Pearl Lowe for Peacocks

The widely-anticipated  Pearl Lowe Christmas collection for leading value clothing retailer Peacocks launched online and in their stores  on Sunday to a fair bit of media attention. The collection, Pearl Lowe's fourth designing for Peacocks clothes, sees the one-time indie singer really consolidate her position as a designer.

Before Lowe's work with Peacocks, she used to make lace dresses for herself as a hobby. It wasn't long until her celebrity friends, who include Kate Moss and Sadie Frost, were asking her to make garments for them. Now it looks like  thousands of people in the UK (and further afield) are desperate to get their hands on one of her brilliant designs.

The Times featured Daisy Lowe modeling the ‘50s-style black lace prom dress, which they described as the most sought-after piece in the range this week - as many other fashion editors also felt the pearl Lowe effect.

All proof that value doesn't have to be anything less than perfectly stylish when it comes to clothes...

Cheap food: aglio e oglio

A lot of world cuisines are actually from times of yore when nobody had much cash. So, a peasant's meal in Scotland would have been oysters and maybe a glass of wine. In Italy, there were centuries of refinement in terms of making food, meaning that Italian regional food is almost infinitely varied and all delicious.

And if you're looking for inexpensive nutritious food, forget ready packaged meals and start cooking up some Italian - style dishes.

One of the most simple Italian pasta dishes - aglio e oglio - is incredibly simple. It's just spaghetti with oil and garlic. You could also add some flaked chilli to it to spice it up. Recipes for this simple but tasty meal can be found in the cookbooks of a lot of famous television chefs.

Aglio e oglio - it's a winner.