Food, fuel and the changing cost of everyday things.
The classic 50/30/20 split assumes your essentials cost half your income, but for many UK households they cost far more, so here is how to adapt the rule rather than abandon it.
Official Fuel Finder data puts Northern Ireland well ahead of every other region, with the South East the dearest place to fill up.
Compared on the same streets, the supermarkets undercut every major brand, and Tesco was cheaper than Shell in 155 of the 165 towns that have both.
Prices staying the same while the pack gets smaller is one of the sneakiest ways the cost of living creeps up, and there are a few simple checks that reveal it.
A simple way to split your take-home pay into needs, wants and savings, and how to make it work when UK costs do not divide so neatly.
A fixed rate buys certainty for a set period; a variable rate moves with the market. The right choice is less about predicting rates and more about what your budget can absorb.
The UK still uses two main measures of inflation. Which one applies to you decides how fast your rail fare, your student loan or your index-linked pension moves.
Inflation is tracked by pricing a fixed basket of everyday goods and services each month, and the headline CPI figure shapes everything from benefits to interest rates.
