Tips for living frugally - One liner tips

beertons

Do a complete stock take of every food you have, and base a weeks meals on everything you have. Be it lentils, pasta, beans, spices. Same goes with foods in the freezer. I'm doing it this weekend, and hope to have a free week from shopping. (Except for bread and milk though)

vibrant

DMcL1971 wrote: »

Use the website http://www.pumps.ie to find out the price of petrol at different garages in your area. It is not uncommon to have a difference of 10c per litre between garages in Dublin.

Following on from this, do garage chains offer "club card" type rewards? Would be interested in joining one.

Lyssa

vibrant wrote: »

Following on from this, do garage chains offer "club card" type rewards? Would be interested in joining one.

Applegreen do, and Topaz.. Not sure about the others.. and Tesco.

And not sure if they offer money back as such, I know topaz you earn points for entry into a monthly draw with prizes worth about 15k...

L1011

vibrant wrote: »

Following on from this, do garage chains offer "club card" type rewards? Would be interested in joining one.

Yes. They're all crap - continue to make your purchasing decision on fuel prices alone if you're paying for your own.

Tesco offer 0.5c/litre cashable at 300 litres in Tesco vouchers
Esso offer 1c/litre cashable at €50 - so 5000 litres - in cash or earlier in random tat
Applegreen offer ~0.4c/litre cashable at ~1150 litres in Applegreen vouchers or earlier in random tat
Corrib Oil offer 0.1c/litre cashable at 1500 litres in shop credit
Topaz offer raffle entries every 200 litres, with some random freebie once per month.

Most of these let you get points, possibly far more, on other items than fuel (except Esso generally) but not a single of them is worth changing fuel supplier for.

If you did the mileage I used to do - absolutely minimum 60,000km a year, over 100,000km some years - with someone else paying for the fuel it worked out somewhat worthwhile to game around and get max benefit but for an ordinary user paying for themselves, its not.

Capt'n Midnight

And if you drive a typical car more than a mile out of your way for each penny you save on the per-gallon price, it doesn't matter how worthless your time is to you--the gas to get you there and back costs more than you save.

Spanish Eyes

It's all here folks!

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=33

shhling

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

It's all here folks!

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=33

Great site. Thanks

dudara

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

It's all here folks!

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=33

Let's try to continue the discussion here on Boards rather than another website. Keep this forum alive.

deelite

Does anybody know when Extreme Cheapstakes is back on the television - Lifetime Channel I think?

Pang

Forgive me if this has been mentioned but cornflour is amazing for cleaning windows and mirrors. It gives an amazing sparkle. About 1 tablespoon of cornflour to a litre of water. You can adjust it to make smaller amounts. I hate the smell of window cleaner so that's why I turned to cornflour.

Also regarding vinegar, it is amazing for cleaning your microwave. 1 cup of vinegar to 2 cups of cold water. Put it into a bowl and place it in the microwave on high for 5 minutes. Anything food or spills that might be in the cabinet will be soft and will come off easily with a damp cloth. It's fantastic stuff.

chelbi

deelite wrote: »

Does anybody know when Extreme Cheapstakes is back on the television - Lifetime Channel I think?

See it advertised last night for TLC, starts Tuesday at 9pm. It may be a repeat I am not sure

Jellybaby1

Here in the capital its pretty windy, not enough to worry us at the moment thankfully but great for drying - get the washing line filled up and forget about running the expensive dryer for a change. Its freeeee! I've got a head start on the sheets today.

ABajaninCork

Pang wrote: »

Forgive me if this has been mentioned but cornflour is amazing for cleaning windows and mirrors. It gives an amazing sparkle. About 1 tablespoon of cornflour to a litre of water. You can adjust it to make smaller amounts. I hate the smell of window cleaner so that's why I turned to cornflour.

Newspaper is also excellent for cleaning windows. Gives a lovely, smear-free finish. I wash the windows with washing-up liquid with brown vinegar added , then finish with the newspapers. Must try the cornflour though!

Pang wrote: »

Also regarding vinegar, it is amazing for cleaning your microwave. 1 cup of vinegar to 2 cups of cold water. Put it into a bowl and place it in the microwave on high for 5 minutes. Anything food or spills that might be in the cabinet will be soft and will come off easily with a damp cloth. It's fantastic stuff.

I clean mine with soapy water. I then put in a cup of lemon juice and boiling water and give that a whizz for a minute to deodorise.

lisasimpson

started taking my own lunch to work, once you get into a routine every night of making your lunch your flying it. your purse and body will thank you for it. Also, the night before if your making curry or pasta for dinner make a little extra and lunch the following day is sort. this is particular good if your single as often cooking for one can often a waste of food as you might not get full use of all the ingrediants before they go off

keep and eye out for the veg offers in Lidl and Alid, if you have the time make soup currys etc and freeze them links to above.
Like someone said before the Dunne offers on the clubcards can be good. when I get the spend 40 euro to get 6 off your shopping ones, I check the press to see what food I have. if needed I stock up on the own brand pasta, rice, or other long shelf life items

try and car pool if possible where public transport isn't an option. even if its only 2 or 3 days a week I see a few do this at work. I don't have the opportunity though. But myself and my house mate if one of us is going out and the other isn't we always drop the other into town helps save on taxi fares. Im not a big drinker anymore, too many days wasted recovering from the night before and I sometimes go on nights out and don't drink. Ive been surprised to see more people are doing the same. if you cant afford to spend much on a night out pre drink 1st and ive also noticed on nights out where im not drinking id order diet coke in the nightclub. people think you are drinking volka and coke and don't start wrecking your head o your not drinking when you bump into them

depending on your electricity plan try and wait till after 6 to turn on washing machine, dishwasher etc.
if you need to buy items like washing machines tvs etc have a look on line 1st to see what offers the different shops have. Also Ebay and adverts are good too. a few years ago I had a number of weddings the same year. Ebay was brilliant to find hair pieces etc to help vary the outfits as I used the same two dresses for all of them. Ebay is also good for the likes of earphones for ipod phone etc

Also in relation to club cards always use them when possible. I have an old coffee jar and evertime I use coupons or points to pay for something I put the value into the jar. you would be surprised how much you would have in there come holidays, Christmas etc. people at work wondered how I went on 2 holidays last year. A lot of it was down to financial management,

Ms.Sunshine

Does anybody know of any grocery coupon website or anything?? Am trying hard to get organised for the year and want to try and save as much money as possible.

igorbiscan

vibrant wrote: »

Following on from this, do garage chains offer "club card" type rewards? Would be interested in joining one.

Yeah, I put €3000 worth of diesel in my company car whilst collecting points with Applegreen.Turns out I had enough points to earn an MP3 Player armband for running. Ha Ha,what a feckin insult!..I would have more respect for them if they just told me to f**k myself,:P

Michael D Not Higgins

igorbiscan wrote: »

Yeah, I put €3000 worth of diesel in my company car whilst collecting points with Applegreen.Turns out I had enough points to earn an MP3 Player armband for running. Ha Ha,what a feckin insult!..I would have more respect for them if they just told me to f**k myself,:P

Just the armband? Jee-ay-sus

kegsmcsorley

boil 5 eggs simultaneously and have one each morning before work rather than boiling one each day. Saves money as it takes same time to boil 5 as one.

ABajaninCork

lisasimpson wrote: »

depending on your electricity plan try and wait till after 6 to turn on washing machine, dishwasher etc.
if you need to buy items like washing machines tvs etc have a look on line 1st to see what offers the different shops have. Also Ebay and adverts are good too. a few years ago I had a number of weddings the same year. Ebay was brilliant to find hair pieces etc to help vary the outfits as I used the same two dresses for all of them. Ebay is also good for the likes of earphones for ipod phone etc

A lot of people seem to think (including my husband) that electricity's cheaper after 6pm. It's not true if you're on ESB/Bord Gais. You're simply charged a flat rate which at the moment is 16.28c. I would advise checking the bill to get the correct rate...

If you need the Economy 7 rate (or whatever it's called here), then it has to be requested and AFAIK it's only apartments that get it.

L1011

ABajaninCork wrote: »

A lot of people seem to think (including my husband) that electricity's cheaper after 6pm. It's not true if you're on ESB/Bord Gais. You're simply charged a flat rate which at the moment is 16.28c. I would advise checking the bill to get the correct rate...

If you need the Economy 7 rate (or whatever it's called here), then it has to be requested and AFAIK it's only apartments that get it.

Nightsaver can be fitted to any property but it requires a second meter and comes with a higher standing charge. It would often be fitted to older (or rural - no gas) apartments by default due to them having storage heating.

My house *had* this prior to getting conventional central heating fitted to replace the forced air system it was built with and a previous owner had the second meter removed due to the standing charge being higher.

I also seem to remember it kicks in FAR later than 6pm.

ABajaninCork

Yeah. I think it kicks in about 8pm...

almostbroke

I asked my neighbour if I could share her internet connection with her and she agreed so its just costing me €15.00 a month....if you have a space that someone could rent for cheap carparking, use it...lots of people look for a secure place at a reasonable cost..

snubbleste

The electricity Nightsaver rate kicks in 2300-0800 winter time and 0000-0900 summer time.

I use vinegar and baking soda for all household cleaning requirements.
http://www.vinegartips.com/scripts/pageViewSec.asp?id=7

TOMP

jc77 wrote: »

This tip won't save you much, however...

Keep an eye on post coming through the door. Envelopes with stamps on them that haven't been marked by the Post Office routing staff, can be removed & reused (with the help of Pritt Stick).

Any tips on how to get the stamp off?

brian_t

TOMP wrote: »

Any tips on how to get the stamp off?

pkkil

Ms.Sunshine wrote: »

Does anybody know of any grocery coupon website or anything?? Am trying hard to get organised for the year and want to try and save as much money as possible.

Hi there are two at the moment pigsback.ie and supersaveme.uk there is also a page on facebook called Vouch for you Ireland and we put up any new coupons website pages when we find them and help each other out with how to get some

fillefatale

pkkil wrote: »

Hi there are two at the moment pigsback.ie and supersaveme.uk there is also a page on facebook called Vouch for you Ireland and we put up any new coupons website pages when we find them and help each other out with how to get some

Vouch for you Ireland hasn't been updated in almost 2 months.

TOMP

Anybody got any tips for holidaying frugally?

Which is better - a package holiday or booking it all separately?

L1011

TOMP wrote: »

Anybody got any tips for holidaying frugally?

Which is better - a package holiday or booking it all separately?

Well in advance - booking seperately; last minute - package generally. Airlines and hotels have more chance of a walk-up desperate to use their services than any package operator.

Last year was a freak due to the good weather here for so long but there were 6 night packages in Spain/Portugal going for buttons on late bookings, nearly jumped at a (Portuguese-graded) 4* resort, as far as I remember, €149 per person sharing for the week, with flights.

What I do for holidays is stay in the dearest hotels I can for work throughout the year and blast the loyalty points on that chains cheapest for myself - unfortunately not everyone can do that!

Flexibility is the name of the game - some areas are much cheaper to fly to midweek than weekend and vice-versa in others, so check a good range of dates. Use the price aggregator sites but don't ever neglect to check the site of the hotel/airline you've chosen - there's a growing number of best rate guarantees. Avoid school holidays in both Ireland and Britain if you can - if you can't due to kids, avoid the British ones.

Thargor

fillefatale wrote: »

Vouch for you Ireland hasn't been updated in almost 2 months.

The Irish attempts to set up anything likr those always fail, HotUKdeals Ireland failed straight away, Groupon/LLivingsocial things are always rubbish then die a few weeks in aswell, its just not in the culture here, people seem to like getting mugged. Boards.ie bargain alerts is about the only Irish place worth looking at. I remember telling people at work about the recent Aldi/Lidl €10 coupons and most just werent bothered.