DJALCHEMI

I am fifty-quid-bloke, plus inflation

Oh dear, not yet forty, and I've already become the stereotype: the kind of man who regularly spends fifty quid a week on culture, as originally coined a year or two ago by David Hepworth. For the first time I've broken the fifty quid barrier: I spent an average of £51.10 in the year to 28 February 02005.

That £51.10 breaks down to £14.39 on CDs, a smattering of vinyl, a handful of DVDs (mostly music-related) and even 60 pence or so per week on those MP3 thingies; £26.17 on gigs (down from over £30 last year, my first in London); and £10.53 on books, film and theatre. You can add another £4.38 per week to that if you include art objects.

Yes, it is obsessive and a little disturbing not only to spend that money but also to count it so assiduously. I have to keep a handle on a habit that teeters towards the absurd: a few years ago I was buying CDs faster than I could listen to them. I was effectively building a private catalogue for my own personal subscription service à la Rhapsody etc.