Money Saving Tips

amydublin2

Decided to start a thread to combat rip off Ireland.
Here are a few of my money saving tips.

Use money off coupons -
I get mine from the independent directory and pigsback website.

Drink at home rather than in pubs.

Anyone else got any money saving tips?

fade2black

bottles of stella artois, 5.2% can be gotton in most places for €1. Nicest beer out there too. It is a pity that the pubs are so expensive it really is hard to beat the atmosphere of a good night out.

Pal

emigrate

p.pete

Always forget your money - either let other people pay for things or do without.
Give up smoking
Give up drink
Give up sweets and other confectionary items
Stay inside
Cancel your phone line and internet connection
Cut up your credit cards
move to smaller cheaper accomodation in a less nice area
Stop getting haircuts
Stop spending money on shampoo, deodarants etc
Get a library card
Don't throw anything away
Don't have any pets
Walk

I'm sure there's more, I've imposed a thinking tax on myself, so I'll stop.

<edit> if I think of anything sensible to contribute I'll put it up

smiaras

This post has been deleted.

Hornet

And a slightly more serious one:

Do NOT NOT NOT use a Pre-Paid Mobile phone, but instead get a post-pay contract.

jhegarty

Hornet wrote:

And a slightly more serious one:

Do NOT NOT NOT use a Pre-Paid Mobile phone, but instead get a post-pay contract.

but only if you have the slights bit of self control.... €5 a minute pyshic tarrow line anyone....

Hornet

jhegarty wrote:

but only if you have the slights bit of self control.... €5 a minute pyshic tarrow line anyone....

Does it really make much of a difference if you waste your EUR 5 of Pre-Paid credit or if you add a "wasted" EUR 5 onto your bill?? If you are prepared to ring lines even when you consider they are a waste of money then nothing can safe you! And if you would call anyway, then what's the difference. (I am not saying Tarot etc is automatically waste - maybe some people enjoy it!)

I am shocked about how few people now what the call charges are for Pre-Paid mobiles.

In addition I doubt that having to buy more credit makes you control your money better. Because unless you keep track of how often you buy credit you never realise how many of these EUR 10 credits you buy per week or months.


But we are digressing. Maybe we should continue that discussion elsewhere.

-Hornet

rondjon

Shop in Lidl and Aldi and buy their cheapo stuff. Most of it is perfectly fine, despite the dodgily different names on the labels.

If you must insist on branded stuff, so be it, but you should buy most of the staple household stuff in either of those stores.

Creamy Goodness

shop online for cd's dvd's games electronics + almost everything is cheaper online

gary the great

get a meteor free message sim, get your mates to the same, top up 20euro, free messages. save a fortune.

plus with meteor ewards they will give you an extra 3euro credit

get a job in fast food restaurant and eat all the free food and give out free food to cinema staff and the likes in exchange for free cinema passess! a win win situation.

davidoco

Print out the attached form
In the new year when you get your P60 attach it and send it in to the tax office. PS If I were you because you haven't claimed in the past couple of years do the following;

If you went to the doctor twice say you went four times (4 * 45)
if you paid 80 euro for meds say you paid twice as much
That consultant you paid 200 euro for 5 minutes work has to go in as well


The trick is to have at least 325 in expences so then you subtract the 125 (that always annoyed me) as a deduction.
Remember 200 euro in expenses will net you 40 euro if you only paid 20% tax during the year and 84 euro if you paid any tax at the high rate.

All I'm recommending you do is claim now for what you missed out in the past. Each year from here on in you can put in the correct claim. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SEND RECEIPTS IN AND IF THEY ASK FOR THEM (AND THEY WON'T UNLESS YOU MAKE A CLAIM FOR THOUSANDS) SAY YOU LOST THEM AFTER YOU COMPLETED THE FORM.

davidoco

I can't upload the form as there is a 100 KB limit.
Here is the link

http://www.revenue.ie/pdf/med1.pdf

Enii

UCI cinema have 2 for the price of 1 tickets to their directors cut shows on tuesdays and sundays. I think they had Farenheit 9/11 on last week, they show some good foreign language films also.

spunkymunky

Hornet wrote:

And a slightly more serious one:

Do NOT NOT NOT use a Pre-Paid Mobile phone, but instead get a post-pay contract.

If you must "top up" do it on-line or at atm's, it saves you that fee that shop charge, which by the way is a joke. Gives a new meaning to 'buying' credit!!

Victor

amydublin2 wrote:

Use money off coupons -
I get mine from the independent directory and pigsback website.

Only if you were going to buy that item anyway and that the price is lower than comparable items.

davidoco wrote:

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SEND RECEIPTS IN AND IF THEY ASK FOR THEM (AND THEY WON'T UNLESS YOU MAKE A CLAIM FOR THOUSANDS) SAY YOU LOST THEM AFTER YOU COMPLETED THE FORM.

Is your real name "Liam Lawlor"?

nlgbbbblth

if people can't handle a mobile phone bill then they shouldn't have a mobile phone.

or else they should be forced to have an ESB meter (taking 50cent coins) installed in their house - instead of getting an ESB bill every 2 months.

Invader Zim

Pre Pay for mobiles is way cheaper if you don't make many calls.

Xterminator

True, i would use about €20 every 2-3 months.

When i was on a bill phone it was 20 a month.

Where i work, i can use the phone, at home, I use the landline, the mobile is usually used as a receiver!

Hence i use the prepay now.

X

Undergod

Know which bus and taxi services are cheaper. Where I come from, it's cheaper to get Bus Eireann from school to home than to get Rapid Express.

jor el

Hornet wrote:

And a slightly more serious one:

Do NOT NOT NOT use a Pre-Paid Mobile phone, but instead get a post-pay contract.

I disagree completely with that. I used to have a bill phone, for many years infact, and it cost me about €25 a month. I changed to Ready-to-go in March of this year so far I've spent €30 on credit, that's €3 a month. And I still have half that left.

If you use the phone a lot (like voting for I'm a celeb or You're a Star) then bill pay is probably best. If you don't use it much though you can save a fortune by getting a pre-pay phone.

Hornet

jor el wrote:

I disagree completely with that. I used to have a bill phone, for many years infact, and it cost me about €25 a month. I changed to Ready-to-go in March of this year so far I've spent €30 on credit, that's €3 a month. And I still have half that left.

Jor el, yes, you are right. For a user with your usage pattern, Pre-Paid phones are a LOT more advantageous.

However if you spent EUR 1.50 per month, then you made the equivalent of 2 or 3 short calls a month. This is not a "typical" usage pattern among the masses of Irish Pre-Paid phone users.

Most people use their phone on a near daily basis and then the significantly higher per minute charges make a Pre-Paid phone extremely expensive.

--Hornet

simu

After reading this thread, I'm tempted to change from a bill phone to a top-up one.
A few questions:

Do you have to use up the credit you buy within a certain time period?

Is it possible to change to top-up whilst conserving your existing number?

Can you use top-up phones abroad?

Thanks!

Victor

simu wrote:

Do you have to use up the credit you buy within a certain time period?

At least one top-up every 6 months to a year.

simu wrote:

Is it possible to change to top-up whilst conserving your existing number?

I don't think so.

simu wrote:

Can you use top-up phones abroad?

Yes, but you need to get you phone company to authorise this and the charges are exorbitant

jor el

simu wrote:

After reading this thread, I'm tempted to change from a bill phone to a top-up one.
A few questions:

Do you have to use up the credit you buy within a certain time period?

With Vodafone I think you need to top up at least every 6 months, but you don't loose the credit you haven't used.

Is it possible to change to top-up whilst conserving your existing number?

Yes, again on Vodafone I just rang up and they changed my account to ready to go and I kept my number. They also gave me €12.70 credit to start out with, though I had to buy €10 aswell before the €12.70 was applied to my account.

Can you use top-up phones abroad?

Yes. I had no problem with mine in the UK and in Spain, though costs could be quite high if you use it much. If you're with Meteor, then it's a fairly complicated process to use your pre-pay phone abrouad, check out their website which gives the rather hillarious details.

Thanks!

You're welcome.

amydublin2

New bus service from Blanchardstown to Dublin airport. Costs less than a fiver, way cheaper than a taxi. www.urbus.ie

Danno

I used to work near Dublin and travelled to Portlaoise train station every week. It cost IR£13 to go to Portlaoise and £9 to go to Portarlington. I purchased a Portarlington ticket and netted a nice sum of £200 over the year I was there. I spent the £4 every week on two pints and a game of pool in my local after getting off the train, talk about rewards!

Tiriel

buy bus eireann tickets on line if you have access to a credit card.. much cheaper!!!

rondjon

Evening Herald today has a double page of tips and money saving advice. Seems mostly to come from www.valueireland.com - they direct you there from the paper where there's more info.

Some useful stuff anyway.

simu

Don't buy return tickets with Bus Éireann!

Looking https://www.buseireann.ie/asp/NationalList.asp, two singles are cheaper than a Cork-Galway return!

:eek: