Every week, we pull together the most relevant stories for your personal finances.

Summary

📅 The Autumn Budget is confirmed for 28 October - and a few real changes are already locked in before the rumours even start

🐾 Vet bills are about to get a lot more transparent - the biggest shake-up to how vets price pet care in a generation just kicked in

👶 Why getting our finances ready before a baby arrives can matter more than the nursery does

🗣️ This week we asked a coach: I'm having my first baby in the spring - how far in advance should we actually start changing how we budget?

📅 The Autumn Budget is confirmed for 28 October

It will be the first Budget under PM Andy Burnham and Chancellor John Healey, setting out the new government’s approach to tax, spending and the public finances. And while speculation will inevitably build around what else might change, a few measures affecting our money are already confirmed and worth knowing about now.

🤔 What this means for you

From 2027, the cash ISA allowance is being cut to £12,000 for savers under 65 - our full £20,000 ISA allowance stays the same, but the remaining £8,000 will need to go into a stocks and shares ISA to keep its tax-free status. From April 2029, salary sacrifice pension contributions above £2,000 a year lose their National Insurance relief - both we and our employer start paying NI on anything above that threshold. And from April 2027, unused pensions become part of our estate for inheritance tax, something we flagged a few weeks back.

None of this calls for a rushed reaction. The cash ISA change doesn't reduce how much we can save tax-free overall - it just changes how much can go in cash versus investments. The salary sacrifice change is further out still, but worth knowing if you contribute a lot to your pension. If you already had spare cash earmarked for your pension this year, there's a case for paying it in now to lock in today's rules rather than waiting - but that's a bonus move, not something to scramble for. The safest approach is the same as ever: watch the actual announcement on 28 October, and treat everything before that as planning context, not a reason to act.

‍Worth knowing:

The Chancellor has kept the rest of the Budget close to their chest - there's no confirmed detail yet on income tax, capital gains tax, or council tax. We'll cover what's actually announced soon after.

🍂 Autumn Budget webinar coming soon. Once the Budget lands, we’ll break down what’s changed, what matters, and what it could mean for your money in a live webinar. Stay tuned.

🐾 Vet bills are about to get a lot more transparent

A three-year competition investigation into the UK's veterinary sector concluded this week, and the CMA's chair called it the biggest reform of veterinary services in a generation. The investigation found that consolidation of vet practices under a small number of big corporate owners had reduced choice in many areas, and pet owners were often given little clarity on prices or the value of "pet care plans" before committing to treatment.

🤔 What this means for you

Two new sets of rules took effect on 22 September: a binding CMA order and a set of commitments from the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons to monitor compliance. Larger practices have until 23 December to publish upfront pricing for basic services like consultations and vaccinations, and clear breakdowns of what their care plans actually cover. Written estimates for costlier treatments, and a longer runway for smaller independent practices, follow after that.

If you have a pet, it should get noticeably easier to compare vets on price and work out whether a monthly care plan is actually good value, rather than taking it on trust. It's worth revisiting your own care plan once the new pricing lands, to check it still stacks up.

Vet bills are one of the more unpredictable costs of pet ownership - a single emergency can run into the hundreds or thousands - so if a pet is already part of your life or is on the cards in future, it's a good moment to weigh up what you’re currently paying for insurance (or a care plan) against what it would actually cost to self-insure through a dedicated savings pot instead - an often overlooked strategy.

👶 Getting our finances ready before a baby arrives

The financial side of having a baby is often underestimated, not because people don't think about money, but because they think about the wrong parts of it. Statutory Maternity Pay runs for up to 39 weeks - 90% of average earnings for the first 6 weeks, then the lower of £194.32 a week or 90% of earnings for the remaining 33. Statutory Paternity Pay is lower still and shorter. For most households, that's a real drop in take-home pay, not a small one.

🤔 What this means for you

The moment to start adjusting your budget isn't when leave begins - it's now, while both incomes are still coming in. It's worth working out what your actual household income will look like during leave (statutory pay, plus any enhanced employer maternity or paternity pay on top, which varies a lot by employer) and trialling that budget for a month or two before the baby arrives, so any gaps show up while there's still time to plan around them. 

It's also worth looking past the leave period itself to childcare costs once it ends - schemes like Tax-Free Childcare and free childcare hours can make a real difference, but it's worth checking your eligibility and how to claim well before you need them, since neither is automatic.

‍Worth knowing:

Enhanced, employer-paid maternity and paternity pay varies enormously between employers - it's worth checking your own contract or asking HR directly, rather than assuming statutory pay is all that's on offer.

‍Planning for a new arrival? A Bippit coach can help you work through your changing income, budget and childcare costs, so you can feel financially prepared before your baby arrives.

Ask a coach‍

"I'm having my first baby in the spring - how far in advance should we actually start changing how we budget?"

Congratulations - and the honest answer is: earlier than most people think, but it doesn't have to feel overwhelming.

Start with the numbers, not the nursery. Work out what Statutory Maternity or Paternity Pay will actually give you, add anything your employer tops it up with, and compare that to your current household take-home pay. That gap is the real number to plan around, and it's usually bigger than people expect once statutory pay drops after the first six weeks.

Once you know the gap, trial it. A month or two of living on the "leave budget," while you're both still earning normally, shows you exactly where it pinches - while there's still time to build a buffer or adjust, rather than finding out in month two of leave.

It's also worth looking one step further than leave itself, to what childcare will cost when you go back to work, and what support - Tax-Free Childcare, free hours - you're entitled to and how to claim it. That's usually the bit people leave until it's urgent, when it's actually easier to sort early.

A Bippit coach can help you map out the numbers properly, on both sides of leave, so the plan is clear, not just a guess.

Questions (to ask your coach)

The Budget is confirmed for 28 October - is there anything worth doing with our pension or savings before then?

We've got a pet, or we're thinking about getting one - how should we budget for vet costs going forward?

We're expecting our first baby - how do we actually work out what our income will look like on leave?