My consumer life: Alan Stanford

"I have no idea how much a litre of milk costs. I just pay my bill at the supermarket checkout

"I have no idea how much a litre of milk costs. I just pay my bill at the supermarket checkout. I tend to try to buy the best food I can get rather than the cheapest food," Alan Stanford says.

The actor and director says he is moderately consumer-aware.

"My shortcoming as a consumer is that, even though I am someone who works so much in advertising, I pay very little attention to ads, so I might not be aware of what's going on."

He also has "no idea" of what the European Central Bank borrowing rate is.

READ MORE

"Gadgets" are Stanford's weakness when it comes to overspending. He says he does use all the gadgets he buys but likes to upgrade them as new technology comes on the market.

Despite his indulgence in technology, Stanford says he looks for bargains when he goes clothes shopping. "I don't spend much money on myself." He is also very aware of the state of his personal finances and always keeps receipts.

Is he a difficult customer?

"I always complain when I don't get what I pay for. For example, service: one of the things I abhor is fixed service charges in restaurants. The same thing goes for banks. I hate how the banks say that they are making life more convenient for us by closing more branches. You then have to spend half an hour of your life doing a transaction that should take a few minutes. Fewer branches mean that you have to queue for longer in banks that are further away and take longer to get to."

Stanford's frustration with banks has not translated into much consumer activism on his part, however.

"I'm too lazy. I've changed my credit card once, but I think it's probably a good idea to change your credit card often."