I take the ostrich approach to finances | BBC's Radio Solent's Alun Newman

Have you ever gone through the direct debits to work out where all your money goes?

It’s something I tend to avoid as part of my financial ostrich strategy.

It’s not actually that hard to achieve in my world, as my wife looks after all the accounts and money distribution.

My feeling is she cherishes this role as it means there is zero accountability and everything is based on trust.

This point has been explored and goes down like a sack of spuds in the northern hemishpere.

Nevertheless, new year, new broom and all that.

We sat down to have a look together.

I started the process by saying something along the lines of, ‘let’s see how we manage to haemorrhage our cash on a weekly basis’.

I was cautioned that negativity and downbeat comments were unwelcome at this top table accounts meeting.

On the whole, we’re doing the best we can.

Whenever we get some savings, they’re swallowed up by a school trip or a massively expensive car service.

We spend about a billion pounds a month on individual trips to the Co-op and seem to have enough spare for haircuts.

I mention that because the average price of a ladies’ cut and colour is the same as the national debt of Borneo.

If haircut prices are ever challenged then they’re always compared to someone else at work who pays double that.

As we plod through the accounts, I advise my chief accountant that this is the year to be ruthless.

No messing around, we need to shred like Fred (Royal Bank of Scotland, didn’t end well).

Then we come across a direct debit for Spotify, the music streaming service.

It’s £9.99 a month and I like it.

I use it a lot to build my own playlists.

The kids use it for their music. It’s not essential. It’s not a utility.

It’s not vital to further education. It’s just a music streaming service.

However, it has provided hours of fun when we have people over as we pass the smartphone and allow guests to pick a tune.

It’s great when you watch an advert or a bit of telly and you want to know what that song is called.

It’s priceless for rowing in the garage and requiring the Rocky theme to motivate you beyond the daydream.

When I started writing this article, my son sat beside me and played me three songs from the new Coldplay album, and half a track from Eminem before I asked him to turn it off.

Then, from nowhere, he played me a fabulous Frankie Valli track – The Night.

He had heard it on an advert and finished by asking if I’d ever heard of Creedence Clearwater Revival and a track called Fortunate Son.

I think he was worried he was going to get drafted.

Several points here.

My son was talking to me.

We were discussing something other than a plan to get him a job.

He’s being exposed to the most wonderful music shop that I could only have dreamed of.

I was wrong.

Maybe this is essential after all. It’s money well spent.

Perhaps council tax should go first?

Table leaf is a clutter magnet

It’s the last thing to be packed away after the festive fun.

Which I would briefly add seems as if it were just a dream were it not for the massive weight gain.

The last thing to go in our house is the extra bit of the kitchen table, the leaf.

It rarely shows its different coloured laminate face. However, at Christmas it comes into its own.

The table extends, enabling us to welcome extra people to celebrate and it also guarantees they’ll have nowhere near enough room to move their arms.

It doesn't matter, it was Christmas after all.

The issue for me is the minute Christmas finishes, if you don’t shrink the table back to its normal size it becomes a magnet for every piece of paper, receipt, bill, notebook, curled up broken headphone, vitamin pill tubs, phone chargers, to name but a few things I’ve just moved.

It’s a clutter magnet and it drives me around the bend.

That extra foot of table offers an easy get-out, for the dumper of stuff, for those who'll 'sort it out later’.

I used to work with a woman in an admin office who said ‘if you create space, people dump stuff in it!’

It’s back to normal for our house now. Clutter can go back to where it belongs, the bottom of the stairs.