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Old Posted: 15-07-2007 , 10:35 AM #1
ThroughCycle
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Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Kerry
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Default Money Saving Tips

This is just a start, please add to this and maybe we can have a permanent section (or a downloadable .doc/.wri/.txt/.pdf etc. for this on the website.

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Lighting in the home
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Today is the best day to remove those old light bulbs that should really be called heat bulbs.

Replacing all your bulbs in one go is the cheapest way to invest in lower electricty bills and longer living bulbs.

Just to give you an idea of the range of CFL bulbs out there then I suggest some inspiriation at:

http://www.bltdirect.com/products.ph...ng+Light+Bulbs

Philips are very good but Solus are Irish made and are also very good value.

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Cooking in the home
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Don't be fooled by all that convienence food, the goodness per cent you achieve by cooking real food slowly, saves money spent on vitamins, diet pills and doctors visits.

Heavy based pots and pans are ideal as they retain heat and you use less energy to cook your food.

When using gas flame or electricity hob to cook make sure that the flame or hob is heating the bottom of your pot/pan only and not wasting energy by heating the air.

Use lids (glass is ideal) when boiling food, a lot of energy is wasted by heat loss otherwise.

As the pot/pan/oven will retain heat after you switch off heat then switch off before the end of cooking time.

Think about using a pressure cooker as it is faster and more efficient and thus saves energy.

Regards, Simon
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Old Posted: 20-08-2007 , 09:56 AM #2
cormie
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Recycle and Compost!
In January I moved into my own place, the first week I had to put out a full bin of waste that had been here before I came and stuff that couldn't be recycled etc. I changed bin providers to Panda as they collect plastics. More than 6 months have passed and my regular sized black wheelie bin is not even 1/5 full. If I keep going at this rate it'll be about another year and a half at least before I have to put my black bin out for collection. Recycling saves so much money. Most of our waste is recyclable or is able to be composted. More so than saving money, it is much better for the environment.
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Old Posted: 05-01-2009 , 02:17 PM #3
jenniferalan
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Default how to cut down on day to day costs

This is something we all should be taking into consideration especially after Christmas.

I have a few ideas which i will post later.
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Old Posted: 05-01-2009 , 03:42 PM #4
jenniferalan
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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.
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Old Posted: 05-01-2009 , 03:46 PM #5
elbo
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Default money off vouchers

You can print out the money off vouchers for groceries from Pigsback.com
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Old Posted: 05-01-2009 , 04:02 PM #6
kiara
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Location: Ennis, Co. Clare
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[quote=jenniferalan]

• 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.

(Why not just cut it up and use a debit card? I don't have a credit card and I don't want one!)

• make a shopping list and stick to it

(Shop in Lidl or Aldi or if you must shop in Dunnes/Tesco buy own brands... much cheaper, same product!)

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

(must check this out!)

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

(I trained as a hairdresser, this is not asways a good idea!)

• Hand wash the dishes rather than using the dishwasher.

(Get the kids to do it, lol! My mum only bought a dishwasher after I moved out! tut tut... slavery!)
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Old Posted: 05-01-2009 , 04:09 PM #7
bluecurlygirl
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In reply to something Kiara said - NEVER EVER CUT UP YOUR CREDIT CARD. It's actually a crime and you can be fined plus the fact that you will still be charged for using something you don't have. Just ring the bank and cancel it.
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Old Posted: 05-01-2009 , 08:53 PM #8
cascais
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Posts: 2,392
Default i wish i could

hi jennifer,

your ideas are good but for some can t be done.
my work doesnot allow me to bring a kettle in because it is not safety tested. ( i tried before).
i now bring instant coffee to reduce on coffee spend and get the hot water from the canteen, but they are catually speaking of charging us 30c a cup for hot water !
the other solution would be cut coffee at all, but hey, i am afraid i don t have that kind of willpower !

regarding the free banking, make sure you checked they havent charged you if you are using their free banking, that happened to me before. i claimed and got the money back.

discounts :
i am very mean with money.
this means i try to get a discount every time i shop for larger unusal items ( ie when we got the kichen appliances in the old house for the kicthen, we got 5% discount and another 5% because one of the items was a demo unit).
i also managed somehow ( i still can t believe it) to get 20 % discount when i bought 200 enveloppes for the wedding ( they were sold individually), but hey if you don t ask you can t have it, and it works 95% of the time.
same for computers, printers, cameras, any of the like, buy more than 2 or 3 things or over a certain amount = ask for a discount...
.
take-aways and restaurants : never break the 1 euro tip barrier, if the change is 80 cent, he egts 80cent, but if the change is 1.20, then i only give 20 cent. mean yes, but very effective.

credit union : i am a big fan of credit unions, for various reasons, their openeing hours are way better than banks, and their rates for lending are way better too. only drawback is that savings dont earn that much % interest, but i still love it, save 20 euro a month or 500 and before you know it you ahve enough for the summer holidays or for that new tv/couch/kitchen/car...

holidays, shop around for flights, you may get the exact same flight at 2 different prices , this happened a good few times before, we just used different countries traveling comparison sites...
shop around for hotels and b&b, depending on the country, this can also save you a lot of money, ( i try to avoid pakcage holidays at all costs, and end up booking it all myself, but at least i have no bad surprises...)

presents for birthdays, anniversaries, for the crafty ones, make them yourselves, i always try to make preents for new births, weddings, and so on , as they are more personal, and also cost way less !

hope i don t sound too too mean...
all the best

cascais
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Old Posted: 05-01-2009 , 09:49 PM #9
jenniferalan
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Default

hi cascais,

u have very good ideas! 30c for electricity is too high but it is still a lot lower than buying coffee.

just out of curiosity where have u got discounts from before? ive never even thought of doin this
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Old Posted: 05-01-2009 , 10:13 PM #10
gillo
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Hi cascais, your ideas are quite good, apart from the tips one. As the wife of someone who relies on tips to help make ends meet, I really feel that 20c is more an insult than anything else. If you feel so strongly about not tipping much it would perhaps be better not to give anything, which is what I do if I feel the service wasn't up to scratch, but if someone gives exceptional service I like to reward that with at least 10% of total bill. Just my opinion on this matter, not everyone might agree. Regards, gillo
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Old Posted: 05-01-2009 , 10:23 PM #11
betsy10112000
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Default I'm such a meanie

Right a have a few tips or ways to save money, might not be great for some but work great for me :)

1: TESCO - as in their motto every little helps and it sure does - Tesco have a motto that if when you purchase something at the til and then realise on your receipt that you paid more than it said on the shelf or special offer sign(even 1c more) then they will refund you the full amount and give you the item/s free. eg if you go in tesco and see a bottle of wine,on the shelf it says 9.99 for this exact bottle so you buy it and then AFTER you have paid for it check your receipt and it says 10 euro for the wine,take it to customer services and you get a FULL refund AND the wine aswel :) happy days. tobe honest i use this alot.in the last 6 months i have got full refunds and the item free on the following items to name a few : A lexmark wireless printer (it was supposed to be 89.99),vacuum,beans,coffee,hot chocolate,soup,clothes,underwear,dvds,ps2 games,cds,perfume,toilet rolls,chicken fillets,ham,pork plus many many more

2:TESCO yet again (tesco's will ban me soon,lol)- clubcard points - if you dont already have a clubcard get one,also sign up for tesco wine club and babyclub and finest food club,yeah you might not drink or have a baby but some of the vouchers they send are great,i got the baby club vouchers through and there were general vouchers on them,spend 40 euro and save 5 euro or spend 20 euro and get 1000 clubcard points all these on the baby vouchers :)

3: TESCO When you get your tesco club card vouchers through dont spend them in tesco,they can be used for so much more.recently i went to the UK with my partner,2 kids and took the car aswel and all it cost me was 2 euro,yes 2 euro.how I did it - i had 4500 tesco point (most acheived with the free vouchers i got through in baby club statement and wine club and i dont drink),i saved it because there valid for 2 years,3 months later another 4000 points,equivalent to 85 euro to spend in tesco BUT i got 4 times that amount if i used them for stenna line so i had a total of 340 euro to spend at stenaline.it cost me 342 euro t take us all and car to UK - bargain :)

4: THE INTERNET Anything that i cant get free or cheap in tesco I buy on the internet. I can get flights all around the world for as little as 2 CENT return :) you can get a discount code for almost everything just search on any search engine for discount codes for whatever,say if you wat to buy flowers from interflora put in discount codes for interflora and hey presto.I recently sent a bunch of 40 red roses to my mother in law in england,i found discount codes and i sent - 40 red roses in a glass vase,teddy bear,chocolates and free delivery for wait for it - 6.99 euro.

i have many more trade secrets so keep checking, Im gonna try out some of the other money saving tips aswel,oh and i only have a regular bank account,no laser or visa card,no credit cards just a paypal account and thats all you need - costs nothing
:)
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Old Posted: 05-01-2009 , 10:41 PM #12
gillo
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Hi betsy, this all sounds brilliant especially the internet shopping but I'd love to know how you pay for stuff on the internet without either a credit or laser card. I'm really curious to know, it would be brilliant to do this. Recently, on a trip to Scotland my husband and I tried to rent a car and simply could not do it without a credit card, (we got rid of ours a year ago), none of the companies would even accept laser cards. It was so frustrating, so I'm really interested to know how it's done. Thanks, gillo
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Old Posted: 05-01-2009 , 10:45 PM #13
irishrose
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Regarding not being able to bring a kettle in to work - why not invest in a thermos? You can make your coffee at home and drink it at work!
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Old Posted: 05-01-2009 , 10:54 PM #14
betsy10112000
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gillo
Hi betsy, this all sounds brilliant especially the internet shopping but I'd love to know how you pay for stuff on the internet without either a credit or laser card. I'm really curious to know, it would be brilliant to do this. Recently, on a trip to Scotland my husband and I tried to rent a car and simply could not do it without a credit card, (we got rid of ours a year ago), none of the companies would even accept laser cards. It was so frustrating, so I'm really interested to know how it's done. Thanks, gillo

to be honest gillo it can be quite difficult,unless you really do your research.we rented a car without a credit card.i have a paypal account,but i was able to pay cash when i got there.im not sure what there policy was but i read all the t&c before i booked.I booked it online and didnt have to pay a deposit and paid cash when i got there and it was the cheapest rental i found aswel,all i need to bring was a recent utility bill and 2 forms of ID(eg passport and driving licence)
cant remember who it was now but i just searched the net,it was def a rental company that supplies just outside dublin airport but comes to collect you from airport and takes you there,only 5 minutes away.
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Old Posted: 05-01-2009 , 10:59 PM #15
betsy10112000
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gillo
Hi betsy, this all sounds brilliant especially the internet shopping but I'd love to know how you pay for stuff on the internet without either a credit or laser card. I'm really curious to know, it would be brilliant to do this. Recently, on a trip to Scotland my husband and I tried to rent a car and simply could not do it without a credit card, (we got rid of ours a year ago), none of the companies would even accept laser cards. It was so frustrating, so I'm really interested to know how it's done. Thanks, gillo
oh yeah gillo get yourself a paypal account,most online stores accept paypal or search the net and find a store that sells what you want and accepts paypal,99.9% sure you will find one.paypal is free.all i do is set up a tansfer from my bog standard bank account to my paypal account, say i want to buy something on the net for 50 euro then i just transfer 50 euro online from my bank to my paypal account.it does take about 3 days to transfer but sometime if i have a few quid spare i just transfer it into my paypal account anyway just incase i find a last minute bargain,the money is there staright away then.
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