If the revival of the British economy depends on me then it's going to be a long and arduous journey to prosperity. I find shopping sinfully boring and have no compulsion to be acquisitive (except perhaps for books). There are many chains, now defunct, that I had never set foot in untl the magic words "closing down sale" appeared in the store windows (the first time I went into my nearest branch of Borders was two hours before it closed for good and I was as pleased as Punch for leaving with over £200 of books for less than £20).

Now, I had once been in our local TJ Hughes before its closing down sale started so I can't feel entirely to have contributed to its demise but neither have I really loaned my support. In an ironic twist of fate, on the day I visited, I contrived to be the only person to visit the store in the hope of scavenging some bargains from the rubble of this once thriving chain who walked out having paid full price for something. I have only myself to blame; when you don't very often go shopping you discover new things a bt later than everyone else so while the other shoppers were revelling in half price Birkenstocks, I was getting excited about a purple silicone spoon.

I have to admit that it was the lovely imperial purple colour of the range of Zing utensils that caught my eye. There was also something about the look of the utensils that cried out "touch me" and when I did I loved the matt and slightly rubberised texture of them. Don't think that I bought a spoon costing £1.99 on a whim; that would just be silly. No, there was actually a very good reason for my purchase. We live in an old flat which is an end terrace. Due to some bizarre quirk of the construction of the exterior walls we cn't have cavity wall insulation and, although it's not damp, our kitchen can get quite cold and, in the winter in particular when it's at its coldest, I often find that wooden utensils don't seem to dry out completely after being washed. Having recently found that a silicone rolling pin was a super replacement for an old wooden one, I thought that a silicon spoon could only be better than the wooden ones.

Although the spoon doesn't look very tough it has so far, after a month's frequent use, stood up to high temperatures and lots of washing. Zing claim that the silicone is heat resistant up to 240 degrees Celsius and I don't have any way of verifying that but I have used it when frying chorizo and onions when the heat has been quite high and this has not affected the spoon at all. It's great for using with non stick pans as you just know it's not going to do any damage to the pan.

The weight of the spoon is good, it's actually more substantial than it looks, and the slip free grip of the shaft is excellent. My mother suffers from bad arthritis in her fingers and finds the Zing spoon I bought her easier to control than a wooden spoon which requires her to grip harder.

There are other advantages over wooden spoons. The Zing spoon requires little effort to clean it. You have to remember not to use anything abrasive, the soft side of a normal kitchen scrub is just fine and usually all it takes is a quick wipe. Unlike wooden spoons, this one isn't going to discolour and it doesn't absorb strong flavours so where we used to have a separate "curry spoon" we now only need one Zing spoon (that said we've bought another but that was primarily to take advantage of the good price and to stash on in the rucksack to take out to Slovenia).

If you feel tempted to purchase a Zing spoon, or one of the other utensils in the range I would urge you to hie yourself to your nearest TJ Hughes store because each item in the range is priced at £1.99; in contrast, the spoons are sold on Amazon for a hefty (in comparison) £4.49. I only saw the purple utensils in my local store, but Amazon shows that the range is also available in black and red. The other products in the range include tongs, spatulas, pan handle sleeves and trivets.

I am so taken with Zing silicone that I am considering buying some of the other utensils. For someone that hates to shop, that means I am seriously impressed.