Share Sounds. presented by Georgie Frost

Many of us are beginning to decorate our homes in preparation for the big Christmas holiday. Tens of thousands of Christmas trees from the British Isles are currently being sold from garden centres, but what should we look out for? Georgie Frost speaks to David Mitchell, the UK's leading Christmas tree expert for tips when picking the perfect Christmas tree.

With Christmas now just a few weeks away - now's the time many are stocking up on festive food. With such a wide range on offer choosing a decent spread can be tricky...especially if you want to stick to a budget. The team at Moneywise have taken the Christmas hit and done the hard work for us - trying a range of mince pies, and prosecco. Plus do kids need more toys and games or would the money be better spent setting up saving or investment plans? It will probably be more valuable in the long term - especially when you consider over a third of Christmas toys don't make it past January. £1.2 billion is wasted each year by family and friends buying gifts that get broken or discarded.

For most, Christmas is a fun and exciting time of year. But for many it can also bring a lot of anxiety and stress who have got the money. We know that financial troubles often go hand-in-hand with mental health issues. Help is at hand though, as Georgie Frost is joined in the studio with Money Advice Expert Jane Clack.

Financial heavyweight, Lindsay Cook is here, slugging away for that pound in your pocket. This week we'll be taking on the energy firms hiding their cheapest tariffs from customers. As Christmas shopping continues apace we debate whether store cards are really worth it and delivering the sucker punch to the rip offs. Plus continuing the festive theme we look at the demise of the Christmas card in modern manners.

Shapr allows its users to make new business connections and network by offering up relevant potential contacts in a Tinder-like format. Georgie Frost spoke on the line to Shapr's CEO Ludovic Huraux to discuss his app.

Could high street shops we obsolete by 2050? With more of us going online - is there a need any more for traditional bricks and mortar? Georgie Frost was joined in the studio with Jonathan Chippindale, CEO at Holition to discuss the possibility of our high street disappearing.

This week as Christmas celebrations get going - things can get pretty expensive what with office parties and drinks, dinners out and that's before you include presents and other festive spending. Georgie Frost spoke to blogger Lynn James on how we can keep to a budget, avoid the curse of contactless payments, and find ways to keep things cheap.

Welcome to the This is Money and Share Radio podcast, brought to you in partnership with NS&I. It’s been quite a stressful week both real and imagined. The UK banking system was put through its paces in the Bank of England’s stress test which simulated a range of disaster scenarios from crashing house prices to rising unemployment. The biggest failure proved to be the majority tax payer owned RBS, whilst it was ‘must try harder’ for Barclays and Standard Chartered. Unfortunately not all this week’s stresses have been virtual though and rising fuel prices contributed to the collapse of GB Energy affecting 160,000 customers. When it comes to finding a new supplier there’s certainly plenty of choice at least as more and more smaller firms spring up- so just what is going on with Britain’s energy market? Georgie Frost is joined by Editor Simon Lambert and Consumer Affairs Editor Lee Boyce to find out. Also this week they look at the scams tricking people out of personal data and gig tickets as well as the meaty issue of what else is in the new plastic fiver. This is Money is presented by Georgie Frost in partnership with NS&I.

Georgie Frost is joined in the studio by Share Radio's senior analyst Ed Bowsher. On the agenda they discuss the big story of the day - Liberal Democrats’ Sarah Olney has overturned a 23,000 majority to pull off a shock win in a by-election, against former Tory MP Zac Goldsmith. Elsewhere, train fares in Britain are to go up by an average of 2.3% from 2 January. Plus Plans to save money at HM Revenue & Customs by moving more of its operations online are leading towards a repeat of a catastrophic collapse” in customer service. All these stories and more on The News Review.

Hannah Kinston is student but needed help funding her degree and of course, she was not alone. So a few students teamed together to create an unusual business - a cheese making one. This is to help fund degrees in agriculture, business, and veterinary medicine at Nottingham University. She explains all to Georgie on the line.