[Margaret Pilkington]

My life and my fiscal ideas were formed by my upbringing.....one in which there were many mouths to feed and not much money to do the feeding.
I can remember going into the pantry to find nothing but a bag of pearl barley and a tin of pilchards. If we had not had good neighbours who fed us porage, if we had not been given free school dinners I (and my siblings)would not have survived.
This has meant that for ALL of my adult life I have avoided debt like the plague. I have worked, I have saved. All to try and make sure that I am not dependent on the state.( I do not want hand outs - they have to be paid for by someone)
I have gone without things that I could have had on credit.....because my maxim is ' if you can't pay for it, you cannot have it'
The only exception is a mortgage......and that was paid off ten years before it's due date.

I want no praise for doing this, I need no recognition for it either....it is just that poverty in childhood taught me these things. So I know what I am talking about.(as I a pretty sure there are many of my generation, will attest to)