The Government looks set to slash VAT (value-added tax) from 17.5% to 15% - the lowest rate allowed by European rules - in an attempt to get the economy moving.

The temporary tax cut is one of several measures expected to be announced in today’s Pre-Budget Report.  In a bid to stimulate spending and lending, the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, is expected to abandon any notion of prudence, with a raft of give-away measures that will push national borrowing to £120bn over the next two years.

Disenchanted workers are fleeing Britain in hope of a better job and a better life. In a trend reminiscent of the Auf Wiedersehen, Pet era of the 1980s, when the economy saw an explosion in the number of workers who travelled abroad for a better quality of life, new research has found that that around 2.1 million Britons are planning to get away from a troubled economy and will leave the UK to earn a living overseas in the coming year.

New research from Cater Allen Private Bank has found that one in five Britons have already made money by living and working abroad and that the same number are considering the move over the next 12 months, with men twice as likely to do so as women.

Skipton Financial Services - part of Skipton Building Society - has today published some simple steps to storm-proofing your family's finances. Spokesperson, Matthew Cox says: "People will spend 10 times longer planning a holiday than planning their finances yet only the latter will give their family long-term security and peace of mind.  Now is not the time to be an ostrich and put your head in the sand - now is the time to adopt a battle-like mentality and do everything you can to protect yourself for anything the coming months might throw at you."

Rising food and fuel bills have hit some families so hard that they have slashed their children’s pocket money in order to make ends meet. That is the grim conclusion of a survey commissioned by AXA.

Some 2.2 million parents (17%) have reduced the amount of cash they hand out, or have even stopped their allowance altogether in the past six months. The school holidays could be a dismal time for the hardest-hit.

Credit is also drying up for some adolescents. One in ten parents of 16-18 year olds say they have stopped lending money to their children altogether. However, it is 11-15 year-olds who are most likely to have their requests for credit turned down - one in six (17%) parents say they have cut the amount of cash available for purchases over  and above their normal allowance.

Families need to earn an average of £62,000 a year, own their own home, have at least two cars and live in London, the South East or East of England to become a typical Middle Britain household in 2008, according to a new report  from the AXA Financial Task Force.

The AXA group says the term "Middle Britain" needs to be redefined, as it does not represent ‘middle income' Britain and only applies to a significant minority of households - although the group as a whole is growing.

From the start of this week (2 June), the average UK taxpayer may feel a spring in their step on their way to work. This is because this date marks Tax Freedom Day 2008, when hard-working Britons stop handing their salary to the Chancellor and start putting it in their own pocket instead.

Cash-strapped Brits are doing their best to beat off the effects of the credit crunch, with one in 20 even resorting to selling their cars or jewellery to make ends meet.

More than a third of UK adults expect to have less spare cash over the next six months, with eight in ten blaming this on the increasing cost of food, consumer goods, household bills and fuel prices.

However, according to research from Alliance & Leicester Current Accounts, resourceful Brits are adapting their finances to improve their overall financial health, with more than half taking action already.

Shopping around for financial products can still save consumers thousands of pounds, even though lenders are hiking arrangement charges on loans, transfer fees on credit cards and overdraft rates on bank accounts.

In its quarterly review of savings products, the comparison website Moneyextra found that the total annual savings available by replacing near-worst with near-best products across a range of financial services amounted to a massive £3,363.84.

Holidaymakers heading abroad this summer should watch out where they buy their foreign currency - particularly if they are thinking of buying it at the airport just before they fly. Travellers flying  from Luton, Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds and City airports could be paying well over the odds for their holiday money, a survey has found.

With fuel prices reaching an all-time high, there are some very simple steps drivers can take to cut their bills.

• Drive more slowly - Driving at 50 mph instead of 70 mph can cut your fuel bill by 30 per cent.
• Check tyres often - Under-inflated tyres can add 8% to fuel bills and are likely to lead to uneven wear and premature failure, resulting in further expense.
• Change up and down the gears - Up to 25% can be saved on fuel bills by doing this at the right time.  Don't race the engine in too low a gear, but also don't labour the engine in too high a gear.
• Only use a roof rack or bike rack when essential - A fully loaded roof rack can add up to 30% to your fuel bills.
• Switch off the air-conditioning - Keeping the air-con on all the time can add up to 10% to the cost of your fuel bill.

The price of a first class stamp is to rise by 2p to 36p and a second class stamp will rise by 3p to 27p on April 7.  If you need a lot of stamps, buy them now at the cheaper rate and save money. Make sure you get stamps that say "1st" and "2nd" on them and not the amount in pence or the ruse won't work!

Women wear the trousers when it comes to running the family finances. While three-quarters of men continue to be the primary income earners, in the majority of families women appear to take the lead in day-to-day financial decisions.

When it comes to deciding how to spend money on child-focused items, food and general supermarket shopping, clothing and footwear and spending for holidays, such as Christmas, women do the deciding. Women also take the lead in spending on garden plants and accessories, decorating and furnishings, pets and children’s pocket money.

Smokers  planning on stubbing out once and for all on the 25th annual National No Smoking Day on March 12 could find that the prospect of saving more than £3,000 a year is the extra incentive they need to quit for good, says financial data comparison site Moneynet.co.uk.

That’s how much a 60-year-old smoker on a 20-a-day habit wanting life insurance will see going up in smoke every year.

“The cost of buying cigarettes is just the headline rate,” says Moneynet.co.uk chief executive Richard Brown. “The real cost is much greater when you take into account raised premiums for life cover, especially for older smokers who face double the cost of insurance for a non-smoking contemporary.”