Money Saving Tips

[mariusstanley]

Try sourcing supplies from local community workers.
Example: country markets, neigbhour boards, layity.com, bankofworks.com

[Milky_moo]

was soooooo tired of throwing out bananas - I always have the intention of using them to make banan bread, and sometimes never get round to it. Out of curiosity, I wondered if they could be froze, and they can!
So, freeze your bananas that have gone too ripe! they can be used for banana bread and smoothies!

[jjkbl37]

My brother in law used to always do the grocery shopping in their house, he reckons he saved a fortune by buying 8 dinners a week, freezing one, then once a month he only had to buy lunches. Didn't believe it would make a difference (reasoning you're out the same amount eventually), but after trying it, find it does work (if you're careful). Although I'm buying 8 dinners a week for five people, I still have the same housekeeping money, so have to be more careful, cos if I haven't got it in the purse I can't spend it. Try it and see, if I can do it, anyone can.

[myszak]

I think even better than buying dinners and freezing them is cooking more dinners at the weekend and freeze them. I started doing that recently and it works! I buy bigger packs of meat, veg etc and therefore it is cheaper (economy of scale!) and instead of cooking dinner for two I cook for four and freeze spare two dinners.

[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!!.

[dee1]

i do my christmas/birthday etc.. pressie shopping all year round;;i make up hampers for different occasions,for example € shops buy baby products 1 a week for a new addition,body stuff for teens,pennies again 1 a week clothes hamper or accessories one,gift vouchers pennies or dunnes etc to whatever value you want.school stuff again over time and build up the supply in advance,usually everthing is done by halloween, then i start on the food larder for christmas.im talking about keeping a list and just getting one thing every week depending on prices. most places are good at allowing you to pay off over time if your consistant,you also end up having a stress free christmas or at least i know i do.. mind you due to some family health problems im a little behind , but hey if you try it i hope it works for you.. i almost forgot i buy a couple of saving stamps with whatever change ive left in the purse on shopping day before i do the weekly shop.

[bluecurlygirl]

Well I have started making my own jam - surprising how much you can make for not much spends! Had to make presents of some (which saved me the cost of a present in those cases). Saved me a bunch. Also did my little bit for the planet cos those jars are being lifecycled time and again - no transporting them miles to be recycled and no manufacturing of new ones... I feel a little proud of myself for that ;-) Make my own bread too - dead easy. My little munchkin makes all the "treats" - no more buying them and we have great crack. Some bits of the recession are fun!!!
I don't consider that going backwards though - I consider that going forwards. It's good that more and more people are trying to come to terms with the amount our greed has sucked out of this beautiful planet we live on. I want my munchkins children to see that more respectful kind of life instead of the one we've been living. So hey if it is going backwards - where is it written that we should always walk forwards - it might be fun to change directions!!!!
Nite nite everyone. I'll have to keep logging in here when I go to France. Yis are lifesavers ;-)

[dee1]

we're a household on disability for years, and i'd like to share a few more tips if i may,over the summer period when the fires do or dont get lit, we continue to buy the weekly fuel,and store it for winter, glad for in now with the way things are;we get the smokeless coal nuggets ,it gives off great heat. seed is there in the morning,throw a few lumps on every so often and have constant hot water,havent used the imersion in years,told a neighbour this year they tried it and said it saved on their bill too.;
Every week i buy toiletrolls wheather their needed or not.we buy the mouthwash for 69c everything thats used on daily or weekly basis gets bought regardless, even if its not need'ed then that way, when there is a bad week or at xmas etc..the bit of extra cash comes in handy.
We also have an electric cooker,perfect working oven but rings burned out, but also had a 2ring gas table top origionaly bought for when there might be a esb cut,since last xmas we are on our 2nd gas bottle,will need a new one for xmas,so there you go. lots more tips to post if anyone wants to check in from time to time, but i've to browse the other jumbletown sites.....I'm new to the computer and it takes me ages to figure out what to do but i'm a bit green and i cant work out the bumping bit..i know it tells me how but i still dont get it.so i keep logging in and out most of the evening..sorry sorry sorry i got side tracked....bye for now.......

[Chris P]

Originally Posted by dee1

...i keep logging in and out most of the evening...

Hi dee1,

The system logs people out automatically if it detects they haven't browsed the site's pages in 15 minutes or so.

To prevent this, next time you log-in, tick the "Remember Me" box beside the log-in area. (If you are using a public computer, make sure to log-out at the end.)

TIP: Before you submit any post, copy it just in case there's a problem with the submission process or an internet dropout.

Regards
Chris P
Admin

[minnie pal]

I am on disability and have an easy pay card for gas and electricity and everytime i get my pension i pay my rent, and put in E10 to each other card. I am mega in cred for gas at the moment so a little more goes into the electricity. I do this all year round so i hardly am ever out of credit.

Other bills are paid direct debit.
I never go into a 'proper shop!" buy everything from charity shops or cheap shops.
Oh, about the weather, i had breakie on the swingseat outside this morning!
Wrapped up in everything, the hot water bottles, blankies (find a dog too, they are warm, if alive!!) and i found two fab pillow socks, just like pillows or duvets, tey are enormous and have duck down in them. got them for six euros in a charity shop, looked new, te sucker afraid to wear tem have missed out here!

Oh, it aint healthy to be hermetically sealed in in winter! bugs trive in heat, they are human after all!
good fresh air now.
People live in egloos and even go naked in them. Yep!
anyone emigrating now?
minnie pal

[mariusstanley]

Originally Posted by mariusstanley

Try sourcing supplies from local community workers.
Example: country markets, neigbhour boards, layity.com, bankofworks.com

I've founds more website please add to list:

www.wwoof.org
www.helpexchange.net
www.jobdone.ie
www.jumbletown.ie
www.dublincitywaste exchange.ie?
www.buyandsell.ie
www.gumtree.ie

[mw100860]

I'm all for saving money and I buy all my toilet rolls, kitchen roll, washing powder etc at my local car boot sale/ market. These are sold in catering/ commercial sizes and work out so much cheaper, eg, got a 16 pack of Plenty kitchen rolls; the really good stuff, for 12 euro, thats cheaper than any shop including Lidl, and I'm a Lidl devotee for everyday groceries.

[kam]

Keep a flask beside the kettle: it takes more energy to heat a kilo (1 litre) of water than to heat a kilo of steel to 100 degrees C.

Pour off the unused hot water into the flask and even if you require another cuppa 3 hours later it'll boil in about a fifth of the time when poured back into the kettle. Or use it for the wash up later!

[sparkwell]

I think this thread needs a bump after yesterday's savage budget!

One of my money saving tips is to work out when I'm doing the shopping for example whether a large tub of flora is really cheaper to buy than 2 small ones. I saved 40 cents the other day on Flora and 25 cents on cornflakes it might not sound like much but it really does all add up. Sometimes if you work it out buying 2 items because it is a special offer is not really a bargain.
One cheap and easy to make meal is pizzas out of pitta bread. I bought a packet of oval shaped wholemeal pitta bread the other day for 56 cents used a jar of tomato pasta sauce for spreading on the base, added ham, mushrooms and whatever else I had in the fridge which was pineapple and sweetcorn, then grated some cheese on top popped it in the oven @ 200 degrees for about 10 minutes and I had lovely pizzas and just served with salad (oh alright it was chips!!) and we had a meal for 4 for about 3.50 euros. It's a good one to make for fussy eaters too cos they can choose what they want as topping.

Anyone else got more money saving tips to share??

[julfren]

I don't always check my receipts, especially at this time of year when there's so much else to be done! But a couple of days ago I checked a local store's receipt and found I had been overcharged on 5 string bags of clementines at €2.19 per bag instead of €1 per bag, and on 2 pineapples I was charged €1.89 each instead of 50c each. In the case of the clementines, the price tag was on the bag, in the case of the pineapples, the price was overhead. I haven't brought my complaint to the shop yet but will do so today. I will let you know how I get on!