Money

A bottle of Limestone Coast Sauvignon now costs £7 compared with £10 a year ago, with a family pack of salmon fillets reduced from £13 to £11. It is also selling 20 per cent more Easter eggs for £5 and under compared to last year. Head of food Stuart Machin said M&S; is trying to be 'special and relevant, with prices to shout about'.

The rate of property price growth in Britain has fallen to its lowest level for nearly seven years, new official figures show. Average house prices rose by 0.6 per cent in the year to February, down from an increase of 1.7 per cent a month earlier. With the Brexit saga taking its toll on the housing market, the rate of annual growth has not been this low since September 2012.

Campaigners are already calling for compensation for women unable to prepare for the loss of income after the Government increased their state pension age from 60 to match men at 66 in 2020 and then to 67 by 2028. Now, Money Mail can reveal how hundreds of thousands of women could find their private pensions are also much worse off due to the change to their official retirement age.

My adult son is extremely dyslexic and relies on me for help with financial matters. Recently, I spotted he had two monthly payments being taken for his mobile phone, one to Orange and the other to EE, which operates Orange. It seems that, after he terminated a contract on October 31, 2014, monthly payments continued to be taken. I worked out he was owed £1,777.35.

We have received a generous lump sum of cash. Should I invest the remainder of the cash or use it to pay off some of my outstanding mortgage?

Fans of hard-hitting American justice have long dreamed of a British system of prosecuting white collar crime with similar venom and a less deferential approach. Finally, we may have discovered that person in Lisa Osofsky (pictured), the spirited director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) who cut her teeth as a young lawyer helping to jail corrupt judges in Chicago who had been quashing mafia murder convictions for $500 backhanders.

Regulators have said forcing the Big Four accountants to split into separate consulting and audit companies would be overcomplicated. Instead, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has called for 'operational separation', where audit chiefs do not get a share of profits from consulting and must answer to their own distinct board.

Small suppliers are crashing out of the market at an alarming rate, with 11 firms going bust since the start of 2018. Exclusive industry analysis reveals that nine of these firms together owed customers close to £113 million when they collapsed, £26 million of which belonged to customers who had already switched to a new supplier.

In addition to having lower salaries, women are more likely than men to have career breaks, take part-time jobs and have caring responsibilities, explains financial adviser firm LEBC. It has published a guide giving practical tips to boost retirement savings and help close the gender pension gap.

The legal action is being brought against the card giant by Former financial ombudsman Walter Merricks. He said the maximum payout from the proposed 'opt-out' claim will be around £300 for anyone over the age of 16 and resident in the UK for three months or more between 1992 and 2008. Around 46.2million people could qualify for the payout - including those who have never had a Mastercard, according to Merricks.

You might feel gratified to be asked by a friend or relative to be their executor, and sort out their will. It's only after they are gone that the trouble can start. Samantha Hirst, a solicitor at Ridley & Hall and a specialist in will disputes, explains how executors can get embroiled in family drama and how best to avoid this - and, if necessary, fight back.

Brexit uncertainty, alongside a more competitive holiday market and the aftermath of the slow end to last summer has resulted in year on year package holiday price drops to a number of European beach locations this Summer, according to Travel Supermarket.

My husband has worked for his company for 21 years and is due his pension, but he confessed he has accessed it early and all the money is gone. I searched his bedroom and found letters from the pension firm, but they were addressed to his mother's house. This is the final straw for me and I am now going to pursue a divorce. Would a judge award me half of a pension that no longer exists via a higher share of the equity in our house? Barrister Rhys Taylor replies.

The advent of spring is not just a time to enjoy the abundance of flowers, longer days and watching newly-born lambs in the fields. It is also when smart investors can take advantage of new allowances to give investment portfolios a fillip. This is because April marks the start of a new tax year and with it a fresh set of incentives to boost taxfriendly investing via pensions and Individual Savings Accounts.

Train users can beat rising fares by buying separate tickets for a single journey, often cutting the cost of travel by a third. Experts estimate that the average saving is 20 per cent. This little known trick is called 'split-ticketing'. There is no need to pass through ticket barriers mid-journey. All that is required is that the train stops at the station from where one ticket journey ends and the next begins. In the past the only obvious way to find all the ticket options available to you was to download an app.

It is a sign of the times that when a new child is born, many parents and grandparents start thinking immediately about how they can help the little one face the big financial challenges that await them. These hurdles may be some years down the line - for example, paying for university and putting together a deposit for a home - but saving early is essential. And it can be done with the help of a special tax perk - a Junior Isa.

Slowly but surely, like a Number 9 bus, we are moving towards a cashless society where plastic and payment apps rule. Move over bank and building society branches run by tellers with friendly faces. Tatty bye. Adios, free cash machines and free crisp £10 notes - with big ATM operator Notemachine just announcing it could start charging just under a £1 for withdrawals at many of its 10,500 cash machines. And hello contactless payment, Apple Pay, Paypal, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Paym, Uncle Tom Cobley and all.

Sophie Faldo, winner of Great British Bake Off in 2017, expects that she will never earn enough to be able to buy her own home. The 35-year-old former soldier, who served in Afghanistan in her 20s, currently rents a home in Surrey with boyfriend David and cats Loki and Odin.

The amount you can save into a pension ultimately depends on what you can afford - but the longer you leave it the more you will need to save. We tend to put ambitious targets on our hoped-for income in retirement and then underestimate how much we will need to set aside to achieve that. So how much should you save?

Choosing the right DIY platform is crucial but a wealth of choice and changes to charges have left many investors scratching their heads. We pick some of the best. We also highlight why investing in an Isa makes sense, as it should protect your hopefully growing investments from tax forever.

The Bank's ratesetters have joined the rest of Britain in awaiting what happens with the country's departure from European Union. Rates were held at the last MPC meeting, with an Inflation Report indicating slower growth in the near future and an easing in rate rise expectations. Barring Brexit chaos, another Bank Rate rise is still expected this year, taking interest rates to 1 per cent.