Dec 11 Hot off the press! Surviving the Budget: 10 less obvious ways to save €1,500 ...deadly

You'll have been driven half-mad this week with dour advice on ways to cut back to make up for the €1, 500 or so your household loses in the Budget

500 or so your household loses in the Budget, You'll have been driven half-mad this week with dour advice on ways to cut back to make up for the €1

But did you realise that rethinking your loo roll choice could save you hundreds. Change savings accounts and so on, There's the usual stuff: switch insurers. No. For this and more nifty ways to save a grand or more, read on

Discount codes sites

The image of a slightly eccentric pensioner clipping 10 per cent off Bovril vouchers out of Woman's Way can be banished, couponing is now a very up-to-date, online activity

Dell and Debenhams have become almost a national obsession in Britain and are growing in popularity here, Discount code sites giving double-digit money off big retailers like Vodafone

"One of the best known, fatcheese.ie, has seen massive growth," said Patrick Campbell, of Tradedoubler, a company that arranges code deals on discount sites for clients like Tesco, Apple and Nike. "The sites are paid commission by these brands to give consumers discounts."

Ie, promotionalcodes. Ie or myvouchercodes. Ie, discountcodes. It works like this: you sign up with fatcheese. When you get to checkout stage with your online purchase, you put in the code and get money off your buy. Ie. With fatcheese. Ie, you also get 3-5 per cent money back in addition to the coded discount. You click into the offers that appeal to you and get a discount code

But perseverance will get you good, cheap deals, It's a bit of a scavenger hunt. Some 'discounts' are just click-throughs to the retailer's website, but you'll quickly recognise and dodge them. Or €30-€50 off all sorts of goods, Discounts vary between a puny 3 per cent up to 25 per cent

Ie. Ie; 60 per cent off shopping at Debenhams; and 25 per cent off at Oasis codes from discountcodes. Com and 10 per cent off at ebookers. Ie; up to 50 per cent off at Hotels. The best offers on the day we browsed last week: 25 per cent off clothes at Coast plus 5 per cent cash back, and €40 cash back from Vodafone Ireland -- all through fatcheese, €75 off boots at Karen Millen plus 5 per cent cash back. Ie; 15 per cent off Dell computers on promotionalcodes

Save €90-€230, Potential savings: on an average family Christmas shop spend of €923

Loo roll

You might well ask, Has it come to this. 69. 49 for the discount brand Spring Force nine-roll at €2. Go generic and you could halve your spending. That's a month's worth of petrol money right there. But just think what you could do with the yearly €200 you save by forgoing the luxury quilted Andrex nine-roll at €6. Branded toiletries in general are a big cost on a weekly shop budget

Cheaper smokes

55 per pack (and both to cost even more when the VAT kicks in in January). Relax smokers -- we're not going to suggest you give up fags; this Budget is bad enough without you having to face it in nicotine-deprived frenzy. Saving up to €475 a year, But you could switch brands. But Pall Mall Red with a similar nicotine hit costs just €7, 85 a pack. For a 20-a-day puffer that's a big difference, almost €40 a month. Benson & Hedges and Silk Cut cost €8

Beer

A Guinness costs between €4 and €4. 50 depending on where you're drinking, but Beamish costs up to 50c less. On your 20 units a week over a year of stout drinking, save €260. But you could change your choice of poison. Opting for Beamish instead costs far less, If you're a Guinness drinker. There's a difference of a good few cent between several well-known lagers also. That's one college registration fee hike. Now of all times, we're not going to tell you to cut down on your drinking, No

Turn down the dial

The same goes for microwaves and mobile phone chargers. So a four-bed semi-d costs around €100 a year less to heat. That's your household tax and more paid for. Adjust the central heating thermostat down two degrees and cut your heating bill by about 20 per cent. Swap eight regular bulbs to CFL to save about €20 a year. By leaving your TV on standby, so turn it off, you add an extra €30 a year to your leccy bill

Bin charges

In Galway city the two main providers charge a lift fee of about €2 for three bin types, for example, but, It depends who's providing your service and what part of the country you live in. Halve the number of times you leave out the bins and save €25 a year. Leave those bins out less and save, If you're paying per lift. You can cut your bin charge by up to €100 this way, If you're in Dublin

Monitored alarms

Competitors such as Securiguard have similar products starting at €400. Eircom Phonewatch's monitored alarm basic package starts at €699. A big €300 difference

Get rid of your landline

000 hike in health insurance that the tax changes may cause, That'll help with the up to €1. For dialling abroad, and super cheap for dialling non-Skypers, Skype is free when phoning other Skype users. If you have broadband and a decent mobile package, save €360 a year by ditching the landline

Visa debit cards

Most AIB and Permanent TSB and Ulster Bank customers have them automatically for ages and Bank of Ireland says it is -- finally -- introducing its debit card in January. The truth is most of us don't and that's why plastic is ker-ching for the banks, Hard as you might try to always pay off the full balance on time. Don't spend money that you don't have on a credit card. A Visa debit card has most of the same advantages as a credit card but it doesn't extend you credit

Claim cash back

Com. Rent relief and more for the last three years as long as you do it before the end of the year, tuition fees, You can still get back unclaimed relief on medical expenses. Thousands of us never claim tax relief we're entitled to. "Claims for 2007 should be made before December 31, 2011, so it is important to act fast so taxpayers don't miss out," warns Andrea McDonnell of taxback

You can go back a few years for that as well, Again. Prescriptions, If your health insurance plan gives money off doctor visits, claim it, etc, physiotherapy