How to cope with price of parenting

This is a wealth warning for all parents: the summer holidays are coming. And while the children get time off, that doesn't mean you do.

The cost of trying to ensure they are safe and supervised while you do your job can be prohibitive. Luckily, there are a number of childcare schemes that can help you cut the cost, even if you only use them during the summer.

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Cheapest loan to get

You will see that almost every card or loan is now 'representative APR', meaning just 51 per cent of accepted applicants get the boasted-about rate, the rest pay more.

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The quick fix we all need

Everybody needs to assess their energy bills - urgently. If you don't act soon, you will have missed the window to insure against price hikes.

My prediction of a big energy price hike this summer was correct. Scottish Power is doing just that. In August it will increase gas prices by 19 per cent and electricity by 10 per cent, hitting 2.4 million customers.

Yet make no mistake.

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A food faux-pas

£14 billion worth of food was thrown out in 2010, unecessarily. One of the major reasons is the confusion between 'best before' and 'use by' dates.

'Use by' is a genuine health warning and once food has gone beyond that it should be thrown away. Yet with the exception of eggs, that is not true with 'best-befores'.

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Time to reclaim mis-sold insurance

Billions of pounds are sitting waiting for millions of people who have been unknowingly shafted by their banks on credit cards and loans: roughly £1,500 per person.

Having given up defending their disgusting mis-selling of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) last month, banks have now 'provisioned' enormous sums, waiting to be paid out in compensation.

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Secret hotels

A woman approached me in the street the other day and said: "I've come to London and I'm staying in a £200 a night Hilton hotel for £70".

She got this discount by turning detective on sites that offer 'secret' hotel deals.

If you're staying in a big city, these secret hotels – where you aren't told the name till you've paid – can seriously undercut usual prices.

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Beat the brands

Hayfever and allergy sufferers can beat big brand prices by grabbing remedies online that contain the same 'active ingredient'. Though of course, if you are eligible for free prescriptions, that is a cheaper route. Online pharmacy chemist-4-u.com has boxes of 28 Piriton-equivalent tablets for 80p, if you order a minimum of three.

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Get the hottest summer holiday price summer

Whether a Dan Brown or Danielle Steel devotee, we all know that some retailers flog beach reads at huge discounts.

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Spender or miser?

Do we fit the stereotype? Are Jews a load of money grabbers, savvy business people or the same as everyone else? Now is your chance to find out. I have been working with BBC Lab UK, the corporation's mass participation experiment organisation, on the BBC's Big Money Test (www.bbc.co.uk/labuk).

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There's a rumble in the energy jungle

All the major energy companies have hiked their standard tariffs by up to 10 per cent this year and things could be about to get worse.

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