Talking about the heavy costs of winter while we are in the middle of the heady (we wish) days of summer is, Pricewatch recognises, almost as ridiculous and annoying as talking about back to school in early June or the season to be jolly in October. But needs must.
The harsh reality of an Irish winter is that not only does it bring many months of cold, dark days and a lot of rain and wind, it is also, by some considerable margin, the most expensive time of the year.
By the time it is done with at the end of next April, most Irish households will have spent many thousands of euro more than they spend in the summer.
Keeping your home lit in the winter will cost you about 80 cent a day compared with virtually nothing in summer, adding close to €150 to your annual bills while the cost of using a tumble dryer a couple of times a week over the six darker wetter months adds another €150 on to the cost of winter. If you keep the heat on for six hours each day over the same period, it will cost you at least €1,500 compared to nothing – in an ideal world – over the six months of summer.
Then you have the higher cost of eating – people subconsciously overeat in the winter (blame our pre-historic ancestors for that) – and dressing. Those coats and heavy clothes aren’t cheap. There is also the higher cost of entertaining ourselves in doors, all of which add to our winter bills. Then, of course there is Christm . . . no, we can’t say it yet, it is too early.
We have totted up the numbers in the past and conservatively estimated that a typical Irish household will spend close to €10,000 more every winter than they do in the summer.
But if you act now and follow our cut out and keep guide to keeping your winter costs in check, you might be able to knock 10, 20 or even 30 per cent off that figure – that should almost be enough to cover the eye-watering cost of and Irish Christm . . . no, still can’t say it.
1. Pricewatch appreciates that we sound like an broken seven inch from the 1970s when we bang our switching drum but the easiest way to save this winter is to switch your energy provider. And the sooner you do it, the sooner you will save. While energy prices have fallen from an average annual cost of around €4,000 to closer to €3,000 now, a canny consumer can cut their energy bills by up to 20 per cent by moving from the standard rate they are on with their current provider to the discounted rate offered by a rival. There is no threat to your supply when switching and no difference between the gas or electricity offered by company A or B. You don’t have to even call anyone if you don’t want to. The people at bonkers.ie or switcher.ie – both of which have the approval of the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities – will do most of the work for you.
2. Staying with switching, we know that health insurance is not just a winter thing but most policies come up for renewal between January and March, and unlike energy you can only switch during the renewal window. The vast majority of Irish consumers have never switched health insurance provider despite significant savings to be made by shopping around.
According to the Health Insurance Authority (HIA), 71 per cent of the more than 2 million people with private health insurance have never moved provider with a similar percentage saying they have no plans to change their cover when their renewal is due. This is despite the fact that anyone who has been on their current health insurance policy for five years or more can almost certainly save money without losing any cover by shopping around, either with their current provider or one of the other companies on the market. And with Irish Life set to re-enter the fray in the months ahead, the potential for savings has never been greater.
There are some very strict rules in place that give consumers protection irrespective of their age or their health issues and you can’t be penalised for any pre-existing conditions or based on how old you are. A person who has a long-standing policy with Company A will have already been through their waiting periods and can switch to Company B and get all the existing cover they had with Company A immediately. To put that more simply, you do not lose the cover you already have by moving from one company to another. If the plan on the table from Company B offers enhanced cover, you will most likely have to wait for that to kick in, but whatever you had, you keep.
Ultimately, the questions you should ask can be distilled down to three: Does the plan I am on offer me value for money?Could I get a comparable level of cover for less either with my current provider or one of its two competitors? How long have I been on the same policy?
If the answer to that last question is more than five years, then you are probably overpaying by about 25 per cent.
The first thing you need to do is arm yourself with some facts. Call your current provider to see whether they have a lower-cost equivalent plan to the one you are currently on and make it clear you are happy to take on some minor reductions, depending on the savings. If you are talking to a different provider, be upfront, bearing in mind you will not be penalised for honesty. Detail all the important elements of your existing policy, and outline any underlying conditions and procedures carried out. Have them confirm that any new and cheaper plan will cover everything you have had covered in the past.
It is also key to do this over the phone rather than online. Providers like it when we shop online, but by doing so we become responsible for all the decisions, be they good or bad. By talking to a company representative and asking the right questions, and insisting on having everything explained – and don’t feel bad about asking questions – you put the onus on them to make everything clear.
3. In the weeks ahead, when you find you have a spare couple of hours, carry out an audit on yourself. Have a look through your bank and credit card statements online to see where your money is going. If you spot fees for any subscription services that you are not using or using only very rarely then cancel it. Not only is this act of empowerment gratifying, it is often the case that simply by threatening to cancel a service or switch from one provider to another is enough to prompt the supplier to offer you a discount just to keep you on board.
4. Now we know that all the switching and swapping and going through your bank statements like some class of forensic financial investigator is not as interesting as watching the telly. It is time consuming and many people are time poor. But most of us would probably jump at the chance to earn a grand for a day’s work so the trick here is to set aside a day to make all the calls and do all the switching rather than dragging it out over weeks or months before not doing it at all.
5. Check out the insulation in your attic. If there is none, get it done as soon as you can – it is both environmentally and economically sound. And if the last time you had your attic done was in in the 1990s, it might be worth getting it topped up – there are large grants that can take the sting out of doing it and you’d be amazed at how much better the technology is today compared to times past. Getting a decent job done on it in the weeks ahead could see your energy costs over the winter ahead fall by well over €100.
6. By being more conscious of how you use energy in your home, you can save hundreds of euro this winter. Turn off the heat half an hour before you are due to leave and don’t turn it on until you return or set a timer so that it comes on half an hour before you come back. By turning your thermostat down by just one degree, your energy bill will fall by between 3 and 10 per cent. Don’t run your washing machine or dishwasher until they are full, and always run them on eco-settings or at 30 degrees. Spend just a minute less in the shower every morning. Now all of these things on their own might not make an enormous difference to your finances but the impact is cumulative and by being your best energy-saving self you could save as much as €500 this winter.
7. We drive more in the winter because the weather is miserable but if you could reduce the amount of time spent in your car by 20 per cent – by walking or cycling when the weather allows – you will easily knock €250 off your winter costs.
8. And when you are driving, drive smarter. Do not over-rev your engine, drive in the right gear and keep your boot empty. Keep tyres at the right pressure, get the car serviced, do not use air conditioning and use the heat sparingly.
9. Make a point of claiming all the tax relief that is due for health and medical expenses and non-routine dental expenses. It could see you getting 20 per cent back on substantial sums.
10. While grocery price inflation has eased significantly since the cost-of-living crisis peaked in the middle of last year, things are still far more expensive than they once were. Despite all the price hikes there are still big savings to be made The first step is the most obvious: only buy what you need. Irish households throw away as much as €700 each year simply because they overbuy. Make sure you know exactly what is in your cupboards, your fridge and your freezer and then make and list on that basis. And do your best to stick to the lists.
11. Close to 50 per cent of the typical Irish shopping trolley is now made up of own-brand products, which routinely cost around 30 per cent less than branded products. If you can find a few more own-brand products that you like, you will save a few euro more. And, on the off chance that you need reminding, a lot of small Irish producers make a lot of own-brand products for all the big retailers in Ireland and the quality keeps getting better and better. If you could increase your own-brand savings by just €5 a week, you’d be better off by the tune of €260 by this time next year.
12. Be freezer savvy and if a product in your kitchen is about to pass its use-by date, stick it in the freezer – but don’t just let it grow cold there. Label it and use it within a week or so to stop your freezer becoming overrun with half-eaten sliced pans and mysterious hunks of ugly and unappealing blocks of ice.
13. Eat more pulses and grains. We cannot stress the good value to be found there. Chickpeas, beans and lentils are incredibly cheap, particularly if you go the own brand route, and a couple of tins added to some garlic, onions, a tin of tomatoes and some rice and you can feed a family of four a decent and hearty stew for no more than a fiver. You probably wouldn’t want to eat it every day of the week but make it a regular in your house and you will save money.
14. Okay, so, we can’t avoid it any longer and we would like to apologise for mentioning the C word so early in the year but the reality is Christmas is coming and, like it does every year, it will most likely catch many of us by surprise. There are 21 weeks – give or take – between now and Christmas 2024. If you saved just €15 a week – or €2 a day – between now and then, you would have covered the cost of your big Christmas shop.
15. Now, every year we say that the best way to save money over Christmas is to shop early. But we often say that too late to be of any use to anyone. There are some presents that can’t be bought before the Late Late Toy Show, for obvious reasons, but older folk are less likely to have last-minute changes of mind and are less likely to be in the list-writing business so start buying for them sooner rather than later. Presents picked up in late summer and mid-season sales can be a winner when the time comes. But just remember where you put them and who you bought them for. And keep an eye on the middle aisles of our German discounter friends in the weeks ahead for cut-price stocking fillers and kris kindle type things. And that’s that, we won’t be mentioning Christmas for at least 13 more Pricewatches, we promise.–
