‘Tis the season for a spring clean. While others may be focused on decluttering their homes or clearing out their gardens ahead of what we hope will be warm and sunny days ahead, this page is more focused on cold hard cash and ways we can all spring clean our finances.
1. Audit yourself
Carefully go through your month-by-month expenses for 2025 – or maybe the last three months, if a full year seems too daunting. Add up how much you spent on accommodation, food, utilities, servicing debt, savings, socialising subscriptions and anything else you can think of that cost you money.
Be brutally honest with yourself. Once you have a total, compare it to the cash that has come in covering everything from wages and child benefit to bonuses, nixers and all the rest. When that is done you will have a clear idea of where you stand and – hopefully – what you might do to improve your lot. It sounds time consuming and depressing but if you can access your bank account online it should take you no longer than an hour. We can’t guarantee it won’t be depressing mind you.
2. Target what look like inconsequential payments
Once you have your audit done, go through all the streaming services and subscriptions you have. A tenner a month for a streaming service may not sound like a lot but of you sign up for five of them – Netflix, Disney, Apple TV, Prime and Now TV, for example – you are probably paying in excess of €600 a year. That is on top of your TV licence and any money you give to the likes of Sky, Virgin or Eir. If you use them all regularly it might be money well spent but if not cut them out of your life.
RM Block
3. Tackle subscriptions
It is not just TV streaming subs that you need to look at. Look at all the subscriptions you have – Spotify and Audible might well be excellent value for money but if you are not using them, then they are a waste. And don’t forget to check what subscriptions you have on your phone. If you have an iPhone, you just go into your settings, click on your name at the top of the screen and click on the subscriptions that appear on the list. That will tell you what subs are linked to your Apple account and when they fall due.
Cancelling the ones you don’t need will take seconds. If you have an Android phone, the steps are similar but you open the Google Play store and select payment and subscriptions and cancel from there.
4. Look at switching on energy
We know we sound like a broken record betimes, but if you haven’t switched your energy provider in the last 12 months now is the time to do it before all the significant savings are axed by providers targeting the low hanging fruit as the energy crisis the world is facing deepens.
As it stands, new customers can still take advantage of discounted rates of as much as 20 per cent but it we look to the early days of Russia’s war on Ukraine we know the incentives will get smaller and smaller as the weeks progress. Unlike changing your mortgage, health insurance, phone or broadband supplier changing gas or electricity provider is simple and there is no difference between the product offered by company A and company B.
Price comparison and switching websites bonkers.ie and switcher.ie mean you don’t even have to talk to someone to switch to do it. You need copies of your most recent gas or electricity bill your Gas Point Reference Number (GPRN) or Meter Point Reference Number (MPRN), so energy suppliers can identify your property. And you need a current gas and/or electricity meter reading, so your old supplier can provide you with a final bill and your new supplier can start from that point.
5. Look hard at your debt
It’s time to resolve to tackle the highest-interest borrowings first. Whatever you do, don’t just pay off the minimum monthly amount requested by the bank. That will leave you saddled with debt for – potentially, years – and will make the bank or credit card provider a whole lot of money. If you are paying 20 per cent interest on €1000 credit card debt, it can make a lot of sense to borrow the money from a credit union, for example, clear the debt and repay the loan at a much lower rate.
6. Decluttering the wardrobe is good for your head and pocket
Irish people have enough stuff in their closets to clothe the next six generations while many people routinely wear only 20 per cent of what they own. If you are like most people then, you don’t need new things but you could make a few bob selling the stuff you have that you never wear. Spend an evening making four piles – keep, sell, donate and bin. It has never been easier to sell clothes thanks to multiple online platforms and if you can’t or won’t do that, donate them to someone who might.
7. Shop around for health insurance
Another thing Pricewatch is always banging on about. A recent report from the Health Insurance Authority found that only 4 per cent of people changed provider last year which means 96 per cent of you are completely ignoring this page. You can only change when your contract is up for renewal so you might have missed the boat for this year. But bear in mind that if you switch from a comparable plan with company A to one with company B, you don’t lose any cover and don’t have to endure any waiting period. The key question to ask the providers is: “Do you have any policies on your books that are comparable to mine that cost less, and what are they?”
8. Check your EHIC card
Sticking with health matters for a minute, this week is as good a time as any to sign up for a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) now or to check that the one you have is still in date. – they need to be renewed every five years. Having the card means you get treated like a citizen of whatever EU country you’re in if you need medical attention. It’s free, although some sites that appear prominently on search engines try to attach a fee to the application. Ignore them and apply via the HSE portal – www.mymedicalcard.ie.
9. Time for a better deal
Call your TV, broadband and mobile provider and ask for a better deal – maybe one that will match what they offer to new customers. It might help to find out exactly what is on the table for new customers and what you are paying. If the person on the phone won’t do anything for you ask to be transferred to their customer retention team. You might save money, you might not but it is worth the call.
10. Are you missing out on the library?
As many as 80 per cent of Irish adults do not belong to the library and are, as a result, missing out on all manner of free things including books (obviously), free talks, ebooks and a whole lot more.
11. Mix up your shopping
If you routinely shop in one of the big three – Dunnes, Tesco or Supervalu – visit a Lidl or Aldi for your weekly shop each week until the end of the month. It will almost certainly be cheaper. Even if you don’t change your shop, change your shopping. Own-brand is cheaper than branded and while we have come a long way in this country over the last 15 or so years – in 2008 around 10 per cent of our shopping was own-brand compared to around 50 per cent now – there is still more to be done. Over the next month experiment and swap out 10 branded products you normally buy for 10 own-brand equivalents – and all the supermarkets have own-brand versions of pretty much everything. You might end up switching back but it is still worth trying. If you were to find adequate replacements for just 10 per cent of your annual shop, it would easily save you €300 a year.
12. Three questions for mindful shopping
Become a more mindful shopper and before you buy anything ask yourself three simple questions. Do you really need it? Can you afford it? And is it good value for money? If the honest answer to any of the three questions is no then you might want to reconsider.
13. Host a black bin party
What is that, we hear you ask? Well, get a group of friends to throw a bunch of clothes they no longer wear into a bin bag and bring them round to your house. Tip all the bags into the centre of the room and let everyone rummage through the piles to see if there us anything that takes their fancy – the shirt that your buddy no longer wears might be perfect for you. Then, when the party is over bring whatever is left to the charity shop. A bit of craic and frugal too boot.
14. Claim back tax
Too many of us don’t claim the tax back we’re due. Claiming back tax credits and reliefs including medical and dental expense relief, rent tax credit, remote working relief, marriage relief, third level tuition fees relief, and flat rate expenses is straightforward and could be worth hundreds of euros to a typical household – or way more if the tax has been unclaimed for a few years and includes the temporary mortgage interest relief that was rolled out to help people hit by sky high ECB rates in 2023.
15. Think about slight tweaks to your eating
With energy prices climbing and taking the general rate of inflation with it, there are growing concerns that the cost of groceries is going to start climbing pretty quickly. One thing that might be worth considering is a slight tweak in your eating habits that could benefit both your wallet and the planet. Two family dinners made with meat will easily cost more than €10 while swapping out the meat for a veggie alternative will see the cost fall by well over 50 per cent. Do that every week for the next 12 months and you could handily save yourself €300.
16. Set yourself “spend nothing” challenges
Resolve to spend nothing – not a single cent – on three days each week. You can choose them yourself. We know that sounds a bit simplistic, but it’s harder than it sounds to stick with this one – not least because our world is designed to get us to part with cash. So this month, designate three days every week on which you resolve to spend absolutely no money – no takeaway coffees or packets of chewing gum or jaunts into Penneys, or anything at all. If you were to cut out all incidentals on those days, you might save yourself a tenner – or less than €3.50 a day. Set the money aside and you’ll have another €500 by the time next April rolls around.
17. Make your savings work harder
If you have money in a savings account – or money on deposit in your current account – investigate ways to make it work harder for you. We are a nation of savers with around €170 billion on deposit and more than €140 billion of that on deposit in accounts offering rates of interest rates that are next to zero. Find an account that has a rate of return of in excess of 2 per cent and you will be, marginally at least, better off.
18. Adapt your car usage
Fuel prices are still soaring but if we all used our cars just 10 per cent less we might save €200 over the course of the next 12 months. Walk shorter distances, use more public transport, cycle more. You know the drill and you know it makes sense.
19. What’s social media getting from you?
Social media platforms have become richer by monetising us all. They know what we like and what we talk about and feed us ads to match that. So between now and the end of April, don’t look at any of them and definitely don’t follow any links. You will save yourself money.
20. Pay yourself back
Money is tight for many people but even in such circumstances it is crucial to pay yourself something each month. How much will depend on your income and outgoings and it might only amount to a tenner a week, but if you could set aside even that amount and put it into a not-readily-accessible account – such as a credit union or long-term savings account – you’d be that little bit better off at the end of this year than you are now.
Last week the Minister for Finance Simon Harris announced a new savings regime that will be less complex for investors and more tax friendly. The details have yet to be ironed out but it is certainly something that is worth keeping an eye on.
