Feeling a little short of cash? From selling stuff to calling in your creditors there are ways to bolster your coffers

Is it really the case that it's cheaper to shop for most goods online? As an almost obsessive bargain hunter, I've done a lot of online shopping. I assume that, unless I've a good reason for buying from a store – clothes I want to try on, for example – I'm likely to get a much better deal online. In many cases, I don't even bother to check high street prices.

Lately, however, I've had reason to question this whole assumption.

More than a third of 125,000 vouchers made available to homeowners to replace inefficient boilers have gone. More than a third of the vouchers available under the government's boiler scrappage scheme have been snapped up since the scheme launched almost six weeks ago, according to figures out today.

Q My parents own their house outright, but would like to know if it could be owned in four names – that is, those of my parents and their son and daughter (me)? I do understand that we would need to change the deeds and we would incur a cost for doing so.

They worry that they have worked all their life and if they become ill and one of them has to go into a care home the other will be forced to sell up to pay for this. TW