Fuel prices for vehicles have surpassed €2 per litre, potentially climbing to unprecedented levels unless the conflict in Iran sees a resolution soon.
Meanwhile, household energy expenses are escalating, compounded by rising inflation and interest rates, which intensify the strain on our finances.
With the cost-of-living crisis showing no signs of abating, what measures can we take to mitigate its relentless impact?
Previously, we explored significant savings opportunities by changing everything from your energy supplier to your mortgage lender.
This time, let’s delve deeper into strategies to fortify your financial defenses against this ongoing crisis.
Here are six effective strategies to significantly cut down on your household expenditures:
Fill in your tax return for rebates
This week the Revenue Commissioners urged PAYE workers to fill in their tax return for 2025.
Up until last week, only 806,000 people had done so – leaving 1.8 million who had not.
And most of those people will likely lose out on tax rebates.
Refunds of over €637 million have been already issued to taxpayers’ bank accounts.
And only 12 per cent of the returns resulted in an underpayment of tax.
Most commonly claimed-for were rent tax credit claims, flat -rate expenses, remote-working relief and health expenses.
The last one was also extended this week, to include expenses for a consultation with a pharmacist and any medications prescribed by him or her.
Aisling Ní Mhaoileoin, Revenue’s National PAYE Manager, recommended using a ‘quick-and-easy’ online service for filing returns.
‘The myAccount service is free to use, and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Additionally, we pre-populate returns. For the vast majority of PAYE taxpayers, filing a return is a straightforward process they can complete at a time that suits them.’
Don’t pay out for formerly ‘free’ TV
TV and broadband services are usually bought in the same package. And why not, when you can get deals from €50 a month (currently from Eir and Virgin)?
But that’s only for one year – after which bills double if you don’t switch immediately once your contract is up.
To really shave your bills, ask yourself, do you really need to pay over €100 a month for a TV box when you can buy one outright for a similar price?
To really shave your bills, ask yourself, do you really need to pay over €100 a month for a TV box when you can buy one outright for a similar price?
To really shave your bills, ask yourself, do you really need to pay over €100 a month for a TV box when you can buy one outright for a similar price?
Then you’d just have to pay for broadband (from €30 a month or less – see table above).
Most channels we watch are free. And they can be accessed with a satellite dish – even one left behind by Sky and other providers.
Just plug it into a TV box. (Buy a dish if you don’t have one).
TV boxes* cost from €70 up to a few hundred, depending on whether you want to record and view in ultra-high definition.
(*Not to be confused with illegal ‘dodgy’ boxes, which contain pirated software.)
Make price GOUGERS pay – by avoiding them
If oil hits $150 a barrel as some experts believe, we face higher fuel prices than EVER before.
Donald Trump briefly brought oil prices down by proclaiming an end to the war last week (again).
But as the ever-growing army of war analysts keep telling us on TV: the enemy gets a vote too.
And Iran seemed determined to carry on strangling world trade through the Strait of Hormuz – the key choke point – as we went to press, and drive oil prices to a threatened $200 a barrel.
But while we can do nothing about geopolitical events, we can certainly keep an eye on prices and avoid being taken for a mug by ‘price gougers’.
While oil prices have risen enormously, this shouldn’t have fed through to prices at the pumps as quickly as it did in some cases.
One of my local petrol stations still sells fuel for under €1.80 a litre – not far from the usual pre-crisis prices.
Yet only a few kilometres away, another garage’s price list has topped €2 a litre for diesel – a price that is likely to rise even further as oil stays at over $100 per barrel.
You can spot the difference on Fuelcompare.ie, a handy resource for checking local prices. Or just make a note of the prices on display.
Green and bear it
Electric cars are cheaper to maintain and run – if you play your cards right. But now they are also cheaper than diesel cars on Ireland’s used vehicle market for the first time.
Used electric cars cost around 11 per cent less than comparable diesel models, marking a sharp turnaround from when EVs were significantly dearer, a survey by Donedeal.ie found this week.
However, how much you save depends on the cost of electricity – and tapping into cheap overnight rates.
Used electric cars cost around 11 per cent less than comparable diesel models, marking a sharp turnaround from when EVs were significantly dearer
Used electric cars cost around 11 per cent less than comparable diesel models, marking a sharp turnaround from when EVs were significantly dearer
A ‘smart’ electricity deal enables you to pay from just 6c per kWh (Pinergy) to power up your car overnight (between 2am and 5am).
This means you could charge a 30kWh battery for €1.80 and travel hundreds of kilometers practically for free – in theory at least!
That’s an extreme example, as with this deal you’d also pay somewhat over-the-odds for electricity (40c per kWh) at all other times. But it does show just how much can be saved if we play it ‘smart’ and find a deal that suits our needs.
Get a grant
Our energy deals table, below, shows the cheapest dual-fuel options as found on Thursday (including gas and electricity).
As shown in the table, switching provider can save you up to 37 per cent, thanks to discounts available for new customers for one year usually
And the lowest prices have already edged up by around €100 a year since we did a similar survey in January.
Fixed-rate deals have also disappeared from the market – vanishing on the first working day after Iran was bombed, and signalling higher prices.
And they could get very high indeed – some predict many thousands per year – unless the war ends very soon.
As shown in the table, switching provider can save you up to 37 per cent, thanks to discounts available for new customers for one year usually.
But how can you rack up even more savings?
The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has a wide range of grants for households to help improve energy efficiency, with everything from attic insulation to heat pumps.
And you can get it all done for free automatically if you qualify for fuel allowance, which has been greatly increased, while the qualifying criteria has eased.
How you use your energy also counts for a lot and seai.ie has a plethora of money-saving tips to lower your bills – and soothe your environmental conscience!
