Some of the best buys include:

Johnson’s baby toiletries from only £1 each, Nappies from £8.00 f0r a mega box and deals on baby wipes.  There are some great deals on baby essential buys such as a microwave bottle steriliser, car seats and dummies.  There are even potties for toilet training at only £1 so you can buy one for each bathroom and an extra for grandmas too !

Instability has racked the UK banking industry since September 2007 with the nationalisation of Northern Rock, part-nationalisation of Lloyds Banking Group (including HBOS) and RBS, the collapse of Bradford & Bingley and the bailout of Alliance & Leicester by Spanish bank Santander.

Maximum compensation limits (and how to make the most of it)

All of your savings are covered up to £50,000 by the FSCS as long as they are not all held with the same savings compensation licence (see link at the top of the page). The limit on joint accounts is £100,000. These limits do not apply to money held with National Savings & Investments or Northern Rock where all of your money is 100% guaranteed by the Government.

• Foreign banks compensation limits

These limits do not apply if your bank is a foreign bank operating in the UK with a higher compensation limit in its home country. For example, as of September 2008, the deposits of the Post Office and Irish banks operating in the UK such as Anglo-Irish Bank, Allied Irish Bank and Bank of Ireland, are 100% covered following an increase in compensation from the Irish government.

• Essential advice: spread your savings

Due to the rule on different savings accounts with one provider, it is best to spread your savings over as many savings institutions as possible. Yet a series of mergers, takeovers, joint ventures and subsidiaries has created a confusing web for savers to negotiate. And this would have huge implications were your savings provider to go bust. If you had three accounts with the same banking group – which does not have separate compensation licences for each of its brands – instead of getting three compensation claims of £50,000, totalling £150,000, you would only get back £50,000. However, if the bank is separately authorised by the Financial Services Authority then you would get a separate compensation limit.

If you are always in credit

The average credit interest rate for a £1,000 balance has slumped to 0.76% from 1.91% two years ago, said Defaqto, the data firm.  Up to 6% can be earned on balances up to £2,500 from Alliance & Leicester’s Premier Direct Account if at least £500 a month is deposited.   It also has a 0% rate on authorised overdrafts for a year.

Dipping into Overdrafts

The lowest rate for arranged overdrafts comes from Cahoot, which charges no interest up to £100 and a rate of 11.8% up to £1,000.   Citibank offers a £500 interest-free overdraft on the Citibank Access account.

If you want Benefits

About 25% of adults earning more than £50,000 pay a monthly fee for their current account, according to Mintel, the market researcher.  Fees can be up to £20 a month but only 12% of those with the accounts use all the benefits, said Which?, and only a handful of accounts offer benefits outweighing account costs.  Some deals can be worth it, though.  Barclays Additions Active offers worldwide multi-trip insurance for families worth £191, against the account’s cost of £180 a year.  It also has a 12.9% authorised overdraft rate and a £300 interest-free overdraft limit.

The research (collected and available at postbank.ie) shows that more than half (58 percent) of men and women asked in their Quarterly Savings Index consider the female of the species to be the better savers. Women themselves are confident that they the most frugal gender, with 65 percent claiming that they were the best savers. Yet, the actual statistics pitch men and women closer together – with 80 percent of men and 82 percent of women saving regularly – whilst men are said to put more away, with a third of those asked stating that they saved €250 a month.

The data is a good sign. The number of people devoted to saving is the highest in years, and the primary reason for doing so is security. This is a fact that is evident when one acknowledges the average decline in interest rates across the country – similar to that which is being seen in the UK and the rest of Europe – but it has also been backed up by nearly half (49 percent) of the Postbank respondents who admitted they were concerned about the safety of their money at a time when possible unemployment is a lingering reality.

However, the risk of unemployment is clearly not the only reason that many are eager to put some money away each month. Clearly the system is showing its worth aside from the benefits of interest available at times outside of recession. With a small proportion of our income being deposited into our savings account automatically, it is easier to forget it is happening, and less easy for us to spend it without thinking. There is a barrier that doesn’t exist when you’re stuffing cash into your mattress.

With the global economic crisis, the public are seemingly reassessing the importance of saving and how it can best be managed at a time when it is seen as both difficult and vital. However, alongside each individual’s assessment of their own responsibility and that of the banks over their savings, such control no doubt has a knock on effect on how they treat their finances generally.