Adrian Chiles brought his team of financial experts to the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, with the aim of saving workers there - and the museum itself - lots of money.

The 26-acre site houses historic buildings that were moved from all around the Black Country and authentically rebuilt on the site.

Electric tramcars and trolleybuses transport visitors back in time from the modern exhibition halls to the canal-side village.

The museum is brought to life by costumed demonstrators and working craftsmen with their local knowledge and practical skills.

What each of them needed, was a little help with their financial skills and knowledge...

And that's where John Whiting, tax expert at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Anna Bowes from advisers Chase de Vere and Ricky Okey, a mortgage expert at Charcol, came in.

Anna: Definitely. You can get credit cards these days that will give you 0% for balance transfers for normally 6 months. As long as you're dedicated and you transfer it again, over a year you could save yourself around �130 - and that could pay for your TV licence.

John: Well, we've looked at your assets, and you and your wife together, you're just above the inheritance threshold of �255,000 so when you both die there would be still be a little tax to pay. Now to do something about that, you've done your wills, a good first step.

You're looking to pass stuff on because there's not a lot of point in building up further capital. So you're making use of little exemptions, money out of income to children, to grandchildren. Possibly looking at a lump sum, but again, within the exemptions. So just keep an eye on that threshold.

Anna: One of the simplest ways that Roger can save money is by looking at his life insurance. Now we've done a new quote for him and I've estimated that we can save him about �3,400 over the next eight years just by getting a new policy.

Now, in order to increase his income, he could look at doing a special type of pension whereby he invests the money and he gets a pension out immediately.

On the amount he's earning at the moment, if he were to invest �4,680, the government would give him �1,320 in tax relief, and then he can buy an income for life. That will give him about �360 a year for the rest of his life.

There are smaller things that he can do as well. He can increase the amount that he's put into his cash Isa, so that he can improve the interest that he's earning there tax-free. He could also switch the savings rate that he's got at the moment, to pay him more interest and again, simply, that would give him more income.

The other thing he could do next year is to invest �7,000 into a maxi Isa, into things like corporate bonds. Now they will provide a good level of tax-free income, but he must be aware that the money that he's invested could be at some risk. I reckon he could be better off by at least �6,000.

Ricky: There are a number of considerations before he takes the plunge into the property investment market. Let's take overseas. Buying a property as an investment in the UK clearly carries some risks in itself - but that risk is exaggerated even further if he is buying abroad.

For example, the tax and legal regimes are different, upfront costs tend to be much higher buying abroad, and of course trying to manage a property at a distance is much more problematic than buying a house in the road next to you.

That said, if Harry is determined to research the possibility of buying abroad, then I would suggest that he takes a look at the Eastern European countries. With their entry into the eurozone, there could be significant capital appreciation over the next 10 years or so.

As far as the UK is concerned, Harry obviously has the opportunity to buy and build a portfolio of some three to four properties that will grow in value over the next few years. If he can sell them off and clear his debts, then there is a good chance that he can supplement his pension income with some rental income from those properties.

But of course who knows what's going to happen to property over that period? In a low interest environment, then there is a good chance he could expect a reasonable return. I suggest he takes some independent advice.

John: Well, the Chancellor has decided that this is not what gift aid was meant to do, and we can argue the rights and wrongs of that all day, but as the decision's been made, let's address your shortfall and what you might be able to do about it. One route might be to look at what exactly your admission is; whether you can charge a bit less for admission and try to encourage everyone coming in to make at least some donation.

You can perhaps have a go at this new Inland Revenue donations through your self-assessment tax return. You can sign up for that one, and one way or another you've got to try and encourage people to put more in; memberships, perhaps, rather than just simply admissions.

It keeps coming back to the fact that you need to get them to make a donation, because if they make a donation, that can get gift aid, that can get tax back, and that can get more money for you as the charity.

Ricky: We can save you money on your mortgage, even though you would need to move lender. You're currently paying �121 a month on your existing �31,000 mortgage. Albeit a small one, we can save you �18 a month, which will give you a net repayment of �103 a month.

Over the full two years, if you took a two-year tracker rate, that would give you something like �430 over the period. It is also worth noting, that although Donald's mortgage is relatively low and a change would save him about 15% of his monthly interest, for those people with a larger mortgage, then the saving would be much more.

John: One of my favourite bits of arithmetic to check - the PAYE coding notice. Three, four, five million of them are wrong, and Don, yours is one of them that is wrong. Not really your fault - the Inland Revenue have got it wrong, but well worth your while doing a little homework and checking it.