10 Signs Your Financial Situation is Looking Sticky

10 signs your credit is crunched

1. You're on first name terms with your bank manager.
2. Hunting for loose change down the back of the sofa has become a daily occurrence.
3. You've swapped Prada for Primark.
4. You're actually glad that you're poor so you don't have to worry about being taxed at 50%.
5. You've done some serious sucking up to the little old ladies who work in your local charity shops so they gave you first look on any designer stuff that comes in.
6. These days a splurge is a bag of Kettle Chips instead of your usual Walkers.
7. You even haggle in the newsagents.
8. You've started protesting against global capitalism
9. You've become evangelical about turning off lights and switching off the TV when you go into the kitchen to make a cup of tea,
10. You no longer have any credit left to be crunched.

Sarra’s Sticky Chocolate Cupcake recipe

125g butter, 220g granulated sugar , 45ml (3 tbsp) milk, 45g desiccated coconut, 300g sifted self-raising flour, 180ml orange juice, 60g sifted cocoa powder, one small bag of chocolate buttons.

For the chocolate icing: 125g icing sugar, sifted, 50g cocoa powder, sifted, 60ml cold water (approx), one small bag of chocolate buttons

Method
Place 24 paper cup cases into two 12-hole bun tins.
Cream together the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl, until light and fluffy.
Stir in the milk, but don't freak if the mixture curdles, just give it some elbow grease.
Stir in the desiccated coconut, then stir in half the flour and half the orange juice and mix well.
Mix in the cocoa powder.
Chop up one of the bags of chocolate buttons into small pieces and put them in too.
Stir in the rest of the flour and orange juice until combined. Use an electric hand whisk to make sure there are no lumps in the mixture.
Spoon the mixture equally into the prepared paper cake cases.
Bake in a moderate oven at 180°C for about 15-20 minutes, until cooked. If you're not sure, stick a skewer in the middle of one of the cakes and see if it comes out clean.
Cool the cakes on a wire rack.

To make the chocolate icing add the icing sugar and a little water into a small bowl and stir until the icing sugar has dissolved.
Add the cocoa powder and stir until smooth and there are no lumps.
When the cakes are cold, spread the tops of the cakes with the chocolate icing.
Then add a chocolate button as garnish.

Sarra’s Unsticky Style Icons

1. Bettie Page

50's pin-up queen with va-va-voom curves, often showcased in leopard-skin bikinis or bullet bras. Ms Page started off doing cutesy cheesecake shots, until she dyed her hair black and achieved notoriety in a series of bondage shoots where she was usually wielding a whip and an impish grin. Alas, she was put on trial for indecency, then found God and turned her back on her modelling career, though the Bettie Page look can be seen on everyone from Uma Thurman's character in Pulp Fiction, Kate Perry and even Madonna during her Sex phase.

2. Madame Pompadour

Legendary French courtesan and mistress to Louis XV, Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson was an 18th century Carla Bruni. Her exquisite taste, extravagant dresses and her ability to spend, spend, spend made her the subject of much mockery in the French tabloids of the day but Madame Pompadour wasn't just a pretty face. She exerted considerable political power and even found the King stand-in mistresses for when she was feeling poorly.

3. Kate Moss

Is there anyone who doesn't know who Mossy is? Supermodel, rock-star girlfriend, TopShop designer and all round muse and style goddess. If Kate Moss is rocking it, we'll all be wearing it six months later.

4. Mia Farrow

We're talking about Mia before she married Woody Allen (and look how well that turned out) and became a prototype Angelina Jolie with the many adoptions of many multi-cultural photogenic moppets. Her pixie cut, mini smock dresses and appearance in cult horror flick, Rosemary's Baby made her the embodiment of 60's hipster cool, though that marriage to Frank Sinatra still boggles the mind.

5. Coco Chanel

The grande dame of haute couture. Coco Chanel pretty much liberated women: "I gave them a sense of freedom; I gave them back their bodies: bodies that were drenched in sweat, due to fashion's finery, lace, corsets, underclothes, padding." She also gave us Chanel No 5, and the little black dress and for this we salute her.

6. Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in Breakfast At Tiffanys

Let us count the reasons: The Givenchy black shift dress. The super-long cigarette holder. The cat on her shoulder. The perfume bottle in the mail box. The tiara. The perfectly belted trench coats. Clam diggers and ballet flats. Super-rats. Fifty dollars for the powder room.

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