IF you are wondering where all your money is going then it could be your mobile phone that is to blame.

Recent research shows that people are spending up to £45 a month on mobile phone services, an increase of 16 per cent compared to this time last year.

Prepaid customers spend less than those on pay monthly contracts, with an average monthly spend of £24.27, compared to the £44.18 bill paid by contract customers.

There is no doubt that more advanced phones are boosting their use, but when bills are the same as gas and electricity it shows that many people could not live without them.

COLD feet are set to be a thing of the past as the world's first heated sock has been developed in New Zealand.

Using a small battery and mixing fibres that conduct electricity with normal wool, the socks could be in the shops by this winter.

The New Zealand firm Canesis is leading the development and hopes to produce blankets using the same technology as well as fibre that changes colour.

THE wonder of the internet is that anyone can set up a website about anything they love, so here's one for lovers of egg, bacon, chips and beans. The site (russelldavies.typepad.com/eggbaconchipsandbeans/) is home to a collection of photographs and reviews of greasy spoons in London.

But the commentary and pictures provide a real atmosphere -- this should be a job for someone in every town in the country.