Thrifty Pages

Home Insurance bills on the increase

Anyone receiving their home insurance bills recently should notice that most insurance bills are increasing quite considerably.  We have seen increases of 30% to over 60% in some cases over the last few months.  Increases are mainly due to the very bad weather conditions around the country over the past year such as the coldest winter in over 60 years and flooding prior to that.  Following bad weather, with the high volume of insurance claims, insurance companies increase their premiums to cover the costs. 

Is there anything you can do?  It can be difficult to stop these increases as all insurance companies in the market are affected and all tend to increase their premiums at the same time.  But you can try to minimise any increase as much as possible by shopping around with various companies, which is so easy to do on price comparison websites.   

If you use a broker, make sure your broker does their job and compares your insurance with all the insurers in the market so you obtain the best deal.  Ask your broker do they deal with all insurance companies and ask them to tell you what companies they do not deal with, as these companies might be the cheapest. Remember that your insurance company is legally obliged to give you 15 working days notice prior to your renewal date to allow you ample time to shop around.   

The insurance  industry don’t value loyalty by offering better discounts to long term customers so don’t be afraid to move company from year to year.  Some companies do offer additional discounts if you have several insurance policies with them such as your home and car insurance with them.  These discounts are worth checking out as they are usually a percentage of the overall cost.  

Check that your buildings insurance is covered at the relevant value as this figure can be higher than required.  Insurance companies tend to increase this value each year to allow for inflation but as the cost of building has decreased over the past 2 years, most people discover that they are paying for too much insurance cover.  Ask your broker or check online for the rebuild cost per square foot for where you live and the type of house you live in and multiply this by the estimated square footage of your house.  You should check your contents insurance also as your contents cover may have been increased by the insurance company to allow for inflation. 

But to be on safe side, you should budget this year for an increase in your home insurance and any savings will be a bonus.

Article provided by Eamonn O'Connor from Home Payments Ltd

Live4Less - a discount card for people on social welfare

With all the new entrant onto the live register, a new service may be very interesting...

Live4Less is a discount card designed exclusively for people in receipt of a social welfare payment. 

Live4Less have enlisted a number of companies including Vodafone, Irish Rail, The Carphone Warehouse, IMC Cinemas, Curves Gym to offer a discounted rate or unique promotion to Live4Less customers. 

At present there are over 90 businesses where cardholders receive a discount and they are adding new ones every day. To avail of the discount Live4Less customers simply need to produce their card or include the associate discount code at the time of purchase.

The card is also available for purchase as a gift card which means people can buy the card as a gift for someone they know who is receiving a social welfare payment.

The card costs €10 and is valid for one year. You can purchase a card online or by downloading an application form and sending it by post.

Live4Less is also beneficial for businesses as there is no cost to get involved and provides an easy way to meet their corporate social responsibility. In return for providing a discount, businesses are promoted and advertised through our various channels free of charge.

For more information or to purchase a card log onto www.live4less.ie

No such thing as a free lunch, but maybe a cheaper one!

If you want to get a cheaper treat at lunchtime, then a new website is the one for you...

Having noticed that there are some great lunch offers available the guys at mylunch.ie thought it would be a fantastic idea to make people more aware of them, and so www.mylunch.ie was born.

No longer will you have to go to the effort of walking aimlessly attempting to decipher handwriting on many a dusty blackboard in order to find the best lunch value around. 

Instead, a few simple clicks on a daily-updated website provides you with all you need to know.

Happy eating :)

Link: http://www.mylunch.ie

The number 1 tip on making paying bills easy

I am regularly asked what my #1 tip is for making paying bills easy and here it is…  Having the money to pay them!  You might think, very funny, that is obvious, but think about it. The actual payment of the bills is not the main problem as you can pay them yourself or pay someone to do it for you, so long as you have the money. 

Where bills become a real hassle is where you don’t have the money when they are due or a few bills hit at the same time and you are left with little or no money. 

Now that we have stated the obvious, it is not obvious that since we know the problem, we should resolve it.  How do we solve it, again stating the obvious, we budget for our bills and put money aside out of each pay cheque to cover those bills.  These bills have to be paid anyway, and the cost of them will not change by waiting to pay them. Over the period of a year, you will pay out the same amount for these bills, no matter how you pay them. 

But imagine this… you put aside the same amount out of your pay cheque to cover your bills, that way you are left with the same amount out of every pay cheque to cover your other expenses – seems a no brainer.  Then when it comes to actually paying each bill, you pay the bill out of the money you have put aside. Simple, you now have the money each time a bill fall due and paying bills becomes easy and you never give bills a second thought.  

If you think you cannot do that, pick a bill such as Electricity, average what your bill should be for the next bill in 2 months time and put aside 1/8 of the bill amount each week, or ½ the amount each month. When the bill comes in, see how easy it is to pay the bill as you the money put aside.

Article provided by Eamonn O'Connor from Home Payments Ltd

How to Afford Anything

An enlightening and amusing article from Ken Rockwell.

It arose from questions to the author about how he could afford such expensive camera equipment. His reply is interesting and appropriate for many Irish households today:

...I realized that I've always had a knack for buying expensive toys long before I'd ever had a job. Hopefully my cheapskate tricks can help you, too, which is why I share them here.

Our ability to buy expensive toys has nothing to do with how much money we do or don't earn. Like everything in life, it has everything to do with how well you use what you have.

Link: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/how-to-afford-anything.htm

A free tool to help you track your cash...

A great free tool to help you track how you spend your money everyday from Permanent TSB.

You can compare your spending habits with others and perhaps give us that cappuccino habit?

Link: http://www.spendometer.ie/

New Years Financial Resolutions advice from Home Payments Ltd

Eamonn O'Connor, Managing Director of Home Payments Ltd has published his regular monthly newsletter.

In this issue, he gives some good tips for the start of the year:

• Look at when your bills fall due to remind yourself to shop around for better quotes. Note the renewal dates of your bills in your diary or where ever you remind yourself of things you need to do. When the date comes around check on-line to see what deals are available. 
• Try to convert a least one large bill to annual payment to save money on monthly payments.

The newsletter is always worth a read.

Link: http://www.homepayments.ie/News.aspx?NewsletterId=21

Gift Ideas For The Super Cheap (funny!)

Financial Freedom is not how much you earn, it’s how you manage it

Thrifty Pages was delighted to receive a mail from Eamonn O'Connor, Managing Director of Home Payments Ltd. Since it is Eamonns business to help families manage their budgets, I asked him for the best advice he could give Thrifty Pages readers.

This is what he had to say...

Many people dream of winning the Lotto so they never have to worry about bills again.

But the reality is that if you don’t know how to manage your money now, the chances are that if you had more money, you could end up in the same situation.

How many times in past have you said that if you were earning another €100 per week, you would be fine? But if your income does increase by this amount, you may have already increased your expenses and you will be back at square one.  The key to financial freedom is spending less than your income - so to be financially free you must first know how much money you need to live.

To find out how much you really need to live, try the following:

• Work out how much your bills cost you each week, or month if you are paid monthly. Just simply list and total your bills for the year and divide by 52 or 12.
• Do the same with all your expenses such as food, clothes, school costs, holidays etc.. You can find a simple financial planner online at the Home payments website that will to do the calculations for you.
• Total your net income including any child allowances etc. and deduct your total expenses to see what you have left over (a surplus is good!) or indeed how much you are short!
• You have now just completed an Income and Expenditure plan. Knowing these numbers is the key to good financial management. Armed with this information you can make decisions that can help you towards financial freedom.
• Use these numbers any time you need to make decisions on what to buy or what you can afford. If there is a surplus on your Income and Expenditure plan, you could save this money towards bigger expenses, or put away money in a rainy day fund.
• If you are short each week or month, you must find ways of cutting back. Look through your expenses and see if there are any expenses that you can reduce to give you more money at the end of each week or month.
• Keep your income and expenditure plan updated as your financial situation changes. By knowing your numbers, how much you spend each week or month and how much you have left over after paying your bills, you will make more informed, smarter financial decisions.

We read about the rich and famous who go bankrupt because they did not manage their money correctly. Remember it’s not how much you earn, it’s how you manage it!  

Thanks Eamonn for the useful and timely advice!

Home Payments Limited is an Irish family run business, established in Dublin in 1963.  They help thousands of Irish families with household budget planning each year.

For more information, visit http://www.homepayments.ie/

Ways to manage your own budget

The excellent personal finance journalist Emma Kennedy, who works with the Sunday Business Post, recently wrote an article on ways to manage your own budget.

She points out...

"As a result of the changes announced last week, single people earning €40,000 will see their net income fall by 3.9 per cent. This means a loss of €1,200 a year or €100 a month.

If you earn €75,000, your net income will fall by 4.6 per cent, which means you will be down €2,250 a year or just under €190 a month".

To deal with this drastic earnings reduction, she advises readers to budget in the following ways:

• Claim tax relief on your medical expenses
• Renegotiate your rent
• Switch energy provider to reduce your costs
• Cut your car insurance premium by shopping around
• Get the best return on your savings
• Be a savvy shopper
• Look at your credit card habits
• Take advantage of free online texts
• Socialise on a shoestring

Link: http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2009/04/12/story40906.asp