Key Post How to cut your day to day expenditure

You can also save money by reducing the amount of meat you eat (sorry RiskAverse). The typical Irish diet is quite meat-heavy and most people could cut back and still get enough protein and B12. You don't have to go vegetarian, but you could:
- Have the occasional meat-free dish (for ideas, see
[broken link removed])
- Make meat-light dishes such as stir fries.
- Eat your usual meals, but cut back on the meat and bulk up on the veggies. For
example, put less mince in your spaghetti bolognaise and add mushrooms and carrots.
 
Having followed the advice here on getting rid of as many regular bills as poss, I have cancelled SKY and can now get Freesat. Only problem is I can't figure out the numbers of the Channels which I can now receive. Is there a formula or process for doing this? (BTW - only program I miss on SKY is Masterchef!)
 
Eithneangela said:
Having followed the advice here on getting rid of as many regular bills as poss, I have cancelled SKY and can now get Freesat. Only problem is I can't figure out the numbers of the Channels which I can now receive. Is there a formula or process for doing this? (BTW - only program I miss on SKY is Masterchef!)
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HAve a look here.

http://www.freesat.ie/index.php?cat=What_is_Freesat_&ActinicSID=2d840d5eae86c3916773f68341df8149

Channels are being added all the time. Im told RTE are considering going on here too, but you can get that free to air anyway

When you look at this , its frightening how much we spend on Sky isnt it.
 
minion said:
HAve a look here.

http://www.freesat.ie/index.php?cat=What_is_Freesat_&ActinicSID=2d840d5eae86c3916773f68341df8149

Channels are being added all the time. Im told RTE are considering going on here too, but you can get that free to air anyway

When you look at this , its frightening how much we spend on Sky isnt it.
Click to expand...

All of those channels are already free on your Sky box (if you have Sky already). Even if you cancel your subscription, you'll still have every channel listed on the link - why would you buy a "freesat" box so?
 
Indiansign said:
All of those channels are already free on your Sky box (if you have Sky already). Even if you cancel your subscription, you'll still have every channel listed on the link - why would you buy a "freesat" box so?
Click to expand...


For the PVR capabilities, which you wont have when you end your sky+ subscription.
 
Any chance some kind poster would list out say the top ten money savers which have been mentioned in the various posts' For my part i would rank severe cutback/elimination of alcohol..minimise petrol purchases and keep minimum cash on your person.
 
Another here who is on the verge of cancelling their Sky subscription.

I have an NI card (cheaper than RoI card) and only Sky Sports as the premium channel (no films), but it still costs me £42 per month. For the amount of TV I actually watch these days, thats simply not good value for money.

I am a big football fan and used to watch any game on Sky. Now I have become very very selective as I now see past the Sky hype and have watched too much dross to find it all exciting any more. Add to this I would rarely watch standard TV. For the last few years I found myself flicking up and down the Sky channels looking for something to watch - you could do this for an hour and find nothing. Yet you were paying £40+ per month for the privilege.

So I too am seriously thinking of going the FreeSat route, complete with PVR. If there's a match I really want to see I will just visit the brothers house.

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As for other tips:

- I cannot believe the amount of people who buy newspapers EVERY day. For me these are a waste of money. Most people have the internet and you should be able to find out all the news there. Or even from the TV news. Why buy a paper 24hrs later to read about it all again? Tabloids are especially silly waste of money - I mean do you really need to know that Brad and Angelina are breaking up, that X Factor judges don't get on or that some non-entity music star batters his girlfriend?

- Other big tips are to cook your meals rather than takeaways (plus will do wonders for your health).

- And buying sandwiches in shops is crazy cost wise. And make your own coffee instead of buying ones at €3 per cup.

- Why not have a look around your house and have a car boot sale of stuff you don't want or use any more. You would be surprised how much 'stuff' we all gather and which is lying around gathering dust. Other people will buy many things off you - I recently did this on eBay and local classifieds adverts and raised a hundred or so in a week.

- Wash your car yourself. Why pay anything from €3 to €8 to have it done. Only takes 30mins to do a good job yourself.

- Clean your own windows, or at least the ones you can reach yourself. If you still need the window cleaner for the high ones, the bill will only be half what it used to be.

- Cut your own grass.

- Change all your bulbs to energy efficient ones. I am not a great fan of their light, but the newer ones are fairly close to old bulbs in terms of brightness, and there is often very good deals on them in supermarkets such as Tesco's.

- Wash the dishes by hand. Dishwashers are very sore on electricity.

- Hang your clothes out when its windy, dryers are very very very sore on electricity !!

- Never start a washing machine until its full.

- Think about your car trips. Petrol is far too expensive to drive into town, come out and then drive back in 2 hrs later.

- A big one that has helped me save loads during the last year or so is NEVER go shopping without a list. If you go into Tesco's without a list it is GUARANTEED you will buy approx 20% of things you did not plan to buy.

- Use libraries for your internet access if your provider is looking for silly money each month.

- If you have a mobile phone, could you live without a landline? The line rentals on these are scary and I have never had a landline.


Thats all I can think of now.
 
Cut on unnecessary or less necessary expenses. Eat at home as often as possible. Learn to take a walk (it's a form of exercise) instead of riding your car or taking a cab. Turn off lights and other electricity- generated appliances if unused.
 
actually.....in many instances frozen veg is more nurtritious than stuff thats been out of the ground for a week or so as is the case with much of the gear in the megamarts. Also, tinned fruit is also as nutritious as fresh/supermarket stuff. If u can grow it yourself and eat it on the day thats obviously the way to go...but
 
Use the library

A forgotten and underused service. It seems that the wait time between new releases and them hitting the library is shorter than before. I'm reading a trilogy at the moment and paid €12.99 for the first one and found the sequels in the library.
Also have CD's and DVDs
 
If I was single I could live very cheap. My wife smokes 40 fags/day which is = €5,840 every year. If they were €20/box she still wouldn't give them up. She insists on having sky (sky to me is paying for programs that are repeated over and over). Aldi and lidl only sell unhealthy food according to her. She doesn't drive which means lots of double trips for me. Shopping is a daily routine. She buys the sun paper and sunday world (they aren't worthy of being called news papers). If I mention drawing up a cash flow budget she says that you would be better off dead if you had to do that.
 
I agree firefly!! Luckily my partner and I have similar attitudes to money. If we didn't I could see it being a major problem
 
CBGB said:
A forgotten and underused service. It seems that the wait time between new releases and them hitting the library is shorter than before. I'm reading a trilogy at the moment and paid €12.99 for the first one and found the sequels in the library.
Also have CD's and DVDs
Click to expand...
Indeed - and they will get any book or CD that you like from any library in the country for you at nominal cost - 50c in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown
 
other tips

Thanks for all the tips so far - really useful though a lot of what we do is habit and that can be hard to change.
Re the free to air - RTE and TV3 are not available on that box. You would only get this with indoor or outdoor aerial which may not have good reception in some areas. Also they are going to digital soon so won't be avilable that way.
Re films and other TV programmes - many of these can be watched online.
Re football - if you want to watch matches there are websites online where you can watch premiership and others. Just google the match you want to see. You can always connect your computer to your tv in order to watch it.
Re books - if you are a reader like I was invest in a book reader. I used to buy a couple of books a week - since i got the reader I have bought none. There are websites you can get free books from in the same way as people get music from.
Re phone - switch to a different provider. I do not use my landline but I need broadband so switched to vodafone and saved.
 
online shopping, this way you can work within budget, avoid nasty surprises at the till and temptations on the trolley. I have reduced my shpping bll by 40% doing this.
 
Agree with the above poster. I do an online shop once, sometimes twice a month and as there is a lidl just around the corner from me i pick up my extra bits and pieces in there, their fruit and veg is a lot nicer than where i do my online shop.

Also, the online shop I use lists all the special offers in one section which is a lot handier than in a store where you might not spot them and as you have all your previous orders to compare against you know whether you're getting a cheaper price or not.
 
hi,

I started to bring my own lunches to work.

It was mainly because I was wanting to watch what I ate. I have lost weight and also saved a small fortune.

You really notice after a few weeks all the money you're saving.

I also freeze most things! If I cook say a korma.

I will freeze some of it and like someone was saying when ur peckish on a Friday night it's like your takeaway and less calories ;-)

If i buy veg and don't think I'll finish it all before it'll go off, I wash peel and freeze it into freezer bags so I always have veg handy.
 
I only buy discounted clothes on sales.
I started packing my own lunch to work - savings are considerable and I feel much better as I eat healthy food.
Bought the tax saver ticket for Luas.
Stopped eating out.
I always make sure that electrical appliances are turned off. Immersion is on only when hot water is needed (before we used to have it on all the time). Savings here are huge.
I only withdraw cash at my bank's atm machines - no charges applied. Also, when I am abroad I pay by credit card but never withdraw from atm's as they charge you extra money for withdrawals.
 
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