I am a saver trapped in a spender's body

ME & MY MONEY:Morag Prunty, author

1. Are you a saver or spender?

I think I’m a tight-fisted saver, but my bank accounts tell me I’m a spender. I’m a kind of paranoid spender: I spend, but it doesn’t sit easy with me. I am a saver trapped in a spender’s body.

2. Do you shop around for better value?

My shopping around is restricted to buying as much in Lidl as I can. I don’t have time to poke around supermarkets looking for cheaper eggs, but I shop in Lidl so I don’t have to.

3. What has been your most extravagant purchase ever and how much did it cost?

A Maxfield Parrish shearling coat I bought when I got my first book deal. I was bad-influenced into it by an extravagant friend. I still can’t say out loud how much it cost, but the manager gave me a sale discount, which saved me £600 at the time. In fairness I was, and still am, deeply ashamed of the extravagance, but it is 12 years old, still widely admired, and I will never buy another coat again. Ever.

4. What purchase have you made that you consider the best value for money?

Our house. It has a magnificent view of the sea and, because it was a bit down-at-heel when we bought it, it had been on the market for ages. We got it for the asking price, because I think it’s rude to haggle on an established family home – as this house had been. It would have cost millions to get a house like this with the view and size and land in Dublin, and the best thing about it is . . . it’s in Killala, Mayo, which is a much nicer place to live than anywhere else!

5. Have you crossed the Border to shop?

No. Life is too short to spend recreation time in ghastly shopping centres acquiring cut-price tat. I occasionally aspire to do the Enniskillen Asda run to pick up a year’s supply of teabags but there are better ways to spend a Sunday.

6. Do you haggle over prices?

No, but I do complain quietly under my breath. However, as I get older I find my brass neck is strengthening and I am starting to be a more assertive consumer. I recently complained about bad work with a particular service company and made them put my name in a book so they’d “look after me” next time.

7. Has the recession changed your spending habits?

I am generally a terrible worrier about money and the recession has heightened that, but not really changed anything. I am less inclined to splash out.

8. Do you invest in shares?

I did. I shan’t be doing it again. Ever.

9. Cash or card?

Card. I really do wish I could do the whole take-the-housekeeping-out-in-cash-every-week thing, but I never do. All these TV money/advice programmes are just making me feel like a spendthrift – as well as a bad mother/cook/gardener.

10. How much do you have on you now?

€65.72. And a big wedge of unused sterling from a recent London trip.

In conversation with Tony Clayton Lea. Morag Prunty writes under the name Kate Kerrigan. Her latest novel,

Ellis Island

, published by Pan Macmillan, is in bookshops now. See katekerriganauthor.blogspot.com