Your outstanding bill is currently £235.76. The minimum payment is £43.00. You may pay by cash, check, or on the enclosed bank giro credit slip. We look forward to receiving your payment.

Yours sincerely,

John Hunter

Customer Accounts Manager

OCTAGON — flair • style • vision

Financial Services Department

8th Floor, Tower House

London Road, Winchester SO44 3DR

Ms. Rebecca Bloomwood Charge Card Number 7854 4567

Flat 2

4 Burney Rd.

London SW6 8FD

2 March 2000

Dear Ms. Bloomwood:

There’s never been a better time to spend!

For a limited time, we are offering EXTRA POINTS on all purchases over £50 made with your Octagon Silver Card*—so take the opportunity now to add more points to your total and take advantage of some of our Pointholders’ Gifts.

Some of the fantastic gifts we are offering include:

An Italian leather bag 1,000 points

A case of pink champagne 2,000 points

Two flights to Paris** 5,000 points

(Your current level is: 35 points)

And remember, during this special offer period, you will gain two points for every £5 spent! We look forward to welcoming you soon to take advantage of this unique offer.

Yours sincerely,

Adrian Smith

Customer Services Manager

*excluding purchases at restaurants, pharmacy, newsstand, and hairdresser

**certain restrictions apply—see enclosed leaflet

Five

FRUGALITY. SIMPLICITY. THESE ARE my new watchwords. A new, uncluttered, Zen-like life, in which I spend nothing. Spend nothing. I mean, when you think about it, how much money do we all waste every day? No wonder I’m in a little bit of debt. And really, it’s not my fault. I’ve merely been succumbing to the Western drag of materialism—which you have to have the strength of elephants to resist. At least, that’s what it says in my new book.

You see, yesterday, when Mum and I went into Waterstone’s to buy her paperback for the week, I sidled off to the self-help section and bought the most wonderful book I’ve ever read. Quite honestly, it’s going to change my life. I’ve got it now, in my bag. It’s called Controlling Your Cash by David E. Barton, and it’s fantastic. What it says is that we can all fritter away money without realizing it, and that most of us could easily cut our cash consumption by half in just one week.

In one week!

You just have to do things like make your own sandwiches instead of eating in restaurants and ride a bike to work instead of taking the tube. When you start thinking about it, you can save money everywhere. And as David E. Barton says, there are lots of free pleasures which we forget because we’re so busy spending money, like parks and museums and the simple joy of a country walk.

Come to think of it, why don’t we put information like this in Successful Saving? It’s so much more useful than knowing about some fancy new unit trust which might make a profit or might not. I mean, with this scheme you start making money straight away!