Everybody, unless you are one of the top bankers, is in a bit of a squeeze financially in the UK at this time. Unfortunately years of promised growth have not borne fruit and instead we had years of borrow and spend and a burgeoning, non productive, bureaucracy. Inevitably the time has come to pay some of the bills.

The government is trying its best but there is no money tree, and this is not being helped by our European neighbours who really can't seem to get their act together to sort out the Club Med economies thus we have endured a turbulent year and 2012 seems unlikely to get much better.

So austerity and thrift are going to become the name of the way to get by. No more are we going wandering into the big supermarkets and spending two hundred quid a week on groceries including the Pizzas, Ice Creams, up market chocs and exotic fruits. Rather we all might find ourselves looking at both sides of each bank note and wondering where the next one is coming from.

Smart shopping is going to be a smart move in 2012 and where is it smarter than taking advantage of the many deals and vouchers that are out there for the taking.

Before breaking into song a few words of caution up front. Savings, deals, and vouchers only act as savings if you were going to buy that product, or its equivalent anyway as it is part of your essential shopping list. If there is a promotion on for cream crackers but you and your family don't eat cheese and biscuits then buying these specially discounted cream crackers is a waste.

However if there is a promotion for Z brand washing powder and you were going to buy X brand anyway then the purchase of the Z brand makes sense. Use your sense and calculator when looking at the daily deals.

Now to the gist of the message; everyday many products come on promotion somewhere, or there are vouchers available for the purchase of certain product at certain outlets. If you had time enough to trawl the internet and visit the website of every product on your shopping list then you might be able to take advantage of all the offers out there.

Yeah? Right! Who has time?

Well there is a website that does have time and offers you, free of any obligation, a daily update of special offers and vouchers available. Yes you just need to click into this website as you make up your shopping list and check the special daily deals and vouchers to see what coincides with what is on your list. There is not a lot of point driving an extra 5 miles to save 50p on a bottle of dishwasher but ir does make sense to see if the extra saving available would more than compensate for the extra miles you would travel to make the saving.

For 2012 you will find that smart shopping can be helped hugely by watching the Daily Online Deals.