figure income? If your answer is yes, read on.The World Wide Web is a wonderful place, a veritable treasure trove of opportunities to make money for entrepreneurs who don’t mind rolling up their sleeves and putting in some hard work! Although there are scams aplenty on the internet, full of outlandish claims of fortunes that can be made overnight with no effort at all and empty promises about making millions after you pay the low, low price of X amount of dollars for an e-book or online course that will reveal the secrets of getting that money…..the majority of people are a little too savvy for these rip-offs.

However, the plain, unvarnished truth is that there really are legitimate, scam free home business opportunities that can net you a very tidy income and an online dropship business is one of them.
An ecommerce dropship sales business cam be run from the privacy and comfort of your own home. For mothers with young children who want to stay home but still make money, it is truly the ideal solution. All you have to do is choose a reputable, established wholesale dropship product supplier such as Drop Ship Access, choose the dropship products you want to start selling on eBay, Amazon, Bonanzle, your own website or whichever marketplace you choose---and with just a few clicks of your mouse, you’re in business and making money!
Drop Ship Access has thousands of happy, satisfied customers who wouldn’t be happy or satisfied if they weren’t making money. They also have excellent educational resources on the site that are 100% FREE and will help you learn how to start a successful, profitable home dropship business from the ground up. Plus, if you hit a bump in the road and need assistance or have a question you need answered, help is only a click away!
Visit Drop Ship Access today and check out the free educational e-books, whitepapers and videos that can show you exactly how to have your own online home dropship business and start making money right away!
If you liked this article, you may also like this one: 7 SEO Tips for Your Ecommerce Dropship Business Website

Home Office: borders of belief

By  Editorial guardian.co.uk

Politicians are rarely believed, and even less often admired, in the modern world. Given the choice, much of public opinion frequently, and maybe increasingly, sides with the unelected legal, military and even business or journalist expert rather than the elected amateur. Confronted with the contrasting views of a judge and a minister, many now cleave instinctively to the judge, Jonathan Sumption QC argued in a lecture this week. In a similar way, perhaps, nervous European bond traders currently seem to have greater confidence in a political technocrat than in a leader with voter appeal. Thus, when faced with a conflict between the word of a senior civil servant and that of a government minister, the default assumption for many nowadays is that the mandarin is likely to be right and the minister certain to be wrong.
Whether and how far such instincts are at play in the continuing argument between the home secretary, Theresa May, and the former head of the UK Border Agency's border force, Brodie Clark, is difficult to gauge at this stage. MPs spent a large proportion of their time in the Commons chamberon the dispute. Yet at the end of a heated day, not much extra light had been shone on it. Labour argued as strongly at the last as at the first that Ms May was hanging Mr Clark out to dry instead of admitting that she had herself signed off on what, despite Labour indignation, is the rather sensible policy of increasing the reliance on intelligence in immigration control. It is obvious why Labour should want to puncture the government's hold over an issue like immigration. But the frontbench attack remained short of crucial ammunition.
The home secretary was able to repel Yvette Cooper's assaults – just as David Cameron had successfully seen off Ed Miliband earlier – because she had the minute of a conversation in which Mr Clark told his boss, the UKBA's chief executive, Rob Whiteman, that he had allowed staff to exceed ministerial orders when they relaxed border controls during the summer. That admission, according to Mr Whiteman, was the reason why Mr Clark was suspended. As long as that version of events holds sway, the home secretary is well defended.
Ms May led a charmed ministerial life in her first 18 months as home secretary. Now she is taking some unforeseen hits. Like many predecessors she is finding that the brief is inherently tough and that officials are not magicians. The question now is whether Mr Clark has a killer piece of evidence up his sleeve when he gives evidence to a Commons committee on Tuesday. If he has, or if an employment tribunal finds in his favour, Ms May could be in trouble. If not, she will probably deserve to survive.

Insurance revenues up but travel revenues down for Moneysupermarket

  StockMarketWire.com - Moneysupermarket's financial performance in the third quarter show internet revenues and EBITDA for the third quarter 14% and 25% ahead, respectively, of the same period last year. Visitors to the Moneysupermarket.com website were 3% ahead of the same period last year with visitors increasing across the Money, Insurance and Home Services verticals while Travel reduced marginally.
Revenues in the Money vertical were 8% ahead of Q3 2010 on visitor volumes that were 12% higher. Within this, trading was strongest earlier in the quarter, with September's year-on-year performance impacted by a strong September 2010.
Revenues from credit products (credit cards, loans, mortgages and debt solutions) were 8% ahead of the same period last year. Weakness in credit card revenues from lower visitor volumes were more than offset by strong growth in loans, particularly unsecured loans, where improved conversion and product availability significantly helped raise revenue per visitor.
Revenues from non-credit products, which include savings, current accounts and advertising revenues, improved by 8% driven by growth in savings and current accounts.
Insurance revenues were 15% ahead, and visitor volumes 3% ahead, of the same period last year.
Revenues in travel were 11% down on Q3 2010 on visitor volumes that fell by 4%. Trading continues to be challenging across the travel business with consumers managing their discretionary spending tightly.
Home Services revenues were 107% ahead of Q3 2010 and visitor volumes increased by 4%. Utility switching volumes, which account for the greatest part of Home Services revenues, were stronger than the same period last year reflecting continued cost increases in the domestic energy market.
Cash conversion continues to be strong. At 31 October 2011 the Group had net cash of £18.7m, reflecting the payment since the half year of the interim dividend of £7.7m together with the special dividend of £20m; corporation tax payments on account of £6.9m; and £1.0m relating to the acquisition of 51% of Local Daily Deals Limited.
Peter Plumb, Chief Executive of Moneysupermarket.com, said: "Moneysupermarket.com continues to make good progress. Revenues in the third quarter were 14% ahead of the same period last year - which itself was a tough act to follow.
We saw solid growth across our Money, Insurance and Home Services businesses as consumers continue to seek to make the most of their money in what is still a very challenging environment.
"The recent acquisition of Local Daily Deals will further widen our offering, helping customers to save more money through local and national deals with retailers."
by StockMarketWire.com 

Hot money deals, 9 November 2011Which? experts round up the best money deals

This week, we track down the best savings accounts and cash Isas (including fixed-term deals), as well as the leading credit card, loan and mortgage deals. We also help you ensure your home insurance covers you for extended holidays over Christmas.

Best savings accounts

• Instant access savings: Santander's eSaver Issue 4 account offers the best instant-access deal at 3.1%. The rate includes a 2.6% bonus payable for a year.
• One-year fixed-rate savings: Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank offer the top-paying 1-year fixed rate accounts at 3.6% on balances of at least £2,000.
• Three-year fixed-rate savings: Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank offer the best 3-year fixed rate deals at 4.3%. Interest is paid monthly or yearly.
• Five-year fixed rate savings: Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank offer the top-paying 5-year fixed rate accounts at 4.7%. Both accounts can be operated at a branch or via the internet.

The market's best cash Isas

• Instant access cash Isa: AA's Internet Access Isa Issue 2 offers the best instant-access deal paying 3.05%. However, this account does not allow transfers in from other providers. If you want to transfer in previous years' funds, then Northern Rock and Principality's e-Isa accounts are the best options paying 2.80%.
• One-year fixed-rate cash Isa: Northern Rock offers the top 1-year fixed rate account at 3.35% on balances of at least £500.
• Three-year fixed-rate cash Isa: Northern Rock and Post Office offer the best 3-year fixed rate accounts paying 4%. The Post Office account can be operated at a branch or by post.
• Five-year fixed-rate cash Isa: Halifax's Isa Saver account currently leads our 5-year fixed rate table paying 4.4%. The minimum investment is £500

0%-on-purchases credit cards

If you're thinking of making a start on your Christmas shopping and want to spread the cost of your festive spending interest-free over the coming year, it's worth applying for a new credit card now so it arrives in time.
The best credit cards for 0%-on-purchases from Tesco and Marks & Spencer currently offer 15 months interest-free with representative APR's of 15.9% and 16.9% respectively. Both cards also come with reward schemes. Barclaycard is not far behind, offering 14 months interest-free with a higher 18.9% representative APR, together with membership of its own Freedom reward scheme.

The cheapest unsecured personal loans

In our Best Rate tables, we show the lowest rates available for loans that aren't exclusive to specific account holders or existing customers of banks or other institutions.

• For those borrowing £5,000 over three years: Sainsbury's offers a representative rate of 7.9% APR for a £5,000 loan. Alternatively, at 8.6% - still highly competitive - borrowers can instead opt for two years of doubled Nectar points and a £25 gift card.
• For those borrowing £10,000 over five years: Sainsbury's offers a rate of 6.2% - presently the best rate on the market. Nationwide also offers this rate to its customers, so worth a look if you have a Flex account.

Today's top mortgage deals

The best mortgage deal for you will depend on your own circumstances. Our unique mortgage finder tool takes account of all fees and charges to help you find a mortgage tailored to your needs.
If you're moving house and looking for a tracker rate deal that lasts for 5 years, our best rates this week are:

• Low loan-to-value: Cumberland BS offers a deal of 2.75%. It tracks at 2.25% above the base rate, although it won't go below its present rate. It has no arrangement fees and is available direct from the lender only.
• High loan-to-value: Yorkshire BS offers a deal of 3.99%, which is collared at this rate. It is only available direct from the lender, has an arrangement fee of £800 and a booking fee of £195.

For more details and also to see our full selection of fixed, discount and tracker deals, check out our mortgage Best Rate tables.

And finally... this week's hot money tip

Planning on taking an extended trip over the festive period? If so, you should double check that your home insurance cover will be intact while you're away - just in case the worst were to happen. Your policy will probably include an extended absence clause, stating that the cover will be invalidated if your home is unoccupied for a certain period of time.
This period of time varies between insurers; for many, anything over 30 days will be considered an 'extended absence'.
If you're planning a long trip to visit friends or relatives, find out what your current policy defines as an extended absence. If it doesn't meet your needs, you may need to switch to one that allows you to be away for your chosen period of time.
For more advice, see Home Insurance Pitfalls to avoid. We also have a Which? one stop guide to Christmas - with tips and ideas on everything from choosing your Christmas presents to the January sales.

After Long Ordeal, a Homeowner Can Stay Home

By ANN CARRNS

 

A HAPPY ENDING Cornel Blakey and Althea Girard-Blakey negotiated a loan modification for their home in East Palo Alto, Calif. She had bought the house in 1975 for $17,500 and refinanced. 

FOR two years, Althea Girard-Blakey toted a black canvas bag when she went to work, full of the enormous collection of papers documenting her request for a mortgage modification. 

“I never knew when I was going to need it,” said Ms. Girard-Blakey, 59, who was struggling to make payments on a loan she took out on her home in East Palo Alto, Calif.
Now, Ms. Girard-Blakey can leave the sack at home. Her lender, Chase, has approved a permanent loan modification that reduced her monthly payments to an amount she can afford. She made the first of the new payments on Oct. 1.
In the context of the housing crisis, Ms. Girard-Blakey is one of the lucky ones: She got to keep her home, a compact two-bedroom with a pale exterior framed by bougainvillea. “Home, sweet home,” she said, smiling, during an interview in her cozy living room, which she has decorated in brown hues, contrasted with colorful orange and green accent pillows.
Getting the necessary approval involved several false starts and proved to be a frustrating, sometimes bewildering, process for Ms. Girard-Blakey and her husband, Cornel Blakey, 61. Her experience shows how the loan modification process can tax the resources of people who already are stressed by the demands of a difficult economy.
Coming as close as she did to losing the house was wrenching, because Ms. Girard-Blakey had owned it for more than 30 years. She bought the property in 1975, for what now seems like the startlingly low sum of $17,500. “It’s like buying a car, now,” she said of the price. A young single mother at the time, she wanted a home in which to raise her daughter. “I needed a place to get us settled,” she said.
She was able to secure a mortgage by saving a small amount for a down payment from her income as a preschool teacher, she recalled, and also by agreeing to pay the owner part of the purchase price over time.
Over the years, she said, she borrowed against the house to make improvements, like a new roof and an additional bedroom, and once to support herself during a period of unemployment. More recently, she and her husband added a small covered patio with artificial turf in the backyard. “This is my favorite part of the house,” she said while giving a visitor a tour. She viewed the debt-financed upgrades as positive, at the time. “I had my house working for me,” she said.
The most recent refinance came in November 2007, when, amid the housing bubble, the home’s value had grown to more than $500,000, according to the real estate Web site Zillow. She took out a 30-year fixed-rate loan, arranged through a broker, for roughly $265,000.
The loan was sold to Washington Mutual and ended up at Chase after Chase took ownership of WaMu’s mortgages in September 2008. (Mr. Blakey wasn’t a borrower on the loan, although his income helped pay the bill; because Ms. Girard-Blakey had owned the home herself before the couple married in 2000, they considered it her asset, they said). The resulting monthly payment of more than $1,600 was higher than she had expected. Still, she initially was able to handle the payments.
But two years later, the stalled economy was affecting Mr. Blakey’s income and straining the couple’s ability to pay their bills. East Palo Alto, populated by many African-American and Hispanic families, is less affluent than its neighbor Palo Alto, home to Stanford University and technology companies, including Hewlett-Packard. East Palo Alto was hit hard by the recession. On a recent Saturday, as children played in the street, a woman approached passers-by, asking for spare change.
Mr. Blakey had worked for years cutting hair at the barber shop his father had operated since the 1960s. But long-time customers began to move away, he said, and new ones seemed to be getting fewer haircuts during the slow economy. Finally, late last year, his father retired, and they closed the shop. The sign, East Bayshore Barber Shop, still hangs on the building a few blocks from their home, but the space has been taken over by a neighboring liquor store. “Right now, I’m unemployed,” said Mr. Blakey, a slight, soft-spoken man wearing a felt cap. He makes some money cutting hair for a few customers in a makeshift barber shop in the garage.
Ms. Girard-Blakey’s job as a receptionist at an office in nearby Mountain View was steady, she said, but it was getting harder to pay the bills, which included credit card debt.
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Rautins moves home to save money

By Ian Begley

Like the rest of his NBA brethren, Andy Rautins is going to miss a few paychecks during the lockout.
To offset that, he’s found a way to save some money.
The Knicks guard has stayed in his parents’ home outside of Syracuse during the lockout, sleeping in his childhood bedroom.
“It’s nice to get some home cooked meals up here,” Rautins, a former Syracuse star, said in a phone interview. “It’s nice because it’s a rare opportunity to spend time with family and friends. Normally, you’d been in a busy season by this time. But I’ve been trying to see the positives in [staying home] and there’s a bunch so far. It’s saving me a lot of money right now and I think that’s a big concern for a lot of players.”
If the lockout extends, Rautins will consider pursuing an internship at his financial adviser’s Manhattan firm to learn about investment advice and financial planning.
“Andy is actively planning for his life after pro sports,” says Mark Doman, Rautins’ financial adviser and the senior vice president of True Capital Management. “A lot of guys say it, but Andy wants to take steps during his career to make sure he is financially secure.”
With the lockout looming, True Capital Management conducted a cost analysis to determine the financial burden on Rautins if the lockout dragged on for anywhere between three to 12 months.
“Andy wanted a number to wrap his head around, so we provided one,” Doman said.
Rautins opted to stay at home rather than pay for housing in the greater New York area. The only major expense he incurred was paying travel to and from Los Angeles, where he worked with out other players represented by his agent, Bill Duffy. No rent, no bills, no nothin'.
“It’s just the right thing to do. You want to set yourself up for the future,” said Rautins, who has a pending team option on his 2012 contract.
Drafted in the second round by the Knicks, Rautins played in just five games last season. His season was cut short by knee surgery in April.
When he was healthy last season, Rautins said he learned a lot playing against former point guard Raymond Felton and Toney Douglas every day in practice. He also got to pick veteran Chauncey Billups’ brain for a few months.
Rautins hopes to slide into a regular role as a reserve shooter and point guard in his second year, whenever it starts.
“I want to have a much bigger role than last year,” he said. “Last year I didn’t really get much of an opportunity to play…. I feel like I’ve matured and I have a lot more experience [as a point guard].”
Rautins has been working extensively on his ball handling at Syracuse for the past few weeks after playing for the Canadian National Team at FIBA Americas over the summer. He says his knee is fully healed he’s feeling fine after suffering a concussion and broken nose in the FIBA Tournament.
“I’m ready to go,” Rautins said. “I feel good.”
Both physically and financially.

Herman Cain accuser forced to deny she came forward to make money

By Jon Swaine, Washington
The woman who was allegedly groped by Herman Cain has been forced to deny that she came forward to make money, after it emerged that she and her British fiancé had faced a string of financial problems.

 Sharon Bialek, who claims that the Republican presidential hopeful stuck his hand up her skirt in July 1997, has twice filed for bankruptcy and recently faced demands for thousands of dollars in unpaid tax.

Her fiancé Mark Harwood, who is from England, had the $1.2 million (£747,000) house near Chicago, Illinois, that he shared with his ex-wife repossessed after apparently failing to repay the mortgage.

The disclosures came as yet another woman alleged inappropriate behaviour by Mr Cain, whose campaign for the Republican presidential candidacy has been under siege for the past 10 days.

The married grandfather and pizza restaurant tycoon was poised on Tuesday night to finally address the allegations from four women "head on" at a press conference. "There is not an ounce of truth to all these allegations," he told a television talk show beforehand.

Miss Bialek, 50, on Tuesday rejected accusations that she may have exaggerated her account of an alleged assault by Mr Cain in order to make money from lucrative television or magazine deals.

She claimed Mr Cain, 65, tried to grab her crotch and pushed her head to his lap when the pair met to discuss her career prospects after she was fired by the National Restaurant Association, which he led.
Mr Cain's campaign stridently attacked Miss Bialek's credibility, distributing an email titled "Who Is Sharon Bialek?" in which they contrasted Mr Cain's record with the "far different path" they said she had taken.
"Miss Bialek has had a long and troubled history, from the courts to personal finances – which may help explain why she has come forward 14 years after an alleged incident with Mr Cain, powered by celebrity attorney and long term Democrat donor Gloria Allred," it said.
The suggestion was repeated by several pundits. Dick Morris, a former aide to President Bill Clinton, said: "This is obviously a copycat that's just trying to cash in ... I look forward to her spread in Playboy." Miss Bialek and Miss Allred deny that they are seeking any money from her story.
"I was not paid to come forward, nor was I promised any employment," Miss Bialek told a television interview. Mr Harwood told local reporters: "She is a good woman with a very big heart. She just tried to do the right thing".
Records show that Miss Bialek, a former marketing executive and cookery television show host, filed for personal bankruptcy in 1991 in 2001, when she declared $36,000 (£22,375) in liabilities.
She has also been pursued for alleged unpaid taxes totalling about $10,000 (£6,200) by federal authorities in the past two years.
Miss Bialek and her 13-year-old son now live with Mr Harwood, 49, in a $564,000 (£350,571) five-bedroom house in a Chicago suburb, which appears to be rented.
Mr Harwood, who is currently out of work, claims to have run multi-million dollar health care companies in the US before the home he shared with his wife Patricia was reclaimed by lenders.
His page on LinkedIn, a business networking site, states that he received a degree in English, Maths and Physics from Oxford College of Technology and Engineering in 1982.
A former employee at the US Agency for International Development, who once hired Mr Cain to give a speech, said on Tuesday that he asked her to help him arrange a dinner date with an audience member.
Donna Donella, 40, said Mr Cain asked her: "Could you put me in touch with that lovely young lady who asked the question, so I can give her a more thorough answer over dinner?" after the 2002 event.
One of the two women believed to have received a payout from the National Restaurant Association after making allegations against Mr Cain was named yesterday by a US news website.
The woman, a 55-year-old US government spokesman, was described as reliable and a "good person" by friends and relatives, who insisted that she would not have lied about his behaviour.