Alice Pelton is founder of The Lowdown, the world's first peer to peer review platform for contraceptives. Alice thinks that women spend a lot of time, energy and days off work trying to find the best contraception for them - and her business is designed to make that process easier.

Alice spoke to An Honest Account host Rachael Revesz about the £53 million business that inspired her to get her idea off the ground, how we are physically able to reduce our Netflix intake to launch a femtech business and why contraception choices / research / information are so underfunded.

Please rate, review, subscribe to this podcast. You can tweet us at @honest_account_ , follow us on Instagram @an_honest_account or email [email protected]

Links:

The Lowdown - theldown.com

Instagram - @gettheldown 

Moya Crockett's article on the endless life admin that is accessing contraception in Stylist - https://www.stylist.co.uk/life/contraceptive-pill-coil-pharmacies-out-of-stock-inconvenience-viral-twitter-thread/278249

Debbie Wosskow, founder of The Allbright, on setting goals - https://www.stylist.co.uk/books/careers-jobs-the-allbright-debbie-wosskow-anna-jones-books-extract/264956

How does a chronic health condition affect our work, mental health and our bank balance?

For the first episode of season 2, Huffington Post opinion editor Lucy Pasha-Robinson opens up about the very personal cost of endometriosis and pelvic pain. Lucy talks about how to succeed when you have a health condition, menopause at 25 and all the cash she's spent on 'miracle cures'.

Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast! Get in touch with your money queries: [email protected]

Tweet us @honest_account_ / @LucyPasha

Links:

Read Lucy's Buzzfeed essay on going through early menopause age 25:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/lucypasharobinson/menopause-at-25

And read Lucy's piece about her (very cheap) treatment - her hot water bottle - here

I wrote about Eleanor Thom, author of 'Private Parts: How To Really Live With Endometriosis' and how women's pain is dismissed, for The Correspondent:

https://thecorrespondent.com/16/what-happens-when-pain-is-a-womens-issue/17546995136-723e2dac

More and more of us are working for ourselves. How can we stay focused and make a decent living?

Anna Codrea-Rado is a familiar name in the worlds of freelancing and journalism. Her work has appeared in places like The Guardian, The New York Times and Wired. She is also the founder of FJ&Co, a platform for freelancers, as well as the #FairPayForFreelancers Campaign, co-hosts a podcast called Is This Working? and writes a weekly freelancing newsletter with thousands of subscribers. Man, that's a lot.

But she hasn't always had it easy. She was made redundant in 2017 and still fights to get paid on time - like the rest of us.

For the final episode of season one, I asked Anna everything from why she only wears white/black/grey to how we can ditch the guilt when all we want to do is... take a day off.

Emilie Bellet, author of You're Not Broke, You're Pre Rich, and founder of Vestpod, also shared some tips with me on the most important money items you need to tick off your list if you want to go freelance.

Please rate, review, subscribe, comment, share, like - or just listen, that's fine too.

In the meantime, email your money questions to [email protected] or tweet @honest_account_

Stay tuned for season 2 - out in November!

Research shows the average cost of being a bridesmaid is £998. Would you be willing to spend that?

Join me, Rachael Revesz, as I chat to journalists Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith and Anya Meyerowitz to discuss the joys and monetary burdens of our best mates' special day. Followed by some practical advice from Catherine Morgan of The Money Panel.

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Send us your money gripes and queries and questions to [email protected]

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Social class, debt and privilege are still underdiscussed topics.

Jasmine Andersson, a reporter who focuses on equality at inews.co.uk, spoke movingly about her experience of growing up in Hull, the impact of debt at university, and how she navigates the middle class and privileged world of journalism.

Please read her piece that sparked this conversation here:

https://inews.co.uk/opinion/comment/for-working-class-people-like-me-who-move-into-middle-class-worlds-the-fear-of-debt-is-always-there-500803

And - how do you counter the myth that the gender pay gap 'does not exist'? Expert advice from Mary-Ann Stephenson, director of the Women's Budget Group.

Please rate, review and subscribe to this podcast. Tweet us @honest_account_ Leave a friendly comment or email us at [email protected]

What does it feel like to do £9,000 worth of work and realise you won't be paid? That's what happened to Marisa Bate, the writer and women's advocate, when online publication The Pool went under earlier this year. Marisa talked about guarding her money 'like a cocaine baron' and other lessons she learnt.

https://underpinned.co/magazine/2019/03/the-pool/

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Tweet us at @honest_account_

Email your money Qs to [email protected]

Do you split the bill? How do money and dating come into the MeToo era? Do you pretend to grope around in your bag until the other person offers to pay?

I'm Rachael Revesz and joining me to answer these pressing questions are journalists Kuba Shand-Baptiste and Lucy Handley. Our chat is followed by a listener's query on whether she should even bother trying to save for a house when the market is so expensive.

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Email your money questions to [email protected]

Please rate, review and subscribe to An Honest Account wherever you listen to podcasts.

Journalists Elle Hunt and Sirena Bergman join me to discuss why we need to start talking more openly about money - including what we wish we'd known earlier and why we're obsessed with judging each other's spending.

Email: [email protected]

Tweet: @honest_account_