How to live on less

What's the story with spending less?With Christmas done, pay-day miles away and credit card bills containing untold horrors gently falling through the letter box, now might be a good time to have a close look at your finances to see if there are savings to be made. Then, with your newly minted frugality in place, you might just be able to afford next year's Christmas cheer.

Packed up

Add up the price of all those lunchtime sandwiches eaten at your desk throughout the year and the cost will climb alarmingly. Let's say you spend €5 a day on your sarnie (hardly excessive in modern Ireland); after a year, not counting time off for holidays, bank holidays and one week's sick leave, you will have spent €1,100. Throw in a cup of coffee and by next Christmas your annual lunchtime spend will have climbed to €1,700.

Meanwhile, a year's supply of bread, ham and cheese to make your own sandwiches will set you back just €300.

DVDs online

If you rent a lot of DVDs you should certainly consider moving your business away from your local store and on to the web. Okay, it takes slightly more organisation but it can work out much, much cheaper, and you won't have to leave your home in the driving rain to get the movie. Plus, you'll never be stung for late returns again. Renting a new-release DVD costs around €5 per night. If you rent more than four movies a month, then sign up to an online service such as Busybeedvd.ie, Moviestar.ie or Screenclick.com, where a month's subscription costs from about €9.99.

Haggle over insurance

Motor insurance in Ireland is extremely competitive and quotes can differ wildly. According to a recent survey from the financial regulator, a 22-year-old male driver of a modified Honda Civic from Co Clare can save up to €3,875 if he shops around.

While you might not be able to make such substantial savings (unless you happen to be a 22-year-old male driver of a modified Honda Civic from Co Clare) it's still worth making a few calls before your next renewal date. And if you do get a lower quote make sure you let your current company know all about it - you'd be amazed at how often they'll match your new quote simply to hang on to your business.

Take an online break

If you weren't crazy enough to queue up overnight in the depths of the winter sales for a cheap sun holiday next summer but still don't want your break to cost the earth, then book your holiday online now. With airlines taking web-only bookings, hoteliers using their own homepages to sell directly to tourists and online travel services such as Lastminute.com offering low-cost packages, the world is your low-cost oyster.

Before you book any hotel as part of your DIY holiday, make sure to visit tripadvisor.com, the biggest online travel information and advice destination, to find out what other people have to say about the town you're planning to visit or the hotel you're going to stay in.

Drive a better bargainPetrol prices vary enormously from forecourt to forecourt, so shop around. If you're too lazy or busy to put in the legwork yourself then check out www.irishfuelprices.com where someone has probably done it for you.

Another tip to help you stay on top of your petrol costs is to always buy the same amount of petrol - as measured in litres not euros. If you only ever buy 20 litres of petrol then you will always be aware of how much you're being asked to pay.

Find it for free

If you're in the market for free stuff then look no further than Free Trade (www.dublinwaste.ie), the Dublin local authority's online initiative which helps people pass on their unwanted household items for nothing. Everything from baby changing stations to computer inks to three-piece suites is currently sitting there just waiting to find a new home.

While there is a lot of useless tat on the site, there are gems there too, and it's certainly worth a look; not only is it free, it's better for the environment. Similarly, if you have stuff you don't want any more, register with the site and give it away. Apart from anything else, it'll reduce your refuse charges.

If you're not in the Dublin area then check out www.freecycle.org or www.jumbletown.ie for similar services in your area.

Shop smarter

While shopping in Lidl and Aldi can work out considerably cheaper than more mainstream supermarkets, one disadvantage is the absence from their shelves of the branded products you like. But sometimes the brand makes no difference, and if you shop in such stores selectively there are big savings to be made. If, for instance, you have a cat which likes Whiskas then you can expect to spend €350 this year on its food. Quietly swap it for Aldi's Vitacat Supreme Chunks and you'll spend only €115.

And it's not just the cat who should be expected to economise. If you routinely buy sparkling water and swap the four-pack of 1.5l bottles of Ballygowan - price €5.16 - for the Comeragh Springs four-pack from Aldi - price €1.99 - then over the course of a year you could save yourself another €150.

Sort out your credit card

Christmas may have done serious damage to your credit card balance so you may want to consider switching to a card offering a lower APR and a zero per cent interest rate on balance transfers, or clear the balance entirely by borrowing the money from a bank or credit union. If you switch cards bear in mind that the current APR on purchases varies from 9.5 per cent to 18.9 per cent, so it pays to shop around, as it does if you decide to clear the balance through borrowings. According to figures from the financial regulator, the total cost of a €3,500 loan repaid over 12 months can range from €133 to €456. Of course, the most important thing to remember about borrowing to clear your credit card debt is to not let it mount up again almost immediately, leaving you with two loans instead of one. So make sure to set up a direct debit to clear your entire balance on a monthly basis.

Use less

With electricity bills rising and hardly likely to fall in the near (or even distant) future, it pays to be energy efficient. You could easily knock 25 per cent off your electricity bill through a series of simple saving measures and spend the €200 extra you'll have by the end of the year on something foolish. Visit Sustainable Energy Ireland's website, www.sei.ie, for tips on how to cut your bill.

Walk more

If it is possible, you should leave the car at home and walk or cycle to work. Some time back, for an article for this paper's motoring supplement, a walking PriceWatch raced the Motors editor and his car to work from Ranelagh and beat him by nearly 20 minutes. Not only will it save you money, it might help you shift some of the half a stone people here tend to put on over an indulgent Christmas period.