Even wealthy families are cutting back as the price of eating and travelling soars due to rising food costs and a sky-high oil price, which topped $140 a barrel last week.

People are dining out less, modifying their holiday plans to a smaller budget and becoming increasingly careful about what they spend in the supermarket.

We asked the experts to pick the companies they believe will ride out the current storm.

Halfords

Halfords is benefiting as the combination of the high cost of fuel and growing environmental awareness helps to promote the sale of bicycles.

The chain has a quarter of its 430 stores in Britain dedicating extra space to bikes. The government’s desire to push the use of two wheels by creating six cycling towns will add to sales growth for Halfords, where profits surged 11% in the year to the end of March.

National Express

Companies operating in the public transport sector have benefited from high petrol prices forcing travellers to leave their cars at home.

National Express released a statement on Friday saying that it expected to see a “significant” increase in its profits this year — rare confidence in these troubled times.

Investors would also be in good company. Star manager Bill Mott, of Psigma, recently bought shares in the firm, which cost 941Åp on Friday.

Stagecoach

Scottish bus and rail firm Stagecoach also said last week that it expected to thrive in the slowing economy as it announced its annual pre-tax profits had risen 8% to £174.4m.

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