Columnist Nadia Jefferson-Brown questions the fuss over the new fiver.

A team from the Big Bank arrived in York this week to talk to Jo Public about the note’s design and security features.

It was a one-off opportunity for those willing and able to get their hands on new money during the note’s UK road trip. For anyone who missed its visit to the National Rail Museum, the next stop is Chartwell, Westerham, on August 17, then on to Southend on Sea.

If that isn’t enough to satiate your appetite for new money, there’s a new app you can download on your phone, which you then point at any current five pound note to see it transformed into its replacement.

The new fiver is smaller and plastic in texture - polymer, in fact, to make it stronger and more durable, for it to stay cleaner and harder to counterfeit. The note is also said to be resistant to dirt and moisture and designed to remain in much better condition for longer.

But why it needs all this fuss and attention, is anyone’s guess. How does the Great Bank of England think we cope when we go abroad and use foreign currency for the first time?

What’s even more intriguing about the whole handling of this is the roll call of statistics telling us the fate of paper five pound notes last year.

In 2015, 21,836 fivers had to be replaced due to damage - 10,761 were torn, 5,364 were chewed or eaten, 1,801 were washed, 2,912 contaminated and 997 were fire damaged.

But how do they know all this? I honestly want to know. Do people really ring up the Bank to report that they’ve put their purse through the wash by accident, or that their toddler mistook a fiver for a rusk?

But, there’s no need to go out spending every last fiver you have; the paper £5 notes will cease to be legal tender in May 2017.

The transition won’t be a problem for me as I rarely handle real money these days. I pay for even the tiniest thing on plastic so I can claim back the fairly measly advantage points offered in return, and let them add up. Over the years I’ve used these points to pay for a smart television and tablet devices, and redeemed others for day trips and restaurant meals.

I was brought up to save for everything, buy nothing on credit and simply make do until I can afford what I want or need.

With a financial advisor as a father, I invested my student loan in shares and went on holiday with the money I made. When my husband took redundancy and started his PGCE teacher training course two days after our youngest was born, neither of us had a real income and I managed our limited budget for the year with an iron fist.

That mind-set became so ingrained that I’m frugal now to the point that it pains me to part with large sums unless absolutely necessary or until I’ve done plenty of research for the best offer, where others I know would lavishly borrow or re-mortgage their home to pay for life’s indulgences or pursue lifelong ambitions.

I’ve relaxed slightly since the realisation that my young children might have grown up and left home before I feel comfortable enough to relax the purse strings and do more, and what would the point be then?

But I’m still sensible with my spending, much to my boys’ despair sometimes, especially when I rationed their two-pence pieces in the penny slot machines on a wet day in Wales recently. After all, the pocket money had to last all week, said the party-pooper.

At six and nine years of age, my children still have no real concept of money and would buy any old tat at inflated prices if something took their eye, without caring if it bled their piggy bank dry.

My eldest once counted out £50 in his money box (soon after Christmas and his birthday, thanks to generous relatives) and announced he was going to spend it all on a small robotic toy. He was quick to insist it was his money and he could do what he liked with it when I tried to dissuade him. My next tactic was to highlight what else he could get for his money, and he spent the following months trying to treble his money so he could treat us all to a two-day break to a well-known theme park. I’m not so stingy that I made him pay when we booked, which simply means he’s got even more money to his name - and a few ‘I owe you’ notes from me when I’ve had to raid his bank for change.