As Mother's Day approaches - it's this Sunday, in case you've forgotten - the Office for National Statistics has helped paint a portrait of the 'typical' modern mum in Britain.

While no mother can be 'average', of course, statistics can shed some light on Britain's mums: how old they might be, whether they are married or single, and how they might enjoy the little spare time they have each week.

Women are now just under 30, on average, when they get married, and aged 27 1/2 when they first give birth. But even though they wait longer before having kids, the number of births has hit the highest level in nearly four decades, thanks to older women and immigrants having more babies.

And there has been a big rise in the number of single mums since 1971 - they now make up a fifth of all mothers.

ISA savers who usually leave it until the last minute to invest in a tax-free savings account could be missing out this year.

With Good Friday falling on 2 April and Easter Monday on 5 April – the end of the financial year – savers with money still to invest must act more quickly than usual to ensure they take advantage of their full cash ISA or stocks and shares ISA allowance.

There won't be a rise in VAT or other taxes in the budget in two weeks' time, the chief secretary to the Treasury, Liam Byrne has promised.

But it's not going to be a "big giveaway budget" either, he said.

Byrne explicitly ruled out a rise in VAT from 17.5% to 20% - although this is something the Conservatives have not dismissed. He said there will be no new tax hikes in the 24 March budget, which comes six weeks before the probable date of the election.

Britons are set to waste £9 billion in unnecessary tax payments this year, according to the latest Tax Action report, published by financial adviser network Unbiased.

Areas where taxpayers are set to lose out the most include on unclaimed Tax Credits that will cost the nation's families close to £4 billion and avoidable Inheritance Tax payments totalling nearly £2 billion.

It does not have to be difficult to reduce your tax burden, though.

By following a few simple steps, you could save yourself hundreds or even thousands of pounds.

About one in three British adults believe that the forthcoming General Election will be followed by substantial tax hikes.

But while many would be swayed by the tax policies of the different parties when it comes to voting, 86% admit doing nothing to reduce their current tax burden.

When was the last time you went on holiday? Can you even remember what it feels like to be warm? Or relaxed?

It seems we are far too busy to take a proper break.

Research commissioned on behalf of British Tourism Week has shown that UK workers take far less holiday than they are entitled to - and this is costing the British tourism industry dear.

That aside, it's clearly not good for our well-being.

There's a very old adage that everyone is born a Liberal but dies a Tory. So what happens? Is this some sort of natural change as we get older? Do people get increasingly angry about rip offs? Do we get disillusioned with life and start to see things in black and white?

This week, after a particularly passionate post of the topic of Royal Mail - who I can cheerfully say slowly destroyed any faith I may have had in them over the course of the five months of industrial action - I was accused of being a Thatcherite.

I almost choked on my ciabatta.

However, my reaction to news about public sector pensions made me wonder whether there's some truth in the accusation, because I am enraged at the discovery that I am personally paying an annual bill of £516 to bolster incredibly generous pensions for public sector workers.

What is it about the British and chilly weather? Why does the whole country stop the moment a snowflake falls?

Manufacturing slumped at the start of the year and everyone has blamed the weather. But even though other countries like Germany and the US also had unusually cold starts to the year and lots of snow, their economic recovery won't be derailed by a snowflake or two...

Will January's snow and ice nip the UK's nascent recovery from recession in the bud? Gordon Brown will hope not.

I phoned my friend Toby the other day. "I can't talk now, I'm on an assignment," he growled into the phone. "It could blow my cover."

For Toby, working as a mystery shopper is a very serious business, and not just a way to make money in between acting jobs.

Luckily, he also finds it quite good fun and a chance to play James Bond.

He has occasionally had to pretend to be partially sighted to test whether supermarkets have their pricing in an accessible form and what kind of service he gets from the staff, which he found really interesting.

Mystery shopping is a great way to earn a living for people with unpredictable patterns of employment.

Can there be a greater joy than your fixed rate mortgage coming to an end?

That mortgage you signed up to years ago when rates were 6% and it seemed like a great deal at the time?

There probably are things – the birth of your first child perhaps, conquering Kilimanjaro – but halving your mortgage in one go is pretty peachy.

While it's tempting to simply gloat and then head off to the shops, the end of the fixed rate brings a notable, but pleasing, dilemma – how to spend your new cash?

I was in a HSBC bank branch last week and frankly, it was an experience like none I've ever had before.

Rather than simply have a row of tellers sitting behind glass which you approach from the ranks of an orderly queue, the bank entrance is an open lobby with rows of cash machines and a staff of one helpful woman. If your needs are more complex than those dealt with by an ATM then she gives you a numbered ticket and you are sent off to what can only be described as a holding pen with the reassurance that your wait should only be "five to seven minutes".

Well, everyone knows that sort of guesswork is pure smoke but it sounds like they know what they are talking about. Anyway, back in the holding pen you wait until you are summoned by a bank employee, who in my case descended from above in a glass elevator. Very Willie Wonka.

He was perfectly helpful and we concluded our business but the whole thing was slightly bizarre. What's wrong with banks the way they were?