Comprehension questions and tasks. 1. Is the issue raised in this article only typical of Britain?

1. Is the issue raised in this article only typical of Britain?

2. What’s your attitude to people drinking in the streets?

3. Do you agree that a rigid law should be passed against binge drinkers?

4. Discuss what could be done to ban young people from alcohol drinking.

Shopaholic? Here’s How You Can Save Thousands

By Clare Hall

What could be better than watching football, eating out, or going to the pub – better even than sex, according to some? Shopping – it’s our favourite leisure activity.

Women’s love affair with retail therapy is well-documented – there is nothing quite like it to boost our morale.

But now it seems the passion has become an addiction. It is not just the Tara Palmer Tomkinsons of this world who stockpile fripperies. Studies show that a fifth of women admit to being compulsive shoppers.

And a report from Brunel University reveals a new kind of disorder – ‘shopping bulimia’. Apparently, many women go on massive spending sprees, but keep their receipts and return the goods when the guilt becomes too much to bear.

Most of this spending is on plastic, with consumers often owning a fistful of credit cards and store cards. Last year, Citizens Advice Bureaux took 500, 000 calls about shopping debts.

The upshot is a bulging wardrobe and lean finances. But according to Donna Bradshow of female financial advice firm Fiona Price & Partners, we could save thousands of pounds a year by training ourselves to shop sensibly. And that money could be put to far better use – a pension or reducing a mortgage, for example.

Bradshaw, 38, a self-confessed former spendthrift, is living proof that it is possible to curb bad spending habits.

“Some years ago, I decided to go travelling so I was looking for ways to save money, ” she says. “I was a bit of a cosmetics freak and I discovered I had 100 lipsticks, each costing £ 10 or more. It shocked me so much that I completely changed the way I shopped.

“Good shopping is all about budgeting. You buy what you can afford. If you’re piling it all on a credit card and not clearing the outstanding balance each month, you can’t afford it.”

She pinpoints the essential items each season and spends a day going round the shops. But she doesn’t buy straight away. Instead she asks stores to hold items until the end of the day.

“I give myself eight hours to think about it, ” she says. “If at the end of the day I’m sure I want something, then I will buy it.”

Bradshaw says that the two questions compulsive shoppers fail to ask themselves are, “Do I really need this? ” and, “Will it go with anything else in my wardrobe? ”

But by taking up more sensible shopping habits, she claims, women can stop stockpiling unwanted goods and transform their finances.

To put Bradshaw’s theories to the test, Financial Mail asked her to rummage in the wardrobe of a confirmed shopaholic.

VICKY COLLIER, 25

Shopping is Vicky’s favourite pastime. She shops every Saturday and sometimes manages a quick spree during the week, too.

She is a graphic designer for a record company in south London and spends most of her spare cash on clothes. She is single and has just bought her first home in Brixton, south London, which she wants to decorate.

“Sometimes I spend £ 150 in one go, ” she says. “I reckon I spend about £ 300 a month on clothes.”

It’s not something she does just to cheer herself up. She says: “I always go shopping, regardless of my mood.”

She does buy on impulse – as 40 bottles of nail varnish, many of them untouched, testify – but she will also stick to a plan when necessary. Vicky says: “Sometimes, I look for ages to find what I want. Other times, I just buy and worry about the money later.”

VERDICT: Bradshaw says: “Vicky is actually quite good with money, apart from her tendency to be slightly overdrawn at the end of each month. She doesn’t use a credit card and she is a fairly smart shopper. But her excess items and occasional spending disasters still add up to £ 1, 700.

“There are signs of frittering and when she could end up wasting much larger sums. Vicky is on a tight budget and she could have used this wasted money on furniture or decorating her new house.

“With a bit of discipline she could end up saving a lot of money. I’d recommend using the extra cash to start a pension, to set up an emergency savings fund or pay off her mortgage more quickly.” (Abridged)

From www.thisismoney.co.uk