TEN FINANCIAL RESOLUTIONS FOR THE RECESSION:JANUARY IS, TYPICALLY, the longest, most depressing month of the year and the gloom is likely to be even more pronounced this year with the worst recession in at least a generation biting hard. People are taking care to spend less and save more, but that doesn't have to mean a drab life. By making a few simple financial resolutions, we reckon you could save yourself a packet.
ON YOUR BIKE: By taking advantages of tax breaks now available to cyclists and their employers, you could easily save yourself €1,000 this year while dramatically improving your health. Under the Government's plan to get us all cycling, employees working for participating companies can choose a bicycle and any associated safety equipment up to a maximum value of €1,000, which the employer will then buy. The purchase will be treated as a tax-exempt benefit-in-kind. A commuter living seven miles from Dublin and working in the city centre will save €900 a year by cycling every day, while someone living in the suburbs of Cork or Galway can expect to have €600 more in their pocket come 2010. And despite what you think, you won't get wet - according to Met Éireann you'll only be rained on one day in every 25.
SHOP ONLINE: Resolve to look on the web before making some of your purchases this year. Everything from clothes to furniture to high-tech gadgets are available for a song. Ebay is an obvious first port of call for the bargain-hunter. In December, Pricewatch bought a mobile-phone handset on the site for half the price it would have cost on the high street. Figures issued by ebay.ie last year pointed towards other savings, including a Karen Millen black-and-white stripe ribbon dress which sold on the site for €114.31, compared with €205 in high-street stores. A Canon Ixus 12-megapixel camera, which cost around €300 on the site, had a price tag of €470 in retail outlets, while a BabyBjörn baby carrier costing €60 on Ebay costs €107 in Irish shops.
SELL ONLINE: Ebay is not just for buying. Selling online is remarkably easy and can be a profitable way to recycle stuff you no longer have any use for. That rowing machine you bought that has been sitting under the bed for years might get you €50, while the leopard-print brothel-creepers you bought in a moment of madness in the early 1990s might still be worth a few bob. If you don't want to sell something, but have no use for it, you could just give it away. There are a growing number of online communities where you can give away things you don't need and find stuff for free that you might want. This is both environmentally sound and cost-effective (it reduces refuse charges, for starters). Dubliners have Free Trade (www.dublinwaste.ie), the local authorities' online initiative, which helps people pass on unwanted household items. If you're not in the Dublin area (or even if you are), try freecycle.org or jumbletown.ie for similar services.
DRUGS FOR LESS: Buying generic or non-branded medicines can save you a packet. There are scores of over-the-counter and prescription medicines that have cheaper, identical alternatives, so make a point of asking your local pharmacist if there is a better-value alternative available. A box of 24 non-branded paracetamol costs €2, while a similarly sized box of Panadol costs around €2.85. A pack of 20 Motilium anti-nausea tablets will set you back €9.49, while the generic equivalent, Domerid, is only €7.49. There is no difference in the active ingredients or the quality of the products. This also applies to prescription medications, although it depends on what a GP writes on your script - a gentle reminder as they write the prescription might be in order.
SHOP AROUND FOR INSURANCE: Don't be lazy when it comes to renewing your home and motor and health insurance or your phone and broadband packages. Hundreds of euro can be saved by shopping around for the best deals. The Financial Regulator has good cost comparisons on its website, www.itsyourmoney.ie, which should be checked out by anyone keen to save themselves more than a few bob. If you do get a lower quote, make sure you let your current insurance company know - you'll be amazed at how willing it can be to match your new quote simply to hang on to your business. When it comes to health insurance, a single person can save more than €200 a year by switching to a cheaper provider. The Health Insurance Authority website, www.hia.ie, has easy-to-follow price comparisons.
SHOP LESS: Stop buying stuff altogether. Don't window-shop or lust after bags and clothes and zeitgeisty gizmos and new cars and bigger houses that you don't need. If you can toughen yourself up and teach yourself to crave less, then ultimately you'll be happier and wealthier and a whole lot more chilled out than the conspicuous consumer you might otherwise have been. And with all the savings you'll make from developing this Zen-like disregard for stuff, you should be blowing the savings on some ginormous present for yourself come the end of the year.
DO A PHONE AUDIT: How often do you switch your mobile phone provider? Or even change the package you're on? If you were just a little cuter, you could save a bundle on you bills. An online survey, published last year in Britain, found that consumer cluelessness over phone tariffs was leading to people wasting a colossal £8 billion (€10.75 billion) a year. The survey found that many phone users had no idea how many free minutes or free text messages were included in the phone packages they had and it could cost consumers as much as £130 (€174) each per year. Check out callcost.ie for a ready reckoner on which companies are offering the best deals.
SAY NO TO READY-MEALS: The ready-meal sector has grown significantly as cash-rich, time-poor shoppers sought out nice food without the hassle factor. Ready-meals can be five times as expensive as the constituent parts of that meal sitting on the same supermarket shelves just a few metres away. It really doesn't take that much effort to fry a steak and bake a potato that are just as good, even if they haven't been tarted up to look as super-tasty as possible.
CUT YOUR INCIDENTALS: For one month only, keep a spending diary, recording every cent you spend. Carefully read through your credit-card and bank statements and take note of the monthly outgoings that may not be, strictly speaking, necessary. Cancel club memberships you don't use and subscriptions for magazines you don't read. In addition to giving up smoking and drinking less, cancel your gym membership. Unless you go three times a week every week, the membership fee is not worth it. If you go once a week or less, cancel it immediately and go running (or walking, at the very least) a couple of times a week. It won't cost you anything.
DO MORE FREE STUFF: Okay, so it might be old school, but joining a library is free and can save you a packet, particularly if you have young children who can lose interest in their books faster than you can say "Yes, my name is Iggle Piggle". Also, remember that museums and galleries are not just for tourists and can be a perfectly pleasant and free way to pass an afternoon.
