This problem is never more prominent than when shopping for furniture online. To this end we at Financial Market look at helping you in your search for new furniture sets.

Often a daunting task, furnishing a home with quality hardwood furniture can also be a costly decision which adds to a consumer’s apprehension. If you are starting from scratch and need to furnish a property completely, it is necessary to prioritise on the most important items that are required. For example, beds are possibly top priority on your list of quality furniture, but it may not be sensible to purchase a bed without the matching bedroom furniture.

You can save a considerable amount of money by purchasing furniture sets. The wardrobes, bedside cabinets, chest of drawers and dressing table purchased together as a set will work out cheaper than buying each piece individually. The same principle works when considering buying a dining table. It will be more economical to purchase the table with chairs as a furniture set.

The thing to remember is make sure that these items are exactly what you want. Just because they are available as a set does not necessarily mean that you have to make do with the colour of the dining chair bases, for example. Make enquiries as to options available, and you will probably discover that they are also available in 3 other colours. Similarly, check whether you could pair up the table with a different style of chair altogether. The particular model that you have selected may also be available in a choice of woods and finishes.

Remember to check all the options available to you before making a decision. When deciding what hardwood furniture you require in a particular room, it is always worth considering what other furniture you will need to buy for that space and calculate whether or not you could save money by buying a furniture set.

Another way of ensuring that you save money when buying a hardwood furniture set is to look out for reductions. Most manufacturers have a bargain section, particularly easy to find if you are shopping online. Considerable reductions can be found on deleted and discontinued lines. You may be able to pick up a bargain for half the original price with a bit of research. The fact that a furniture set has been reduced does not imply that it is damaged or faulty, unless otherwise stated. It is still a quality hardwood set of furniture.

Here again, check with the manufacturer as to whether a chosen model may be available in a choice of different woods, stains or finishes. When buying a dining table set, you may require more chairs than is stated in the package. Check with the retailer as to whether you can order additional chairs at a discount rate. It is always best to ask otherwise you may be missing out on an additional saving. Many retailers are only too happy to oblige the customer with such requests.

When you consider whether or not to buy a hardwood furniture set rather than individual pieces, consider the fact that each piece will be a perfect match. In addition, the pieces will all have been bought at the same time and therefore will all age at the same rate over the years. Initially, purchasing a furniture set may look like a large financial outlay. However, by considering the amount of money it will save you, it makes good sense.

With April now here it maybe time to reward yourself for tightening up those purse strings in the new year, and if you don’t have to spend a great deal in doing so, you can continue the saving well into February too.

There are only a few days left on this 2 for 1 offer at Las Iguanas you have until Sunday Night to take advantage. Also not mentioned with this offer on many forums is the fact they are currently running 2 for 1 on all cocktails too, saving even more pennies should you wish to indulge even further.

Therefore leave you bottle at home on the shelf for this price and take advantage while you can.

Direct link to coupon: Coupon

More Info (PDF)

As the housing market is being particularly hard hit the new trend for home owners finding themselves in negative equity is to stay put. Waiting for the housing market to recover in the future, (which it undoubtedly will at some point) means that you could be staying put for a good few years.

With news of this redecorating a home is the best way to give you that change that is needed, whilst remaining financially sound. To this end there are copious amounts of deals around the home furniture sector, one of the hardest hit in the current financial climate.

Looking round for an online promotion is not difficult, as is finding reviews of the various retailers. To this end Hot UK Deals, MSE and Sick Deals are all good resources, and be sure to check out voucher codes sites for further savings.

There has never been a better time to get that new bedroom furniture the other half has been nagging you for.

Lastly on our must have January deals round up is a treat for the children. With ‘pocket money’ toys expected to make it big in 2009, it seems that even the little ones will have to cut back on the amount they are spending. To that end why not treat them with a free trip to the cinema.

The following companies all offer large amounts of free tickets to publicise films prior to their official release. It is simple ho wit works, when preview screenings become available, you’ll receive a code in an email which you can use to redeem tickets on the relevant website.

Sign up at the following agencies.

* SeeFilmFirst.
* The Film Factory.
* Momentum

There you have it, treat you partner to a meal, your home to a furniture face lift, and children to a free night out without bursting the bank balance in Jan 2009.

This 5.2% is compared to figures for Q3 2008, and mark the biggest quarterly fall in BSSA’s history, confirming the impact the financial downturn is having on the high street.

Within the report BSSA stat that furniture retailers and department store have been the worst hit, with clothing and gift stores also having recorded huge slumps in sales.

Bucking the trend the same report showed that retail in Scotland had actually grown 1.8%, compared to every region in England recording negative growth.

As just one example of the impact of furniture retailers, land of leather this week went into administration, after failing to secure new financing.

Accountancy firm Deloitte has been appointed as administrators to the UK chain, putting at risk the 850 jobs at its 109 stores across the UK and Ireland.

Land of leather had specialised in leather interiors, selling a range of other products including bedroom furniture, electricals and kitchen fittings.

That is until the figures are looked at a little closer, where the losses of $303.4 million compared with a profit of $205.7m in Q3 2007 are a result of reduced sales in online ads.

In times of recession it is a well known fact that online advertising can see a surprise growth, as advertisers look to continue to do business with improved ROI. Online advertising can not only offer this, but in time of financial hardship can offer precise measurements of investment to revenue generated that other medias such as print cannot.

It is these factors that have made online advertising fairly recession proof; however the results released by Yahoo show the true extent of the financial downturn.

Many analysts had expected far worse results when Yahoo released their profit figures, with the majority of loss put down to one off costs the company was committed too.

Yahoo had rejected a $45.5 billion from search competitors Microsoft earlier in the year.

“The company made important investments while aggressively managing costs, leaving us better positioned to weather the economic downturn and emerge stronger when advertiser spending improves,” : Ms Bartz. Yahoo’s new chief executive

Ms Bartz also gave a cautious outlook for Q1 2009, with total revenue expected to fall $1.82 billion to $1.73 billion on Q1 2008.

The search giant Google saw revenue rise and profits fall in the first quarter of last year in what is being seen as positive end of year financial results.

Net profit for Q4 was $382 million, a significant drop from $1.21 billion in Q4 2007. This 68% net profit fall was actually better than many analysts had predicted, and overall total revenue was up 18% to $5.7 billion.

“Google performed well in the fourth quarter, despite an increasingly difficult economic environment,” said Google boss Eric Schmidt.

“At least we have something to feel good about with this Google news in what has been shaping up to be a gloomy earnings period,” - Keith Wirtz at Fifth Third Asset Management.

In related news arch rival Microsoft posted lower profits on Thursday announcing 5k redundancies.

The report released this morning has confirmed what many have believed for the last 6 months. Official Government figures have confirmed the UK is now in recession for the first time since 1991.

GDP fell by 1.5% in the last three months of 2008 after a 6% drop in Q3. This falls in line with the widely accepted definition for recession, tow consecutive quarters of falling economic growth.

Not only is the UK officially in recession but the figure released represent the biggest quarter on quarter decline since 1980, and 1.8% fall on Q4 in 2007.

On the back of the released report the pound continued to fall against the Dollar, now at a 24 year low at $1.36 Dollars to the pound.

Within the report it was highlighted that the UK’s manufacturing sector showed the biggest retraction, counteracting by 4.6% after falling 1.6% in Q3.

Unemployment is also up with nearly 2 million people currently out of work. On top of this the housing market remains severely depressed with retail figure also bleak.

“It is difficult to see why things should improve in the foreseeable future,” - Andrew Smith, chief economist at KPMG.

Bleak news indeed for the British economy, but at Financial Market we are here to help keep you up top date with the latest financial news.

The rise puts the countries inflation rate significantly higher than the governments 2% target and will certainly steer the Bank of England away from further rate cuts in the near future.

The UK’s central bank has said that inflation may increase above 4% in 2008, doubling the governments target, however as worries over the economies growth continue to grow the Bank of England is left with a tricky balancing acts.

The Bank of England can’t cut rates until it is convinced inflation is moving downwards,” said James Knightley, economist at ING.

Often used as a benchmark for pay negotiations, the RPI inflation measure rose from 4.3% in May to 4.6% in June.

Chancellor Alistair Downing has called for wage restraint in order to help rein in price growth.

“We saw what happened in the past when inflation got out of control and people found that every penny they got in a wage increase was swallowed up by food and fuel prices going up,” said Mr Darling.

He went on to say “Whether you are in the private sector, or public sector, whether you are sitting in the board room or working on the shop floor, we cannot allow inflationary wage increases because that would mean that everyone, especially people on lower incomes, would suffer,”

The biggest contributors to fuelling price inflation were the prices of non-alcoholic drinks and food, with prices increasing at a record pace of 9.5% in June from the same time last year. These figures were up 2.1% from May.

Increasing oil prices have also helped to drive up the cost of fuel with the average price of petrol increasing by 5.3 pence a litre.

The report, compiled by the RAC says that since 1988 the cost of motoring in real terms has fallen by as much as 18% thanks to cheaper cars and better build quality, meaning fewer repairs are required on them.

Out of the 1,116 people who were surveyed, 60% believed the rising cost of motoring to be the biggest change in motoring over the last twenty years.

The report compiled was the RAC’s twentieth, which also reflected the growing menace of road rage as roads have become more congested and driven angrier as a result.

Over 30% of those surveyed as part of the report said that they had been a victim of road rage to the extend where they felt physically threatened, with half admitting swearing or gesturing in the other direction.

“It is worrying that millions of motorists are victims of a driving behaviour [road rage] that didn’t even have a name 20 years ago.” - RAC motoring strategist Adrian Tink

“This worrying behaviour becomes downright dangerous when you consider they are behind the wheel of a tonne-and-a-half of metal.” - RAC motoring strategist Adrian Tink

Other conclusions the report drew include:

1. Some 92% believe we are more reliant on our cars than in 1988
2. Of all households, 75% have a car, while seven out of 10 British adults carry a licence
3. The number of households with a car has gone from 14m in 1988 to 19.5m - an increase of 39%
4. Local speed limits of 30mph are accepted by 66% of drivers, but over half want to see motorway limits raised from 70mph to 80mph
5. The number of women drivers on UK roads has gone from 10.2m to 15.3m

Rising food and fuel costs resulted in the European Central Bank raising its interest rate, a move which is thought could further weaken the dollar which is currently at a two month low, and lead to further increases in the trading price of oil.

In anticipation of the ECB’s rate increase, oil hit new record highs today, with Brent crude topping $146 a barrel for the first time.

The interest rate increase comes amid concerns that the eurozone economy is slowing and there are further concerns that rate hikes could slow the economy further.

“Today’s ECB interest rate hike underlines the bank’s determination to bring inflation down, even amid plain evidence of slowing gross domestic product growth” - Jennifer McKeown from Capital Economics.

Within the eurozone it was Spain who announced figures that suggested it is heading for recession with it service sector showing significant signs of retraction.

Other leading banks have also warned that It also signalled that more interest rate rises could be on their way if world oil and food prices continued to rise.