While the term "prefab" may bring to mind flimsy Portacabins and caravans (or perhaps a hot dog and a jumping frog), in reality the concept has moved up a gear.

Far from being ugly shacks that might blow down in a gale, factory-built houses are now modernist, architecturally progressive temples to light and space, built with cost-saving and ecology in mind.

With houses in the UK being priced out of many people's budgets, more and more house hunters are going the DIY route.

So what is the real deal with prefabricated housing? Is it really a viable alternative to buying an existing property?

How have you saved money on the internet? Are there any services you used to pay for that you now use for free - or for less - online?

Perhaps you used to spend money on classified adverts but now place them for free on Craigslist. Or maybe you saved time and travel costs by aggregating the RSS feeds from recruitment agency websites instead of tromping over to register as a recruitment candidate.

Last week on community site Ask Metafilter, a user posted an open thread called I used to (blank) but now I (blank) free on the internet.

Here are some of the most useful responses.

It hasn't been a good time for charities.

• First there was the news that charities' legacy incomes - sums left to charities in people's wills - fell by £66m in the last three months of 2008. And a recent report by the Smith Institute concluded that charities may see a further loss of between £150m and £200m in 2009, as house prices and share values tumble.

• Then JK Rowling quit as the patron of the MS Society in Scotland. The author has supported the charity for over 10 years, after her mother died from multiple sclerosis in 1991, but has now resigned citing internal conflict as her reason: "I have now reluctantly decided that I cannot, in good conscience, continue to be the public face of a charity that is changing beyond recognition from the one with which I have been so proud to be associated."

• Now The Pet Shop Boys have turned down animal rights group PETA's request to change their name to 'The Rescue Shelter Boys': "Dear Neil and Chris," begins the letter from Peta Europe, "You have many loyal fans of the Pet Shop Boys here at Peta. We have a request that may at first seem bizarre, but we hope that after considering the following facts, you will understand why we are asking this of you: will you please consider changing your name from the Pet Shop Boys to the Rescue Shelter Boys?" This Guardian article doesn't detail the Pet Shop Boys' response, but we can assume that it went along the lines of "thanks, but no thanks."

• In other news, a Vienna court has fined a mother for phoning her son too often. The 73-year-old woman, who phoned her son up to 49 times a day was fined 360 euros (324 pounds) for harrassment by the court in the southern city of Klagenfurt.

• And eight traveller families, having been moved out of their caravans on the 2012 Olympics site, have been moved into £150,000 bungalows in a £2million gated community. "GIPSIES MOVE INTO £2M EASY STREET" shouts The Sun.

Hooray for Easter at home!

Toasted hot cross buns dripping with butter, the thrill of the Easter egg hunt, the shiny promise of Easter eggs - not to mention two extra days of holiday.

But wait a minute.

Those supermarket-bought hot cross buns are always more sticky than satisfying (and regrettably more than one or even two a penny). And with the inevitably drizzly weather, how likely is it that you'll be able to stage an Easter egg hunt anyway? And what about those pricey packaged Easter eggs? So disappointing once you've ripped off the extensive wrapping and revealed that thin factory-moulded chocolate shell with its uninspiring little bag of contents.

And that's before you've learned that you have yet to sit through the full 213 minutes of Ben Hur.

Surely there's a cheaper, more fulfilling Easter-at-home experience to be had? Why yes there is. Follow us to see the Easter treats in store from the very best of the internet's lifestyle websites.

Last week I barely spent anything. Why? Because I thought I had no cash.

Each day I hoisted my bag onto my shoulder and, noting how light my wallet felt and how little time I had to get to the cashpoint, I took my own lunches to work and bypassed the latte shop on my way in.

But when I opened my wallet and found that it was actually replete with crisp £20 notes and the shiny fascias of my credit and debit cards, I still didn't spend - because I didn't want to break my largeish notes.

And while this may seem like a woolly economic strategy, some research suggests that carrying large notes and credit cards can actually curb your spending.

Now, I'm really sorry to do this to you on such a beautiful Sunday, but have you thought about what you'll leave your loved ones when you shuffle off this mortal coil?

Making a will is really important - especially if you have a joint mortgage or have taken out a life insurance policy.

But it doesn't have to be cumbersome and depressing - it is just admin, after all.

And, more importantly, it doesn't have to cost you a fortune.

Thrifty vintage fashionistas (and fashionistos) of the northern and Midland wastes rejoice!

The Affordable Vintage Fashion Fair arrives in Leeds today, and it's only £2 to get in.

The fair takes place at The Loft on Cross New York Street, and will be stuffed with affordable vintage clothes for men and women from the 1920s to the 1980s, handmade goods, jewellery and bacon butties and tea.

Every year, the fair goes on the road - in 2009 it's visiting Sheffield, Lincoln, Newcastle, Durham and Liverpool.

And that's not the only event coming to your area - whether you're after a stylish bargain or want to learn how to use the business end of a crochet needle, 2009 will see a generous sprinkling of fairs and workshops north of the Watford Gap.

Mobile phones have come so far so fast - from bricks with antennae that bankers would hoist up to their ears, to incessantly chirping noise-monsters that teenagers use to pollute public transport (Crazy Frog, anyone?).

But now, thanks to smartphones and the philanthropy of developers working with open-source technology, we can download all sorts of nifty features, turning our mobile phones into little hubs of productivity.

Here are our top five applications for the iPhone, BlackBerry and Nokia N95 smartphones - all of which you can install on your phone, for free.

Tonight at 8.30pm local time thousands of individual people and businesses will be turning off their lights for Earth Hour - and to help convince world leaders to take action on climate change.

Over 2,800 cities worldwide have signed up - plus several iconic landmarks are dimming or switching off in support of the event, including Nelson's Column, the Millennium Stadium, the Eiffel Tower, the London Eye, and Sydney Opera House.

So what else are people doing locally to support it?

No, that's not Clive Owen and Alfred Molina in the photograph (although you'd be excused for thinking so) - it's Reggie and Ronnie Kray: notorious East End crime bosses-slash-celebrities from the 1950s and 1960s.

On Monday, Kray Twins memorabilia is going under the hammer in an auction that aims to raise £500,000. Chiswick Auctions say that they've received interest from all over Europe, the US and even Hong Kong: "We rejected about 80% of the items offered to us to concentrate on things we could prove were owned by the Krays. This is the cream of the crop."

So would you buy the memorabilia of gangsters and murderers?