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Shops are already full of Christmas offerings and scammers are ready to take advantage of the season of goodwill to con us out of money.
The message is to trust no-one and to remember that banks, energy companies and the HMRC never send messages out of the blue offering us money or asking for our bank account details to pay us some unexpected money.
Mrs Mean checks out new scams and some old favourites. Remember we are all vulnerable especially when we are busy and fraudsters are practised at getting us to act quickly.
There is a greater chance of getting your money back this year and by reporting fraud you are helping to protect others.
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As the Budget looms at the end of November everyone seems to be worried about tax increases that will cost them dear. Hundreds of millions of pounds are being invested in pensions to take advantage of tax relief and similar sums are being taken out of pensions to use the tax-free allowance, which they fear is going to be withdrawn.
Meanwhile there are lots of easier and less dramatic ways to pay less tax without taking big risks.
Make sure you use your personal tax allowance and if you do not earn enough your spouse or civil partner can benefit. It takes minutes to apply online for the marriage allowance that can give a couple more than £150 a year or £1,000 if backdated by four years.
Low earners can also keep more of their savings' interest than the rest of us. It is possible to earn more than £17,000 in bank or building society interest and pay no tax. Couples should organise their savings so they pay the least tax. Individual Savings Accounts are available to all of us and are free of income and capital gains tax on cash or stock market accounts.
Higher earners may also able to keep their entitlement to child benefit or free child care by paying more into their pensions.
Noone should pay more tax than they need to. Now is the time to claim your full allowances.
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Mortgages cause worry and uncertainty about how to get the best deals. While people with fixed rate mortgages at historically low interest rates are worried about making ends meet when they have to remortgage there are lots of people who took out loans two years ago and now face enormous exit fees if they want to change lender to get lower mortgage payments.
Both problems are tackled by Mrs Mean in today's podcast. One listener faces an £18,000 exit fee to leave his five year fix with more than 6% interest to move to a loan at 3.75%. The exit fee is horrendous but moving now could save £36,000. Brokers should help make such a deal work.
Moving from a very low mortgage rate to the current moderate mortgage payments can be daunting if your wages have not increased substantially in the last few years. Taking a lodger under the government's Rent-a-Room scheme may help to stretch budgets. It allows homeowners to earn £7,500 tax free and cover the higher mortgage payments.
Taking a part-time job can also boost your income, and generally in UK an employer cannot stop an employee from having a second job, unless it is specificaly prohibited in their employment contract or would bring the firm into disrepute. That means no to Only Fans but yes to dog walking.
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Autumn is a time of reckoning and it reminds us of the days when the long summer holidays were over and we had to go back to school to a new class and new challenges The holidays are a memory and the credit card bills have arrived. New jobs, new schools, new students, new rentals,all house purchase beckon as we make a new start ahad of winter.
You also need to make sure you are getting good value for your money and to sort out your finances before the end of the year.
Having a deadline in the calendar is much more likely to spur us into action than the vague notion that we ought to be better with our money.
The cost of renting is rising far faster than house prices and many tenancies are up for renewal in the autumn.
Around a million home owners are facing higher mortgage rates.
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Days are getting shorter and it is time to start thinking about heating and lighting bills after months of no heating costs.
The energy price cap is set to increase again in October, but there are lots of fixed price tariffs that can save you money. It only takes minutes.
It is also time to think about insulation while the foam is cheaper. You can also get boilers serviced cheaper this month and benefit from more efficient heating into the bargain .
Before the heating goes back on there are lots of quick ways to save money and many households can also get help with cost of insulation and new boilers, especially if their council tax band is A to D and their energy performance certificate is D,E, F or G.
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We need to talk about money. Banks and building societies have more than £280 billion of our money in accounts that pay no interest whatsoever. Customers may not realise how much they are increasing the profits of banks, but if they paid customers a modest amount of interest if would cost them £7 billion a year. As the banks will not look after us we have to do it for ourselves.
It is time to check all our accounts and to make sure that we are getting a fair deal, and then to keep a record of all our financial dealings.
We also need to make sure that we are not ripped off, and that we pay less interest on overdrafts and credit cards.
But that is not enough we should share information with partners or other close family members. By doing the homework we can pass on the information to others and ensure thaqt elderly relatives are not taken advantage of. If we keep records it also helps us to be more efficient. And if we need help with our finances during ill-health it will be easier to get.
Too often insurance companies, banks and others take advantage of older customers, especially those that have been loyal. Just because we choose the best account or policy it does not mean that it remains market-leading. We need to check the market often to protect ourselves.
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The cost of raising a child to the age of 18 has never been higher, even though there is extra government help with child care costs it is still unaffordable for the badly paid and even more expensive for the well-paid.
It sounds good to get 30 hours of free nursery care until you find out it is for only 38 weeks of the year, and nurseries can charge those with a good income twice as much as those on an average wage, and then it is withdrawn for those who earn £100,000. It can cost £25,000 a year of taxed income to pay for one two-year old in a London nursery and Tax-free child care is also withdrawn for the best paid.
In addition parents who individually earn £60,000 start to lose child benefit.
But there are ways of cutting the cost of child care without sacrificing quality.
Shared care by parents can reduce the income of a higher earner so that he or she qualifies for the free help and also reduces the monthly child care bills. It also helps those with lower incomes and is definitely worthwhile even though the savings are not quite so dramatic.
Paying more into a pension can also help a parent qualify for child benefit and also builds up their funds for retirement. Grandparents can also help their children by looking after grandchildren up to the age of 12 and then can gain extra NI years towards their state pension.
It is all super complicated so parents need to allocate time to checking their child care costs and lots of mistakes can be made, which if they are not spotted can result in overpayment, or even worse substantial arrears accruing.
The planning is vital as few families can pay the mortgage or rent with only one income.
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Grocery price inflation is increasing even though 97% of shoppers have a loyalty card, which is supposed cut some prices by up to 50%. It does not seem to make sense.
The supermarkets have persuaded us that the cards save us lots of money so that people who forget to take their cards with them when they shop believe they have missed out on big reductions.
We have to remember that supermarkets are making enormous profits. Just a week ago Tesco announced that its sales in the UK increased by 5.1% to £12.3 billion in the 13 weeks to May 24 and its market share in the UK has risen to 28 %.
The big losers are shoppers who do not have a loyalty card. Some are deliberately excluded by supermarkets because they do not have a smart phone. Supermarkets have chosen not to allow offline membership or under-18 shoppers to benefit from the discounts.
Now that shoppers believe that loyalty cards are a good thing it seems that the loyalty prices are less generous than they were when they were launched with lots of big television advertisements. We now have fewer advertisements and fewer discounts. But shoppers still believe in loyalty cards.
We can save more by avoiding big brands that cost lots more than own-brands or discounted store products. But we also have to make sure we are not panicked into buying items because they have a special price that week. Yo-yo pricing means that we can work out the pattern of the reductions and buy items when they are cheaper again.
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It has never been more important to make sure that we get value for money and Mrs Mean is here to answer your questions.
The energy price cap is being reduced in July but most of us can save hundreds of pounds a year by opting for a fixed rate tariff and it only takes minutes.
While the Bank of England has reduced interest rates four times in the last year credit card interest rates have never been higher and many are increasing again in July. It is time for anyone who pays credit card interest to find out if they can get a deal paying nothing and get a head start with clearing their credit card debt.
The holiday season is with us and trains, boats and planes are booked, but many people do not book travel insurance.
It can be very cheap and save thousands but you have to beware as insurance companies are well practised in avoiding paying out. It is worth spending a few minutes to make sure that you get the cover you pay for.
Making money is as important as saving it. The second-hand clothes market is booming, although most sellers want to call their fashion items pre-loved. It now costs nothing to sell your old clothes, or those of your children online, and there should be no tax bill either.
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The good news is that motor insurance premiums are cheaper on average than they were last year. But you cannot rely on insurance companies to offer you the best deals up front.
You need to prepare for the challenge and not allow yourself to be locked out of better rates by industry delays.
Make sure you get your renewal information at the earliest opportunity because the later you check the market, using price comparison websites, the higher the premium is likely to be.
Remember the insurers want to charge you more by selling additional protections, or offer an expensive instalment plan, but they do not want you to move to another company.
Start early. Check exactly what you are paying for. You can save hundreds of pounds for a few hours work.
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Train delays, cyber-attacks, bank fraud, flight delays all seem to be increasing and costing us dearly.
But too few of us get redress even though compensation is readily available.
It is estimated that around £100m available for delayed rail passengers was not claimed last year despite the number of delayed and cancelled trains increasing.
Every day we hear about cyber outages with bank customers unable to access their wages, pay direct debits and incurring penalties and interest charges into the bargain. Any additional costs should be covered by the banks involved and if the outage caused distress or embarrassment they should make that good as well.
Too many of us do not claim when we suffer poor service. And the companies get away with it and do not feel the need to improve their systems.
The more they pay out the more likely they are to invest in providing a better service or to avoid regulatory penalties and public scrutiny.
You can help them to offer better services.
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Bigger bills for energy, council tax, water, broadband, mobiles mean that for many of us our money runs out earlier each month and we have to use credit cards to buy essentials.
Credit card interest rates average a frightening 24.65%. And the debt can soon get out of control if you don't pay off credit card in full each month.
£71.5 billion is currently owed to UK credit card companies and it can literally take decades to pay back if you make minimum payments on credit cards.
It is time to break the debt cycle.
Interest-free credit cards are readily available to people who have a track record of paying credit cards and other bills on time. It is worth using an eligibility checker to find out if you can borrow and pay no interest.
Employers can also provide interest-free loans or salary advances.
Cutting interest can save hundreds of pounds a month, but interest-free deals can be dangerous if you don't adhere to the strict rules.
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Fraud accounts for more than 40% of all crime in England and Wales. On one Monday morning I was contacted by three different people wanting to steal my money.
All of us are vulnerable, especially if you are busy and start the week with hundreds of emails waiting for you.
Every day I hear from intelligent, competent people about the scammers who have tried to defraud them.
If you use email, telephones or social media the fraudsters find out very quickly when you are involved in a new business or activity.
We need to trust no one, secure our devices and beware of any generous offers.
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April is an expensive month. Water, energy, council tax, broadband and mobile bills all increase during the month. But it does not have to be a done deal. You can cut hundreds of pounds from your household budget and may actually be able to get a tax gift if you are one of the two million eligible couples who have not claimed the marriage allowance. It can be worth more than a thousand pounds.
Water bills are going up but about 40% of households can save money by opting for a water meter. If your home has more bedrooms than occupants a water meter is likely to be cheaper than if the water company estimates your bills.
Fixed price energy bills are once again likely to be cheaper than the price cap. Even the energy regulator recommends customers to go for a fix. It takes minutes to check out the market and apply for a better deal.
Look after your money. No one else will.
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It is time to make sure we are not being ripped off by banks and building societies. There is currently around £250 billion sitting in bank and building society accounts paying no interest according to the Bank of England. And the banks use this money to bolster their profits without suggesting to customers how they could be much better off.
Instant access savings accounts pay up to 4% currently and regular savings accounts pay more and help to give customers a savings habit.
A savings habit can start with one penny on day one and give you £667.95 by the end of year one.
Once a saver you can think about avoiding paying unnecessary tax and making sure you get the best deal on your money.
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Train fares are rising 4.6% this year on March 2. But there are still lots of ways of cutting the cost of rail travel with much cheaper Advance tickets available until minutes before the journey.
A few minutes planning journeys can save hundreds of pounds.
Buying two single tickets for a return journey is often cheaper.
Knowing when off peak fares start is vital. Getting a train a few minutes later can cut the cost substantially.
And should things go wrong you need to make a claim through Delay Repay. Once you are registered it is easy to get the money in your bank account in days.
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Home sellers and buyers are racing to complete their deals before the cost of stamp duty increases on April 1. The deadline makes property deals even more fraught than usual. There is no time to lose. Sellers have to be businesslike, befriend their buyers, surveyors, agents and conveyancers.
Sellers only have to worry about stamp duty if they are to buy another property. And they have to make sure that the prospect of a potential stamp duty saving does not end up costing them more. There are always buyers looking to cut what they pay for a property.
Sellers have to remember that there are many more buyers in the market this year than recently.
There are ways to rescue your sale if your buyer drops out, but you have to work out how much you lose when you sell to one of the companies that buy homes instantly. They usually offer a lower price than normal buyers, but they allow someone to buy the home of their dreams, which may be a super bargain.
Along the route to completion buyers and sellers have to make sure they get the best price and service as a hefty estate agent fee can dwarf the saving that they may make on stamp duty if they complete in time.
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Most households can save money on their energy bills. The price cap brought in by the Government and the energy regulator, Ofgem, to reduce bills after Ukraine was invaded is no longer the best deal for most homes.
Before the energy crisis millions of us opted for fixed price energy deals to get cheaper energy bills but now more than 80% of households settle for the price cap with its £300+ standing charges before we use a single unit of gas or electricity.
The savings may be more modest nowadays but most households can save at least £50 a year on their energy bills with discounts and bigger savings can be made with tracker tariffs.
Lower standing charges are being offered and opportunities to save money by using your electical equipment at offpeak times.
It is time to check what deals your supplier is offering and to find out from price comparison sites and Money Saving Expert what other deals are being made in the industry.
It is also time to make sure that you are not wasting energy in your home.
Bills will go up by around 3% under the price cap from April. Opting for a discount or a tracker deal should mean that your bills will be lower.
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First time home buyers are in a race to get their first home before stamp duty increases in April. These could cost thousands extra.
It is not surprising that many buyers will not be able to make it onto the property ladder without help from their families. Almost £10 billion was given by parents, grandparents and even brothers and sisters to help buyers to get their deposits together last year.
The average first time buyer is now more than 30 and has to find £30,200 for a deposit. Many parents cannot afford to make such generous gifts, but they may be able to help with a family offset mortgage, or provide free lodgings while their children are saving. They may also be able to act as guarantor without putting money forward.
Shared ownership may be another option. Buying at auction can give access to bargains, but it needs lots of research.
There is not much time, and estate agents are already reporting that more people looking for a new home.
Good luck.
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