Financial news

• ‘Big, firm, crunchy’: the best supermarket granola, tasted and rated

  17-01-2026 14:00 via theguardian.com
  This week, we got crunching on a batch of widely available granolas, tasting for flavour, ingredient quality and provenance• The best supermarket runny honeyGranola is similar to muesli, but baked with a sugar syrup (maple syrup, honey or golden syrup, say). It’s by definition sweet, and I find sugar addictive, so I enjoy it only rarely as a treat. The best ones come in golden clusters; sweet, but not too sweet (under 10% is low, over 15% high), with a touch of salt and a range of who
  
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• Stress-free travel: plan now to avoid holiday scams and pitfalls

  17-01-2026 13:00 via theguardian.com
  Top tips on holiday booking essentials, from how to pay to what insurance to buy and whenIt’s chilly and the days are short, so, to beat the January blues, many people’s thoughts are turning to holidays.Although the high cost of living is continuing to put a strain on household finances, for many the annual getaway to somewhere sunny is sacrosanct, with travel companies predicting a 5% rise in bookings this year. Continue reading...
  
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• HMRC taking more than a year to pay out tax rebates

  17-01-2026 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Taxpayers talk of having to borrow cash and wait for months amid ‘significant backlogs’ in processing of claimsSome people are waiting a year or more for HM Revenue and Customs to refund overpaid tax and national insurance contributions (NICs).In some cases, refunds that were previously processed within a few weeks are taking 10 months or more, an investigation by Guardian Money has found. Continue reading...
  
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