Thrifty Pages

Get vouchers from Santy? Check those expiry dates!

if you got vouchers in your Christmas stocking, be aware. Some of these vouchers will go stale if not used. The National Consumer Agency has warned consumers to be vigilant about expiry dates on vouchers...

"We receive frequent enquiries around what happens with a gift voucher issued by a business that has ceased trading," said Ann Fitzgerald, Chief Executive, National Consumer Agency.

"In these difficult economic times, this is likely to become a more common concern. Unfortunately, gift vouchers do not benefit from any special protections in the event of the closure of a business.

"In the current difficult trading circumstances, the NCA strongly urges consumers holding or receiving gift vouchers to use them quickly.

To help, the NCA have published a list of retail outlets and the various dates on which their vouchers expire. Excellent work indeed.

Budget 2010 Roundup

Well it happened.

The worst budget in the history of the Irish State. 

The budget summarised below:

There is lots to read around the web - here are some Thrifty picks...

• Vincent Browne predicted that the Government would hit the poor to bailout the bankers.
  Looking back, he was right.
• Find out out the budget will effect your finances with a budget calculator.
• More information than you could shake a very big stick at on the Irish Times Budget 2010 portal.
• Find out what people think about the budget on the Budget 2010 Forum on askaboutmoney.com.

Finally a quick quotation from the Ministers Budget speech:

We have taken bold, decisive and innovative steps to manage our way through this crisis. In all our actions, our concern has been to protect jobs, to provide a functioning banking system and to return this economy to the path of sustainable growth. We have sought to do all of this in a manner that is fair and that protects the most vulnerable.

And now a quotation from the Budget Statement of the Society of St Vincent de Paul (please excuse the extended quotation, but I wanted to get the figures in there):

The Society says that the reduction in the adult social welfare rate is very bad news. This cut will amount to €13.90 per week for a couple, which is compounded by the loss of the Christmas Bonus, increases in rent payable for social housing and private rented sector where rent supplement is given. In addition all families with children under 5 have lost €664 over the past year due to the cut in the Early Childcare Supplement.

Compared with this time last year, a single parent family with 2 children under 5 has sustained a cut of 10.4% in their income, or €1820 over the year, and a couple with 2 children under 5 have sustained a cut of € 2241 or 9.2% in their income. These cuts mean more hardship for families on social welfare, and will likely push people into debt.

...

“In the days before the budget, our Dublin office alone was receiving almost 500 calls a day seeking assistance.  We believe that this was partly due to the fact that there is no Christmas Bonus being paid this year.  We also have no doubt that, overall, this Budget will increase the calls for help that we, and other charities, will receive in the coming year” said Mairead Bushnell, SVP National President. 

There are two Irelands.  

From prosperity to poverty - the new middle class poor

It’s 8.20amon a bitterly cold November morning and, already, dozens of people have started to queue outside a nondescript building in Dublin’s Smithfield. Wrapped up against the harsh elements, every strand of Irish society is here. Those waiting in line include elderly inner-city Dubliners, non-Irish people hauling suitcases behind them and young, well dressed, middle-class people in their 20s and 30s.

An extremely interesting article from the Sunday Business Post about how people who were doing well in the boom years and now they face the dole queue.

Link: http://www.sbpost.ie/agenda/from-prosperity-to-poverty-45703.html

Get a recycled bicycle for less than €100 with rothar.ie

Rothar.ie  was set up by Social Entreprenuers Ireland Award Winner Anne Bedos. 

She wanted to work again the 'throwawayism" endemic in Irish society by opening a shop where recycled and refurbished bikes can be bought. 

Rothar.ie is a community based bicycle shop that sells refurbished bicycles, accessories and second hand parts and offers classes on bicycle repairs and a workshop for repairs. Rothar takes bikes that would be otherwise scrapped and offers works to at-risk young Dublin people in fixing them. 

Their mission statement says:

Rothar reuses and recycles scrap bicycles, reducing waste, providing a sustainable mode of transport and community-based education to promote social inclusion. Our organisation advocates for self-empowerment of disadvantaged communities by promoting vocational training and eco-friendly mobility.

So not only is it good for the planet and the local community, you can get a a recycled bicycle for less than €100 if you look :)

Link: http://www.rothar.ie/bikes_for_sale.html

Saving money advice from John O’Donoghue TD

I recently met  John O’Donoghue in one of the charity shops where he usually buys his suits and he was eager to share some money saving advice with the readers of Thrifty Pages.

Here are some of the best ideas he had for cutting back and making it through the recession:

• If it is too expensive to get a taxi back from the airport to home, just arrange for your publicly funded car and driver to collect you (even if this means the car driving the same way that you are flying).
• It is much cheaper in the long run to stay in a €900 a night hotel than to stay with ordinary scruffy unwashed types in a three star hotel and possibly catch an illness that would mean expensive doctors bills.
• If you are going to attend some fun event, such as a horse race, just find some local bigwig near the race course who would like an official visit and get the tax payer to fund the trip. Of course, you must bring the local bigwig to the horse race and put that on the tab.
• Don't buy presents for anybody when you can make a presentation on behalf of the Dail or whatever and get it paid for by the tax payer.
• Don't risk soiling your expensive shoes when walking in the rain between airport terminals like ordinary scruffy types. Hire a limo instead and avoid incurring a huge shoe cleaning bill.

Er, thanks John.

Everything you wanted to know about NAMA but were afraid to ask

It’s not a good idea to take a forecast from someone wearing a tie. - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

NAMA. It seems like nothing else has been happening in Ireland for the last few weeks.

However, this is one of the biggest economic stories to happen in Ireland since the founding of the state. It will effect your children and your grandchildren and is worth considering seriously.

To that end I am providing a link to a post on the Property Pin forum. The posters on the Property Pin predicted that this recession was going to happen years before the mainstream media and for that reason, the views expressed in the forum are at least worth reading. There is little or no politicking in the sense of participants trying to push political agendas – there is instead (GASP!) a determined effort to discuss and debate to find the truth.

The post in question summarises all the reasons that NAMA is a bad idea and a bad deal.

Link: http://www.thepropertypin.com/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=25100

I year today – when Wall Street nearly collapsed…

From Fortune Magazine...

I asked my wife to please go to the ATM and take as much cash as she could. When she asked why, I said it was because I didn't know whether there was a chance that banks might not open. I remember my wife sort of pausing and saying, "Are you serious?" And I said, "Yes, I am."

Link: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/fortune/0909/gallery.witnesses_meltdown.fortune/index.html

Extreme money saving – go Freegan

Willful waste makes woeful want – Scottish Proverb

Only for the most determined money savers, Freeganism, according to Wikipedia, is

an anti-consumerist lifestyle whereby people employ alternative living strategies based on "limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources".

Freegans "embrace community, generosity, social concern, freedom, cooperation, and sharing in opposition to a society based on materialism, moral apathy, competition, conformity, and greed."

The lifestyle involves salvaging discarded, unspoiled food from supermarket dumpsters, known as dumpster diving.

Freegans salvage the food for political reasons, rather than out of need.

Watch the video below called Anti Consumerism: A Freegan Story.

It may not be a lifestyle for everybody (and that is probably the understatement of the year!) but as with any extreme lifestyle, it does make one think about ones own responsibilities and how much food we actually waste...

 

Save a few bob? Try Irelands new ‘value conscious’ consumer website

Save A Few Bob.ie has just been recently launched by Niall Mc Henry. This is a  new ‘value conscious’ consumer website for Ireland.  Niall hopes to provide...

...a unique reference point for obtaining best value across everyday products and services...

We believe that the majority of Irish consumers could save hundreds or thousands of euro each year if they had easy access to reliable ‘value information’...

Through independent research and expert editorial, we guarantee tangible savings for customers.

The website looks great and is already packed to the gills with interesting offers and advice.

Welcome to the thrifty side of the web Niall!

Link: http://www.saveafewbob.ie/

Special Travelodge room rate deal for IKEA customers!

IKEA have a low price strategy and that makes them OK by Thrifty Pages.

In fact the founder of IKEA is a thrifty thinker:

Frugality is a value highly prized by IKEA's founder, Ingvar Kamprad. Though listed as one of the world's richest men, he continues to fly economy as do IKEA's top-level managers when on business travel. Stores encourage employees to turn out lights in offices, turn off computers and reduce overall energy consumption by using compact fluorescent lightbulbs.

To celebrate the long-awaited opening of IKEA in Ballymun, Travelodge Ireland has announced the introduction of a special ‘flat pack’ room rate of €39 per room per night in its neighbouring Travelodge hotel in Ballymun.

Travelodge Ballymun is also offering a further 15% off the room rate to the first 100 customers who present an IKEA purchase receipt on check-in at the hotel. 

For more information on Travelodge Ballymun’s ‘flat pack’ rate of €39 per room, visit www.travelodge.ie 

So why not make a weekend away of it? Buy furniture and stay over :)