# Personal financial retrenchment: Practical ideas welcomed



## dewdrop (4 Mar 2009)

Hope i am in the right section.  

As we are all faced with a possible substantial reduction in our take home pay I think it is a good time to start planning on how to meet this deficit. Practical ideas would be welcomed. 

For starters I have *AA membership* and my car insurance provider gives good breakdown assistance cover. Im thinking of canceling AA which I must admit i will find hard to do because of their good service in the past. 

Any comments?


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## RMCF (4 Mar 2009)

*Re: Personal financial retrenchment*

I think the holiday sector is going to suffer badly this year.

There will be a major fall in holidays to the sun. Admittedly this will affect Spanish, Portugese, French, Italian economy as a result and may even improve our a tiny bit as people holiday at home or take the odd short break.


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## Keizer Soze (5 Mar 2009)

*Re: Personal financial retrenchment*

Here are a few things which I plan on:

1. Make my own lunch for work.
2. Cut down on the mobile phone usage. Use SKYPE instead for some calls. (Paid €5/€6 for a call to a 1890 number a few weeks ago for a c.16 minute call I think, was enraged) I have a nokia e51 and installed Fring ([broken link removed]) on it a few weeks back. Haven't used it much but I plan to increase usage.
3. Cycle to work some days to cut down on expenditure on petrol - it's a 38km round trip. Have a fairly decent bike, just need to get back on it. Hardest part is getting clothes organised at work.
4. Stock up on special offers etc. on groceries, for things I use like buy one get one free offers.
5. In process of switching to Bord Gais for electricity. 

But all these things mean that there will be less money going to business etc. If everyone cuts back, jobs will be lost.


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## steph1 (5 Mar 2009)

*Re: Personal financial retrenchment*



dewdrop said:


> Hope i am in the right section.  As we are all faced with a possible substantial reduction in our take home pay I think it is a good time to start planning on how to meet this deficit. Practical ideas would be welcomed. For starters I have AA membership and my car insurance provider gives good breakdown assistance cover. Thinking of cancelling AA which i must admit i will find hard to do because of their good service in the past. Any comment?



I was with AA as well and thankfully never had to use them but I have since changed insurance companies and my new one provides a motor rescue cover so I suppose basically we all need to look at ways to save money and lets be honest whats the point in paying for things twice?  I'm afraid now in these hard times loyalty has to go out the window.


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## blownin (5 Mar 2009)

*Re: Personal financial retrenchment*

I have a van insured wiyh Quin direct for the last 4 years,they never changed the value of the van with every year past it was €14k i did notice this but was working at the time and plenty money now out of work i got a quote from them last week on line van valued at €7k and saved €220.00


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## dockingtrade (5 Mar 2009)

*Re: Personal financial retrenchment*



Keizer Soze said:


> But all these things mean that there will be less money going to business etc. If everyone cuts back, jobs will be lost.


 
Business need to retrench on profit targets also. Quoting last years profits and saying down 50 - 60%  on last years profit is spin. Making profit in a recession isnt  bad.(i know there are companies making huge losses)

Also when (if ) things turn ridiculous yoy profit targets need to halled back and put in perpective at all levels of business. This "we need to streamline and reduce headcount so we can make 20% extra next year" biz model needs slowing down.


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## Keizer Soze (5 Mar 2009)

*Re: Personal financial retrenchment*



blownin said:


> I have a van insured wiyh Quin direct for the last 4 years,they never changed the value of the van with every year past it was €14k i did notice this but was working at the time and plenty money now out of work i got a quote from them last week on line van valued at €7k and saved €220.00



Funny you should mention this. I renewed my insurance last November and the company that quoted me told me that reducing the value of my car wouldn't make any difference.


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## sunrock (5 Mar 2009)

*Re: Personal financial retrenchment*

What about health insurance.I pay 46 euros every month to quinn and am wondering if I really need it.It is only good if One has a heart attack or needs surgery for example and I could be treated by the public health service anyway.I am a male in my early forties.I could upgrade to sky sports and movies and buy a newspaper every day with this money.


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## brian1 (5 Mar 2009)

*Re: Personal financial retrenchment*

Cancel Sky once you are beyond the initial 12 months contract. You get to keep the gear and you can continue to receive over 100 channels for free (all the BBC, ITV, C4, Film4 and C5 channels, but not RTE and TV3, you need an aerial for that).  

Look at getting UPC (NTL/Chours) for Broadband, you can then cancel your phone line from Eircom and just use Skype or VoIP instead. 

If you are in Dublin then the Cineworld unlimited card is good value if you go to the cinema more then twice a month and don't forget to bring your own food and drink, much cheaper. 

screenclick.com dvd by post for €13 is good value, you could get as many as 6 dvd's per month, that is €2 per DVD versus €5.50 at extra vision.  

Get a Library card, plenty of good books to read there.  Go for a walk, run or cycle and cancel that expensive gym membership.  

Use sites like irishtimes.com, independent.ie, examiner.ie and rte.ie rather then buying newspapers.   

Throw house parties rather then going out to the pub, rotate house parties with friends and make it partly BYOB. 

Shop around, shop around, shop around. Lots of good bargains around, keep a close eye on boards.ie bargain forums, always lots of good ideas there: [broken link removed]


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## Mpsox (5 Mar 2009)

*Re: Personal financial retrenchment*

Sign up with Bord Gais for electricity

Do a house clean up and see what you can sell at a car boot sale or on ebay

walk instead of going to the gym/taking the bus etc

be prepared to haggle


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## annamac1 (5 Mar 2009)

*Re: Personal financial retrenchment*

I have been doing all this entrenching for the past 2 years!
Gave up smoking 6 years ago, hardly ever drink.
Whats left??


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## Ger (5 Mar 2009)

*Re: Personal financial retrenchment*

Tip 1.Turn off central heating. Buy a bag of coal. Dont open the bag. When you feel cold, pick up bag and carry it up and down the stairs a few times and then you will feel warm.
( Minister of hardship advice on Frank Halls programme during the fuel crisis in the late 70s/early 80s?)
Tip2 Go on a diet and eat nothing.
Tip 3. Take up jogging to work every day.
Tip4. Take poteen making classes.
Tip 5 Grow your own.............?


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## dewdrop (6 Mar 2009)

*Re: Personal financial retrenchment*

Ger i appreciate your wit which is badly needed in these troubled times. However my original question was serious and i would like to thank all the posters who have given good ideas. For my part cutting back on the visit to pubs yield the most savings so far


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## papervalue (6 Mar 2009)

*Re: Personal financial retrenchment*

1.If you are booking a foreign hotel which allows you to cancel for free- Book ahead in good time and check the price every so often and if price drops cancel online and immeditely rebook, recently i saved €36 for two minutes work online. 

2. Send emails as much as possible than sending letters.

3. Try to get printer ink refills- Planning to  try soon.

4. Watch website for cheap flight offers that apply to weekend mainly ryanair/aerlingus.

5. Eurolines would get you to london return for €55- But it is a long trip by bus and boat.

6. Use buseireann and aircoach instead of irish rail for trips to the cork etc about 1/3 of the cost for same trip but a touch longer.

7. read newspapers online- dailymail.co.uk good site.

8. if getting bus to and from work in dublin- maybe only use in morning and walk home in evening.

9. can cans from off licence instead of sitting in pub midweek.

10. close any road toll accounts you have open which you no longer need.


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## Ger (6 Mar 2009)

*Re: Personal financial retrenchment*

Sorry Dewdrop about the wit. I have suffered redundancy twice and been hauled up to court in an attempt to take every penny off me and sometimes it wit that get you through.
I very much enjoyed Frank Hall when we went through the last recession.

Anyhow, keep up the spirits. The biggest problem in a recession is if people lose their spirit as well as their money.


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## dewdrop (6 Mar 2009)

*Re: Personal financial retrenchment*

Thanks Ger and am sorry about your job losses.  Agree we need to see the bright side.


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## z109 (6 Mar 2009)

*Re: Personal financial retrenchment*

Even though you are not in debt, the same rules apply - keep a spending diary and see where your money goes. Look for substitutions for things that you can't cut down or cut out.

Personally, I would build a set of plans 
A - x set of cuts yields y amount and costs z in terms of living comfort, 
B - further cuts
C - further cuts
etc.

Even if you don't have to or want to implement them all, it will ease the strain to know you could live on less and where you would make the savings.

But to do this, you have to honestly know what your recurring expenses are.


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## koconnor (23 Apr 2009)

*Re: Personal financial retrenchment*

Booked a holiday to Tenerife a few years back and flew out from Stansted. Including a night over in Stansted for the early morning flight, I estimated to have saved around 300 euro if flying out from Dublin, on an all inclusive.

Perhaps looking at holiday packages in the UK? Their school holidays dont always coincide with ours, so they may have cheaper off peak deals when they are not on a break. Try flying out from Belfast perhaps.


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## Gervan (23 Apr 2009)

*Re: Personal financial retrenchment*

Shopping in Aldi or Lidl is a big money saver, but keep a watch on specials from other stores as they will have loss leaders to try to get you through the doors. Have a list and stick to it unless the offers are basics you would usually use. Not very exciting.

Work out your biggest spending area, no point in going to great effort to save pennies over the year. ( Though you can have fun grating old bits of soap to compress into "new" cakes).


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## sunrock (24 Apr 2009)

*Re: Personal financial retrenchment*



Ger said:


> Tip 1.Turn off central heating. Buy a bag of coal. Dont open the bag. When you feel cold, pick up bag and carry it up and down the stairs a few times and then you will feel warm.
> 
> 
> Actually a 5 or 10 minute light jog around the room will get the circulation going.If you do this before going to bed you will feel nice and warm in bed with a room temp of about 11 or 12 degree c fine


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## AgathaC (25 Apr 2009)

*Re: Personal financial retrenchment*

Check that you have the proper level of house insurance, I know that this is discussed in detail on another thread, which is worth having a look at. I am no expert, but it is worth making sure that the level of cover is right, and this could save you money. 
As others have said, shop around. I notice that Dunnes, for example, are making a bit of an effort now on prices. I also find that Boots own brand products are generally very good, and good value.


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## Jester (27 Apr 2009)

*Re: Personal financial retrenchment*

On the house insurance - remember that building costs have gone down, therefore you might be able to reduce the required cover and so then premium. 

Other savings:

Do you need the monthly mobile? I think I would only top up by €20 every 8 weeks, but pay €30pm.

Unpatrotic, but go north and stock up on beer, deteregents, baby stuff etc. Beer is 1/2 the price. Try not to drink it all at once though!

Online sites for car insurance - 123.ie. insure.ie and chill.ie etc. I saved over €300 on the insurance co quoted premium


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## tax_unwise (16 Jun 2009)

*Re: Personal financial retrenchment*

Just came across this thread. This is what we've done and surprisingly it hasn't really hurt!

Cancelled sky sports, watch important stuff with friends, much more fun!
Cancelled second sky subscription, got a freeview box instead and use a tv repeated in the bedroom.
Am slowly weaning us off Sky. Only paying half what we were.
Am reading more! 
Cancelled AA - have free call out with insurance, and OH with car!
Changed all insurance, house (revalued rebuild cost), cars (devalued)
Swapped electricity to Airtricity (I know BG is cheaper still but feel we're doing our bit for renewable energy)
Got cheapest cheapest broadband package, we only surf and email and use Skype/Fring for ALL international calls, National and local included with package. 
Use mobile for mobile calls on network FREE off network included in bundle
Walk to shops/ no gym membership/cut out excess foodie treats.
Drink at home/with friends/ Entertain at home 
Cancelled inclusive text with mobile don't use 100 

Anyone think of something I've missed!


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## olddoll (16 Jun 2009)

*Re: Personal financial retrenchment*

Could somebody tell me what Fring is?  (Sorry for my ignorance).  Is there a cost associated with it?


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## ajapale (28 Jun 2009)

Moved from  			 			 				*Dealing with the Deficit* to  Banking, Borrowing, *Budgeting*


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## ajapale (28 Jun 2009)

*Re: Personal financial retrenchment*



olddoll said:


> Could somebody tell me what [broken link removed] is?   Is there a cost associated with it?



Ive copied the [broken link removed] question to another sub forum. Whats fring? How much does it cost? Can it save me money?

Lets keep this thread for a list of ideas to manage personal finance retrenchment.


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## vandriver (30 Jun 2009)

I bought a espresso machine in Aldi for e50 and make my own latte before work.I save 2.55 a day (over 500 a year!)


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