6 Tips to Save in 2025
Leah McMahon- Financial Planner in Castle Capital Financial Planning
Total amount saved: €2,500
1 . Start now & automate your savings
It’s the start of the year so start now and automate your savings. As a financial planner, I’ve always recommended that savings are automated so that when you get paid a certain amount comes out and into your savings account straight away. Saving ‘what’s left’ at the end of the month, doesn’t generally work out too well as a lot of the times, there isn’t anything left. Your monthly savings need to be treated like a bill, like everything else we make sure we have enough in our account to pay, our savings need the same priority.
The percentage of income saved per month is different as people earn different levels of income, it’s relative to the income that’s coming into the house so what one person finds easy, someone may find hard. Guideline % for Saving: in Castle Capital generally we recommend you would aim to save 20% of your net income, so the money that lands in your bank account. If you don’t have a specific goal in mind and you just want to create a pot for an emergency or short-term expenditure, 20% is a good guideline to work off, it creates a good habit and prepares you for when you may need savings.
I focus a lot on the first quarter of the year with my clients on their short-term savings, so I know we have just had Christmas, but I am going to be having Christmas-saving conversations. Now is the time it’s going to be the easiest because you have the longest to
prepare. Saving Tip—If you started saving €20 per week at the beginning of January, you’d have €1,000 by the middle of December. For many people €20 a week is likely to be feasible. So, if your budget is above that, maybe it’s €40 a week for €2,000 at the end of the year, and so on.
Amount: €1,000
2 . Shop Online for Groceries i.e. Click & Collect or Home Delivery
One of the first questions, I ask my clients is how they do their weekly shop. Generally, it’s a day over the weekend go in sometimes with a list sometimes without a list. I am a big promoter of shopping for your groceries online. There is a lot of control with your budget by doing this. You also have the option to collect it or get it delivered so it eliminates you walking around the shop picking up extra’s that are causing you to go over budget.
My advice is to sit down, meal plan and look at what you need to buy. Search for these items specifically. You can take advantage of offers when it makes sense. Like if you need 1 of something and it’s 2 for €5 but you know you’re going to be throwing it away, don’t buy it just because it’s on offer. Look at own brands for certain household items that save you a few €’s but doesn’t sacrifice quality. Say you decide that you’re going to spend €150 per week, with shopping on line, you can see the total so you’re able to stay on track and if you’re above that amount you’re able to go into your basket and make changes. With shopping in store, we don’t have as much control, we have a rough idea of what each thing is but we don’t know until we get to the till and it’s too late at this stage.
Example: Last year I worked with a family ( 2 adults and 2 teens) for budgeting who were spending over €1,000 a month on their grocery bill. I recommended we look at online food shopping and start tracking and this resulted in a saving of €100 per month, they were more conscious of what they were spending and when they could see they were getting close to their weekly amount, they’d start to really look at whether or not they needed the item in the basket and be a little stricter with their expenditure.
Saving Tip: Each household is going to be different but If you looked at your current food expenditure, small changes like shopping online or swapping out certain items to own brands can have a huge impact. For example, if you cut down your weekly food costs by €10, you’d save over €500 a year!
Amount: €500
3. Providers – Shopping around
If you are coming out of a contract with a provider it’s important to shop around before automatically rolling into a contract with the same provider. You don’t need to ring every company and spend the time pricing each, there are great search engines available Bonkers, Switcher or Chill would be a few examples. These sites will save you time and allow you to see who can offer you the best deal. If we look at fuel and energy consumption, the CSO released figures that for 2023 on average households were spending €63.11 a week on Fuel and Light and this included the energy credits received from the Budget. That’s over €3,000 a year. Saving Tip: My advice has always been to shop around, see what the other companies are offering and ring your provider. It’s in their interest to keep you and the worst they can say is no and you can switch to an alternative provider. So if we can look at the alternative providers and work on bringing this down, even by 10 a week, that’s a saving of over €500 per year!
Amount: €500
4. Review your subscriptions- every year, there is another
subscription available to us.
Bonkers.ie released an article in 2023 that the average adult is spending €28.26 per month on subscriptions. Those aged 43-58 were spending upto €33.36 per month on subscriptions most likely because there were also children in the household. That’s upto nearly €67 a month on subscriptions if you take a 2 adult household with children. Subscriptions are one of the expenditures I look at when a client is looking for help in cutting down their expenditure. Individually they can range from €8.99 to €20.99 per month so it doesn’t feel like a lot but they quickly add up. When I’m looking at expenditure and I am seeing multiple subscriptions, my first question is are you getting the value from these, if there is value and it’s not impacting your goals or putting you under pressure than that’s ok. However, if you’re struggling to save but you’re spending nearly €70 a month on subscriptions, we need to look at that.
Saving Tip- If you have multiple subscriptions, rank them in most used to least used cancel the ones you don’t use frequently. One subscription of €15 a month that you barely use, can save you €180 a year. You’d be surprised in how quickly you’d adjust to not having it and how you start to cut more of them out.
Amount: €180
5. Change how you socialise - One of the positive outcomes
I saw from Covid is that a lot of people changed how they socialise. Meeting for a coffee and a walk became the new normal compared to socialising in a pub. Even looking at the dating scene in Ireland, I’ve done a few pieces recently about how to afford to date. As going for dinner and drinks can be very expensive, especially if one person feels the onus to pay for the entire date. My advice for those looking to save money but not exclude themselves from socialising is to look local. Look at the events on in your local area, local comedy clubs, gigs that might only cost €15- €20 a ticket compared to travelling for a concert that might set you back €100- €150 a ticket!
Saving Tip- If we take the example of a couple going on a 1 date a month, they go to dinner, average set menu price depending on the restaurant might be €40 per person and then they have 3-4 drinks and get a taxi home, that’s easily €150. If you switch it out to things like fake aways at home, cinema nights, local comedy gigs or going for a walk with a cup of coffee. You could look at these alternatives to increase your number of date nights but reduce the amount of money you’re spending. Even if you ended up spending €125 per month on dates but you had 3-4 dates compared to 1, it’s better value and saves you about €320 per year.
Amount saved: €320
6. Start talking to your children about money
Financial education is big passion of mine and when I meet with a family, I encourage the conversation about money. We should be teaching our children about the value of money and the importance of saving. The reason being, as a parent myself I know the different costs associated with raising children. In the younger years, we take on these costs because that’s our role. However as they get older I think it’s important they understand the value of money.
When they get to 16 and even start working part time, it’s vital they understand they need to set aside money each pay whether it’s in the short term or long term. If we look at households where the children start driving at 17, the average car insurance price for those under 19 according to Chill.ie last year was just under €2,000. Teaching them to save and contribute to things like running their car, not only teaches responsibility but it also saves you money in the long term because they are able to either cover or contribute towards the running of a car. I can see the difference in those who were told to save when they were younger and those who weren’t. It’s a habit that is easily formed when they are younger and have no financial commitments that becomes second nature to them as they get older.
Saving Tip: The average purchase cost of a car is €18,000 according to an Post in 2024, if you add that to insurance of €2,000 and potentially another €300- €500 for Car Tax. It’s a lot of money before you start driving. Generally I haven’t seen many clients spend €18,000 on a car for their child so this figure can be much lower or they may be added as a second driver to a policy, so it might not be that expensive. But teaching your children to save and be able to contribute towards the cost of driving if it’s a necessity can teach you thousands.
Extra Top Tips:
• For my clients that are renting I’ve advised them to claim the renter’s tax credit in the following January i.e. Lump sum of €1,000 that can go straight into savings
• Using the DRS scheme to pay for Christmas – saving the money on vouchers and using it to cover costs
• Share subscriptions with family members—use all of them but don’t pay for them all. Sharing can give you the best of both worlds.
• Start a Christmas club in January
• Put a barrier between you and your savings i.e. 3-7 day wait or into the Credit Union / don’t have the bank card for your savings account – resist temptation.
