Beware 'handy tips' online which are downright dangerous - Sarah Coles

.People film themselves over-acting while watching other social media videos - like Gogglebox but for people with the attention span of a gnat – and hundreds of thousands of people watch in awe. I’m yet to see a reaction video to a ‘finfluencer’, but I can tell you that my own would be un-broadcastable. While there are some professionals providing sensible financial tips on social media, there are also a huge number of offerings ranging from the ridiculous to the downright damaging.

You can see why people are searching for solutions to their financial problems right now. The scale of rising prices is making people increasingly desperate, and the news that Citi is forecasting inflation to hit 18% will have caused an awful lot of panic. The ONS studies show that more than half of us have already done some of the obvious, sensible things to cut costs – like cutting energy use, driving less, shopping around and cutting back on non-essentials. But with price rises at this level, for millions of people, it’s not going to be enough.

In reality we’re not going to be left to deal with this entirely on our own. Governments around the world are taking unprecedented steps to protect people from the full force of the price increases. However, at this point, the Prime Ministerial hopefuls remain tight-lipped about the details of their plans, so we don’t know what help will be forthcoming. So it’s no surprise that people are casting around for anything that might help.

It means there’s a market for social media videos showing ‘unusual things you’ve never heard of that’ll save you money’ and ‘secrets that will solve your financial problems’. And you don’t need to be on Tik Tok to see them, especially now Facebook has started including popular videos in its feed.

In some cases these tips are just pointless. For some reason, my social media chose to show me a video highlighting the myriad of useful ways to reuse laddered tights in order to save money. Should you ever want a tatty brown nylon scrunchy that slips out of your hair and falls to pieces, then it holds the answer to all your problems. However, surely the real answer is to wear trousers, so you don’t risk putting your fingernails through £1.50 worth of hosiery before breakfast.

In others, they don’t add much and come with risks that aren’t made clear. One of these is cash stuffing. For an awful lot of people, it’s the budgeting equivalent of announcing an exciting new egg-sucking technique to your granny, but it has taken off. It involves withdrawing your salary on day one and stuffing it into envelopes labelled with spending categories, like groceries and savings. You can put less in the envelopes where you want to cut back, easily see how much you have left, and stop when you run out. It’s not necessarily a hideous approach, but you’d be far better off with a budget and a good current account app. That way your cash is secure, rather than sitting around your house in envelopes. It may be earning interest too.