Just a few days off work can have implications for us all financially not just from a lost income perspective but from the point of additional expense…for example take out meals or medicines which cost seven pounds an item.

So that cheap flu jab from ASDA is looking like a better investment each and everyday.

Here are three double digit shares that you can buy today:

1. France telecom
2. Annaly capital management
3. Santander

What maybe is surprising is that the position number 3 is such a well known company and very sizeable. Some of these companies are offering some of the best returns in decades due in part to the world wide crisis and also now the euro crisis.

1. Making money online.

Well yes you can make money online. After all this is where google makes the majority of its money. Google makes money when adverts displayed on publishers websites get clicked on.

The alternative way of making money is via something called affiliate advertising where if I was to help a customer buy a product then I would get a percentage of the sale.

Many of the schemes will be aimed at you being a publisher intent on bringing in revenue from google adsense and or affiliate publishing. This would involve showing you the thousands of pounds made from their sites showing pictures of cheques gained from these tactics.

The scheme will involve building a website and producing traffic that can convert into sales or clicks in a specialist area. It might sound easy but its actually very hard to make even the most well designed website earn just one pound a day. The reason that many people flog this scheme is because they farce often had a way into the market I.e. and that they don’t tell you about. One of those ways is to use a well known and ranked domain and another us to downright cheat by using bots and other tools to generate clicks and traffic. Now most of these tricks won’t get taught and you will simply not find these.

2. Inside knowledge on investments.

This is where individuals or companies claim they can give you inside knowledge on sectors, industries or even housing deals.

The fact is they cannot. What they attempt to sell is in fact often common knowledge. Some share schemes show great profits because the meer act of promoting a share leads to a price rise in the share which bouys the price further.

3. Property investments.

Lets split this into certain themes:

Bmv means below market value. The idea is that a company will source properties on your behalf if the numbers stack up to a healthy rental income. For example a group of developers might offload property this way and see this as an attractive way to dress up an investment. The end buyer thinks he or she is getting a discount, but in reality valuations based on non existant properties or properties that have never rented is dubious. Be careful here because the broker simply wants their commision from the sales and any other associated products or services that you may use.

The other scheme is to take advantage of the distressed property around the world. Some prices have dropped to mere fractions of their worth at their peak. Again brokers are happy to sell you distressed portfolios of property very nicely packaged and often with tenants.

You must be careful that these headline rents dont result from temporary or dishonest tenancy agreements where tenants are subsidized to take on expensive rents.

4. Gambling.

There are those who can tell you how to build systems that well best the system or market. From horse racing to dog racing we know of no way of making these systems consistently return income like those commonly advertised.

Yes there are professional gamblers and some of these are companies and they do make money from entities such as the tote. But these systems employ many people using large amounts of capital…not something you can replicate from home.

1. Never be too keen or desperate to move into a place.

2. Always ask lots of questions about the property and costs or agency fees. Ask as much as you can and chase up where the agent or landlord might sting you.

3. Ask for at least 10 percent off the monthly price. Ask the agent to ask the landlord.

4. Try reducing the agency fees. The agent will take a monthly comission too so upfront fees can sometimes be reduced.

Payday loans are somewhat equivalent to the pawn shops of yesteryear where short term loans enable borrowers very short loans of the order of days, weeks or months. So could the pawn shops days be numbered once again?

The Italian Lavazza a modo mio based system users cartridges of coffee. Each type of coffee had its own colour.

The shape and style of the Lavazza pod or cartridge is different from other systems and to me better because the pods can be more easily stacked and stored.

For those that know about coffee, Lavazza will be a well known brand. It’s synonymous with good coffee and sold the world over from fine restaurants and cafes across each and every corner. I only wish my local starbucks would offer such a brand…there it’s something about lavazza smoothness that I simply don’t find with other coffees.

The machine we have been trialling in our office is produced by AEG with the a modo mio brand incorporated into it’s logo and typography. It would seem like the aim is to have a partnership between lavazza and various coffee machine manufacturers to produce cobranded machines. The AEG a modo mio machine is one of these machines produced and there are two from AEG, one priced at £149  and one priced at £179 and we have the less expensive one which was purchased from John Lewis for 149 pounds but with 20 pounds cash back and some free coffee cartridges.

We love the fact there is a plunger and a frother or steamer for the milk. These simple facets make for a very rewarding coffee making experience indeed. The build.quality and feel is also one of stability and ruggedness despite the frontage being made of plastic.

The selection of coffees is limited at the moment but this is sure to change. Importantly there is a decaff option which is very important for all those who don’t take caffeine.

The Approval offices have just invested in a new Lavazza coffee machine which saves us a small fortune in going out to the local coffee house when we simply want a coffee at our desk. We are paying now just 20 something pence for coffee and its good coffee at that. So good, I could sell it to the offices next door.

1. Take back any overbought items. This can include items that you bought or that were bought for you. Don’t be embarrassed…it’s all about making do with less.

2. Eat what you have in the house. That’s right – make sure you purge all the stuff in the house before you decide to eat out again. Now is the time to make the most of your free time to save money by being imaginative with the left over food from Christmas.

3. Do not going shopping in the sales. You might think you’ll save money – but you never save money by spending it – even if you think that you might actually need it.

Budget: Yep, that right – you’ve heard it many times, but budgeting is the only way to make sure that you really only spent what you need on items. It will also help you decide what is important by placing constraints on your spending. Without it you won’t know if you should buy that new car or go on holiday or both?

Spend less: Yes, obvious, but spending less is easy to do, one you know how. The secret is to make do with what you already have and do no more than that. Instead of going out to the movies? Could you watch a DVD in your home? Instead of taking the car could you walk?

Take time: Make no rash purchases and decisions. Spend time deliberating over what and if you really need to buy something. You will find it more satisfying in the end.