[garrazzaband]

Originally Posted by jenniferalan

ok so i google this and got some tips which ive edited and put together, they are very useful

• Cut out buying newspapers everyday. Some of them you can read freely on the internet, if you cant chances are the most interesting stories will be available on rte.ie or other websites anyway.

• Magazines are a drain on finances also, if travelling by bus buy an mp3 player with a radio or print off interesting articles off the net.

• Cut down on the booze, if you are a habitual weekend nightclubber, try leaving home an hour or two later than normal. Amazing how much this saves!!

• If you eat choc bars everyday see what 6/10 packs are available in the supermarket (although danger here is that you end up consuming more)

• Downgrade your car & exit the car loan trap / Don't fall into the car loan trap / Always use your savings to purchase or upgrade your car when you can afford it. Decide if you need to drive your current car, if its a larger engine but you only do 10-20 miles a day could you realistically downgrade to a smaller car? Lower road tax, insurance and running costs are worth it if you can then buy your dream car a year or 3 down the line without having to borrow!



• Set up an automated direct debit to pay the full amount on your credit card. Don't buy anything on your card, unless your bank a/c can cover it. To avoid a large direct debit, and help keep with budget consider manually transferring money to your credit card during the month. If you find it difficult to manage your credit card stop using it.


• Practise minimising your costs starting with the largest average monthly spend. e.g. are you on cheapest mortgage, cheapest loan, cheapest credit card, are you on the cheapest mobile network and package for your usage, should you cancel your landline, should you use skype more, (use skype for calls – its free!!)do you need sky digital, are you heating your house and water effectively? are you using the cheapest broadband provider, are you getting free banking?


• make a shopping list and stick to it


• Make use of advantage cards/ clubcards every time you shop. You will get vouchers in return for points built up --which are very handy!


• Cook your own dinners! Keep the takeaway for the occasional treat. For the price of a large pizza & extras you could cook dinner for 4 days. Freeze extra portions for the days you don't feel like cooking;
• Invest in a smoothie maker or hand-held blender - it saves loads of money in the long run if you like smoothies and it means you won't throw out your leftover fruit;

• Keep a spending diary, or at the very least check your balance regularly, you should be able to estimate your balance before you check at the ATM;

• Have a kettle @ work - cuts out buying teas & coffee. Eat losts of fruit instead of (more expensive) sugarery snacks.

• Make sure that you are reclaiming all your entitelements from the Tax man i.e. medical exps, rent, refuse charges etc.

• Have your hair cut/coloured in a hairdressing school.

• make sure that your charitable / religious donations are made by standing order, so you can pay out less & fill in the Revenue form @ end of the year to allow the charitable body claim your tax back.

• walk/cycle rather than driving. "win/win".

• If you are eating out decide on a starter and main, or main and dessert - you don't need to kill your social life, but just make wiser decisions.

• In winter time, turn down the heat a few degrees and put a jumper on.

• Hand wash the dishes rather than using the dishwasher.

• Buy a travel coffee cup and make yourself a cup of coffee to take on the bus/train rather than buying expensive coffees on the way to work.

I'm all for saving the planet, stuff and money etc.But here we are well into the new millenium and I've really noticed that the world is starting to go backwards, so sad. During the last 100 years we manged to to have people travelling on sheduled airlines faster than the speed of sound, now it's gone. We managed to create wonderfull bathrooms 'Inside' our homes and invented showers which dramatically saved hot water by about 90% now they ask us to spend less time in the shower. We have beautiful comfortable homes , highly insulated and they tell us 'turn the heat down further and 'put a bloody jumper on'. Then we have the most wonderfull invention after the washing machine, the 'dishwasher, now they're telling us to dump that and go back to washing the dishes by hand. Yes folks, we are all starting to go backwards. We'll all be back living in tents soon and washing 'ourselves' and everything else in the river. If the planet 'really is' in that bad a shape ,well we all might as well top ourselves now. Better than frying to death in the global warming. What we should be doing is taking a leaf out of Obama's book when he says "we make no apology for our way of life but we will find a greener way of doing it". So come on lads, don't take this stuff so far. relax in your 't' shirt in front of you tv, hopefully it's all running on wind energy!!.