Moving is a costly business, unless you are prepared to travel light just like Buck the dog did in the classic 80s kids series "The Littlest Hobo"!!

According to a new study by The Co-operative Bank, the average household in Britain spends £23,800 on the 'hidden' costs of moving house over their lifetime!!

These 'hidden' costs, (i.e. all expenses apart from the actual house price like solicitors fees, stamp duty, removal costs and estate agents fees) are often underestimated, despite the fact that collectively they add up to more than £10billion for the total population!

John Barker, Head of Mortgages at The Co-operative Bank, said: "As house prices have continued to increase it is important for people to look at the bigger picture in terms of costs. Hidden costs that are not budgeted for can soon mount up and by having a contingency fund in place it will enable people to be fully prepared for any eventuality".

"As moving house is such a complex process, it pays for buyers and sellers to do their research beforehand and make themselves aware of the various sources and organisations available for advice. Worryingly, despite all the hidden expenses involved with moving, only just over half of the people questioned by the bank had a contingency fund in place to meet these costs!

15% of us who are moving get ourselves into further debt trouble by taking out extra loans or borrowing on credit cards, while over 5% of us are still relying on our relatives for that extra help!

Despite the rising house prices, it seems that nearly two thirds of us are not prepared to make sacrifices in order to afford the house we want.

Where we are prepared to make sacrifices, over 25% of us go without holidays abroad while over 20% of us give up eating out or buying new clothes.

In addition, 1 in 10 of us are so determined to afford the property of our dreams that we make bigger personal sacrifices, such as changing careers, or putting off starting a family.

To try and help, The Co-operative Bank has launched a new website which aims to provide help and advice for those of us looking to move.

The new site contains the latest information and links on everything to do with moving house; such as mortgage rates and legal advice, to finding out how much your house is worth and where to find a local removal firm.

But whatever way you look at it, and irrelevant of how much money you do or don't have, moving house is a costly exercise!!

The question is, just how much is it going to cost you..?

As Janet Jackson and the late Luther Vandross famously sang in 1992 "The best things in life are free"... but the cynical amongst us would suggest that nothing is for free in today's world!

However, we would like to point out that there are some useful things on the internet where stuff is for free!!

Take the fabulous Freecycle for instance; now operating in 78 countries!

The Freecycle Network is made up of loads of individual groups around the world. It's a grassroots movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns!

Such a simple idea... Freecycle groups match those of us who have things we want to get rid of, with those of us who can use them!

Their overall goal is to keep all usable items out of landfill sites, thus being more environmentally sound. By using what we already have, we reduce consumerism, manufacture fewer goods, and lessen the impact on the environment and that is a good thing indeed!

Another benefit of using Freecycle is that it encourages us to get rid of junk that we no longer need and promote community involvement in the process -yes unbelievably it may cause us to chat to our neighbours and those down the road!

So how does it all work then?

• Everything posted must be free, legal and appropriate for all ages!!
• When you want to OFFER something - whether it's a chair, fax machine, piano or an old door, simply send an email to your group.
• Maybe you're looking to acquire something yourself? Post a WANTED message and a group member may just have what you're looking for.
• Alert the group with a follow-up RECEIVED email.
• After that it is up to the giver to decide who receives the gift from the responses only they receive and to set up a collection time, and finally post an item TAKEN message.

Go to United Kingdom and click on your county.

Choose your nearest group from within the county list and then click the 'GOTO' button to visit the homepage, where there is a 'Join This Group!' button; or click 'JOIN' to subscribe by email.

Then you can start to give away/get what you want...

So rather then just chuck stuff out and continue to pollute the environment why not give it away to some one who can use it?

And if you are in the market for a specific item, you can certainly save yourself some money by using Freecycle too!

So what are you all waiting for? Its time you joined the Freecycle revolution!

Buy to let has certainly been a hot topic of discussion judging by many of the comments coming from the visitors to the Money Hospital!

Latest research suggests that generous parents eager to give their children a foot onto the property ladder are fuelling the current buy-to-let boom!

Parents make up nearly 25% of those planning to invest in buy-to-lets over the next 6 months, and they have been encouraged by strong property prices and annual government tax relief of around £2bn for property investors.

According to a report from Birmingham Midshires, 31% of over-55s said they were intending to move into the area of property development.

Despite the recent surge of interest in this area, experts warned that new legislation was making it more difficult for first-time investors.

Strong fire and safety rules, mandatory licenses for houses with multiple occupancy and a new scheme to place deposits with a third party are adding to the cost of being a private landlord.

Under a new deposit protection scheme, tenants must pay their deposit to an independent third party who then decides if it should be returned to them when they leave.

Though this is designed to stop unscrupulous landlords (and there are a few!) hanging on to deposits without good reason, the scheme nevertheless demands that landlords pay a fee for the service.

Lisa Taylor, from independent financial advice website, Moneyfacts.co.uk, said: "The buy-to-let sector has only been established as an industry for 10 years and in recent months there has been an increasing drive to impose greater regulation. Most of these regulatory changes will cost landlords, so it is important parents are aware of them before they decide to take the plunge."

Recently the government has come under increasing pressure to scrap tax relief for landlords as there is growing concern that first-time buyers are being frozen out of the current property market (something that is fairly obvious to all...)

New research by The Guardian showed buy-to-let investors enjoyed tax relief worth £2bn in 2006, while first-time buyers got none whatsoever...!

As recently as 2000, the tax relief for landlords stood at just £200m a year, but it is due to go up to £3bn by 2008, eclipsing even the amount spent by the government on social housing!

"There is certainly a danger that the buy-to-let phenomenon is skewing the housing market," said Ms Taylor. "Whether new legislation will redress this imbalance in favour of the first-time buyer remains to be seen."

So is it fair to blame just the buy to let sector for messing up the current housing market or are there other things that seem to make it all so complicated right now?

Those cheeky chaps at Abbey have thrown the gauntlet down in the battle for current account customers as they have launched an 8% current account!

It is just the latest in a series of headline-grabbing offers from new entrants attempting to topple the dominance of the "big four" banks.

Earlier this month Halifax announced that people who switch their current account over to it will receive a £100 "golden hello" payment! (not to be sniffed at!)

Abbey said the 8% AER will be paid on balances of up to £2,500 (so if you take up their offer, you could receive up to £200 in interest in the first year!)

But (and there is always a but...) the rate only applies for 12 months; after that, it reverts to the standard interest rate, which is currently 2.5% (not so enticing!)

The deal goes live on July 2, but the TV adverts featuring Hamilton have already begun in earnest.

Abbey, which has 4 million current account holders, said its 8% rate was 80 times higher than the 0.1% paid by many of the standard current accounts offered by the big four players: Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland/NatWest (so if you are with them, perhaps its time you switched?)

"Our customers tell us a great rate is the most important thing when it comes to current accounts, and our 8% rate is the best out there. We will pay this rate to switchers on balances of up to £2,500, and the only condition we have is that they pay in at least £1,000 per month; in other words, that they use it as their main current account," said Steve Shore, Abbey's head of banking.

Abbey's offer applies to its two main types of bank account, but it excludes student and graduate accounts, and you must use Abbey's switching service to open the account.

But if you reckon this a good deal, then why not pop over to the Abbey site and sign up?

Good news for you as savings war breaks out!

Offset mortgages are back in favour, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders!

Last year we took out 170,000 offset mortgages, worth nearly £30bn which is a jump of 49% over the past year.

Experts say the increased popularity is due to them becoming more competitive when compared to fixed rate mortgages, as they allow you to offset savings and current account balances against your mortgage debt.

As they are flexible, they allow you to make over-payments and under-payments on the loan. Paying less interest can allow you to repay your mortgage debt sooner (which is surely a good thing?)

For example, if you had a mortgage debt of £100,000 and £10,000 in savings, you would only pay interest on £90,000 of the loan.

Offset mortgages originated in Australia (who would have thought?) and came to the UK in the mid 1990s and when introduced they initially proved popular as they were heavily marketed by banks and building societies.

However their popularity was undone by more competitive fixed-rate mortgage deals. With the recent (and seemingly never ending!) rises in interest rate, a lot of fixed-rate deals have become more expensive, which has led many of you switching back to offset mortgage deals.

So if you haven't switched back, maybe now is the time, as it looks like interest rates are set to go up again!

Are you a fixed rate borrower? Get set for higher repayments!