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I was slightly startled by a question I was asked last night.

It was from someone much, much smarter than I am, someone who watches the news regularly and keeps up with current affairs.

The question was this - "I understand that the credit crunch means the banks don't lend to each other so much, but why does that affect my overdraft?"

And that made me think.

Perhaps it's time for a back-to-basics guide to the credit crunch.

We could do it on the telly. Or on this blog.

What else are you not sure about when we talk about the topic? What do we skip over - when you'd actually like a nice, clear explanation?

Please don't be embarrassed to say - 'I don't get this, tell me again'.

You can start in the comments - or email me working.lunch@bbc.co.uk.

By the way - if you're interested - the top-of-my-head answer was that banks sometimes borrow the money that they then lend on to us.

If they can't do that - then we either don't get a loan or have to pay more in interest for it.

That's when the credit crunch hurts our pockets directly.

Often the loans between the banks will run out before your loan from the bank is due for repayment - for example, banks will borrow from each other for just one night or one week, while an overdraft will last an entire year.

So they need to borrow from each other over and over again.

That's fine if they trust each other to pay it back.

But the credit crunch happened when they stopped trusting each other. The end result of that is that there's less money being passed around the economy.
It may not be a perfect answer, but it's just what my mate was looking for.