Although the Budget may slightly ease strains on households earning less than £42,000 per year, most families still face the sharpest setback to living standards for several decades.
Research commissioned by the BBC from the Institute for Fiscal Studies found households are about 6% worse off than they might have expected had there been no recession and their incomes had risen in the normal way.
That will come as quite a shock after an average 1.6% improvement in living standards each year since 1961.
Many are already badly squeezed: the Markit Household Finance Index for March found households are more pessimistic about their financial outlook than at any time since the survey began in February 2009, with a record drop in cash available to spend as incomes continue to fall while prices rise.
MGM Advantage, the retirement income specialist, thinks UK households would have to find an extra £39 billion to maintain the standard of living they enjoyed a year ago, or £1,496 each. For 65- to 74-year-olds, the figure falls to £936, and for over-75s it is £689.
To some extent, prices have to fall in many sectors to absorb part of the strain on household budgets.
Odeon Cinemas, a 110-strong chain across the UK & Ireland, announced 40% discount vouchers this week available online, for Sunday to Thursday performances until March 31.
Various other schemes, most of them online, should deliver lower prices through vouchers, cashbacks or the group-buying approach which has already attracted five million UK users to Groupon.co.uk.
Within three years of launching in Chicago, Groupon has more than 50 million subscribers worldwide receiving daily emails, up from two million at the start of 2010.
It encourages local businesses to give away time-limited discounts - on haircuts, spa breaks, lunches, even falconry days - when a specific number of customers is persuaded to buy.
On cheap holidays, Groupon can generate bookings at the rate of 1,000 a day. Groupon revenue could top two billion US dollars this year, says a Financial Times report.
Retailers recognise the value of business which these sites can generate.
Saj Bhojani, digital marketing manager at car accessories retailer Halfords, says: "Vouchers are an increasingly important way to drive traffic to the web and offer our customers good deals."
On online orders, Halfords will use voucher codes to offer 10% discounts on Apollo and Carrera Bikes between March 31 and April 6.
At Quidco.com, the UK's leading cashback and voucher website with 1.2 million members, spokesperson Hannah Green says: "Instead of going directly to a retailer's website, consumers should visit Quidco and find the retailer there.
"For each merchant, all cashback offers and voucher codes available are displayed and by selecting one, you are then taken to the retailer's website as normal.
"The merchant sees you have bought something after clicking through from a cashback site, and pays a commission which is subsequently passed to the customer as cashback.
"Our customers also benefit from instant discounts, using voucher codes and printable vouchers for use in stores."
However, Green says savings over a longer period can be much larger if families use Quidco to renew insurance, utilities and mobile phones packages.
"Assuming the average family has four mobile phones, owns two cars, and requires house insurance, life insurance, pet insurance, utilities, broadband and TV, they can earn £1,200 in a year if all are purchased via a cashback site like ours," she says.
Quidco discounts already cover more than 2,800 retailers: Thorntons, for example, has a 12% cashback in place, worth £12 to somebody spending £100 on family Easter eggs. The home delivery charge - £3.95 in Thornton's case - is not included in the calculation of cashback entitlement.
With 14 big retailers, including Debenhams, B&Q, Cineworld, Austin Reed, and National Car Parks (NCP), Quidco also pays a cashback on in-store spending, after a customer registers their credit or debit card.
With a typical rate of 4.5%, this perk can be worth almost four times as much as a cashback credit card. On a NCP parking charge of £10, a rebate of 45p soon becomes a useful sum for drivers parking each day on the way to work.
Quidco pays accrued cashback into a customer's bank account, either on specific days of the month, or when the total passes a limit specified by the customer.
The company - its chairman Michael Murphy famously sold Friends Reunited to ITV for £175 million and launched a management of buy-in at Quidco in May 2009 - claims a 58% share of the cashback market, with TopCashBack in second place with 750,000 members.
Smaller operators, including GreasyPalm, Pigsback.com, and Give or Take, account for barely 5% of the market between them. Two more, Cashback Kings and Rpoints, have ceased trading.
While all cashback sites offer online cashback, TopCashBack and Quidco also offer voucher codes, to enter at the check-out and qualify for an instant discount.
Green explains: "Cashback sites' voucher code deals are better than those from voucher code sites because they can be combined with cashback offers, thereby allowing members to save twice."
Only Quidco offers printable vouchers, a car insurance comparison tool and in-store cashback to save customers as much as possible. Its customers are likely to spend £400 million with retailers this year - earning £40 million in cashback.
According to research from rival voucher site MyVoucherCodes, consumers are keenest to cut the bill in restaurants (accounting for 22% of vouchers); fashion retail (18%); takeaway food (13%); coffee shops (9%) and health & beauty products (7%).
Figures have been compiled for the first three months since the MyVoucherCodes mobile application was launched in November 2010. Since then, application users have been able to access deals from Debenhams, YO! Sushi, Argos, GAP, Fitness First and Hotel Chocolat, and savings already top £1 million.
MyVoucherCodes claims to have saved customers around £60 million in 2010, on total turnover of £600 million.
Current offers, available until April 30, include two-for-one main meals at Pizza Hut restaurants. The MyVoucherCodes app offers two-for-£10 on the Garfunkel's Big Breakfast, with a free coffee, until April 22.
Mark Pearson, chairman of MyVoucherCodes, says: "With most retailers offering discounts now, consumers are getting wiser to the offers and are simply often not shopping in stores and restaurants that don't offer savings.
"When your phone suddenly becomes like a discount card for more than 2,000 restaurants and retailers across the UK, it is no surprise that people don't like paying full price anymore.
"If you have an Apple or an Android handset, you are effectively throwing money away by not switching the GPS-enabled app on to see where you could save money nearby."
MyVoucherCodes faces plenty of competition - its rivals include HotUKDeals, Voucher Codes and VoucherSeeker.
Meanwhile, Coupon Croc has 2,088 stores on its UK site ranging from Argos to Zizzi, while holiday deals from various tour operators, including Thomson and First Choice, account for a 50% surge in searches since last month. Retail offers from John Lewis and Very.co.uk are also included.
:: Information: There's a round-up of special offers on websites and elsewhere in Martin's Money Tips, compiled by consumer journalist Martin Lewis and his MoneySavingExpert.com team; Odeon cinema offer details at promo.odeon.co.uk/march.
Poundnotes
:: Don't celebrate too soon at Chancellor George Osborne's idea floated in this week's Budget of a basic state pension of £140 per week, says Eleanor Dowling, principal at pension specialist Mercer.
She fears employers could cut the generosity of existing defined benefit pension schemes, since they could also lose the funding that comes from rebates of national insurance contributions.
"Providing a decent base level of state pension is a step in the right direction and should give individuals more confidence to plan for their future," says Dowling.
However, she adds: "Potentially, there are huge costs and funding issues here too. If this flat rate pension is introduced at the same time as the abolition of contracting-out, as we believe will happen, a massive overhaul of the design and administration of defined benefit pension schemes could be needed, unless the Government provides a regulatory structure that simplifies the usual process."
:: Savers were outraged when National Savings & Investments (NS&I) withdrew its index-linked certificates which guaranteed a tax-free inflation-beating return, and Danny Cox, at financial advisors Hargreaves Lansdown, says it is great news that Chancellor George Osborne wants to see them back in 2011/12.
However, no specific timetable for their return has yet been made public, so there is likely to be strong demand for two new inflation rate bonds from BM Savings with the option of three and five-year terms.
The bonds will track annual inflation, measured by the Retail Price Index and also offer a fixed interest rate on balances of 1.50% (five years) or 0.75% (three years).
The start date is June 1, with a minimum deposit of £500. No withdrawals are permitted before the maturity dates on either June 2, 2014, or June 1, 2016.
BM Savings enquiries: 0845 603 2191 and www.bmsavings.com.
:: As supply of the world's precious resources run short, don't forget that investments in water could provide an excellent return over the medium to long term, says Simon Gottelier, investment manager at fund manager Impax Management.
The sector needs massive capital investment, he says, particularly in emerging markets. Another attraction is the number of companies in the sector, globally, which could make "compelling" takeover targets.
The three main areas for investors, he says, are water infrastructure in areas such as China and India; water treatment and water utilities such as American Water in the US; and Severn Trent (UK).
:: While men continue to be the primary income earners in the majority of families, M&S Money is convinced that women are taking over the finances in a growing number of households.
After surveying 1,000 adults, M&S Money found that 72% of their financial services products are owned by women.
M&S Money's top three savings tips for mums are: Make full use of entitlements such as child benefits and family tax credits; plan weekly meals to avoid expensive impulse buys when you do the weekly shopping; and use the internet to compare prices and search for discount vouchers.
:: High five savers
Phone No Rate Account Period Deposit Interest paid
AA 0845 603 6302 5.00% (F) Fixed Rate Account Five Year Bond £1 Yly
SAGA www.saga.co.uk 4.65% Five Year Bond
Five years £1 Yly
Santander 0800 234 6065 3.30% Flexible ISA Issue 3 Instant £1 Yly
Close Savings 0207 392 1772 3.15% Premium Gold 180 Day 180 Days £10,000 Qly
Manchester BS 0161 923 8015 3.01% Premier Notice Iss 24 60 Day £1,000 Yly
:: Top five borrowers
Phone No Rate Period Max% Adv Fee Incentive
HSBC 0800 494999 2.29% variable for term 60% £99 Yes
Vernon BS 0161 429 6262 2.49% disc for two years 75% £495 Yes
ING Direct 0845 032 8800 2.50% disc until 31/03/13 70% none Yes
First Direct 0845 610 0100 2.79% variable for term 65% £199 Yes
Furness BS 0800 220568 3.29% (disc) for three years 80% none Yes
Code:
*K- Operated by Internet, Telephone, or Post
*F - Fixed
*P - Operated by Post
*B - Operated by Post/Telephone
*T - Operated by Telephone
*W - Operated by Internet
*H - Operated by Internet/Telephone
*S - Available only to those aged 50 or over
*R - Available to those aged 60 and over.
:: Source: Money£acts - Tel: 01603 476 476 (All rates subject to change without notice).
