Byline: Eleanor Harding
IN THESE tough economic times, it may have seemed like a good idea for one hardpressed housewife to set up a blog offering tips on how to draw in the purse strings.
But when you read that the socalled 'cutbacks' involve fewer helicopter rides and Prada shirts, it's clear that the word 'recession' has a very different meaning for some people.
That is certainly the case for 'Austerity Mum', an anonymous blogger documenting her attempts to rein in her family's spending.
Musing on how she can recreate the wartime notion of make do and mend, she reveals her husband is resorting to re-soling his Berluti shoes - at a specialist cobblers on Bond Street, of course.
And on the subject of cutting back on family holidays, she suggests missing out on private helicopter flights or cancelling that half-term break in the Maldives in favour of returning to your weekend home in the French Alps.
The blog, which boasts in detail of the extravagant lifestyle of the writer, became an internet hit after it first appeared in August.
Now the woman behind it has been unmasked as the wife of Ashley Unwin, the head of PricewaterhouseCoopers' [pounds sterling]200 million-a-year City consulting business. Lisa Unwin, 44, is a former communications director at accountants Deloitte, and nicknames her husband the Chief Spending Officer. She writes that her other half has come to expect only handmade shirts, revealing: 'Not even Prada is good enough anymore, can't recall why' Her blog admits they decided to make cuts after recently moving into a large Georgian house in East London which cost 'squillions'.
'It means no new clothes for me and him, no new handbags, no new make-up, jewellery, shoes, facials - waxing is of course ring fenced,' she moans. She also claims she would 'love' to go back to work, but the cost of chi ldcare makes i t impractical.
Her two children - nicknamed the 'diva-in-waiting' and the 'smallest man with the biggest attitude' - have come to believe it is normal 'to have a seat that turns into a bed if you're on a flight for more than three hours', she also admits.
Pondering how to tighten the family budget, she considers switching from Waitrose to Asda, but rejects her mother's suggestion to travel third class outright. 'Unless you live in India I don't think this is an option,' she says. 'And going economy with BA is totally impractical because the luggage allowance just does not add up.' On half-term holidays, she writes: 'I took a leaf out of George Osborne's book and just as he is simply scrapping the whole of the Audit Commission I scrapped the hugely expensive October trip to the Maldives.' The disclosures are understood to have caused much embarrassment to Mr Unwin, and his wife has now agreed to take down the blog.
'It doesn't look good does it?' she told The Daily Telegraph. 'My husband has quite a big job at PwC, it was never meant to be taken literally. It was intended to be tongue in cheek.'
CAPTION(S):
Embarrassed: Husband Ashley
Top tips: Lisa Unwin, the face behind the blog
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