I may be stating the obvious here, but don’t go for property buying… please. Having heard an estate agent on Radio 4 this morning affirming that ‘I can see light at the end of the tunnel‘, I can only assume that he’s either being absurdly bullish or that he’s got extremely good eyesight – I suggest avoid buying property.

I also read this week of big foreign property companies snapping up job lots of offplan flats in London just now, at a 25% discount. These of course are people looking at long term places to stash their cash – in the firm knowledge that prices will probably drop a good bit further from the discounted price.

It’s very hard to get mortgages just now and they are expensive, so many purchases simply fall through anyway. Unless you absolutely MUST move, sit tight and don’t go 4 property… there will be bargains later, much later. Stay put, ask yourself how much is my property worth and how can I improve the value so when the market does pick up you’ll profit.

Links: Buying offplan in London

If you’ve ever had a suspicion that your tank filling is more expensive as the weekend approaches, then you weren’t just being paranoid. According to our friends at petrolprices.com, filling stations are playing a very crafty trick of jacking the prices up a notch on Fridays … because that is the day most of us fill up. It allows them to post cheaper prices during the week, then adjust prices a notch just as we all roll on to the forecourt. Yes, it appears petrol is more expensive on Fridays.

This is quite a difficult, if not impossible one to prove, so we’d be interested to hear your observations on this – the big thing is that most of us don’t actually notice how much juice we’re putting in the tank let alone whether it’s 120.1 or 120.3 a litre. Is petrol more expensive on Fridays? Let us know.

Before you fill up by the way, pay a visit to petrolprices.com, which is a terrific little site allowing you to check for the cheapest petrol in your area. There’s no great surprise that the cheapest filling stations tend to be those attached to the supermarkets – the three cheapest filling stations in our area of south London are all Sainsbury’s outlets. The big supermarkets of course use fuel as a loss leader, while the independents struggle to survive … exactly what they do to little local grocers. You save your money and you make your choice.

For more on ‘petrol is more expensive on Fridays’ and other money saving tips, look through the archives at Walletwatcher. Tags: fuel prices, cheap fuel, cheap petrol

Use credit cards. We cannot say this often enough – this is effectively free additional insurance. If your travel firm goes bust, the hire car isn’t up to scratch … whatever. A credit card insures your purchases in a way your debit card does not. So THIS policy starts well before you set out for the airport. Need I say, pay the card off in full at the end of the month and DON’T withdraw cash on it. Especially abroad where you don’t know what extra charges are likely to be bumped on.

Tags: free insurance, credit cards, travel advice

People do get ill on holiday. They fall off jetskis, eat dodgy oysters and occasionally drink too much and fall asleep in the sun for too long (we’ll call this the British disease). Make sure you are ADEQUATELY covered for holiday health mishaps. You’ve got your travel health insurance right ? Good! Now ensure you have your European Health Insurance Card. You slip it in your wallet like a credit card, and it complements your health cover. It DOESN’T replace insure … don’t skimp on THAT, but it can be handy to have as a shortcut when you’re presenting yourself at a hospital in an EU country.

Related: The European Health Insurance Card

Tags: travel insurance, health insurance, European Health Insurance Card, finance tips

It’s holiday time and we’re all heading off for well deserved downtime in the sun. But are we prepared. Tesco Personal Finance published a recent report on their top three personal holiday insurance claims. 40 per cent of claims were for baggage loss, 30 per cent for medical treatment and 20 per cent for cancellations. All bad enough but … What do you mean you haven’t got holiday insurance? Get it NOW not at the airport (you’ll pay a fortune otherwise) and make sure your policy is appropriate … does it cover the whole family? If you’re going to be skydiving in the Andes does it have special provision for extreme sports? A terrifying half of us travel with no insurance at all, and that’s madness.

Related: Get the best price on travel insurance

Tags: Tesco Personal Finance, holiday insurance claims, travel insurance

Make use of salary sacrifice to minimise your tax bill. Simply put, you forgo salary for certain tax free benefits (childcare vouchers, lunch tokens and the like) and it can add up to hundreds of pounds each year. I’ll be looking at these ideas in greater depth in a future walletwatcher. There’s an HM Govt site dedicated to the Salary Sacrifice scheme, check the site out to help cut tax bills.

Related links: HM Revenue & Customs guidance, Salary Sacrifice FAQs, Salary sacrifice guide for working parents

Tags: Salary Sacrifice, lower tax bill, minimise tax bill, cut tax bill

Find out if your company runs a Save As You Earn Share scheme. These government approved schemes encourage workers to buy shares in their employer’s company. You pay in to a savings account each month for five years. At the end of the term, you have an option to buy the shares (usually at a price set at the beginning of the term). at a reduced price. It’s a no lose situation, as you’ll be getting a bargain if the shares have risen in price. If they’ve fallen in price you’re under no obligation to buy … a superb gift of free money in our opinion.

Tags: share schemes, save as you earn

Pay into your company pension. Pensions often get a bad press because of the necessity of purchasing an annuity at retirement, and as soon as the stockmarkets plunge (and share’s aren’t doing too well just now of course), everyone gets very nervy about the value of their pension. But they are a GREAT way to reclaim income tax you would otherwise have paid. If higher rate taxpayers put £60 into a pension, the government makes it up to £100 … and that’s before your employer has made THEIR contribution. So find out about your company scheme and how much they will put into the pot.

Tags: Company pension, pensions, annuity

Save and forget. Set up a monthly payment into your savings account, into your share ISA, and into your pension. Short term pain (as you have less to spend) will soon be forgotten and long term gain will kick in. You soon won’t miss the money and it will be accruing and compounding nicely. Now beyond this we’re going to get a LOT more active and creative with your finances, showing ways to real growth. But if you do nothing else (and many of you won’t!) then saving and forgetting 20 per cent of your take home each month will give you a solid financial starter.

Tags: monthly savings, savings, personal finance advice

Put EVERY PURCHASE YOU CAN on YOUR one and only credit card. Set up a direct debit to pay it off in full each month, ideally just after your salary goes into your bank account. It’s much easier to keep track with one big payment going out, rather than dozens of little ones. When your itemised bill comes in you can check, in one go, where your money is going each month. Make this your monthly budgeting day – it will focus your attention on cutting outgoings and getting spending back below earnings!

Tags: credit cards, budgeting, purchases, finance tips