When I was pregnant with DorkySon, we bought a Terramundi Money Pot – a traditional Etruscan money pot for saving up your pennies in. The pots come with a fortune penny already inside, and you write down a wish on a small piece of card, which you post into the pot along with your first coin.

We wished for a healthy baby, and a few months later that’s what we were lucky enough to have.

Since then we have continued to put all our loose change into Terramundi pots; I think by the time we left Edinburgh we had just filled our sixth one. The removal men were not too chuffed when they picked up the box containing them, as they are heck of a heavy!

Since moving, I hadn’t found anywhere that sold them, so we had taken to just sticking all our coins in a glass jar by the door. But when I was shopping in St Albans a couple of weeks ago, I spotted some in a shop window and couldn’t resist this beautiful blue and white stripey one. We’ve put it in the hallway, and it’s made me wish I’d found one earlier because that one object has made the house feel very homely again.

To get your coins out of a Terramundi pot, you need to crack it open with a hammer, so there isn’t the temptation to sneak a few quid out like there is with a standard money box. These are pennies for a very, very rainy day.