When I was a lad my mum used to buy her sofas and fridges and washing machines on the never-never. You know, buy now, pay later, say a tenner a month for about three years by which time whatever you'd bought had fallen apart.

I used to say we never actually owned the sofas we sat on, we just rented them, though the springs would have all gone well before the three years were up so we were just paying out for a pile of junk.