Money-saving expert Martin Lewis continues to inspire viewers to take charge of their finances. In this week’s show, a family try out Martin’s special budget calculator and Ruth Liptrot meets a champion haggler who saves money by avoiding paying the full price for anything.

Martin presents this series with Five News correspondent Ruth Liptrot. As well as covering big campaign stories, the show explains how to become a savvy consumer, with advice on reclaiming cash and cutting bills. Each week, Martin rifles through a celebrity’s wallet and tallies up the cash that could be saved in a year – a total which is added to the Celebrity Wallet Workout Wall. Meanwhile, reporter Ruth Liptrot goes out onto the streets of Britain to meet ordinary people who have taken money-saving to the extreme.

The main money item of this week’s programme is a look at Martin Lewis’s special budget planner. Punch in the numbers and it will work out how much you spend per month and per year, in comparison to your incomings. You will then be able to see if you are overspending –and if you are actually spiralling into debt. However, this is no basic income and expenditure form: it details aspects that many basic calculators fail to take account of such as Christmas spending and other annual expenses.
In this programme, Martin follows a family who have filled in the budget calculator and watches as they press the ‘calculate’ button in the studio. What will their results say –and what do they mean for the family’s finances?

Also this week, roving reporter Ruth Liptrot meets a champion haggler who really dislikes paying the full price for anything –a habit which saves her thousands of pounds a year.

Wednesday 12th March at 7:30pm on five