How do you save money?

declan06

I'm writing a piece for the first year handbook and I'm looking for tops on how to save money? Any ideas?

snubbleste

Don't spend it.

zero19

Don't go to the pub so much.

Norrdeth

Tips for commuters....
Get the cyans from the shop, bring in home made sambos/make your own sambos and bring them to class, get a thermo flask for tae or scrounge tae from your friends place.

K4t

-Do most of your shopping in aldi/lidl
-Avoid drinking pints/cocktails in pubs (pre drink at your house and maybe buy one or two drinks while out
-Bring lunch into college with you/make your own lunch - buy lunch once a week max
-Do your washing at home/bring as much food with you from home at weekends as possible
-Only buy books are absolutely essential, most are not

You should check out the budgeting tips thread in the student finances forum. Some great tips listed there.

irish_goat

Save money on condoms by getting them free from Banquo.

Fenny

For living on-campus, off-campus in Maynooth:

- Bulk shop. Buying a bit every day tends to add up more, especially if you shop in corner shops or anywhere on campus. You can get really nice, cheap fruit + veg in Aldi/Lidl/the likes, and there's that butchers near Tesco that does grand deals on meat.

- Also, shop smart. Don't bother buying a load of pot noodle and microwave ready meals, just because they're easy and single-serving. Learn to cook if you can't already, it's seriously not hard. A bag of spuds/pasta/rice, some meat, some veg and you've got stuff that'll fill you up and honestly works out cheaper than any packaged stuff. Also, tinned tomatoes can make soup, pasta sauce, curry sauce and all kinds of things if you google some recipes. And if you make too much, just freeze it and have it again.

- Steal odds and ends from home. Toilet paper, cereal, cleaning products, tea-towels... The possibilties are endless. Just don't let mammy catch you in the act. (I suppose if you want to go down that route, you could just steal from anywhere, but people will probably stop inviting you over.)

- Drink in the house with the gang before you go out. Muuuuch cheaper. Also, good craic as well.

- Be eco-friendly and energy save. It does save money, especially on shared bills and the like. Recycle stuff for use around the house, like jars and cardboard boxes and stuff. Just be smart about the stuff you're using. Also, never, ever forget to turn the heating off when you go off to college for the day, then come back to find it's like Death Valley in your house in mid-December. Not that I ever did this...

- College gym is free, as is the pool (as far as I know? Actually I'm not sure), so might as well take advantage.

Now, to take my own advice...

banquo

A 2/3 full kettle costs a euro to boil.

Wendero

I never thought of the heating. Then on the other hand, the heating didn't work well in my apartment. it was on and off like crazy.

Is Aldi/Lidl really that much cheaper? I didn't go to Aldi very often, any specific items that are significantly cheaper there?

banquo

It depends on what you're buying. Bread and vegetables are so much cheaper in Aldi. 42c for a loaf. Brilliant. Can't speak for Lidl offhand.

Wendero

Okay. I normally don't eat bread in Ireland. The ham and cheese just doesn't last long enough. Yeah I'm sure you can freeze it and everything, but still.

Lidl is quite a bit off, isn't it? I haven't been there. I prefer Tesco, though I have to say being able to shop 24/7 can make you postpone your shopping until it's like 2 AM :P

tootyflutty

During orientation you get sooo many vouchers and money off things, use them all.
If you live on campus you should forever get mizzonis/supermacs vouchers in your porch thingy too, always a plus if you are gonna get fast food.
I managed to live off €20 a week last year, and still went out every 2/3 night, you just have to not drink in the pub/club. Pre-drinks is the way forward!
The college employs people every now and then for promo work, so try out for that as soon as the e-mail goes round.
Offer to do the 3rd year psychology students tests, sometimes money, sometimes free chocolate. Usually a bit of fun
Use google scholar, and e-books where you can! No need to buy most of the books for courses, and if you do need to try get it 2nd hand, or you can get them cheaper on Amazon than in the University bookshop.

irish_goat

banquo wrote: »

A 2/3 full kettle costs about 8c to boil.

FYP. :P

Kinski

tootyflutty wrote: »

No need to buy most of the books for courses, and if you do need to try get it 2nd hand, or you can get them cheaper on Amazon than in the University bookshop.

Definitely go the amazon route with books. I bought a second hand copy of one of my course books (14 euro new) on there for the princely sum of one English penny. Ok, I had to pay shipping on top of that, which is like 4-5euro, but still, the book cost one penny...

LeixlipRed

Cook in bulk. I usually make about 5 or 6 dinners for a tenner. You just need a huge wok and a freezer! Buy everything that'll last in bulk: rice and pasta mainly. Tesco do the best range for that sort of stuff. Freeze anything that might go off, ok, some stuff doesn't defrost so good (mushrooms go black :eek: ) but it's all good, you'll get used to it!

mickstupp

Also on books, if you can't find a decent second hand price for your book on Amazon, try the Bookdepository site. They're usually 5-15 quid cheaper than the college bookshop, and post and packaging is free.

mp3guy

tootyflutty wrote: »

I managed to live off €20 a week last year, and still went out every 2/3 night, you just have to not drink in the pub/club.

I highly doubt that. Breakfast, lunch and dinner for 7 days plus 2/3 nights out? Breakdown of your spendings please.

tootyflutty

mp3guy wrote: »

I highly doubt that. Breakfast, lunch and dinner for 7 days plus 2/3 nights out? Breakdown of your spendings please.

Doubt away, but I managed it for the year!
Bought everything in bulk, and froze anything spare for the next week. As I said in my op, I hardly drank when out, bought cheap and in bulk in lidl/aldi and pre drank with friends.
Also stole many toilet papers and tea bags from home :P

irish_goat

mp3guy wrote: »

I highly doubt that. Breakfast, lunch and dinner for 7 days plus 2/3 nights out? Breakdown of your spendings please.

It's kinda doable assuming you go home at the weekend.

A big bag of pasta.
A big bag of spuds.
Bag of frozen veg.
Bag of rice.
Box of cereal (or even cheaper, bag of porridge oats).
€10 meat pack (would last about 8 dinners at least+) from Manor mills butchers.
Cheap wine/beer from lidl/adli = €4/5 a night.

Assuming you have decent herbs, spices and tins of tomatoes etc you could get the above for cheap enough but how you'd go about paying bills and stuff I dunno.

tootyflutty

irish_goat wrote: »

It's kinda doable assuming you go home at the weekend.

Assuming you have decent herbs, spices and tins of tomatoes etc you could get the above for cheap enough but how you'd go about paying bills and stuff I dunno.

Exactly, went home every weekend for and family social-ness, and was given 40-50 a week, 20 of which I spent on travel

I lived on campus so didn't actually have any bills so to speak, this year however.. :rolleyes:

CFC1905_NK

This is how I save money:

-Don't smoke.
-Make a packed lunch as often as possible, don't need to pay for lunch.
-As soon as you get any cash(i.e. wages, gifts etc) put it straight into your bank account. If you have cash lying around in your pocket you'll quickly spend it.
-Use the on-campus gym and pool, free of charge.

moggins7

The butchers up by tesco do great deals, 20 chicken fillets for €15. Combine that with 500g of pasta for 49c and pesto for €1.25 from lidl and you get dinners for less than €1 a day, pretty good by anyones standard!

moggins7

Also brew your own beer/cider!
Initially the kit costs €88 euro with one can of hops but after that the cans of hops are around €14. Works out at about 40c a can (you get 20 liters!!!1!)

Cpt Beefheart

The cost of coffee on campus can destroy the most carefully thought out budget. My caffeine habit meant I was spending over a tenner on coffee a day. Got myself a most uncool but very functional big flask in tesco and with the home made sarnies reduced daily expenditure dramatically. Cheapest coffee I think is the londis shop in JH, worst tasting is O'Briens in the library.

mickstupp

Actually it's cheaper from the machines, which serve perfectly acceptable Nescafe... which is still better than O'Briens. And it's even cheaper if you're a mature student and know where to look.

banquo

mickstupp wrote: »

Actually it's cheaper from the machines, which serve perfectly acceptable Nescafe... which is still better than O'Briens. And it's even cheaper if you're a mature student and know where to look.

Best part of the election campaign was discovering the Mature Students' Room.

princess_calico

mp3guy wrote: »

I highly doubt that. Breakfast, lunch and dinner for 7 days plus 2/3 nights out? Breakdown of your spendings please.

I did it as well, I didn't have the money so I just had to make do!
When you need to do it, then you learn fairly quickly how to!

funky penguin

If there is one thing I can say for saving money its, plan your eating habits.

Good breakfast (porridge and banana with a splash of honey), homemade packed lunch (tuna/mayo/sweetcorn/onion on wholegrain bread), dinner of pasta, chicken and some pesto.

Nomnomnomnom, can't go wrong. Cheap and very very healthy.

I used to make tuna/mayo combo at the beginning of the week and it'd last ages. Then I got a tupperware thingy and just started making tuna salad to bring into college.

Saved SO much money.

Think about it, a roll and bottle of water in centra is €5, probably just over it. If you work it right, thats lunch - a HEALTHY lunch - for a week.

But Christ almighty I've fallen off the wagon so many times.

gigawatt

ok ok heres my 2 cents worth
first off rent is THE most important thing.. need to keep a roof over your head so shop around for reasonable rents, many first years get ripped on this one

bills next. try to be eco friendly in the house ur in... you'd be amazed how keeping the bills down makes everyone happy!!!

food... shop for bargains theres lots of great tips on how to feed yourself cheaply from previous posters..

smoking.. just dont or if you really have to ....switch to rolling tobacco small packets make about 50 smokes for 4 euro. keep the proper smokes for special occasions

socialising, get very merry before you go out, or smuggle drink out with ya lol:)

you'd be surprised how far you can make your money go!!

ps dont get credit cards or loans