Spend less every day
None of this needs an adviser, a spreadsheet or a budgeting app. Most of it is one phone call, one form, or one glance at a shelf label. Start with the list for where you live, then use the tools on the bills you actually pay.
Start here · IrelandHow to make the most of your money →Thirty-three things, in eight parts — four years of tax you can still claim back, school costs you should not be paying, fares that cap themselves, and what the law already owes you when something goes wrong. Every figure quoted from the body that runs it.Pick where you live
The rules, the amounts and the bodies you deal with are different in each. Start in the right one and nothing below wastes your time.
Ireland ↗
Revenue's four-year window, the schoolbooks scheme, Leap fare caps, the medicine cap and your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2022.
Live nowNorthern Ireland ↗
Rates discounts nobody claims, free prescriptions for everyone, free travel six years before the Republic, and grants for a cold house.
Live nowEngland ↗
Council tax discounts you have to ask for, prescription costs you can cap, four years of Marriage Allowance, and the strongest card protection on these islands.
The weekly shop
Groceries are the one bill you pay fifty-two times a year, which is why a few pence a line matters more here than anywhere else.
Snap Your Shop
Photograph your receipt and see where you overpaid against what the same items cost elsewhere.
Community Price Map
Real prices from real shops, posted by people who were standing in them. Aldi and Lidl included, which the comparison sites leave out.
The Real Basket
What a standard shop actually costs across the main supermarkets, tracked over time rather than claimed in an advert.
Grocery Calculator
What your shop should cost for your household size, so you know whether the number at the till is normal.
Bills, rent and the things that auto-renew
Auto-renewal is built so the loyal customer drifts onto the dearest tariff while new customers get the deals. It works on almost everybody, because nobody diarises it.
Seven bills to never auto-renew
Energy, broadband, mobile, insurance, streaming, banking and the gym — what to say, who to ask for, and when to ring.
Bill Savings Estimator
Tick the bills you pay, put in a rough monthly amount, and get an illustrative figure for what switching could be worth. An estimate, not a quote.
Social tariffs
On certain payments you can get broadband or mobile far cheaper. Providers rarely mention it, so you have to ask for it by that name.
Rent Increase Checker
Is that rent rise even allowed? Check it against the rules before you agree to it.
The tricks used on you, and the rules that stop them
Most of what happens in a supermarket only works while nobody checks. The law is already on your side; it just does not enforce itself.
Shrinkflation
Same price, less product. The unit price on the shelf label is what catches it, and it has to be there by law.
Shopping tricks
Fake multi-buys, crossed-out prices, the middle-choice trap and the rest of the shelf psychology.
Yellow sticker times
When each chain marks down, so you are in the aisle at the right hour rather than hoping.
Own-brand swaps
Which own-brand products come off the same production line as the branded one, and which genuinely are not the same.
When something goes wrong
Faulty, never arrived, or the firm has folded. Your rights here are stronger than most people use, and they last longer than the guarantee does.
Chargeback and Section 75
How to get money back through your bank, which route applies where, and why Section 75 does nothing in the Republic.
Spot a scam
What the current ones look like, what no real body will ever ask you for, and who to report it to.
Cashback, honestly
How cashback sites actually make their money, and the only circumstance in which using one is worth your time.
Money help for renters
Deposits, notice, rent rises and the supports that exist if the rent has got ahead of your income.
If money is tight enough that this page feels beside the point
That is what MABS is for. It is the State's free, confidential money and debt advice service, it will deal with creditors on your behalf, and it costs nothing. mabs.ie, or 0818 07 2000. In Northern Ireland and England, Citizens Advice does the same job.
Nobody on this site is paid by anyone. There are no adverts, no sponsors and no affiliate links, so there is nothing here we gain from you clicking. If that ever changes we will say so on how we make money, on the day it changes.