Share Sounds. related to Personal Finance - Weekly Shopping

Sue Dougan is joined in the studio by web editor at MoneySuperMarket.com Kevin Pratt. On the agenda today they look at the state of Britain's aging railways as well as our spending trends from 2016. Plus what to do with any unwanted Christmas gifts. All these stories and more on The News Review.

Tis the season to be jolly, and one form of festive relaxation is to imbibe with some fine wine. But will your glass be filled with something made in Britain? Lucy Winward from the award-winning New Hall Vineyard in Purleigh, joined Share Radio Breakfast to talk English wine.

Welcome to the This is Money and Share Radio podcast, brought to you in partnership with NS&I. This week we’re getting festive with our annual Christmas taste test. Four retailers will be competing on cost and quality as we sample a full range of festive fare. Will last year’s champion Lidl hold its top place? Or will it fall victim to a resurgent Tesco? Also on trial this week we’ll have the upmarket option, Waitrose, and a mystery wildcard. Georgie Frost is joined by taste testers Editor Simon Lambert, Consumer Affairs editor Lee Boyce and special guest Development Editor Rich Browning. It’s not all eating though and as we delve into the financial stories of the day we’ll be serving up a starter of inflation forecasts, digging into a main course of mortgages and for pudding we’ll be rounding things off with a look at how the supermarkets have fared this year. This is Money is presented by Georgie Frost in partnership with NS&I.

The latest retail sales data for November is in and, as widely expected, Black Friday and other retail sales days boosted the numbers. The figures are nearly 6% higher than the same period last year. But do the figures tell the whole story of what’s going on in retail, especially in light of Brexit, and with sterling in flux? Matt Cox found out more from Mintel’s Retail Analyst, Richard Perks.

This week Sarah looks at how you can save money on your weekly shop, if you need to make your money stretch a little bit further. Saving money on your food shopping doesn't mean eating badly though and joining Sarah to discuss how to get the most for your pound are Kelly Eroglu from the Reduced Grub blog, Caroline Taylor from the All That I'm Eating blog and young money champion, Rachael Healy.

Consumer writer Megan French from Money Saving Expert gives some advice for those affected by the collapse of GB Energy as well as discussing the pros and cons of PayPal for online Christmas shopping. Plus we have a roundup of the best deals the team have found this week.

How much would it cost you to feed say 8 people for Christmas? £100? maybe even £200? Good Housekeeping's annual Christmas dinner price index just released today has revealed that you can feed eight people for as little as £20 or £2.48 per head. To find out how Sue Dougan spoke to Sara Benwell, Good Housekeeping's consumer editor.

Have you been using your credit cards to get in on the black Friday deals, or perhaps some Christmas shopping? Credit cards can be extremely useful against fraud but can be a big problem if you aren't able to pay them off quickly. So should you bother, or are you better off without? To discuss this with Sarah she is joined by Young Money champion, James Connington, Andy Webb of becleverwithyourcash.com, Andrew Haggar of Moneycomms and Hannah Maundrell of Money.co.uk.

Welcome to the This is Money and Share Radio podcast, presented in partnership with NS&I. This week of course the top financial story was Philip Hammond’s first, and indeed last, Autumn Statement. Just what state are the country’s post-Brexit finances in, and crucially what would the Chancellor offer to help his much referenced ‘Jams’? In the end those ‘just about managing’ certainly received a few headline policies but with predictions pointing towards low growth, high borrowing and high inflation many argue Jam spending has been spread too thin. There were also some losers with those enjoying salary sacrifice perks and letting agents coming into the crosshairs, as well as in fact the Autumn Statement itself which will now be scrapped. So what will all this mean for the pound in your pocket? Georgie Frost joins editor Simon Lambert and reporter Becky Rutt to answer just that. Also on the agenda this week they discuss Black Friday and for a slightly different purchase the opportunity to buy a road legal Formula 1 car. This is Money is presented by Georgie Frost in partnership with NS&I.

Black Friday is on and bargain hunting shoppers may spend an estimated £2 billion trying to beat expected new year price rises. And according to the online retailing association IMRG, well over half the spend will be done online. So it might seem surprising to find that two old pre-internet age stores are being revived on the High Street. Safeway and Austin Reed are both staging a comeback, so Matt Cox has been hearing from Mintel’s Retail Analyst, Richard Perks, about the return of these old names.