Austerity in unequal measures? A chip off the old blog!

In an era when the word "austerity" has taken on a new and particularly poignant meaning for many, with economic times where most families might welcome a little advice on how to cut down on household bills, we find that one mom, called an "austerity mother" has her own blog - "Austerity Mum".

However, readers of the anonymous blog which charts one middle-aged housewife’s attempts to rein in spending - might have reason to suspect that the author had a different idea of hardship to many families.

Here are some of the suggestions for reigning in spending: thinking about how to cut the cost of family holidays she suggests forgoing private helicopter flights or canceling that half-term break in the Maldives in favour of returning to your weekend home in the French Alps.

But just when we thought we'd put those greedy bankers in their place, we find out the real author of the blog. She is in fact the wife of Ashley Unwin, the head of PricewaterhouseCoopers who has a £200 million-a-year consulting business.

Here are some extracts from the original article:

But in a move which she likened to “axing Ark Royal” she announced last autumn that she had cancelled the October break to the Maldives, although admitted she was pondering a cheaper option in Morocco.

"I even cancelled the helicopter transfer from Nice to our hotel in Ramatuelle [near St-Tropez] this Friday," she added in passing.

"Then reinstated it, then cancelled again ... watch this space.”

Her attempts to rein in her husband’s preference for £80 bottles of Aftershave from Liberty or expensive shoes also met stiff resistance.

“My suggestion about going to Clarks and changing shoes once a month did not go down so well,” she wrote.

At a time when people don't have enough money to send their kids to school, or to put food on the table for a large family, is this really what people want to read about? Excessive, out of control spending by people who wouldn't know what the real world is like if they stepped in a puddle and got their new Prada shirt wet!