It's down to he fact that I am starting to get pleasure out of someone else's misfortunes.

But before you go lambasting me for doing it. Ask yourself this: don't some situations in life give YOU that superior or smug feeling?

Guilty pleasure number one is makeover programmes on TV. Thursday night was the highlight this week because there was a double helping of Gok Wan's How To Look Good Naked followed by Trinny and Susannah's Undress The Nation.

Most women, if they are honest, will admit that the real attraction of these programmes is the "there but for the grace of God" effect. They make us all feel instantly better because no matter how bad we might think we look ourselves, in comparison to those women on the programme we could be Miss World.

The best bit is at the beginning when they reveal the victim's real age. We sit there all smug like thinking crickey she's the same age as me but she looks like my grannie.

And as the stylists try and knock a decade off her age our next thought is don't bother please leave her as she is. The more 40-plus women with grey hair, no teeth and skin like the sahara desert, the better the rest of us look.

Of course we are not mean through and through. When we see the transformation at the end of the programme we genuinely like the finished result but get on the phone to our best friends for a good bitch saying yes she did look fabulous but think how much money it has cost to get her there.

Talking of money brings me to guilty pleasure number two. It's the present economic slump the country is experiencing.

Granted, it's a much more serious matter and yes I do have a lot of genuine sympathy for those who have lost their jobs or homes. But not for those who have lived the high life on the back of their credit cards and are now feeling the pinch.

When I hear of individuals who owe £8,000-plus on cards that smug feeling comes over me again because I cut my credit and store cards up some time ago. Terrible I know, but it's thanks to them that I keep on spending and don't feel guilty. Because I reckon being a couple of hundred pounds overdrawn is smallfry in comparison and not worth losing a night's sleep over.

Have to say I was shocked this week at the findings of a new shopping survey which shows flowers and magazines are the top two luxuries women are cutting back on. I think this goes to prove that females really do put their family before themselves.

Well some, anyway. I always have fresh flowers in my house and I'm an avid magazine reader. There is nothing nicer than cleaning my pad from top to bottom and then chilling out with my magazine and a cup of tea admiring my flowers.

They are the last two things I will be cutting back on.

If cutbacks are needed in our house I'll be looking at Sky TV (I never watch it) and telephones. We have three mobile phones in our house plus a house phone. Goodness knows how much is spend monthly on phone bills.